Yes, Kingdom Hearts fans and potential fans, KH3’s gameplay trailer has officially been released! Even in my adult years, this big kid has been waiting patiently for this game for 9 YEARS.
I’ve been waiting for this game for too long. We all have. And now, finally, Tetsuya Nomura has caved and teased us with an official, mouth-watering trailer.
It has been a while since the developers at Square-Enix gave us some footage or updates on the development. Finally, they have showed us what they have sharpened up on at E3 2015. I also hear there will be more gameplay trailers November 2015. So excited!
I just want to go over the things I noticed in this trailer with fellow readers and Kingdom Hearts fans.
1) The visuals-Despite doubters of the Unreal Engine 4, it has translated extremely well to Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts’s visuals have obviously improved over the years (I mean, 2002’s game and console had the best programming and technology for its time, but come on…). Most modern games that are based off of old-time games have a hard time appearing like an upgrade. But Kingdom Hearts managed to appear like an upgrade, and get this, without taking away the feeling of Kingdom Hearts.
Doubters of the Unreal Engine 4, including Nomura himself (one of the lead developers of the series), didn’t think that Kingdom Hearts could work with the new software. They were afraid it wouldn’t keep its feeling. Surprise! It did.
And that command list, though! It’s so not in the way like previous command lists.
The developers wanted the game to feel like a Disney movie, and it really shows. It really carries the same Disney magic and imagination. Yet, this looks like a game even a macho person would want to play.
2) Characters Present-We obviously know that Sora is returning as the lead character, along with Donald and Goofy. But we also see a younger Master Eraqus and a young Master Xehanort before they were masters themselves. They obviously know something about the future and it has to do with the darkness taking over. If you have played Kingdom Hearts X Chi, you might understand what they are talking about. If you haven’t, you may be in for a surprise or rude awakening, however you may see it.
We see that Eraqus wants to change the future predicted by the Foretellers. If you don’t know who they are, you might want to play KHX….
3) Worlds Present-So far, it’s already pretty confirmed that Hercules’s world is going to be in the game. This time, we’re visiting Mount Olympus.
Tangled’s world has been confirmed to be one of the worlds that will also be in Kingdom Hearts 3.
We are also returning to Twilight Town…
I just want to point out that the landscape and free playing field has always been the gem of the Kingdom Hearts series. That gem was highlighted in this trailer.
4) Gameplay-Now here comes the juicy part. The gameplay definitely looks interesting. Flowmotion (from KH Dream Drop Distance) looks like it has made a comeback. Bravo! But there are also some interesting commands and surprises that have improved the gaming experience in small, yet tremendous ways.
For starters, we have many moves that activate Disney World theme park rides. While fighting Rock Titan from Hercules, Sora activates some roller coaster. In Twilight Town, he’s seen fighting in what resembles the Tea Cup ride. And they didn’t make it look boring and cheesy. Just like they did with Mickey Mouse for Kingdom Hearts II, they made it look pretty darn epic.
In the world that seems to resemble Tangled, a boat ride is activated from the water, so perhaps many of these moves are activated according to the environment. Then again, a chariot was activated in Twilight Town…so…maybe we can use them anywhere. It’s pretty epic, I have to say.
Sora has come out as a true blue master in this trailer. He’s not holding back. He’s gotten good with his fighting techniques and he’s not afraid to flaunt it.
And since they never could improve on their crappy camera angles, it appears they found a better use for it: dizzying us with epic fighting techniques!
One thing I can say about this trailer is that the series has actually shown evolution through this one game. Through this one game, Kingdom Hearts has shown tremendous improvement and has reflected the hard work of all designers and developers. Despite the length of time it took, I have no doubts that the game won’t disappoint.
Of course, this is the hype of the trailer. I can’t wait to see the real thing.
5) Kingdom Hearts X Chi-Yes, everyone. KHX Chi is coming to mobile phone devices. So, if you haven’t played this game yet, I advise you do. Sure, you may have heard Nomura say that it’s not important to play if you want to progress to the next game. But ya’ll should know by now that Nomura is on some bull crap. Remember how Chain of Memories was not supposed to be so “important”? Or Kingdom Hearts Coded? Or Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days? Remember how Birth By Sleep was only supposed to be a side story? All of you unfortunate people who didn’t get those games were lost when the next major console game was released and will be lost when KH III is released. I realized early on how important each Kingdom Hearts game is to the entire story. X Chi is no exception.
Though you’re only playing a made-up keyblade wielder, there is information throughout the game that tells us more about KH3 and the keyblade wars. So don’t you think for a second that you can just skip out on this game. You will be missing out on something.
Leave me a comment and let me know what you gathered from the Kingdom Hearts trailer and the confirmation of KH Chi!
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