Kingdom Hearts III

[ForceStealer]

Hm, I guess so.

It's Dream Zanarkand all over again

Oh come on, Rikku was in it for, maybe 20 seconds total?

 

[Marcus]

IT WAS 20 SECONDS OF HER BEING COMPLETELY RUINED!

she was a fucking fairy, for crying out loud. A FAIRY!

 

[ForceStealer]

I always thought she was kind of annoying to begin with, so I'm probably not the best person to commiserate with

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Rikku's always been one of my top favorite FF females/characters in general, so I can empathize.

Her X-2 representation was a step down from the original anyway, though.

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah, I did mean more in X-2, I should clarify, but that was the likeness that was in KH2.

But the resident bubbly anime chick rarely is among my favorites

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Even her X-2 presentation was better than that poor man's Rikku in XII, though.

 

[Marcus]

I always thought she was kind of annoying to begin with, so I'm probably not the best person to commiserate with

We can no longer be friends

Rikku's always been one of my top favorite FF females/characters in general, so I can empathize.

Her X-2 representation was a step down from the original anyway, though.

Just this scene xD haha but it's also because thieves are my favorite class in RPGs

 

[Tetsujin]

http://www.khinsider.com/news/KINGDOM-HEARTS-III-In-7-4-Famitsu-Weekly-3336

・Director: Tetsuya Nomura
・Co Director: Tai Yasue
・Composer: Yoko Shimomura
・Producer: Rie Nishi

・In the story, Sora goes off to find a “key that returns hearts” and travels to various Disney worlds.
・The CG characters that were introduced are: Sora, Donald, and Goofy.



Q & A from Director Tetsuya Nomura

・It is a direct continuation from KINGDOM HEARTS 3D and the selection of new worlds is underway. It is the final battle between Master Xehanort in the last chapter of the Seeker of Darkness saga.

・Other than Sora, will we be able to play as Riku and Kairi?: I can’t say no to the possibility.

・Visuals: We continued to explore on how should a next generation KINGDOM HEARTS should look like and we tried to make the textures to closely resemble those of Disney illustrations. From there, it was updated.

・From numerous attempts by Mr. Nozue, the “KINGDOM SHADER” developed visuals that created those textures.

・Action: In the demo, the moments were a lot more rampant. There will be more adventurous experiences, KINGDOM HEARTS III will utilize three party members, in every world NPCs can also participate in these flashy battles. As one progresses, the AI for friends and foes become different.

・Sora learned the Keyblade’s truer strength during the Mark of Mastery Exam.

・The development team of FINAL FANTASY XV and KINGDOM HEARTS III have a friendly competition between each other. There is also a response to a sneak preview, online compatibility is being considered and please wait for more information in the future. This year, TGS in September and also D23 Expo Japan will be revealing more information.

 

[Sprites]

So I guess there's a real Vivi and maybe the Nobody in the digital town just "corrupted" the data of the digital Vivi?

I'd hazard a guess that it was Axel who did that, considering he was able to actually get into the digitalized version of Twilight Town without anyone initially realising in the first place.

IT WAS 20 SECONDS OF HER BEING COMPLETELY RUINED!

she was a fucking fairy, for crying out loud. A FAIRY!

AND they were bloody working for Maleficent to begin with, I mean honestly that was complete WTFuckery, so not only do the Gullwings get a cameo as fairies, they're also initially on the side of evil...them of all people???

Other than Sora, will we be able to play as Riku and Kairi?: I can’t say no to the possibility

This is excellent news to me, I know it's still very early days but the fact that playability is not going to be limited to JUST Sora makes me happy, I know that Riku got a look in during 3D and CoM but it's about time Kairi got in there properly too.

Spoiler: 3D spoilers

It wouldn't surprise me if they use Kairi as a training mode aspect on the basic battle system to begin with anyways like they always have in the beginning of the KH games due to her only technically being a beginner when it comes to the keyblade and the fact that at the end of 3D it was heavily implied Yen Sid was going to train her and Axel/Lea means it would be ideal to use her or even him as a guideline for new players and the new battle system, Sora and Riku don't exactly need training and I'm going to hazard a guess that Sora has passed his Mark of Mastery the second time round by the beginning of KH3.

Seeing as Nomura has also now said he thinks they announced it too early and the primary focus is probably XV right now I'll make a guess that KH3 won't be released sometime until near the end of 2015.

