They showed examples about the Fast Pass and the photo mode.



The first photo mode example was Sora surrounded by the seven puddings
The second was an energetic Master Xehanort
The third a Meow Wow with Sea Salt Ice
The fourth was Ventus and Vanitas



The fast pass example was on Olympus's battle portal, you had to defeat a bunch of heartless in a few seconds.

Between this and what was previously confirmed, this DLC is insane! I really want it now :O

These all sound excellent, thank you for posting them!

This all sounds so incredible, I love KH ;A;

Interesting choices for sure.

Photo mode is obviously an answer to fan outcry of not being able to take selfies with the main cast, lol. And fastpass/blackcode essentially allows players to play the game with built-in restrictions, making things like video challenges a lot easier to set up. Also, this way, no one can ever complain about the difficulty again (provided you have the DLC of course) ?

I wanna see the Ventus and Vanitas one so bad

This has reignited my love for Kingdom Hearts.

In the lead up to KH3, it was all about the possibilities that it could bring.

This time around, I know the extent of the game so each additional add-on is something I am able to work around and understand in the scope of the game. This takes me back over a decade ago and reading Famitsu translations about what KH2FM was bringing and wishing I had access to it... Except this time I do!!!! This isn't Japan exclusive anymore, we get all of this stuff!!!

I'm so excited and every "KH3 was a disappointment" post doesn't affect me now because I'm able to view this in my own personal story and relate it to what I will experience, not what others will experience, and it makes me so, so, so, so happy. I can't wait to recreate old moments from the series:

So, it seems that the new components that they showed will not be in the new Trailer BUUUT, it seems that there was a camera there so there are 2 options:

1- They recorded all the concert including the new components to sell it later as a Disk.
OR
2- We will see the pictures of the new components in some magazines like Famitsu or Dengeki Playstation this or next week
Maybe both(?)

The picture with Ven and Vanitas was [S]Vanitas chasing Ventus[/S]

Edit: The kyo0607 just said that he was wrong it was Ventus chasing Vanitas.

Sooo... are these scenes gonna be exclusive to the Re:MIND DLC, or will they be part of the main campaign?

Thank goodness for the photo mode thingie! Now I can finally take pictures with RAX and Riku and Kairi and everyone! ReMind is sounding better and better all the time. I can't wait for this DLC :D

I know, I want to see the picture.

All this extra content makes me worry for the DLC's pricepoint.

The only thing confirmed as free are the Keyblades + forms. It's unknown what, overall, is free and what is paid, and whether it's a part of the main game or chosen separately via the main menu.

I have like 100 dollars saved especially for this DLC. I doubt it would cost that much, but I'm prepared. I'm a Kingdom Hearts fan thirsty for more content! But I seriously doubt it'll be 100 bucks. Still I'm ready.

I'm expecting $30 USD max but of course they surprised us all with additional support so who knows!

No matter the price it beats having to import a Japanese exclusive game and a modifier to get it to work on a non-Japanese console though!

OMFG I'm in love with the Black Code already.

So Nomura explained that in the Black Code Mode you can ban the use of cure, Links while the HP and MP decrease slowly as time passes

Irino(Sora's japanese voice actor)'s reaction was: Why would you do that?



I only need a Online mode with this to send this type of challenges and this would be really perfect

Correction: the poster said it's with the Flantastic Seven, known as the "Seven Purins (Puddings)" in Japanese (a pun on "Seven Princesses").

Aaaw, that's so sweet to hear. So does this mean you're opinion of KH3's base game (the part that was labeled disappointing) has improved, or are you merely saying you're going into ReMind with an open mind? Either way, part of me is at least glad people are able to approach this with some level of renewed hope.

I wonder if we can add bosses(final bosses i mean, not like the marshmallow) to the fast pass and black code like Xehanort's replicas, etc.

