Last night I had the coolest experience yet in Kingdom Hearts. Donald, Goofy and I have stumbled into the Heartless-ified Riku boss fight. By this point in the game, Donald and Goofy are pretty friggin' awesome fighters, so I like letting them distract the enemies while I fool around with magic. In a three-on-one boss fight like this, it's especially to my advantage.
So the three of us beat on Riku for a bit, and then I decide to summon Genie to really soften Riku up. Genie fires off a couple of Showtime attacks on Riku while I keep my distance. When Genie's time runs out, I realize I'm almost out of MP, so I summon Bambi. Bambi and I keep away from Riku while Bambi drops a bunch of MP-up balls for me, so soon I'm fully charged again. I dismiss Bambi and summon Tinker Bell. Tink is a terrific summon, because she doesn't forcibly eject Donald and Goofy like the other summons... so D&G return and the four of us do the Riku Stomp.
That whole progression of Disney headliners is precisely what I wanted from Kingdom Hearts. It may take a while to get going, but KH delivers... I feel like this one is going to generate a whopper of a review.
So what is Riku's deal? I'm following the plot very carefully, and he just seems like an easily manipulated, cocky dope. Yes, I'm sure Kairi's health is utmost in his mind, but why the constant avoidance of Sora? If Riku would let Sora talk during all these brief encounters, they could both work towards saving Kairi's heart. It's obvious that Maleficent is stringing him along - I think even Riku suspects - but her team isn't even *hiding* the fact that they're evil anymore. In one of the last cutscenes I saw last night, Mysterious Hooded Figure outright tells Riku to embrace the darkness so his heart can grow stronger. Riku, you're buying this? It doesn't occur to you to embrace the lightness and hang out with silly anthropomorphic animals like Sora?
There's a strong brotherly rivalry between Sora and Riku; that much is made obvious during the flashbacks and the too-long preliminary Destiny Islands level. So I get that both boys are headstrong, and that both have a thing for Kairi. But I never got that Riku was stupid. If anything, Sora is the dumb one. So it's kind of a regular disappointment when Riku shows up and the two immediately begin posturing rather than talking... especially since Riku seems to have Plan Zero for saving Kairi, other than "embracing the darkness."
