E3 2013 has brought many
fantastic new games to light as well as great technology. With this there have
been many surprise announcements; and two of these games came in the form of
Kingdom Hearts III now in development and Final Fantasy XV; which is the
rebranded Versus XIII.
Today we will be covering Kingdom
Hearts III; this game has been a long time coming in the Kingdom Hearts series;
with the Xehanort Saga spanning seven games already but all linked to bring it
to an epic conclusion. The game is being developed for both Playstation 4 and X-Box One
The story of Kingdom Hearts III
follows on from where the last game Dream Drop Distance finished off. After a
big showdown with the current XII darkness’s; it was learnt that to make the
X-blade there had to be 7 lights and 13 darkness’s and a new Keyblade war was
coming. Mickey points out that he, Sora, Riku, Aqua, Ven and Terra are 6 of the
lights and later we learn that Kairi is the seventh having accidentally performed
the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony was Aqua back in Birth by Sleep.
It is unknown who all the 13 Darknesses are but the ones shown were Xehonort, Young Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, Isa and Braig. The rest remained hooded; this could mean the rest of the organisation that were not shown in DDD are the rest or it is members we do not know yet.
After these events we learnt that
Riku passed the Mark of Mastery exam and is now a Master; Sora failed but is
elated that his best friend could pass it, Lea unlocked the ability to use the
Keyblade and Kairi was brought in to learn how wield it.
It shows that Aqua is still in
the world of Darkness, Terra is still under Xehanort’s control and Ven is still
locked in Castle Oblivion with his heart still inside Sora.
It is also discussed that to get
to Kingdom Hearts; the seven princesses will be needed, so it will be going
back to events that occurred in Kingdom Hearts 1.
The trailer that was released;
did not show a lot, however it originally showed quick events from all the past
games, leading up to Sora picking up the Keyblade that Master Eraqus used on
the beach of Destiny Islands. This Keyblade was last seen in the possession of
Aqua and now it was shown with Sora; so this could mean, someone else planted
the Keyblade; Perhaps Terra? Or the Keyblade found its way to Sora to help him
on his new quest.
The logo is then shown; and
afterwards, it gives a bit of gameplay with Sora running away from a swarm of
Shadow’s in Twilight Town as he jumps off walls and eventually goes to attack
them.
A bit of the story was confirmed
by Square-Enix during press events at E3
‘Both Sora and Riku are
fighting to stop Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts III. The series’
supervillain wants to start a war against the tyranny of light, which Xehanort
believes will restore equilibrium of light and darkness.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy
set out to search for the Seven Guardians of Light and the Key to Return
Hearts. Meanwhile, Riku and Mickey are on a different quest looking for
previous Keyblade wielders.
Square Enix wouldn’t
confirm which worlds will be in Kingdom Hearts, but a representative from
Disney said the game will feature worlds unseen in the franchise. I asked
Shinji Hashimoto if Pixar worlds would be in the game and he said he couldn’t
comment on the topic at this time.’
http://www.siliconera.com/2013/06/12/sora-has-to-search-for-seven-guardians-of-light-in-kingdom-hearts-iii/
With this we now have a good idea of how the story continued
on from Dream Drop Distance; Sora is going out to find the seven lights, so
that’ll likely be the princesses of Heart; one they already have, being Kairi,
so the rest might be missing or Sora is finding them to take back to Yen Sid.
Riku and Mickey’s part was to be expected; Mickey would know
how to open the Door to Darkness and get into that world with him being there
before and they need Aqua to save Ven and they will most likely need both of
them to save Terra. So this will be interesting to see how they plan on
rescuing the old heroes and possibly Master Eraqus in the process; who’s Heart
is still inside Terra’s body.
This could also mean there are separate parts; where you play as Sora and Riku; allowing a greater amount of worlds to be put in.
Now as mentioned above; Square Enix did not mention what
worlds would be in it; but a Disney representative said it will contain new
worlds for the franchise; so it will be exciting to see what they do with that.
As for returning worlds; we could expect quite a few,
Destiny Islands is a given as its the main world of the three main heroes,
Radiant Garden another and even though it was just a quick preview for
development; Twilight Town will most likely appear too as it is one of the main
worlds now. Atlantica has been in both main titles and may appear again as did Olympus Colesium for all the tournaments.
Based on what we know these worlds could and may most
definitely make an appearance
- Agrabah
- Enchanted Dominion
- Castle of Dreams
- Wonderland
- Dwarf Woodland
- Beast’s Castle
These are all the worlds the 6 other princesses of Heart
live on; so it would make sense for them to appear here as well. Some of these
have multiple movies made of them so they can easily continue the story of the
world; such as Aladdin and the King of Thieves.
They could go all out and put all the worlds in as well as new ones; in order to keep the game long if they split it between the two Keyblade Wielders.
It will be interesting to see if they finally add in the Jungle Book world after all this time; with it being cut from practically every KH game made. Two worlds that would be great could be one based off Brave and the other Pocahontis.
Hopefully they will keep a steady stream of information to keep fans alert and happy that the game they have wanted for years is finally on its way.