Kingdom Hearts 4 Should Let Riku Flex His Dark Side
The history of the Kingdom Hearts storyline is a long and complex collection of epic character moments and retroactive rewriting. Now with a new title announced, Kingdom Hearts 4 can reset the series and bring back older storylines that have since been abandoned.
One of these abandoned storylines that had previously added a level of depth and nuance to the series is the way that the character Riku had dealt with the power of darkness. However, Kingdom Hearts 4 now has the chance to bring back the original direction that Riku had been taking since the very first game and continued all the way through Kingdom Hearts 2.
Kingdom Hearts 4: Who is the Nameless Star?
When Riku was originally introduced to players in the very first Kingdom Hearts title, he took on the role of protagonist Sora's rival and a consistent enemy into the late-game. Not only had Riku become a pawn of the darkness, the force of evil in the series, but he had also learned to use its power for himself and even crafted a dark keyblade with the help of Ansem. From there, this history with the darkness became one-part stain and one-part benefit for Riku, as he was able to use this power in order to help Sora throughout Kingdom Hearts 2 and retroactively in 358/2 Days.
By the time Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories came around, Riku was even given his own storyline that emphasized his reliance on this power of darkness. In fact, it was only by using this power that Riku could temporarily use the sleight abilities to the same degree that Sora was able to use due to his own power of light focused through the keyblade. At the end of this storyline, and into the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2, Riku outright claims to be taking a path that doesn't choose one of these
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