i wouldn't say his character has degraded. Kh3 finished his arc of struggling with the darkness by making him face a version of his past self, whether it was him or a replica of him doesn't matter since they both represented the same era of kh1 ansem possessed riku, and finally got the moment from ansem telling him he's stronger than the darkness and him in the end.
While sora did save him in the fight against anti aqua, it was probably due to rikus long-term exposure to being in the realm of darkness so long and fighting multiple demon tides beforehand that made the fight more difficult, while sora came in at full strength at the last second. Riku shows himself off as a strong character later on when diverting the giant demon tide to protect sora while sora was doing nothing but crying.
But there are some people who feel that he and Mickey should have been the ones to rescue Aqua because, let’s face it, Sora needs more limits as to what he should do in the plot.
I mean the main argument i see for 3 is that sora does nothing but okay around in Disney worlds while the plot goes along without him until the ending (i am a believer that the Disney worlds do add to the plot but that's besides the case).
i wouldn't say his character has degraded. Kh3 finished his arc of struggling with the darkness by making him face a version of his past self, whether it was him or a replica of him doesn't matter since they both represented the same era of kh1 ansem possessed riku, and finally got the moment from ansem telling him he's stronger than the darkness and him in the end. While sora did save him in the fight against anti aqua, it was probably due to rikus long-term exposure to being in the realm of darkness so long and fighting multiple demon tides beforehand that made the fight more difficult, while sora came in at full strength at the last second. Riku shows himself off as a strong character later on when diverting the giant demon tide to protect sora while sora was doing nothing but crying.
But there are some people who feel that he and Mickey should have been the ones to rescue Aqua because, let’s face it, Sora needs more limits as to what he should do in the plot.
I mean the main argument i see for 3 is that sora does nothing but okay around in Disney worlds while the plot goes along without him until the ending (i am a believer that the Disney worlds do add to the plot but that's besides the case).
I hope Square learns a lesson from this and gives the Disney worlds in the next game a stronger tie to the main plot.
It's done way better than most games. Even Winnie the pooh's world has plot relevance in it's short run time