KH3 Info - Big Hero 6 World confirmed at D23 Expo

After we announced KINGDOM HEARTS III, we went through some redesigning associated with the change in the game engine. Since we were prioritizing those tasks, we were not able to reveal much new information, but this time, we premiered footage that shows the game in action on the new engine.

The video is just a snippet, but I believe you can get a glimpse of all the challenges that the development team is taking on.We leaned toward the flashiest of scenes due to the limited length of time, but I hope that viewers can sense that this new world of KINGDOM HEARTS is something that players can enjoy, not only during the powered-up battles, but even when you’re just traversing the map.

That being said, the true nature of KINGDOM HEARTS III is still to come, so please stay tuned for further information.

Tetsuya Nomura,, Director of Kingdom Hearts III -- SOURCE

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN!

Kingdom Hearts III will not only close the story of Sora and friends, it will also feature its upbeat protagonist at his most powerful. Speaking with GameSpot, director Tetsuya Nomura said that the young man we see in the latest trailer has evolved alongside the series' combat mechanics and storyline.

In addition to the narrative link between Unchained X and KHIII, Nomura also said the Sora we see in the new trailer has passed his Keyblade wielder's Mark of Mastery exam--a test he miserably failed at the end of the last KH title, Dream Drop Distance. We now know that he passes.

One major addition gameplay-wise to Kingdom Hearts III is transforming Keyblades. The new trailer shows Sora's Keyblade becoming a wide gambit of other weapons, from a rocket launcher to dual guns to a flying pegasus creature leading a chariot. Each Keyblade transformation is unlocked by clearing all missions in one of Kingdom Hearts' worlds, and each individual world offers its own unique Keyblade transformation.

"Our goal is, because you are able to obtain world-specific Keyblades after you beat certain worlds, the transformations of each Keyblade will be related to the world you visit," Co-director Tai Yasue explained. "We've made each transformation unique to the world.”

Another thing you can expect from Kingdom Hearts III is giant, Shadow of the Colossus-style boss battles. There will be fights against smaller enemies, but some of KHIII's bosses will be gargantuan, allowing Sora greater freedom of movement and room to experiment with attacks--including the new theme-park-ride summon attacks.

"When creating a Kingdom Hearts game, we start with a gameplay system that I think would be a fun element," Nomura said of designing gameplay, "and once we have an idea of what kind of gameplay or system we want in place, we flesh out the story around it, surrounding the basic concept of what kind of fun we’re going to have with this new instalment."

Alexa Ray Corriea, Gamespot Editor -- SOURCE

THE BEAUTIFUL GAMEPLAY

Gallery

GAMETRAILERS' KINGDOM HEARTS VIDEOS

Gametrailers had done a wonderful job with dissecting the story of Kingdom Hearts and looking at the timeline. If you're confused about the story, need a recap since it's been a while, or if you've never played but are looking forward to Kingdom Hearts III, check these out!

Kingdom Hearts Timeline

KH Mysteries: How Does Time Travel Work in Kingdom Hearts?

KH Mysteries: Why is Sora Special?

KH Mysteries: Xehanort's Ambitions

KH Mysteries: The Foreteller's Prophecy

OTHER ARTICLES

Kingdom Hearts 3 May Feature an Online Component

Most of Kingdom Hearts III's Worlds will be New to the Series

Playstation Access: 8 Things You Need to Know about Kingdom Hearts III

ZASSIMICK'S CORNER

It looks beautiful. I believe that was Master Xehanort and Master Eraqus as children. And a Tangled world is awesome. My wife will be incredibly happy with that! Gameplay looks stunning. Visuals are breathtaking. And that music... Rage Awakened is probably one of my favorite pieces of music from the series and it just fits so well here.

What's confirmed?

