10 Kingdom Hearts 3 Characters Who Are More Important Than Players Realize

Kingdom Hearts 3 is the epic conclusion to an almost 20-year-long story, and as a result, has one of the largest casts of characters in any game within the series. So much so, it's likely to see character pop-up from spin-off games you had no idea existed. The game also has a fairly dense narrative, introducing a number of new concepts to players that it becomes incredibly difficult to follow.

As a consequence of the game's almost avant-garde storytelling (which is my polite way of saying "not very good"), we're left with several characters being introduced without understanding how important they are to the overall Kingdom Hearts universe. If you're also someone who has only played the numbered titles of the game, you're likely going to be pulling up the Wiki to explain who these characters are and why they're important.

That's why the subject of today are all the characters in Kingdom Hearts 3 that are actually way more important than most players realize. Whether it's characters who have remained mostly understated throughout the franchise, or major antagonists who seem primed to return in a larger capacity in the future, there's an argument that several members of its cast are far more important than the main story makes them out to be.

With Kingdom Hearts 4 looking to serve as a soft-reboot for the series, we're putting out bets on these 10 characters coming back in some shape-or-form.

10 Donald Duck

Donald has been our trusty companion throughout the series. When he's not getting taken out right at the start of important boss battles and being a magnet for Goofy's potions, he's moonlighting as Mickey's court mage. As a result, he's capable of boasting some pretty impressive feats, with one reaching heights that no other character throughout the Kingdom Hearts and even Final Fantasy franchise has reached.

Shortly after entering the Keyblade Graveyard, the group finds themselves backed into a corner as Terra-Xehanort seems ready to finish us off. In one final act to push back the dark forces, Donald seemingly gives his life to cast the powerful spell Zettaflare – the most powerful flare spell cast yet – effectively turning Terra-Xehanort into a coughing baby against Donald's hydrogen bomb of a spell. While Sora reverses this moment through time travel shenanigans, it does prove that Donald is more than just your average bench warmer.

9 Demyx

While I'm not in love with major Kingdom Hearts lore being delivered exclusively in the spin-off games, one thing they did reveal were the original identities for a majority of the Organization XIII members. However, one loose thread ends up being Demyx, whose original identity remains elusive.

In previous games, Demyx has always appeared as a joke, which made his eventual boss fight in Kingdom Hearts 2 one of the more surprising (and anger-inducing) moments in the game. Seeing Demyx return as an antagonist in the series' third numbered entry was sure to have us sweating knowing we may need to "Dance, Water, Dance" one more time. Thankfully, this wasn't the case, and in a surprise twist, Demyx effectively "peaces out" of the conflict, abandoning everything in a comedic moment of cowardice. However, some fan theories speculate that we'll be seeing far more of Demyx in the future, as his true identity might tie into the series' next overarching villain.

8 Luxord

If you're picking up that most of this list is just former Organization Members, then you'd be right. Kingdom Hearts 3 admittedly does such a poor job of resolving these antagonists' plots in the supposed ending of a saga, that we can only assume we're to learn more about them in the future. One of the more egregious examples of this is our card-carrying adversary Luxord, who sits in a strange limbo like Demyx and Xigbar. Not only do we not know more about Luxord's true identity, but we know less about his intentions and goals than we did going into the game.

In our final encounter with him, Luxord gives Sora a literal trump card that he says will help him turn the tide of the battle in his favor. It's reasonable to assume that this card would be used at some point before the end of the game, but in fact, it doesn't come up again. It only stands then that we can expect this to be a returning element in a future game, and might possibly help free Sora from this new reality he's found himself in.

But that also begs the question as to how Luxord has the ability to capture such a powerful magic in one of his cards, and better yet, how he may have known Sora would need it in the future. Hopefully, Nomura has been keeping track of this plot thread and will answer in the next game, as it's one that's kept fans speculating for over half a decade at this point.

7 Xigbar / Luxu

After his impressive showing in Kingdom Hearts 2, Xigbar was sure to be a fan favorite. What wasn't there to love? He had one of the most grandiose boss battles, a charming characterization, an instant striking character design, and was the number 2 of the whole Orginization. It's no wonder fans were eager to learn more about the character and see them return in Kingdom Hearts 3 in an antagonistic role once more.

Throughout the game, Xigbar does appear to hint at knowing more than he lets on, and seems to be an accomplice of Xehanort's out of interest rather than obligation. After our final battle with the character, we don't see him disappear into darkness. Instead, Xigbar willingly throws himself off a cliff seemingly to his death, but as any Star Wars fan would know: if there's no body, there's no death. And how right we were, as Xigbar appears in an end-credit sequence, revealing his identity to actually be Luxu, one of the original Keyblade Warriors who sparked the original Keyblade War.

It's unclear if we'll see Luxu again, as Nomura has hinted that the Foretellers may not make an appearance in the next game. However, I'm betting that we might see Luxu become an intermediary for them, and he'll be back as a recurring character in a later game ready to share some vital lore with us.

