On Thursday, various publications like IGN and Gamespot were invited to try out Kingdom Hearts III before anyone else. Journalists went hands-on with Kingdom Hearts III and have written up their impressions from their with the demo.
We have collated a few interesting sentences from their impressions but we highly recommend that you go and read the full impressions (links will be provided to each website)!
Hopefully the full game can make all of these more expansive worlds worth scouring every inch of, but at the very least, battling through them felt great during my time with Kingdom Hearts 3. There’s an engaging variety to the fighting that marries so many of the elements introduced in past entries with new aspects that come together in a familiar but fresh system.
Much like the previous games, Kingdom Hearts III is still a celebration of all things Disney. This also marks the first time that Pixar-themed worlds will be in the game, which includes Monsters Inc. and Toy Story. In the demo, we got to play through portions of the early worlds you'll explore, which recontextualizes the iconic locales of Disney films to fit the space of an action-RPG. As the first Kingdom Hearts game on modern consoles, the next game takes advantage of the new hardware, featuring some impressive visuals. Playing on Xbox One X, performance was mostly solid, save for some dropped frames during some of the hectic combat encounters.
The game’s most grandiose attacks come in the form of Links, Kingdom Hearts 3’s brand of summons. Fans are likely aware of the summon that brings Ariel from The Little Mermaid into the game for a gushing, fountain-like attack, but Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph will also appear as a Link. Sora can summon Ralph, who can then place explosive blocks on the battlefield and, naturally, wreck ’em.
Kingdom Hearts 3's combat is similar to previous main entries, but it's just... more. It's full-on spectacle all the time, with magic, links, attractions and now multiple keyblade transformations to utilise, meaning it's very rarely a case of just mashing X to attack. The biggest change to combat is the keyblade transformations - this was a feature in birth by sleep, where it was something you were able to do if you mastered the usage of a keyblade, and according to Nomura, since Sora has now become more skilled, he's able to use that feature in Kingdom Hearts 3. Different keyblade transformations have different properties - for example the Toy Story-themed keyblade transforms into a hammer, which hits hard, while the Tangled Keyblade transforms into a magical staff which casts spells.
This introduces new strategy to combat, especially since you can switch between keyblades while you're battling, and keep the current level of transformation. The Toy Story blade evolves from a hammer into a drill, and the drill allows you to evade enemies by digging holes in the ground and going around them. The Monsters Inc. keyblade evolves into Agile Claws and then into a Twin Yoyo, so it's fun for moving fast, keeping your distance and dishing out heavy DPS.
Mostly though it's just fun to cycle through the different weapons, creating new combos and trying out the skills available at each level. Between those, Attractions and Links, or summons, it's rare you'll ever not have a special ability available for deployment at any time during longer battles, which definitely helps keep things interesting. The skills and finishers all look very flashy too - our favourite was the Tangled-themed keyblade, which could create a tower attack as a finisher.
True to this goal, the toys on display in Kingdom Hearts III’s idealized toy store are a mix of American and Japanese playthings, from giant robots to kaiju monsters (that’s what the game’s text even calls them in English) to Barbie-like dolls. Look hard enough and you’ll even find a shelf full of Dissidia Final Fantasy NT toys, with statues of famous Final Fantasy summon monsters. In this way, the setting of the toy store isn’t just a good place to have a Toy Story vignette—it’s also a symbol of Kingdom Hearts itself, a mashup of two cultures, the only game series that could pull off a blend of Steamboat Willie and Utada Hikaru.
The first world I dove into was Olympus, based on 1997’s animated Hercules film. The scale of this encounter went far beyond the heights of the Kingdom Hearts I remember, beginning with Sora running straight up a vertical cliff face, dodging and bounding across boulders a gargantuan Rock Titan flung downward at me.
Once I reached the behemoth, I attacked its legs to stagger it before dashing up its body to land a series of direct hits on its head, culminating in an ultimate attack by way of one of the game’s many “Attractions,” impressive attacks based on rides you might find at your favorite theme park (or my favorite one, at least). This Attraction was called “Big Magic Mountain” and it saw Sora and pals careen around the towering Titan aboard a glittering, magical Big Thunder Mountain Railroad-esque train before culminating in a final, incredibly flashy finishing move.
In Kingdom Hearts III, everything is bigger, with more detailed environments and a speedier feel. Think of it as a cross between Dream Drop Distance’s Flowmotion and Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep – aA Fragmentary Passage, where you have to use the world around you to get the jump on enemies alongside comboing your heart out to unleash special attacks. The demo first placed me in a boss battle with a titan at Olympus Coliseum. I quickly notice movement is much more fluid and the increased verticality for this entry really shows. Sora can run up walls in a jiffy, and in one sequence, must consider his speed and placement as the titan throws huge boulders to deter his progress up the wall. That being said, be prepared for the poor camera that’s plagued the series since its inception.
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Controls are familiar to the series and classic RPG fans, with a menu giving the options of attack, magic and items. What's new, however, is the special abilities unlocked by each new Keyblade (the series signature weapon) and unique, incredibly fun new super-powered moves based on popular Disneyland attractions like the teacup ride and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.
Also new is the "Link" abilities which act as character summons for notable Disney stars. The demo featured Ariel from The Little Mermaid who splashed throughout the map damaging enemies and Ralph from Pixar's Wreck-It Ralph who can build towers.
Kingdom Hearts 3 expands upon the Reaction Commands introduced in Kingdom Hearts via Attractions and a whole host of other attacks. Attractions are special attacks that are situational and based on rides from Disney theme parks. The Attraction in the Titan fight is Big Magic Mountain (likely based on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), a mighty flying train that soars around the huge beast and shoots fireworks at it. The Attractions seem regional, but not always related to where you are, so while they're impressive, they don't always fit the situation. The Toy Box world related to Pixar's Toy Story featured Attraction attacks for Pirate Ship (which isn't quite a Disney thing), Shooting Ride, and Splash Run for no particular reason I could figure out.
The time with the game also included the ability to call forth Disney characters using Links. The demo gave us access to Ariel, who could create puddles that blossomed into enemy-killing water fountains and Wreck-It Ralph, who dropped blocks into a level that would then explode.
Nomura said he has wanted to include Pixar movies in “Kingdom Hearts” since the franchise started, and it appears he and his team have taken great care in how they are portrayed in the upcoming game.
A release date for “Kingdom Hearts III” will be announced early next month, which could mean a date may land just before E3 kicks off in June.
We here at KHInsider will have our impressions of Kingdom Hearts III available to read later today.
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