David Gallagher talks voicing Riku in Collection pre-launch livestream

Square Enix aired the Collection [I~III] pre-launch livestream on September 30 at 11 AM PDT with David Gallagher, the English voice of Riku, answering pre-submitted fan questions while playing through the Monstropolis section of Kingdom Hearts III. Laughing Place recapped the session the same day, and the full VOD sits on the official Square Enix channel.

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No new game announcements came out of it. The hosts said that no Kingdom Hearts IV information would be shared, so the stream stayed on the Collection itself and on Gallagher's history with the series.

The running thread was that Gallagher is playing through the series himself for the first time. He is currently on Birth by Sleep, and this stream was his first look at Kingdom Hearts III. His advice to newcomers: just jump in and not worry too much about it, though he is going through the games by release himself.

Other answers from the recap: Riku would be a silver werewolf-type monster if he lived in Monstropolis. Landing the role at 16 meant getting to play the antagonist, then growing with Riku into one of the strongest fighters for the light. The 358/2 Days scene where Riku tosses the Keyblade aside and calls it "worthless" sparked a booth flashback for him, with the team celebrating it as a "cool Riku moment." His favorite Keyblade is the Keyblade of Heart, which he called the Kingdom Key of the darkness, and his favorite song is the Hollow Bastion theme. The role was offered to him, so stepping into the booth was his first contact with the series, and his advice to his younger self is to trust himself more since he was cast as Riku for a reason. He also talked up Axel, whose expression and animation keep his motives an open question, and picked Space Mountain as Riku's favorite ride because it is riding around in the darkness.

This closes the loop on the pre-launch announcement from September 14. Collection [I~III] launches October 8 on Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.