6 Vanitas

Vanitas is a returning villain in Kingdom Hearts 3 and if you didn't play Birth By Sleep (or hadn't played it since it released), it's likely you were left completely befuddled by this evil Sora-looking character. This character is more than just Sith Sora, and instead is the pure darkness within Ventus' heart.

It's this same darkness that would create the Unversed, the Heartless stand-ins within the game. Xehanort would draw this darkness out of Ventus and give it a form which would go on to terrorize you throughout your playthrough. It was also this process which would help Xehanort originally create the X-blade, which ties the character's origins to the original Keyblade War.

Vanitas' lore with Ventus is a big red string conspiracy theory board to connect several dots to why Sora was eventually chosen to wield the keyblade, which makes any interaction between the two all the more important.

5 Yozora

Tetsuya Nomura is going to get his Final Fantasy XIII Versus one way or another, and it seems like we will in Kingdom Hearts 4, but with a few caveats.

Yozora is Kingdom Hearts 3's secret superboss, claiming Sephiroth's and The Lingering Will's throne as the toughest fight in the entire franchise. He first appears in a cutscene in the Toy Story world as part of a video game the toys are playing. What seemed like a cutaway joke of Nomura's ends up being major foreshadowing for where Sora will end up at the end of the game.

After defeating Yozora, we're treated to a cutscene of the character riding in the back of a limousine in a Shibuya-like setting, echoing Sora's own about "having weird thoughts lately", and posing questions about his own fate.

With so much set up, I'd say it's all but guaranteed the character will be returning in Kingdom Hearts 4 in some capacity. Here's hoping we don't have to fight him again, though.

4 Yen Sid

Yen Sid is one of Disney's oldest and most iconic characters, which makes his understated appearances in the Kingdom Hearts series a little disappointing. But make no mistake, the character carries significant weight in the franchise's overall worldbuilding.

Yen Sid is essentially Kingdom Hearts' Yoda. He's there to deliver an important exposition and serve as the wizened sage to guide our heroes throughout their journey. However, unlike Yoda, we never get to see Yen Sid pull off any cull acrobatics or fight anyone. Alas, he remains just a goofy-looking wizard in pajamas telling Sora he's no true keyblade master yet.

Still, as one of the most powerful Keyblade masters, and with Sora being lost in a mysterious new location, I'm certain he'll be brought back for the next game to help Sora's friends find him again.

3 Marluxia / Larxene

Much like Demyx, Kingdom Hearts 3 saw our main antagonists from Chain of Memories, Larxene and Marluxia, return as part of Xehanort's Seeker of Darkness. Sadly, as the narrative doesn't really move or offer many plot revelations about our antagonists for a majority of the Disney World we visit, we don't learn any new information about these characters and who they were before we met them. We do, however, get a better characterization of the duo, and their grudge against us killing them (which is pretty valid).

More surprisingly, the game doesn't mention Larxene and Marluxia's origins and their ties to the original Keyblade War. As we learn in Kingdom Hearts Union X, Larxene and Marluxia's real identities, Elrena and Lauriam, were Keyblade Warriors, and fairly notable ones. With the Foretellers appearing in the game, it's a missed opportunity to see Marluxia and Larxene interact with their former comrades before allegedly falling into darkness at some point later in the game.

While the characters aren't too important to the overall story anymore, their history gives them significant relevance to the plot of Kingdom Hearts 3, rather than appearing as "good enough" goons for Xehanort to recruit to fill the ranks of his new army.

2 Xion

Unless you played 358/2 days, the existence of Xion is sure to be a head scratcher. If you jumped into the game with the knowledge that Namine is Kairi's Nobody, then Xion's existence as an imperfect replica of Sora's memories of Kairi is going to feel like a "jump-the-shark- moment for players, in a game that has had so many at this point, we might as well be flying.

Xion returns in the game as a boss battle, and thankfully, this time, we're able to save her without traumatizing poor Roxas once more. While Xion doesn't have a huge impact on the game's story (much like other antagonists), her appearance carries a lot of weight and bookends Roxas' and Axel's character arcs with a happy ending.

Her return in Kingdom Hearts 3 is a bittersweet revelation for Roxas and Axel, although it does rightly get some flak for reinforcing Nomura's poor habit of letting his characters stay dead.

1 Master of Masters

The Master of Masters is an entirely new character semi-introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3, and alluded to in various spin-off games, most notably Kingdom Hearts Union X, which had you play as one of the original Keyblade wielders in the lead up to the first Keyblade War. As we learn, the Master of Masters disappeared, only re-appearing in Kingdom Hearts 3 in some isolated encounters and the post-credit scene.

The Master of Masters is not an ominous, physically imposing character as his name suggests. In fact, he comes across as fairly aloof and silly, much like our most feared Organization Member, Demyx. Now, I'm not going to say Demyx is the Master of Masters secretly (or even his Nobody), but it would tie in Demyx's surprise departure from the narrative.

Series creator Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed that the next saga in the Kingdom Hearts story will primarily focus on this character. Whether he'll become our main overarching villain like Xehanort, or a MacGuffin we'll have to track down remains to be seen, but expect us to go back to his scenes in KH3 with an entirely new perspective.