Woops, my bad. I didn't read that tweet completely and I also forgot the existence of the god damn puddings so... And プリンズとプリンセス really are similar :LOL:

Thanks for the correction

Yet another Orchestra-exclusive info/footage reveal
Getting a little tired of that if I'm being honest

KH3 didn't disappoint me, but every time I think back on my time playing it it felt like something was missing.

But as someone who wasn't that let down, it really disappointed me that others were so hurt by what KH3 delivered. I felt some of that when FFVIIR had it's blow out at E3 because it seemed like Nomura had prioritised that game over KH3 (especially since KH3 had seemed like some testing grounds for FFVIIR, for example the revamped menu).

What I hope Re Mind can do is reignite the love for KH that many fans feel KH3 snuffed out. Re Mind reminds me of everything that KH2FM was adding that made it, to this day, be a faithful adaption with a lot of elements that keep fans believing it to be a top JRPG game and I hope those same people keep an open mind with KH3.

I'm thankful for these additions. It's expanding on areas that I did have issues with at launch (I felt KHUX elements were shoe-horned in, but if Nomura can make them worthwhile then it will work for KH3 and the next game) but if it makes people feel like it's a proper successor to KH2FM then it's done its job in my eyes, something I feel between what we already knew for the DLC, and now with these additions it cements it in my eyes (until release and people find other reasons to be let down).

Not to get my hopes up (in fact, I’m surely stretching), but what if that revamped 358/2 Days scene is part of a potential 358/2 Days remake? Outside of that, I’m at least glad we got info at the concert.

Don't tease my emotions with talk of a Days remake. My soul cannot take the disappointment when it doesn't happen. I'll turn into a Heartless!

My understanding is that recreating previous scenes would be very limited due to needing existing assists to do so. Axel, Xion, and the Twilight Town mansion exist so they can afford to have players remake that scene. I can only imagine some KH2 and BbS scene remade via photo mode.

Photo Mode is not really my cup of tea but I'm happy it is being added because other people would definitely enjoy it a lot. Im personally hyped for Black code mode as it sounds huge, if done right. All I need now is more Gummiship content and I'm set!

The new difficulties sound amazing! But I’m not here for that Photo Mode. I really want them to expand the original worlds especially Scala.

The only thing I'm interesting here is the black mode and how much possibilities it offers, but even so after the critical mode came out, new difficulty features aren't a priority for me.

I'm more eager for new story and gameplay content. Hopefully the next trailer shows a glimpse of the secret episode.

Regardless, the size of this DLC pack is indeed insane and Nomura convinced me that will be worth the wait, even if it doesn't have everything I wanted.

That's a lot of stuff!

Photo Mode allows you to pose any of the game’s protagonists (and even antagonists in one hilarious example photo) in your chosen setting with props and background effects.

Huh.
Well, it's not exactly that, but the fact we're getting this Photo Mode at all is a real surprise.

Example props included a giant pancake

*Just a Pancake intensifies*

Hope the options are varied for the updated photo editor!

I'm excited about this photo mode and slideshow stuff. It sounds fun, and I'll be taking full advantage of it. Couldn't ask for more, really.

And oh my gosh, I want to see these pictures that were at the concert! They sound great!

And Irino being horrified by the new difficulty mode is hilarious. Haha:)

Those new difficulties sound rather insane. The photo mode might be fun, but I'm not sure how much I'll use it, still getting a group photo of the MCs will be nice.

I'm happy to hear we'll be getting more info in December. My guess is jumpfesta seeing I just can't see a trailer premiering at the Game Awards.

The custom difficulty sounds interesting on paper but unless core mechaniques could be tweaked beyond just adjusting damage values or removing mechaniques (again, removing options and by extension removing player freedom of expresion instead of adjusting them is not the right way of balancing), like cancel windows, i-frames, combo speed, gravity, move properties, etc; this addition is useless and could amplify problems with the current combat system.

The DLC sounds amazing if this is all true. You have stuff for casual players with the new photo stuff as well as new challenges for those who want them with the Black Code. I’m glad their considering more than just the “hard-core” stuff like super bosses.

