Kingdom Hearts III quick overview

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.