Kingdom Hearts Finally Shows Kairi Some Love!

Kingdom Hearts 3, which came out at the beginning of the year, was an enjoyable enough sequel if you could overlook some rushed storylines and underdeveloped characters. The character that got screwed over the most was Kairi, the series' only Princess of Heart that wasn't from a Disney movie. Kairi's development within the Kingdom Hearts series is important because she doesn't have a movie or spin-off to tell her story while Sora, Riku, and Roxas are all playable in various other games. We know that she grew up in Radiant Garden where her grandmother told her stories about the ancient Keyblade War and that she eventually found herself stranded on the Destiny Islands where she met Sora and Riku, but that is where her story ends. Kairi made multiple claims about wanting to help Sora after she got her own keyblade at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, but we barely ever saw her use it. Even when she did during one of the final battles in Kingdom Hearts 3, she was highly unskilled with no special princess-inspired abilities. Never fear, Kairi fans, because as of next month, all of that is about to change.


Kingdom Hearts recently released a new trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3: Re Mind that contained some earth-shattering revelations. Not only are the Final Fantasy characters who were notably absent from Kingdom Hearts 3 back, but Kairi has been officially revealed as a playable character in this bonus downloadable add-on. In the trailer, we see Kairi performing a beautiful attack is finally worthy of the training she did behind the scenes while Sora went on his adventures. The fast-paced sequence reveals her special movie as she flings her flowery keyblade at the enemy, warps to his location to recover it, and then leaps into to the air in a burst of prismatic light before zooming right in front of the camera in a move that is every bit as impressive as one of Sora's. The way she leaps through the air in a feat of acrobatics and grace is everything we could possibly hope for in a video game princess.


The beginning of the trailer features Sora and Kairi visiting what is essentially the Kingdom Hearts version of Heaven, which makes sense after Kingdom Hearts 3 left off with Kairi getting defeated by Xehanort and Sora deciding to go after her. The portion where Kairi becomes playable will likely take place after Sora finds her. As we saw from the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3, something happened to cause Kairi to return to the Destiny Islands without Sora. It makes perfect sense for her to want to go back and rescue after he sacrifices himself for her, which is probably what motivates her enough to use her new fighting skills. As an added bonus, it looks like the Re Mind DLC will allow us to play as Sora, Riku, and Kairi at various points throughout the game, which would mark it the first Kingdom Hearts spin-off in which the original Destiny Islands trio will be playable.


A lot of fans are saying that the footage in this DLC trailer came out in the initial Kingdom Hearts 3 release and not as bonus content. I enjoyed Kingdom Hearts 3 enough, but I agree that it could have been a lot better. While I would have liked these scenes to have taken plac in the actual game, I'm still happy to have an opportunity to see Kairi as a kick-ass warrior princess at all. Better late than never, right? There's also a gorgeous clip of the other Warriors of Light fighting for the fate of Kingdom Hearts simultaneously to Sora's battle in the Keyblace Graveyard. For better or worse, the Re Mind trailer has given me and many other Kingdom Hearts fans very high expectations for the future of the series. I hope I am able to play as Kairi for more than just one battle so I can learn about all her special abilities as a playable Princess of Heart.


The Kingdom Hearts 3 Re Mind DLC is currently available in the PlayStation store for pre-order. Square claims that it will be released on January 23rd of next year even though the pre-order page says otherwise. It looks like this DLC is the game's answer to all of the complaints that people had about its third major installment. It's great to see that they were listening and are doing everything in their power to correct their mistakes. Kairi is an important character in Sora's life who has been there since there beginning and even saved him from turning into a Heartless in the first game. She deserves all the respect that we as fans have been patiently waiting for them to give her.
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