I really can’t wait to see what kind of gameplay styles will arise from the Black Code. What a great way to add more replay value to the game. I wonder if you’ll be able to mix Black Code stuff with Free Pass Mode. I really hope this all pans out to be true because I’m getting excited to see what people come up with. I just beat level 1 critical about a week and a half ago so I’m ready for some new ways to play.

Thinking about it, we could probably make just about any ship canon in new photo mode. My ships will be canon in photo mode :’)

Lea x Goofy here I come!

If anything, the game needs a difficulty in between Proud & Critical. KH3 Proud is more like Standard in any other game while Critical has enemies one-shotting ya in the very first Olympus mob. Not quite finding the Mama Bear setting for me in this game.

*No Cinderella to pair with Aqua* Why even bother?

Black Code mode make me so happy I could cry, can I finally have a well balanced KH game?!?!
I gonna deal less damage than critical mode and have a little bit more defence, just enough to not get one hit killed by all the bosses at lv.1, it gonna be beautiful, simply glorious :D <3 #happygamer

Lol, that critique reminds a lot of Nier Automata, where "hard mode" was like a critical critical mode. Except at least there it was played as a meta-joke on some of the more absurd difficulty options in modern games.

Depending on how much customization options the player has with Black Code, I could see a player developing a semi-critical for the more intermediate players, buuuut knowing this community, I doubt many would ever do that, lol.

This is such an unreasonable ask, like seriously
If you want this much control you might as well just program your own game

Disagree man, I don't think they want a DLC taking up FF7 Remake's time at Jump Festa. The Game Awards is prime time to drop a trailer and release date.

At long last I can make my Kairi-Namine-Xion secret ship come true! If the game refuses to put those three together then I'll have to put on my Infinity Gauntlet and do it myself! Thank you ReMind for creating a monster!

Re:Mind isn’t going to take away from FF7R any more than it did at TGS or E3 if they both get trailers at Jump Festa. There’s no history of KH stuff at TGA awards while JF almost always has KH news. So I think the chances are a lot higher for Jump Festa.

Remember that with the Final Battle trailer, they just dropped it online the week of JF. Not actually at a stage event, livestream, or anything. That’s probably exactly how it’ll happen again considering how the rest of Re:Mind’s marketing has lined up with the lead up to KH3 itself.

Ah, the classic neapolitan ship.

EDIT: Which would also describe Xion-Roxas-Axel come to think of it.

mickeyriku is canon king

But really, I’m here to make all of the dramatic Sora and Riku moments. Thank you Nomura and Yasue and the Osaka staff ❤️??

Xion/Axel scene from Days revamped in KH3 graphics!? YES PLEASE!

And I love their solution to complaints about difficulty. If it's too easy, you can make it as hard as you want!

2 new things thanks to @finekh_ephemera who has posted a report/summary of what happened.

1- Irino said that a lot of Battle voices has been recorded and that he wants us to hear it. He doesn't say if it's him as Sora, or other characters though, or maybe both.
2- It seems that in the video they showed of the Black Code when they won, they got something like a trophy(?)

And Nomura said like 2 times that the new functions will not be shown this month.

My headcanon is Kairi is secretly a big narcissist and when she meets Namine and Xion, the seashells, ice cream, and sketches will fly! Remember, before you can love anyone it is important to first love yourself. Just ask Roxas about that. ReMind will make my darkest desire come true!

If I can't have the Norts posed like this, I don't want photo mode:

Well, November is over so he was right about that lol

Ah no, he said 'next month' but y wrote this month because I write that message already in December ?

The thing is, if they had a strong core gameplay from the beginning, they wouldn't need to still be resorting to so many gimmicks.
Critical mode was already released months ago and they're still tweaking the gameplay.

If anything this is showing how flawed the gameplay from the base game is.

What? They are just giving more options. Players have been doing runs with restrictions for ages and this mode is just reflecting that. This has literally zero connections to a gameplay being good or bad.