 

[Alex Strife]

Reasonably speaking, Kairi should be getting her "Destati" in KH3, I agree with you.

I want to believe near the end of 2015 is too late, and that we'll be seeing it during the first half of 2015. Wishful thinking!!

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

My money's on 2016.

 

[Makoeyes987]

No, you can go to the real one and there's a Vivi there. So I guess there's a real Vivi and maybe the Nobody in the digital town just "corrupted" the data of the digital Vivi?

There's a real Vivi who lives in Twilight Town. Sora met him when he finally arrived to Twilight Town.

The Nobody invaded the data simulation of Twilight Town Roxas was trapped in, and possessed the Vivi in order to get close to Roxas.

 

[Jarlix]

I think Birth by Sleep should have been KH3. Bump that shit up to HD and seamlessly entwine the smaller bits of the locations and viola, amazing game. Those protagonists were cooler. Come at me bro.

 

[Sprites]

I think Birth by Sleep should have been KH3. Bump that shit up to HD and seamlessly entwine the smaller bits of the locations and viola, amazing game. Those protagonists were cooler. Come at me bro.

Actually I don't think it works as KH3 at all.

Why it wasn't released for console I'll never understand because with Terra, Aqua and Ven's scenarios all combined plus your final scenarios make it actually a really long game that would translate well to a console rather than the handheld but I they could always re-release for PS3 and do what you suggested but it's not enough to make it KH3 and whether you think the protagonists are cooler, it still doesn’t make it KH3.

Birth By Sleep: You've got a great prequel story here, it sets up the origins of the Heartless, Xehanort, Xemnas and Organisation XIII. It establishes how Sora, Riku and even Kairi end up being able to use a keyblade, how the three of them became intertwined by fate from a very young age, why Riku especially wants to leave their world and explore other ones and why he was the intended Keyblade master as implied in KH1.

Most importantly it establishes what was only ever implied if you'd seen Final Mix scenes from KH1&2 that Sora, Riku and Mickey are not the first people to ever originally wield a keyblade, there were keyblade wielders and a war way before KH1 ever began and we get to meet three of those people that play a very important background role in the KH series which leads me to my point BBS is an excellent prequel, but that’s all it is, a prequel to the bigger picture.

BBS is the platform that sets up everything because it firstly sets up all the origins of KH1, COM AND KH2, that alone makes it a great prequel in my eyes because it answers a lot of my questions about places, people and the KH mythology in those three games.

Then we have COM a short game but effective in setting us up for KH2, gives us background information as to why Riku became the way he did in KH2 and gives us more background for Organisation XIII. If that wasn't enough, 358/2days tells us what Roxas did in the organisation, why Axel was so determined to turn Sora back into a nobody during KH2, why Xion was introduced and finally why Roxas defected before the events of KH2.

Finally you have Coded and 3D tell us what happens after KH2 and sets us up for KH3 which brings me to my second point about BBS being a platform for bigger events, to really understand the events of Coded and 3D you need to play BBS before them.

I know a lot of fans complain about many of the KH games that aren't a main series number are pointless spin off but honestly the more I play them, the more I see why they’re needed to create and set me up for what I really hope is an epic 3rd main series instalment.

If anything the way I recommend people play the KH games to really understand the whole story so far if they've played all the games separately beforehand is like this. First play KH1, then play COM and 358/2 days, then play KH2 ok we’ve now established, Sora’s journey so far.

THEN play BBS, Coded and 3D one after the other. Ok we’ve now established the origins of all the stuff we wanna know about the first 3 KH games released, we now have a rough idea of what’s going on after KH2 and what the hell that ending with the bottle in KH2 was about and because we’ve played BBS we now have an idea about why certain events are happening in Coded and 3D.

You can see how well the story ties together if you play it like that, why none of them have become "number worthy" as a main series title and just how well the events for KH3 are going to be set up, my money is on if you've played every single KH title then KH3 is probably going to be much easier to understand.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

No doubt. Though I still think 358/2 Days was unnecessary. I didn't really feel that Roxas needed more of a reason to leave the Organization than that he's a different Nobody from the others to begin with, and it was clear from that game already how much Roxas meant to Axel.

Coded still seems kind of unnecessary too, but definitely not Birth by Sleep.

In any case, no matter how much sense the set-up for everything before 3D makes or doesn't make, the whole time travel shtick has ruined it.

