Kingdom Hearts III

[Tashasaurous]

Square Enix have published a new Kingdom Hearts page on their Japanese website containing the series recap videos Nomura recently mentioned in interviews.

They are not several hours long as he had previously joked, however. There are 5 short recap videos (3-5 minutes each) focusing on different topics of the Kingdom Hearts story. Although, these are not summaries of each individual game in the series. Rather, they seem to be specific elements of the story that are relevant to Kingdom Hearts 3. For example, there is no attempt to recount Kingdom Hearts 2, Coded, or Chi. These are the absolute simplest bullet-points you can get for the story leading to Kingdom Hearts 3.

These videos will be included with Kingdom Hearts 3 and English versions are being worked on as well.

This kind of sounds more like a written summary recap of the previous games as shown in Dream Drop Distance, only in movie form. Makes sense to those who don't want to go through all the trouble of having to play all of the previous games.

Hard scenes to watch... I really hope the organization doesn't die

I still wonder if somehow the universe will start over, but without Xehanort. Or something along those lines. Eh that probably doesn't make sense but it wouldn't surprise me

(or maybe Mickey's pants will get eaten this time )

The only ones I hope will be gone for good are Xehanort and Xigbar. Everyone else on both sides must stay alive, or we'll all go nuts.

Which reminds me, given that Even/Vexen's voice actor isn't returning for KH3, and that Even and Dilan were unstable during Dream Drop Distance, I'm wondering if that isn't the result of both of them being half-Xehanort's themselves and they'll be part of the new Organization XIII.

The only way for the entire universe to restart without Xehanort is to kill his past-self(Young Xehanort) which would change history completely. That is something I seriously don't want to happen either.

 

[JechtShotMK9]

Minor pet peeve about BBS and 3D being called "spinoffs." They're spinoffs in the same way that Empire Strikes Back is a spinoff to A New Hope.

That is, if you skip it, you won't have a clue what the fuck is happening in Return of the Jedi. The handheld KH games aren't optional side content, they are essential, main stories in the series. KHIII will be totally incomprehensible to someone who hasn't played BBS, 3D, and, by the looks of it, CoM.

They're not numbered. Therefore, spinoffs. For your Star Wars comparison - Rogue One.

Jurassic World is not numbered, yet it isn't a spinoff. Neither is the new God of War, the new Dissidia, any of the new Tomb Raiders, Bioshock Infinite, Arkham City/Origins/Knight, Lightning Returns, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, etc., etc., etc., and those are just the things I have on my PS4 dashboard. Star Wars is a complete story without Rogue One. It is not without Empire, Clones, Sith, etc. KH is not a complete story without BBS, CoM, DDD. If you take any of them out, the story doesn't work. I'm willing to concede on Coded and maybe Days, depending on what they do with Xion. But BBS, DDD, and CoM are main series titles, and have always been considered such.

 

[ForceStealer]

I mean...I would argue all of the other Jurassic movies are spinoffs, lol. And Lightning Returns has almost nothing to do with XIII. It's basically a new IP they were too cowardly/lazy/cash-strapped to slap new characters in.

But fine, I'll concede. "Always considered as such" by the KH fanbase perhaps. But to the wider/more casual audience, the non-numbered entries that came out on a bunch of other little handheld platforms (<this is probably the more salient point than the numbers) are usually regarded as spinoffs.

 

[JechtShotMK9]

I mean...I would argue all of the other Jurassic movies are spinoffs, lol. And Lightning Returns has almost nothing to do with XIII. It's basically a new IP they were too cowardly/lazy/cash-strapped to slap new characters in.

But fine, I'll concede. "Always considered as such" by the KH fanbase perhaps. But to the wider/more casual audience, the non-numbered entries that came out on a bunch of other little handheld platforms (<this is probably the more salient point than the numbers) are usually regarded as spinoffs.

Well, I put more importance on what Nomura says than the casual fan,

"Nomura: Birth by Sleep will be a very important game that collects everything about the series into one story. With the three main characters, the story is as big as one of the numbered Final Fantasies. We put in a lot of connections to it in Days, and I think that a lot of questions and unknowns from the previous game will be answered in Birth by Sleep. Also, there will be quite a few original characters from previous making an appearance."

"Nomura: Who knows? I already have ideas for the next installment. But since Birth by Sleep isn't even out yet, I don't have to think about it until awhile from now. Recently everyone kepts asking me when I'm planning on coming out with KH3. Even though I'm currently busy with Final Fantasy versus XIII, I'm also thinking that it's almost time to start thinking about it seriously. Though it's entirely possible that the next game in the series won't be KH3.

-- So what will it be?

