Here’s Everything We Know About ‘Kingdom Hearts III’

Here’s Everything We Know About Kingdom Hearts III

In 2002, Disney and Square Enix introduced us to Sora and the world of Kingdom Hearts. In 2005, a sequel was released, pulling us back into the magical world the two companies had created. The third core game was announced years ago, but it’s essentially been crickets since then. Occasionally, a trailer would drop, and fans would hope that it was finally the year in which Kingdom Hearts III would come out. It eventually became a running joke that the game would never come out. This year, Square Enix pulled out all the stops. June brought a whole slew of news for the highly-anticipated release, including the long-elusive release date.

Here’s everything we’ve learned over the years about the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III.

1. A Release Date

Yes, it finally happened. Despite “Coming 2018” appearing on trailers released last year, Kingdom Hearts III will drop January 25, 2019. A lot of fans were skeptical that it would happen in 2018, and I still know people who are hesitant to believe that we have an official date. A demo of the game was played before and during E3, and apparently the biggest fault was the fighting system. It was deemed “too floaty.” The Flow System from Dream Drop Distance is carrying over into III, and this could be what makes the fighting a bit hard to control. If the developers want to take the time to fix this and make the game as near perfect as they can, I will gladly accept that it needs to be pushed back into 2019. I was honestly expecting it to drop December 31, 2018 so they would have the most possible time to work on it.

2. The Worlds

Worlds from such movies as Big Hero 6, Hercules, Tangled, Toy Story, and Monsters Inc. have been confirmed over the years, with the press conference at E3 revealing two more. III will take us to Arendelle (Frozen) when Elsa first loses control of her icy powers. The trailer shows Sora having a conversation with Organization XIII member Larxene about the darkness within Elsa. Another trailer featured the return of Pirates of the Caribbean, and if I had one criticism from Kingdom Hearts II, it was how bad the Pirates world looked. The cartoon-y and real life aspects did not mix well. III redeems this and I am so excited to be going back. Pirate Sora is all I needed in my life.

3. Character Links

Sora frequently teams up with Disney characters who’s worlds have been lost to the Heartless threat. So far, we’ve seen clips of Sora linking with Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Simba from The Lion King, and Ralph from Wreck-it Ralph. There is also a short clip of Sora cooking with Remy from Ratatouille, which I thought might be a summon/link, but may actually just be a mini-game. Regardless, III seems like it’s going to pack in as many characters from Disney and Pixar as it can, which is totally fine with me.

4. Keyblade Transformations

For the first time, Sora’s keyblade will take on different forms. It can become a hammer, twin yo-yos, or two small crossbows, for example. In the gameplay trailer featuring Olympus, Sora wields a keyblade and a shield. I am interested to see how this is going to work and opens up a whole lot of new skill sets and moves.

5. Everyone is Coming Together

There are a lot of Kingdom Hearts games, and for the first time, it looks like all of them are going to come together. Organization XIII members have been popping up in the trailers. There’s also a shot in one of the trailers of Riku sitting on the Destiny Island beach with his younger, and more evil, self. Kingdom Hearts III is said to conclude events set up by Birth by Sleep and one trailer features the return of Aqua, who willingly entered the darkness in order to save Terra. Fans were shocked to see that she has lost the battle to the dark, becoming a new vessel for Xehanort. I’m really excited to see how the series is going to wrap up the story of Aqua, Terra, and Ventus because Birth by Sleep is my favorite game.

The anticipation has never been greater, and I can’t believe that we are about half a year away from the release. It’s been 13 years since Kingdom Hearts II was released, but I think the wait will be well worth it. From what we’ve seen, it looks like it’s going to be an amazing game.