It's been almost 12 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was released, but the demand for Kingdom Hearts 3 has not diminished. In those 12 years, we could have spent a generation and a half of new consoles (and played many derivative titles) but the main story of Kingdom Hearts has remained at the bottom of our minds.
Fortunately, the awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 was confirmed by Square Enix in 2013 with an official announcement.
After the official announcement, Square Enix remained very secretive about any other details related to Kingdom Heart 3. Then, at E3 2014 we got an advance and some tempting details, followed by even more news and a preview of the game at E3 2015.
But it was E3 2018 when the real juicy details came up, showing some of the characters from Disney Sora, Donald and Goofy will be found, along with an official release date.
We've summed up all the news, rumors and juicy details about Kingdom Hearts 3 here for you, so get comfortable.
Cut to the hunt
- What is it? The long-awaited third major title in the action-act crossover series from Square Enix, Kingdom Hearts.
- When can I play it? January 29, 2019
- What can I play? Trailers for PS4 and Xbox One
Now there are many trailers of Kingdom Hearts 3 in the world for you to scrutinize them. However, the most recent trailers are from E3 2018 and confirmed that Frozen, Wreck-It-Ralph and Pirates of the Caribbean are new worlds in the game.
We also got a four minute trailer of the Disney D23 Expo in Japan. The video of the game offers fans a look at the new Monsters Inc World, starring Boo, Mike and Sully.
D23 is the place for the Kingdom Hearts trailers, because before the Japan event we were treated to another trailer announcing a new world of Toy Story.
Not long before this, at E3 2017 we had the opportunity to see another preview of the game that showed images of the Hercules level of the game.
The game's second most recent development was released at JumpFesta in 2016. The trailer gave an idea of how the game's combat will work, as well as a look at special abilities and the impact that the game environment will have on the fight . [19659013] Before this there was another much more complete trailer released in E3 in 2015. In this game the fans of the trailer saw what appears to be a new location: the exterior of the Rapunzel tower of the Tangled movie.
A much shorter trailer was revealed at E3 in 2014, setting the stage for the main story of the game.
And, of course, we can not forget the final announcement of 2013. Have there been a lot of surprises?
Kingdom Hearts 3 publication date
Square Enix has confirmed that Kingdom Hearts 3 will be released on January 29, 2019.
News and features of Kingdom Hearts 3
History [19659002] Kingdom Hearts 3 will see players once again take on the role of Sora as he travels with his closest friends, Donald and Goofy, in a variety of themed worlds and populated by a series of famous Disney and Final Fantasy characters.
The game's director Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed that the story of the game will begin immediately after the end of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.
This means that the game will follow our trio in their search for the Seven Guardians of Light to prepare for their final showdown against Master Xehanort. Meanwhile, King Mickey and Riku will continue their search for the remaining Keyblade holders.
Does this sound like a complete spell? Do not worry, if you want to know all the essential story, you can do it on PlayStation 4 by playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.
I'm not sure I have the time to play through all of that? Then, you can see the summary below the timeline of the franchise created by Game Trailers. It is still almost an hour but it will do the job.
New images
Kingdom Hearts 3 will adopt a slightly visual style in the previous games of the franchise, with the aim of obtaining a look more like a brush than the photographic realism. In an interview with Famitsu (through Kotaku) Tetsuya Nomura was very open about the decision to adopt a new visual approach, stating that this new direction was an attempt to "Express Disney 2D brushstroke in 3D".
Nomura said: it was an appearance they wanted from the first game, but "at that time, the [PlayStation 2] did not have the processing power to allow us to freely adjust the lighting."
The new PlayStation 4 hardware, however, is much more capable and Nomura said it is possible to get "a real sense of evolution by simply doing the standard HD graphics." Nomura admitted that it is a quite "drastic" change, but added that he sees it as "a rich evolution of everything we do". ; I have shown so far. "
Gameplay
It seems that the action RPG gameplay will not change much with respect to the previous titles of the franchise, most likely extracting and improving the Kingdom Hearts 2 and perhaps integrating particularly successful elements of handheld titles.
