This. This, this, a million times this. This is no doubt what people are waiting for. After announcing Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX yesterday, which was frankly just a tease, Disney finally shared a decent look at Kingdom Hearts III at the D23 Expo in Japan, and the new gameplay video has made its way online.
The gameplay looks like the same sort of hack n' slash gameplay we've seen, but it looks absolutely stunning running on the next-gen hardware, even more so than the HD revamps the company's been working so hard on churning out lately.
There's not much new information, but there is a nice look at the new summons, which are now filled by Disney rides and attractions. It's been a long time since I've visited the most magical place in the world, so I could be mistaken, but I believe that the ship doing the loop the loops is the Sailing Ship Columbia from Disneyland (labeled as a simple Pirate Ship), and later, the Disneyland Railroad (known in game as Big Magic Mountain). If one of the summons is the Small World boat ride, so help me God...
Both are completely decked out with bright lights making them look like something straight out of a Christmas acid trip. See for yourself, below.
Story wise, the game's Director, Tetsuya Nomura, said that Kingdom Hearts III's story will begin where Nintendo 3DS exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance concludes. Cinematics from 3D will be included in the recently announced Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, so players can get up to speed.
"It's the final episode in the 'Dark Seeker' saga that ban with the original KHand 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.
This will be the first game in the Kingdom Hearts series to hit a Microsoft system. It's next-gen exclusive, so if you hope to play the game that concludes the saga, better make sure you grab an Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
Currently in development, an official release date has not yet been given.
