>>528555630
Hot take maybe but I think it's a better narrative sequel to 1 than 2. Like you said it develops Sora and Riku further and takes them to interesting places. 2 is more focused on the Roxas and Organization XIII mystery while Sora and Riku's arcs get less attention, and Kairi is sidelined even more. Obviously 3 is guilty of this as well because it has to deal with so much other stuff in it's story and DDD wasn't able to hit the same notes as CoM either despite being a similar premise.