 

[Sprites]

Actually yeah,I agree with you on that, that was a bit of a wtfuck moment. Also a wtf moment in BBS was Vanitas looking exactly like Sora. I get what they were doing and why they chose to make Ven's dark half look like Sora gone evil but really??? The only reason I surmise that Roxas looks like Ven is because of Ven's heart residing in Sora's, in fact Vanitas is what I imagine Sora's nobody would look like if Ven wasn't there to begin with seeing as almost every other Nobody looks like their counterpart. Namine again is an exception to the rule but she even looks more like Kairi than Roxas does Sora.

 

[Makoeyes987]

The one thing KH 3D has going for it, is its time travel doesn't create any bizarre paradoxes or time loops, thankfully. It's...stable.

The game is fun as hell too.

ALL THE XEHANORTS. ALL OF THEM!

 

[Tetsujin]

In any case, no matter how much sense the set-up for everything before 3D makes or doesn't make, the whole time travel shtick has ruined it.

Seriously, the time travel stuff is just completely nonsensical.

First, there's those time travel rules. You need to leave your body behind in order to do that. Okay. From that we take that you can't do time travel in a physical body.
Except you can then somehow pass on the time travel ability even to people *with* a physical body.
Why even come up with that rule only to immediately reverse it?

And then there's the thing where apparently there's a time limit to time travelling? What?!

Nomura's world operates on I DO WHATEVER I WANT.

People are confused thinking the story got too complex, but it's not that. It's that it literally doesn't make any sense anymore. You will never understand it because Nomura drove the logic train against a brick wall and the took a huge dump on it and set it on fire.

Another thing that just confuses me:
Why the fuck does destroying somebody's Heartless and Nobody restore the original person?! A Nobody is somebody's shell and soul without the heart. You'd think it would make the most sense that if you destroy a Heartless and free that heart, you could restore the person by leading the heart back to the Nobody and rejoining them.
And that destroying the Nobody would permanently prevent you from ever restoring that person because, y'know, the body and soul are gone.

NOPE

Instead, freeing the heart and destroying the person's body means...the body will magically reappear again. Despite being, you know, destroyed. Sense, it makes not.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

^^It's been show that killing heartless with the Kingdom Key sends the released hearts to the fake Kingdom Hearts in TWTNW. And then Ansem destroys that sending all the hearts in it to who-knows-where. I'm thinking that killing Nobodies with the Kingdom Key sends them to the same place as the Hearts in the Heartless...
My headcanon explanation is that while you could put someone's heart back in it's corresponding Nobody, there's just so many hearts and so many Nobodies that the odds are nearly zero. So sticking them all the same "place" increases the odds that they can combine.

 

[Kuja9001]

No doubt. Though I still think 358/2 Days was unnecessary. I didn't really feel that Roxas needed more of a reason to leave the Organization than that he's a different Nobody from the others to begin with, and it was clear from that game already how much Roxas meant to Axel.

Coded still seems kind of unnecessary too, but definitely not Birth by Sleep.

In any case, no matter how much sense the set-up for everything before 3D makes or doesn't make, the whole time travel shtick has ruined it.

Roxas originally left because he wanted to meet Sora(this was confirmed in an interview long ago.) but Days retconned it into leaving because of that "hitch" xion(I hate her a lot).

 

[Tetsujin]

Translated Famitsu interview

~Visuals with a soft feel, and even bolder action

—We were surprised that you would release a KHIII trailer so soon, what with KH 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (hereon KH3D) and KH -1.5 HD ReMIX- still so recent.

Nomura: I know there are many fans who are restless because we have only released spin off titles since KHII, so I decided to announce it along with FFXV. Considering the stage of development, though, I do think perhaps it is a bit early to be announcing it.

—However, it does seem like the visuals already have a solid direction.

Nomura: Among the developers we are calling the visuals the ‘Kingdom Shader’. On original worlds, the characters will go around with that feel to them. Then, to match the style of each Disney World, the Shader will adjust the visuals depending on the world.

---We weren't expecting the soft, illustrated feel as seen in the KH3D movie, rather than a more realistic look.

Nomura: Perhaps the ordinary course of things would be to go with the realism close to the visuals in the movies so far, but then there wouldn't be any surprises, would there? I think the same thing about existing things like cel shading, too.

---How did you come up with these visuals?