• Titan boss based on the Hercules villains -- God of War eat your heart out
• A bunch of new Heartless
• Keyblade transformations
• Chariot with Pegasus is not a summon but the Keyblade ability...?
• Hype Train summon, Galleon summon, and one other...
• TEACUPS!!!!
• Confirmed Worlds: Tangled, Olympus, Big Hero 6
• Most of the worlds in KH3 will be new to the series
• Worlds based on new Disney movies, both released and unreleased yet, have a chance at appearing.
• Xehanort and Eraqus as children talking about the Keyblade War and the Lost Masters while playing chess. Could playing as Eraqus or Xehanort be the tutorial/beginning like Roxas was for KH2?
• Sora has passed his Mark of Mastery exam between Dream Drop Distance and KH3
• Confirmed yet again that Kingdom Hearts will continue after KH3, just that Xehanort's "Dark Seeker Saga" will be finished.
• An online multiplayer component is a possibility
• Not on PC // Wii U / lolVita // 3DS

And best of all? Donald and Goofy are back as your partners throughout the journey. I couldn't be happier in the direction the game is going, and now all we have to do is wait and wait for Square Enix to finally announce that sweet 2032 release window.

RELEASE DATE: Internally decided on, but Square Enix is not comfortable revealing that information yet.

= = = = =

**Will update thread as new information arrives**

Holy shit it does and I don't play KH games.

Well if by the off chance it gets a release date, it'll make e3 for me.

I missed it!

that music track reminds me of the battle theme in radiant historia. Trailer look great though.

now in development, absolutely useless. This along with FF15 and FF7 remake will be 5-7 years off.

"Have you heard of the Keyblade Wars"

"ahahahah"

"What?"

"Say again?"

"The Keyblade Wars"

"No seriously what was it really called"

Looks like a game for people with ADHD.

Because it is.

Looks really good.

It isn't. Kingdom Hearts games are slow as hell. They're more for nerds who want to get immersed in a world. These games have really, long, drawn out dialogue sections...and lots of random stuff. I promise the gameplay they showed was akin to a Mortal Kombat montage of fatalities. Essentially they just shoved in every special move and cut to them in a montage fashion. It was rather in poor taste and didn't show much gameplay unfortunately. It's as if they were trying to build it up to be a God of War-type game instead of the game it's actually going to be. On the upside, they showed a lot of cool things.

Need.

YES! YES! YES!

I'm really glad to see the trio back together: Sora, Donald & Goofy. I've missed this.

Yeah, it looks really nice.

That titan boss fight, just take my money!

looks awesome.

It's true. I wrote about this in the FFVII thread. Right now a big focus of Square Enix's is Final Fantasy XV which there's a very strong chance it won't release this year and I'm guessing not till later next year at the earliest. No grounds to base that thought on, just a hunch. And that probably means Kingdom Hearts is 2017 at the earliest. Can we expect Final Fantasy VII Remake around 2018?

Could definitely be a lot longer. I just want more communication with the fans from Square Enix.

Meh.

Played the first Kingdom Hearts recently and it was pretty shit. No desire to play any more of them.

so so good

Woof, making this into a gif from gyfcat really decreases the quality. Still, it all looks great!

Man they're gonna have a hell of a time trying to explain the story up to this point for those who only played 1 and 2

I have never played a KH game, hopefully I will get to try them soon. That looks stunning, right there with the new ratchet and clank

Tangled doesn't seem like a world with a lot of combat potential. Prove me wrong, Square. I wonder if those two playing chess is a flashback of some sort.

I love the teacups.

Looks like crap.

Jesus that looks incredible. Tangled!

I'll probably be crucified but who gives a shit about the story. I don't need convoluted explanations for why Goofy is fighting a Tangled baddie!

I have never played a KH game, but this looks really awesome.

My body is ready.

It's just too bad that KH sucks almost as bad as Epic Mickey.

I cannot wait.

Hopefully "turn off story" will be a toggle in the menu. Everything is off the rails after DDD, if it wasn't already.

Very excited to wrap up this saga and see what sort of twists Nomura implements. KH particularly doesn't get much credit for its boss encounters, which although are typically straightforward (deplete enemy's health bar), they effectively balance presentation and challenge.

