When the first Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer slowly revealed the Key Blade embedded in the beach's sand, the trailer then promptly ended as we all waited for the two most important pieces of information. When and where can I play it?
The story in Kingdom Hearts 3 will focus on the fight between Master Xehanort and the guardians of light. Sora and his Disney pals will help him as they search for the guardians of light and the Key to Return Hearts. According to Siliconera, Kingdom Hearts 3's will let players control a more mature version of Sora who will adventure alongside Mickey Mouse, Donald and Goofy.
Confirmed this morning, but implied last night because of the missing and important word, "exclusive", Kingdom Hearts 3 will release on the PS4 and the Xbox One. Producer at Square Enix, Shinji Hashimoto, revealed the multiplatform release at the Square Enix E3 event. The team heading the development on Kingdom Hearts 3, the Osaka based team, also developed Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and the 3DS release, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. As for a Wii U release, Hashimoto shared no comments but shared that they will develop with Direct X11 in mind.
In an interview with series creator, Tetsuya Nomura, he discussed a few details about Kingdom Hearts 3 and its systems. For the benefit of the story, Nomura wishes for a "stable" world that will include a number of new areas. Depending on which world you will find yourself in, Nomura wants to employ a shader technique that will change the appearance of the characters to better fit the surroundings.
E3 Trailer Analysis
In analysis of the E3 trailer conducted by KHinsider, Kingdom Hearts fans will notice a few things. The trailer begins with significant events from previous Kingdom Hearts games (including the handheld releases), which combines both dialogue from the ending of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and the opening dialogue of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.
The trailer then begins from the 3DS release, Dream Drop Distance, were viewers immediately see Sora wearing the same outfit from the original Kindgom Hearts released on PS2.
Once you spot Sora, the camera pans to Master Eraqus' Keyblade (Master Eraqus is the Keyblade Master for female character Aqua; you can find in him both Birth by Sleep and Birth by Sleep Final Mix). The Keyblade previously belonged to Aqua who owned Master Eraqus' Keyblade in Birth by Sleep, where she later cast herself into the Realm of Darkness.
Without knowing the events of the story in KH3, Sora stumbling upon the Keyblade can either symbolize the growth of Sora as Keyblade Master or signal Aqua's possible escape from the Realm of Darkness.
If you take a look at the HUD in the trailer as Sora runs away from the Heartless, you see will commands such as "Attack", "Magic" and "Item", similar to the command list found in Kingdom Hearts 2. The previous battle systems in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 will remain the core for the 3rd game. The system for Kingdom hearts 3 will then evolve from the already established systems while also taking inspiration from unique features of the spin-off titles.
Sora then continues to run and leaps off the building wall similar to the Flowmotion mechanic first shown in Kingdom Hearts 3D. While still in the air, Sora lands onto the Heartless swarm and gathers them all in a cyclone. He then launches his attack on the swarm, signalling the end of the trailer.
When will it release?
To be honest, I don't think even Tetsuya Nomura knows when Kingdom Hearts 3 will release.
At the moment Nomura continues to work on Final Fantasy 15 alongside Kingdom Hearts 3. Square Enix first announced Final Fantasy Versus 13 (now Final Fantasy 15) back in 2006. Assuming that both Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix don't want to see the development time on FF15 reach Duke Nukem Forever levels, expect to see FF15 release first.
So when will we see Final Fantasy 15? You can most likely expect sometime in 2014 considering the development time and the greater amounts of gameplay shown at E3.
That leaves Kingdom Hearts 3 in a weird place. Square Enix will only release about 1 major title per year to ensure that each fiscal year will see profits. In 2013 Tomb Raider represented that major titled. Even with over 3 million copies sold, the profits did not exceed production costs and advertising expenses.
To remain optimistic, you can probably expect to see Kingdom Hearts 3 release in the spring of 2015 – a similar launch date to Tomb Raider. And that's being optimistic.
Wallpapers
You can also download Kingdom Hearts 3 wallpapers from this page here.
