Kingdom Hearts recently concluded its Xehanort Saga, a long-running story arc that has been present to some extent since Kingdom Hearts 1. The last game in the saga, Kingdom Hearts 3, is meant to conclude almost every plot thread the 6+ games before it introduced. This lead to a finale dense with the climaxes of several character arcs, with almost everyone getting the spotlight at some point. The Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind DLC complicated this even further, showing some of the same events with important changes.
Much of the individual plots concluded during the Keyblade War segment of Kingdom Hearts 3’s ending simply require knowledge of the characters involved. It would take twice as long to cover why the Birth By Sleep and 358/2 Days trios’ reunions were so touching to fans, but suffice it to say, it looked for years like those characters would never have a happy ending. Despite wrapping all of this, it seems that just as much has been introduced for a new Kingdom Hearts storyline as has been wrapped.
Sora’s Disappearance
After Sora rescues Aqua from the World of Darkness and Ventus from Castle Oblivion (two locations featured prominently in past games), the united roster of heroes is confronted with the Keyblade Graveyard, the site of a past Keyblade War. Before the Guardians of Light can even fight the True Organization XIII, Terra-Xehanort and a massive swarm of Heartless do them all in. Sora is forced to finally learn how to control the Power of Waking, a vague ability that can be used to access worlds through hearts, hearts through worlds, and interact directly with the Realm of Sleep. It’s Sora’s frequent use of this to save and empower his friends throughout KH3’s ending and ReMind that leads to him fading away at the end of the game.
After most of the fighting is over, Sora, Donald, and Goofy chase Master Xehanort (who has successfully forged the Kingdom Hearts-dominating X-Blade through all of the preceding combat) into a place known as Scala ad Caelum. Xehanort claims that the world is of great importance, the “origin” of all worlds and where Keyblade wielders used to rule. It does appear to be the location where a younger Xehanort and his friend Eraqus lived and trained, judging by the frequent flashbacks to the two playing chess. After an epic final battle, Xehanort is finally defeated, and passes on alongside Eraqus’ spirit, who turns out to have been hiding in Terra. After all is said and done, Sora uses the Power of Waking to leave and retrieve Kairi, who was turned to crystal and shattered during the fighting.
The True Power of Waking
This is where the ReMind DLC comes in. This DLC covers Sora’s journey back through the events of the Keyblade Graveyard, this time subtly empowering his friends so they can fight without him (explaining why the player gets to control some of them) and finding pieces of Kairi’s shattered heart. The DLC explains things about events throughout the Keyblade Graveyard, like why Aqua couldn’t defend herself against the initial assault by Terra-Xehanort and how Roxas showed up out of seemingly nowhere. Ultimately, Sora completes his journey to connect the hearts of the Guardians of Light and alters the timeline by doing so, but he can’t prevent Kairi from being struck down.
Fortunately, some quick thinking by King Mickey reveals that Kairi is not dead but in stasis, and the Guardians get to work in fighting Master Xehanort to bring her back. Sora enters Scala Ad Caelum to collect pieces of Kairi’s heart, and both the Guardians and Sora begin fighting Xehanort and his 13 Seekers of Darkness. Sora rescues the Guardians, Kairi is brought back, and she and Sora take down Xehanort for good with some of the series' best team attacks. Sora and Kairi leave to take Ventus’ old Chirithy partner out of the Final World (which may lead to more console tie-ins with the mobile Kingdom Hearts games at a later date), and players are treated to an extended version of the ending where Sora and Kairi watch the other heroes from a distance, spending as much time together as possible before Sora passes on.
Ultimately, ReMind’s scenario is meant to build on the existing game’s ending and fill in its gaps. Kairi and the other heroes get some time to shine, Chirithy and Namine’s returns during the normal ending are explained, and a lot of its strange, scattershot storytelling is a natural side effect of Sora using the Power of Waking to warp reality. The expanded ending leading into the Limitcut Episode reveals that the cast’s new goal is to search for Sora, with the Birth By Sleep trio heading off to do so physically, and Riku asking the Final Fantasy characters who were conspicuously absent for the rest of KH3 for help analyzing data. Riku explains that the Twilight Town gang are studying Roxas and Xion’s memories for hints, and Kairi is exploring her own heart with the help of Ansem and his students, setting up the plot of Melody of Memory.
The Foretellers Return
However, that’s not all that Kingdom Hearts 3’s ending sets up. There is a serious effort going on throughout the base game’s final hours and all of the DLC to set up a variety of plot hooks for the future, such as Young Xehanort’s commentary on the events of the story, what appears to be the Master of Master’s appearance, some of the Organization’s parting words, and a cryptic conversation between Luxord and Xigbar. It’s too early to say what all of this means, but as always, checking in on Kingdom Hearts Union X and Dark Road for story updates will help fans understand it.
Speaking of which, the Foretellers from the initial Kingdom Hearts X storyline and the Back Cover movie show up in Kingdom Hearts 3’s unlockable epilogue. Only four of them appear, with Ava being conspicuously absent. Xigbar appears with the No Name keyblade, revealing himself to be Luxu, the apprentice the Master of Masters entrusted his Keyblade and a mysterious black box. Judging by Luxu’s one yellow eye, he still seems to be partially possessed by Xehanort, though the implications of this are unclear. The camera zooms out to reveal Maleficent and Pete, who have been seeking the black box, watching the proceedings. Even though the next mainline Kingdom Hearts game may take place in another reality, it seems that there are still relevant players in the first.
After this, the view returns to Xehanort and Eraqus in the past. After having completed their chess game alluding to the events of the series (with Xehanort, representing darkness, fittingly losing), Eraqus proposes a new game. Seven black pieces are placed on the board, with designs recalling the five Foretellers, Luxu, and the Master of Masters. Upon Xehanort questioning how many white pieces there are, Eraqus responds "just watch" and slams Sora's piece down. Once again, this is all meant to tease a new direction for Kingdom Hearts, most likely starting with the next full game. Only time will tell what is really going on here, but it seems very likely that the Foretellers will be opposed to Sora in some way.
Teasing The Future
Finally, there is the matter of the Secret Movie and ReMind’s secret boss. While Kingdom Hearts 3 began showing what the future could look like with the Foretellers, it quickly followed with an out-of-context glimpse at the setting and potential protagonist of the next Kingdom Hearts: the city of Quadratum, and the enigmatic Yozora. The city, or cities, Sora, Riku, Yozora, and a cloaked figure who may be the Master of Masters find themselves in in the Secret Movie seem to be a mix of The World Ends With You’s Shibuya and the FF15 Insomnium-like Quadratum. Quadratum will undoubtedly feature in the next game, but the appearance of TWEWY’s fictional 104 building (a reference to a 109 building in the real Shibuya) has given many pause. It could just be Square Enix’s go-to building for marking a fantasy Shibuya, or it could mean that the TWEWY characters in Dream Drop Distance could be relevant again.
Another matter of constant fan discussion is the secret fight against Yozora. Aside from the obvious of him being one of the hardest fights in the series, Yozora’s dialogue implies there’s been a lot going on in his reality, and he is Sora’s protagonist equivalent there. Apparently, Sora isn’t seeing what he really looks like, and Yozora was looking for Sora to “save” him. How this relates to the two fighting is so unclear that even Sora is confused, but regardless of the result, Sora is left in the nighttime version of the Final World while Yozora wakes up in a car. This scene is remarkably similar to an early Final Fantasy Versus 13 trailer featuring Noctis also waking up in a limo, which seems to point to series director Tetsuya Nomura attempting to bring some cut ideas for that game back.
Right now, the future of the Kingdom Hearts series is at its most uncertain. The old story threads have been wrapped up, and an entirely new setting and cast seems to be in the works for the next entry. Ideas from past projects Nomura has touched seem to be creeping back in, and, at the end of it all, despite all of the time-travelling and reality warping, there are still no hints about who the Master of Masters is, what he wants, and what is in his box. Fans are once again left hanging, but at least they have some Kingdom Hearts PC ports to tide them over, along with the knowledge that some conclusions have finally been reached.
Kingdom Hearts 3 and its ReMind DLC are available now for PS4 and Xbox One. They will be released on PC via the Epic Store on March 30th, 2021.