Nomura: I can't say that quite yet, but it will be more "offical" than a side story. I actually told the producer this recently, and he said "...what?" It's the mystery KH. (laugh) Of course, I am also thinking about KH3."

The second one ended up referring to DDD.

https://www.khinsider.com/news/Ultimania-Interview-886


Not to belabor the point, I just happened to find that as you replied.

 

[Tashasaurous]

Well, just because certain titles of certain franchises don't have the sequel numbers doesn't necessarily mean they're all not sequels at all.

Pirates of the Caribbean is the good example and the only time they do have numbers is if you look on the side of the DVD/Bluray case, but neither of the later films are spin-offs.

Plus the other un-numbered games of KH are what I call them Side-Stories within the same Universe that are strongly connected to the Main-Stories.

While on the subject, if KH4 is to come out with Sora in it, do you guys think they'll release it for the first game's 20th Anniversary in 2022 which is in four years time?

 

[Tashasaurous]

I'm really sorry for my behavior, guys. I'm really am. I'll try and do better next time, and if I forget, you can tell me.


Edit: 25/6/2018-Not to get everyone's hopes up, but there's another rumor that KH3 could make another appearence at next month's Japan Expo event with new trailers.

Click here to view the article

Though to be fair, since it is from an Italian Press Magazine, so I'm not sure if this is true, and I'm not expecting anything until September since we saw alot already.

Multiplayer.it, an Italian press magazine about videogames, had the chance to interview Tetsuya Nomura,

Just thought I'd share this new/recycled info.

 

[Tetsujin]

Here's the full version of Chikai btw:

 

[looneymoon]

Here's the full version of Chikai btw:

i only stan legends

 

[ForceStealer]

It's no Passion/Sanctuary, but good

 

[Tetsujin]

I wonder if we'll also get a remix+orchestral version again.

 

[Tashasaurous]

I think there will be. Simple and Clean/Hikari and Santuary/Passion both had remix+orchestral versions of their songs, I don't see why Don't Think Twice/Chikai won't have the same.

Edit: By the way, and I know none of you are going to like me for it, but here's part of another interview with Nomura that came up yesterday.

Kingdom Hearts 3 finally brings the Dark Seeker Saga to a close after more than 15 years. Tell me what it means to you to finally finish this story. Are you happy? Are you a little sad that it's finally coming to an end?


Nomura: Yes. It does come to an end, but I'm not fully swayed to one emotion. I'm not really happy, I'm not really sad. Although I do feel a little sad when I think some characters will probably never appear ever again. Once I think about that, it makes me a little sad. But other than that I'm just more relieved that I was able to tell the full story.

Here's the link to the full interview from USgamer.net, which pretty much repeats the previous interviews.
Click here to view the article

Well, everyone knows that Xehanort and most of his incarnations are history after KH3. But yeah, you know.

 

[Tashasaurous]

I've been meaning to speak about this for a while but I keep forgetting. A lot of people think that the place where Kairi and Lea are both training at is a new world which, given Nomura's interviews, is a place where you can't visit and it's a new world or Daybreak Town.

However, I have an idea that makes more sense on where they're actually at.

Remember the place that Lea was sent to during Dream Drop Distance where Time runs differently compared to the Realm of Light in order to train how to wield his Keyblade before he went to the Realm of Sleep to rescue Sora?

What if that gorgeus forest-like sunset place he and Kairi are in as seen in the recent trailers is in fact their training ground Realm where Time runs slower/quicker than in the Realm of Light? Given how it's only accessible via magic through Yen Sid, Merlin and the Three Good Faries, it makes sense to me.

Edit: 28th July-Just had a thought on who the final three members of Xehanort's new Organization XIII could be and I thought up of the possible candidates.

Spoiler

The members we have so far are:
Master Xehahort.
Young Xehanort.
Ansem the Seeker of Darkness.
Xemnas.
Xigbar.
Saix.
Marluxia.
Larxene.
Luxord.
Vanitas.

Now, none of us know who the other three are yet, but here's who I think, some I hope doesn't come to pass but could very well be likely...except Riku.

Possible candidates:
Sora(Hope not but he's a target, so it's likely)
Lea/Axel(Again, hope not but he could have been hit given what happened in DDD, so again, it's likely).
Even(Due to him being

Spoiler: (DDD Spoilers)

unstable upon being restored in DDD

Dilan(Same as Even)
Roxas(Like Sora and Lea, hope not)
Xion(same as Sora, Lea and Roxas)
Ventus(Hope not but very likely)
Aqua(Despite the trailers, none of us are still 100% certain)
Terra(His current status is still unknown).

That's my list of the final three Seekers of Darkness: AKA-the unwilling victums to become Xehanort's puppets, clones, vessels and all that-for the time being.

