One of Square Enix's biggest reveals during Sony's 2013 E3 press briefing alongside Final Fantasy 14 (formerly Final Fantasy Versus XIII) was Kingdom Hearts 3.
The trailer displayed an next-gen iteration of main protagonist Sora with some small info but mega popular Japanese publication Famitsu ( with translation from Polygon spoke with director Tetsuya Nomura who revealed new Kingdom Hearts 3 details.
Story wise, Nomura said that Kingdom Hearts 3's story will begin where Nintendo 3DS exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (released last year) concludes.
"It's the final episode in the 'Dark Seeker' saga that ban with the original KH and it'll depict the final battle with Xehanort," said Nomura.
Considering that Kingdom Hearts 3 is set to be the series first new home console release since 2006's Playstation 2 exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3, special care has been given to make the game appealing for next-gen according to Nomura.
"We spent a while figuring out what direction to take KH's visuals in the next generation," Nomura said. "Should we go for a more realistic look like in recent projects or try something else? Along the way, we remembered that these KH characters were originally paintbrush art from Disney productions, a texture that was one of our original aims, and that it was time to return to that."
According to Nomura, the visual style has been called the "Kingdom Shader" by the team and is a rich evolution of every game in the series.
Gameplay is set to match the new visuals by making battles more grand, improving AI and implementing new features.
"KH3 has three-person parties, but NPCs[Non Playable Characters] and other characters join the fight in each individual world, and the resulting action is really flashy and exciting," explained Nomura. "The enemy AI is a lot more intricate, too, and I think the gameplay will reflect that new dynamic balance. For example, there's a foe that's shaped like a vehicle and Sora may jump on it and fly around; that's already implemented."
Though Kingdom Hearts 3 doesn't have a release date, it is set to come to both Sony and Microsoft's next-gen consoles.
Playstation 3 owners can get their Kingdom Hearts kick as Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix is set to come to the console in North America Sept. 10. According to an article in the Examiner, the revamp of the first game in the series will include an Easter Egg regarding its next-gen sequel.