Nomura: How should next-gen Kingdom Hearts be... should I go with the realism from recent works, or go with something different? I thought long and hard about several answers. From that, I knew we had to go back to our original goal for the graphics of the Kingdom Hearts characters: evoking the feel of the brush paintings in Disney works. So, I called on (Mr Takeshi) Nozue and we did test after test, and the result of all our investigating is the 'Kingdom Shader'. Because we are skipping a generation of hardware with our numbered titles, Kingdom Hearts II having been released on PS2, perhaps it will seem like we are changing things too radically. However, we are doing our utmost best to take everything you have seen so far and evolve it to be even richer.

—Like FFXV, is KHIII being developed on Luminous Studios?

Nomura: We are currently verifying going with Luminous as our main. Working on an over-spec and porting to both PS4 and Xbox One is also going to be the same. In the trailer we showed, for the battle section we didn't have time to prepare a clip of it working on the actual hardware because of tool issues, so instead we made a concept FMV that depicts what is possible in realtime. That said, the actual thing working in realtime doesn't look much different at all.

---And development is being handled by the Osaka team responsible for KH Birth by Sleep, KH3D and KH -1.5 HD ReMIX-?

Nomura: The base is the Osaka team. With (Mr Tai) Yasue as Co. Director, they are working in conjunction with the Tokyo Kingdom Hearts staff.

---We're interested in how the action in KHIII will have evolved.

Nomura: Right now there’s a demo version that runs on the hardware… and it’s an absolute storm (laughs). It goes even beyond ‘bold action’. In KHIII you will have a three person party, but depending on the world NPCs will also join in fighting. Basically, some very flashy action will unfold. You’ll be flying through the sky flowing through air battles without landing.

---Just with Sora (laughs).

Nomura: I suppose so (laughs). The enemy AI is becoming rather elaborate, and we’d like for coordinated action to flow from enemies and allies alike. For example, there’s a vehicle-type enemy, and we’ve already got Sora being able to ride that enemy all around during battle.

---Even just from watching the Shadows in the trailer moving we certainly can tell that the enemies have evolved. And, on the other side, Sora has gained powers befitting a 'Keyblade Master', hasn't he? Will he be able to transform his Keyblade?

Nomura: In this stage of testing he can transform it. By the way, in the trailer, Sora picks up the Keyblade belonging to Master Eraqus that Aqua had. We put that together in order to remind you of the story of KHIII, as this time we weren't able to prepare a scene that would show you a portion of the drama.

---That means the story begins after the end of KH3D, doesn't it.

Nomura: Yes. We are currently working through the selection of new worlds. As this is the last chapter of the Dark Seeker Chronicles that has been going since KH1, there will be a final showdown with Xehanort.

---If the story continues from KH3D, then is it possible that we will be able to control not only Sora but other characters such as Riku and Kairi?

Nomura: I can't say the possibility is zero.

---We apologise for what might be an overly-specific question, but, what happened to Meow Wow.......

Nomura: ......What indeed (laughs). The last part of KH3D was meant to be tentative foreshadowing.

---So perhaps we can get our hopes up (laughs). Lastly, a message for your fans.

Nomura: FFXV and KHIII are projects that, like great rivals, polish each other up as they develop. At our private conference, despite KHIII being the lucky last and being at an early stage of development, I I already felt the response. For KHIII, developments unseen in the KH series so far involving online elements are under investigation, so please look forward to upcoming news. This year in Japan we will be exhibiting at Tokyo Game Show and at Disney’s D23 Expo Japan event, so I think there will be more information available around those times.

 

[Marcus]

---If the story continues from KH3D, then is it possible that we will be able to control not only Sora but other characters such as Riku and Kairi?

Nomura: I can't say the possibility is zero.

Riku, Kairi and possibly Mickey DLC will probably surface, You know what they're like, Just look at FFXIII-2 with Sazh, Snow and Lightnings story Add-Ons. What's to stop them from doing it to KHIII?

That being said I would purchase the DLC as I would love to play as Kairi and Riku!

 

[Joe]

I'll buy DLC to play as Lea I think.

 

[Tetsujin]

Speaking of Lea, give the man new clothes, I'm really tired of the fucking black coats.

 

[Joe]

Speaking of Lea, give the man new clothes, I'm really tired of the fucking black coats.

Yeah seriously. I actually really liked this outfit for him

Spoiler