More Information About Kingdom Hearts III Has Been Revealed

Kingdom Hearts III

Recently a Japanese video game news magazine called Famitsu had a conversation with Tetsuya Nomura, the director of the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III, in an attempt to get some more information about the game. Thankfully we were able to get a translation of the information.

Nomura has confirmed that the game will pick up where Dream Drop Distance left off and will be the final game in the “Dark Seeker” saga that was started in the first Kingdom Hearts game. The team is currently deciding which worlds will be used in the game. I personally hope we get a Star Wars world. As this is the last game in the saga it will depict the final battle with Xehanort. Will this be the last game in the Kingdom Hearts series? There was no mention that it is but there is also no mention that it isn’t. Saying it’s the end of the “Dark Seeker” saga does mean that it will be a closing point and if there are any future Kingdom Hearts games, there is really nothing we can expect from them.

Hardcore fans of the series will notice that the art style from the trailer is different from the recent games released, yet ultimately very familiar. Nomura had stated “We spent a while figuring out what direction to take Kingdom Hearts visuals in the next generation.” They decided to forgo the realistic styles the game has recently picked up, “Along the way, we remembered that these Kingdom Hearts characters were originally paintbrush art from Disney productions, a texture that was one of our original aims, and that it was time to return to that. So [chief creative director Takeshi] Nozue went through a series of tests, and the results are the visuals that we refer to in the team as the Kingdom Shader. It may look like a pretty drastic change, but I see it as a rich evolution of everything we’ve shown you up to now.”

Personally, I would have loved if they just reverted back to step one, and remade the visuals the way they did the first Kingdom Hearts. The Disney art style mixed with the lovable Final Fantasy dramatics that Square Enix does so well is what drew my attention to the game in the first place. Not like it would matter much anymore how the visuals look. I’m too emotionally invested in the universe to be able to turn this game away.

So the next question would have to be how is the game play going to be? Will it be like the original console games or will they introduce a new system like they did with the various handheld games. Nomura stated in his interview that they have a demo version already running on hardware and that “the really bold action we’ve always had is getting even crazier.” The game will have the normal three person parties, “but NPCs and other characters join the fight in each individual world.” The wording used here is a little confusing for me. Does this mean that it will be the old three person party system that we are used to, with a world specific character being available to replace one of the two supporting characters, or does this mean that some battles will be massive with several NPC’s joining to help allowing for new quick time event abilities to be activated on the fly. There is no information to clear up my confusion on this matter.

Nomura goes on to say “The enemy AI is a lot more intricate, too, and I think the game play will reflect that new dynamic balance. For example, there’s a foe that’s shaped like a vehicle, and Sora may jump on it and fly around; that’s already implemented.” This reveal isn’t really anything new. Kingdom Hearts II created a lot of new ways to defeat the new enemies. One enemy wielded a giant sword and upon dealing enough damage, he would become stunned allowing you to hold the new weapon. This made you invincible for a couple seconds while you slid around into a group of enemies before it began a very wide range barrage of attacks with the ridiculously large weapon.

Kingdom Hearts III is still a ways away from being finished but every little piece of information keeps me excited. Hopefully, TGS will give us some more visuals for the game. I can’t wait for the next piece for me to drool over. On top of that September 10^th can’t get here fast enough. I need my copy of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX.