One way of doing both would be taking another look at Kingdom Hearts’ party system. Party members have been a permanent fixture of the series ever since the first game. Donald and Goofy serve as Sora’s main allies, with one or two other characters showing up in certain worlds. Players initially had to swap one of their regular allies out for world-exclusive party members, but Kingdom Hearts 3 removed this restriction. KH3 also improved the AI and overall strength of party members to address complaints, giving players more control over what their allies would do in the process. While it was successful in this effort, there is plenty more that Kingdom Hearts 4 could do with the party system.
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Party Members Should Feel Like a More Integral Part of Kingdom Hearts
The Kingdom Hearts franchise has struggled to balance its allies’ usefulness against the strength of Sora and his enemies. Most of the time, Sora and boss characters are far more powerful and agile than party members. Donald and Goofy were useful for accessing certain team-up attacks and Kingdom Hearts 2’s Drive Forms, while other characters in KH2 and 3 were often at their best when their Limit or Team Attack Situation Command became available. Aside from drawing aggro and serving as healers, only a fraction of the party members in all of Kingdom Hearts have been particularly useful in battle.
Pushing party member effectiveness any further is a risky endeavor, as Sora needs to feel like a capable player character. Outside of special occasions like KH1’s first Hollow Bastion visit or the period in 358/2 Days when Roxas can’t use his Keyblade, the game’s mechanical impetus is on Sora performing at his best. Still, it would be best to continue refining party members’ strength and AI, and eventually integrate them more into regular combat. Something closer to Final Fantasy 15 may be ideal, with opportunities to use team maneuvers and ally-based Reaction Commands appearing more frequently. The subject of fully playable party members is a complex discussion, so nailing how they work as AI should be the top priority.
Kingdom Hearts’ Allies Could Follow a More Traditional Party Structure
That still leaves Kingdom Hearts 4’s party members, whoever they end up being, as supporters rather than a proper RPG party. It would be interesting if Kingdom Hearts 4 took a radically different approach to assembling its party, employing a more typical three-or-four active party member system like in past Final Fantasy games. Sora could slowly build up the party over the course of the game, with original characters like Strelitzia forming the group’s core. This would push the focus more onto Kingdom Hearts original characters, but some crossover guests from other Square Enix and Disney properties could still join up.
It would be interesting if completing a world with a guest unlocks them as a summoned ally that could be placed into an active party slot. That way, they would not need to appear in cutscenes outside their world, but could still participate in gameplay after their story was complete. If a system like this was combined with actively switching playable characters, it could potentially facilitate the return of a Kingdom Hearts multiplayer mode. Something like Birth By Sleep’s Mirage Arena or 358/2 Days’ Mission mode would allow multiple players to pick their own character, or perhaps co-op could be integrated directly into the campaign like a Tales game’s multiplayer. There are a lot of places the Kingdom Hearts franchise can still go with its party systems, and hopefully it uses the soft reset point Kingdom Hearts 4 offers to experiment with some.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently in development.
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