 

[Lulcielid]

Kingdom Hearts III to have approximately 80+ hours of playable content, including 40-50 hours in main story gameplay.

 

[Kingdom Hearts530]

Kingdom Hearts III to have approximately 80+ hours of playable content, including 40-50 hours in main story gameplay.

AHHHHHHHH

I'm going to be hermitting until I finish KH3, School, work, and organizations, BE DAMNED. I am so hyped for this game, that I'm almost worried I'm *too* hyped.

 

[Tashasaurous]

IGN just released another interview with Nomura who speaks about who is favorite character is, and apparently he's thinking of adding a

Spoiler

Mary Poppins world into KH3.

Click here to view the article

 

[Ryuman]

It seemed like he wanted to, but couldn't figure out an appropriate way, so he wants to use it in a future title.

 

[Animexcel]

 

[Tashasaurous]

I saw this video on Youtube Search two weekends ago, but I never watched it until now. Heart-breaking and, while I'm seriously convinced it's fake, this is what I imagine how Sora will react to

Spoiler: (Possible Ending spoilers)

Kairi's death since I also have a feeling that she will most likely die in KH3 ending, and that is hard to accept-not to mention difficult to accept the very likely deaths of Lea, Roxas, Xion, Namine, Terra, Ven, Aqua, Riku and Sora, because I still doubt Disney would ever allow Mickey, Donald and Goofy to permemantly die and if they did die, the trio would be brought back to life.

That's what I think will happen, anyway.

Spoiler: (Legend of the Three Caballeros spoilers)

I know, because in the recent new Disney tv series of the Three Caballeros, Donald and two his friends died and ended up in the Underworld and remained dead for an entire episode before bring brought back to life.

 

[Tashasaurous]

Can you quote where you're getting all this from ? because I have seen zero confirmed information relating to main character deaths.

As I said, "That's what I think will happen" because I'm not completely right, but it's just a gut feeling that I have. Plus, we have yet to see more trailers next month and since the game is the darkest of all Kingdom Hearts games so far, not to mention on what we've seen happened to Aqua, what else could be more hard to accept than our favorites ending up dead?

And if you're wondering about the Legend of the Three Caballeros TV series, it's been aired in the Phillipines with English voice cast and all 13 episodes had been posted onto Youtube for a while before they were taken down and I managed to watch them beforehand. You can also find info on that on Wikipedia and whatnot.

 

[Roger]

The death of some is a possibility but the death of nearly all original character I do not consider likely. Most characters that have died thus far were brought back cause it is exceedingly difficult to truly die in this universe.

 

[Tashasaurous]

I'm not so fussed about a non kh related series, my main query was how your establishing links between TV and the game when I haven't seen a single reference by the game creators that a death is on the horizon. I get that the series is meant to be darker but I honestly don't see death to be the main cause of the darkness in this game.

I did say possible spoilers in the Spoiler link because it's just in case they do comfirm that's how the ending would go or something similar. Plus, as much as I want KH3 to have a happy ending, I've lost much hope for that, especially since Nomura mentioned in his earlier interviews that he sees Sora like his own enemy now and that he relates to Xehanort's group more than Sora's group and despite what he said years ago back in 2013-in Polygon interview-that Sora would always be the main protagonist through the entire franchise, he can easily change his mind on that and kill off the main heroes if he hasn't already.

Back in 2009, he mentioned that the team who worked on Advent Children Complete would take a break before making more titles for the FFVII Compilation, yet that was never the truth and he had been completely silent about that up until the beginning of 2017 when he says at the last minute that Crisis Core was the true last title of the Compilation and that they didn't want to make more because of money.

Everything Nomura says is back-to-front and after years of silence and now him making several uncomfortable hints of the gang's future, my guts says that KH3 is more the end of Sora than the end of Xehanort. Same with Kairi, and I also have a feeling that since he was kicked out of the development of FFXV when he was director and that it was supposed to be the darkest Final Fantasy game in history, he's decided to use that deadly darkness for KH3 instead.

 

[Alex Strife]

I've lost count on how many times I opened this thread thinking something happened because there's new messages, only to find Tash's perennial "everyone's going to die" concerns...

 

[JechtShotMK9]

Nomura's janitor's son's best friend's roommate's cat's former owner told me that Riku is gonna sacrifice Kairi to Malificent to get his dark powers back so that he can save what's left of Sora's heart from Xehanort after Ven literally rips his way out of Sora.

 

[looneymoon]

If Tash was a KH summon she'd be Chicken Little

 

[Tashasaurous]

Ha, ha. Very funny. If I were a KH summon, I'd rather be Genie.