I do hope S-E uses the template of KH combat in developing other IPs in the ARPG genre. The heavy reliance on Disney zones as filler certainly wears me down, though they're great fanservice, and a truly classic game could be made by Nomura and his team with the right creative inspiration driving it.

It does look stunning! I didn't see the Ratchet & Clank video, not much of a fan, but I'll have to check it out. I heard good things about it.

But Shinobishyguy is right. It could be difficult to pick up KH3 if you haven't played at least the first two. I highly recommend picking up both Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMIX for PS3. Should be able to nab both for $50 and that comes with KH, KH2, Re: Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep, and cutscenes for 358/2 Days and Re: Coded. It's a good value, and the only reason I'd hold off on purchasing them would be in case a PS4 version of the entire series comes before KH3.

If you don't want to purchase and play the older games, I recommend checking out Gametrailers' videos on the series. They have a Timeline, plus a series of four "mysteries" of the KH story that they go into detail answering. It's good stuff and a great way to see the story of KH before Kingdom Hearts III. You can watch those videos here, and direct links are up in the original post!

Already looking better than FFXV after Tabata ruined it by taking out everything that was interesting about it. Tabata is another Toriyama... But thank god Nomura will direct the FFVII Remake too, although I'm pretty sure he's gonna change the battle system to real-time since that always been his style.

No release date? Meh.

I'd love it if the remake for FFVII would have updated gameplay in the overworld to compensate for the visuals and for having 3D environments, but then keep random battles and have that old school FFVII gameplay, refined and made flashier. We haven't had a good turn-based game like that in some time on consoles.

But you're not a fan of Tabata? I've only just barely started Type-0 HD and really enjoyed it. And then FFXV... well, it does feel very different than what I imagined it'd be like. I still need to go back and try Episode Duscae with the new update...

Well that looked fucking awesome.

REALLY hope its decent on x1 although still crossing fingers for that PC announcement.

Thank you so much for all the info!! I have been holding off on purchasing the collections for the exact same reason you made, but I will try to play them before I get KH3 which sadly seems a little bit down the road.

Square Enix seems to be porting a lot of games to PC lately, focusing on bringing Type-0 HD and the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy to the platform. But no word on KH3 or FFXV heading there. Maybe it's more of a matter of time or...?

A couple new things have been talked about since E3:

Most of the world in Kingdom Hearts III will be brand new to the series.

Kingdom Hearts 3 May Feature an Online Component

Pretty awesome that most of the worlds will be new. Sure, heading to a Hercules world AGAIN but Olympus should be fun. And as for the online component, don't know how to feel about it. A coop section could be neat but competitive? Eh. They do say it's not taking precedence over the single player which I do believe, and they may not figure anything out in the end anyways...? Hard to say with just a little word on the matter.

lol. I've never played a KH's before, but I'll admit they look fun.

I gotta play the first two games before this comes out

Started freaking when I first saw the trailer at the Square Enix Live Press Conference, was watching it in a Geek café with some of my friends couldn't stop shaking after the trailer had ended. So hyped about Kingdom Hearts III

I hope KH3 will port to PC in someday, looks good.

You know, I've only just noticed they gave Sora a new proper outfit. lol

Also, notice how overtime his necklace chain thingy gets smaller and smaller by comparison to his own body. Clever and simply way to show Sora has grown over time.

My body is ready for PS4 version.

Can't wait...

Oh yeah! I wasn't sure if I was liking the new look right away, thought it was missing the balance of the yellow and everything, but I definitely don't mind it. Especially the plaid in the hoodie, I think it's a nice touch.

His new look also appears to be taking some cues from Roxas which is nice to see carry over. And the chain thingy getting smaller is great, but one of my favorite things that shows his age is that he's really grown into his feet. :P

@Zassimick: Cool!

Also yeah, the shoe thing was always odd. I just figured it was part of the style XD