The "Kingdom Hearts" series is now the new unicorn of Square Enix, it seems. Gamers expecting to get "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" just to finally get a handle of the "Kingdom Hearts 3" experience will be disappointed to find out that the prolog game is going to be delayed yet again.
In an exclusive interview with KH13.com, the legendary Square Enix game director has pretty much admitted that "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" is going to be on the sidelines for a little while longer. But, it is only moved to January 2017 from the original December 2016 target release date.
He claims that this is because Square Enix has been busying itself with hyping and releasing its other, more popular titles, such as "Final Fantasy 15." This, too, had been delayed to later date in the holiday season after an initial November target release.
Nomura did leave fans with more to chew on, however. While "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" is going to release later, he left clues about the nature of "Kingdom Hearts 3." He said that the cover art for "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix," "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix," and "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" all hint toward what's going to happen to Sora in the official third installment of the game. The clue he pointed to was the state of the skies in the cover art, all leading toward dawn breaking.
What could this possibly mean? For one thing, it might mean that Sora will be tapping into his complete full potential in "Kingdom Hearts 3," and his story arc in "Kingdom Hearts 2.8" will be leading up to that. Nomura has also said that Sora can change the kind of Keyblade he's wielding to switch up the action in the game.
"Kingdom Hearts 2.8," a PlayStation 4 exclusive, is set for an early release in Japan on January 12, 2017, as the country gets Square Enix games earlier than everyone else. The U.S. and Europe will get it on January 28. "Kingdom Hearts 3" is set for an April 2017 release, at least, hopefully not before it loses its hype, as Gamenguide speculated.