There’s an overwhelming reaction to the Kingdom Hearts III preview at the moment. Fans have tried the demo of the long-anticipated game and are gushing at how incredible it is.
The Disney and Square Enix crossover’s preview embargo lifts with all-round positivity. Here’s what we know:
The Kingdom Hearts III demo consists of two sections. The first is on Mount Olympus, where Sora, Goofy, and Donald face off against Titan from Hercules. Over here, the game introduces us to a new mechanic to Kingdom Hearts III called autorunning. Whenever Sora comes across obstacles such as ledges or footholes, he automatically circumvents them. In this case, the game also allows Sora to freely climb any vertical walls sporting a white glow.
In the Titan fight itself, Sora and friends climb and fight their way up to the summit as Titan drops boulders from the sky. It’s a spectacular scenario, but there’s more. After Sora reaches the top and gets a few good hits in on Titan’s head, he then summons Big Magic Mountain. This attack is called an Attraction, which looks exactly as the name implies. The screen explodes with colour as a train, based off Disneyland’s own real-life Big Thunder Mountain roller-coaster ride, magically appears to assist in the fight.
The next section of the demo takes place in the Toy Story world. It starts off in Andy’s Room where Sora runs into Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Rex, and Hamm. Andy’s Room is also faithfully recreated to detail, and players can even have fun with various interactables within the room. This seems all fine and dandy, but then, the game lets you go outside. The world is vast, and Unreal Engine 4’s technology helps make it look stunning in the process.
Sora’s Keyblade returns, with new forms based around Disney’s 3D film properties. These include Monster Inc’s Twin Yo-Yos, Tangled’s Mirage Staff, and Toy-Story’s Hyper Hammer. The Twin Yo-Yos can chomp down on enemies while the Mirage Staff shoots out beams of light. These forms run on cooldowns and timers, each with their own specialised finisher attacks.
When the heroes reach the Galaxy Toys store, the game introduces another mechanic. Enter Gigas, miniature mechs with a wide range of abilities. As Sora dives into one of these mechs, the game changes from a third-person game to a first-person shooter. You can shoot, jump, and also punch and tackle in one of these things.
Apart from that, Sora also has access to Links. These are Kingdom Hearts III’s equivalent of Final Fantasy’s Summons. With this, Sora brings forth memorable Disney characters to perform an ultimate attack on surrounding enemies. Some examples of Links include Wreck-it Ralph’s Ralph, and Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Ralph even has a special ability to place down blocks and destroy them in a shockwave with his finisher.
While this surge of news doesn’t come with a release date, game director Tetsuya Nomura promises to reveal one in June. This may happen at E3 2018 during Square Enix’s livestream. If so, 12th June will be a date to look forward to.
Kingdom Hearts III is set to release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018.
(Source: Polygon)