It has been confirmed, however, that Sora will be much more mobile in combat, able to run on the wall, jump on enemies and, to a large extent, take more advantage of the much larger environments of the game.
In 2013, Nomura said that the combat in Kingdom Hearts 3 would be "quite frenetic", with NPCs able to join the fights between three people as well as the "intricate" enemy AI.
A couple of interesting new combat features that have been confirmed include Attraction Flow and Keyblade Transformations.
Flow Attraction attacks are new super moves which apparently will fire under certain unconfined battle conditions. These powerful moves based on the Flowmotion movements of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance are inspired by some of the most important attractions of the Disney theme parks, such as Teacups, Pirate Ship and Thunder Mountain Railroad.
The Keyblade Transformations are self-explanatory and will allow the weapons of Sora's Keyblade to turn into battle with different effects.
According to Nomura, Keyblade Transformations will only unlock when all the missions of one of the worlds of the game are unlocked, and each individual world offers its own unique transformation.
For example, KH Insider discovered that an Olympus keyblade could cast Zeus's rays and transform into a chariot drawn by Pegasus.
New worlds
Disney has been busy in the years since Kingdom Hearts 2 was first launched, as expected, there will be some new worlds to play in .
So far, the Kingdom of the Crown of Tangled, a still untitled world of Big Hero 6, Mount Olympus of Hercules, Twilight Town Mysterious Tower, Toy Story, Frozen, Pirates of the Caribbean and Monsters inc. Worlds have been confirmed as new additions.
In a recent interview with Famitsu Nomura slightly reduced the excitement of a new world of Toy Story by revealing that there will be fewer Disney worlds in this game than in Kingdom Hearts 2.
Kingdom Hearts 2 I had 12 worlds in total and so far we have seven worlds confirmed for the third game. With Nomura indicating that all the worlds that will appear in the game will be revealed before their release, we can expect some more to be revealed during the next year. How many of these will be new worlds and how many will be replays of the previous games is unclear.
At least, Nomura has promised that although there will be fewer worlds, they will be much denser. We have to admit that not all hearts of Kingdom Hearts have an equal place in our hearts, so we happily take quality over quantity.
Although Disney also acquired Marvel and LucasFilm, it is unlikely that its franchises will appear in Kingdom Hearts due to a variety of other barriers to licensing agreements, with Nomura warning that "the other associated companies under Disney [are] are not so As simple as consulting with Disney Interactive, unfortunately, the alignment is considered as different. "
Another playable character?
A report in Official PlayStation UK (scanned by KHInsider ) suggests that Kingdom Hearts 3 can have a playable Riku together with Sora.
"The last game of the Disney-meets-Final-Fantasy mix series is divided between two perspectives of best friends Sora and Riku, you will find a lot of new characters whose help you will need to avoid the evil Master Xehanort sparks another war with the Sword Key, faces and family places come back, but there are new worlds to visit inspired by Toy Story, Fantasia and Tangled. "
These are not details that Square Enix has confirmed about the game yet. , so we are sticking strictly. in the category of rumors for now. It is quite possible that the information was mixed with Kingdom Hearts 3D, which was published on the PS4 in 2016. This game had a playable Riku and a thematic world of Fantasy.
It may be, however, that the information is accurate. The game's director, Nomura, said IGN in July of 2017 that the team was considering putting another playable character in the game. He just did not say it was Riku.
Regardless, we hope to see more information about Kingdom Hearts 3 (maybe even a release date) at D23 in Japan, which will take place in February 2018.
Nintendo Switch? [19659002] In a recent interview, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda told Nikkei (via MyNintendo ) that the company is focusing on bringing more of its current and future titles to the new console by Nintendo, Nintendo Switch .
Although Matsuda makes no direct reference to bringing Kingdom Hearts 3 to the Switch, it does suggest that if such a move is feasible and the hardware limitations are not too great, Square Enix will make this possible.
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