None of this is interesting to me sadly. I guess i just don't care anymore.

They are giving us the control over their programmed toys in the game because they realized... they simply could! And first of all, that's great! I think it shows a great vision in their game design choices. They are basically giving us the ability to play even more from the main game through different ways of playing, giving us the option to choose our own challenge. This adds Replay Value just by how much percent? 400%? How is this just a gimmick'? I mean, I won't say that this Black Mode doesn't exist to solve some of the difficulty-ballancing problems the game has, but if thats the case it still adds a lot of Replay value and good content.

If all this content (specially the Black Mode thing) is really true I'm actually surprised by this, it is too good to be true. I never though that KH would be a franchise that gives the player too many options in regard to the core challenge, but If this is all true I think this really proves me wrong.

Boy, these threads are gonna be fun to look back on in a few years lol.

Square announced their lineup for Jump Festa, no KH spotted.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://gematsu.com/2019/12/square-enix-announces-jump-festa-2020-lineup-stage-schedule[/URL]

Well that's a bummer, but I think we've been surprised before. Plus if they just upload the trailer around then it wouldn't necessarily be listed.
Still this does give more weight to the theory of the game awards featuring the trailer, though I personally still don't believe it.

I'm being redundant, but same. Mostly the DLC talk just reminds me of how exciting it used to be to consider KH3's potential, and imagine the possibilities for it. There was so much energy around it. Nowadays the conversation resembles that old adage about lipstick on a pig.

I appreciate your point, but in terms of potential, it's best have a grounded discussion in terms of having reasonable expectations, and not the firecircus that was the game's launch.

I agree to the extent that hype culture tends to propagate a kind of collective hysteria that frames modern (online) media discourse in extremes. At the same time, this particular refrain that people were unreasonable in their expectations prior to this game's launch has always, at its core, only been reflective of how fundamentally uninspired KH3 is as a main title. The main lines of criticism targeting it have nothing to do with some alleged (yet never evidenced) overextension in the popular hivemind surrounding its anticipated reconfiguration of the gaming universe: on the contrary, even its most technically basic shortcomings tend to go largely ignored within the fandom, because what many fans were actually expecting, and what we didn't get, was simply a well-told story. The DLC announcements act as a reminder of what Nomura prioritized as director over the expressed interests of longtime fans, which included such unreasonable demands so far out of alignment with the series' trajectory as, you know, treating his female characters with a modicum of dignity and seeing the key threads running through this narrative get their due by shoring up the central elements that have been with it since its inception (but oops it looks like FF is no longer unique and catchy enough as a marketing device, so cross that off the plotting board).

With that in mind, I'd contend that what caused the lead-up to KH3's launch to become such a circus had more to do with a growing sense of disillusionment among a portion of the fandom married with a couple of "bad actors" who basically served to sew discord within a social grouping that was increasingly at odds with its collective self; many fans were concerned about the indications that were coming from official marketing material, as well as some of Nomura's own (frankly disingenuous) public statements, while other fans expended a lot of energy disputing or discrediting any attempt to scrutinize the available information about the game, which left a huge lane open for certain social media trolls to take ownership of the narrative surrounding what the game would ultimately look like. One which SE (bizarrely) never attempted to reclaim, so that it wasn't an issue of misaligned expectations, but of unreliable information being conveyed from all sides to an invested core block of fans whose confusion and frustration then permeated out to the fringes-- really a kind of proof positive case study of the issues that are endemic to hype culture and spoiler panic, and how those social factors now inform corporate media marketing as an industry unto itself.

That's all to say that there's (obviously) nothing wrong with being excited for these DLC additions (folks don't need my permission or that of any other fan to feel that way). The ones rumored here are basically just mechanical QoL improvements directed at people who already enjoy the game and could use an incentive to replay it. They just don't feel like much in the way of an answer to the mess that has plagued the whole KH3 "era" within the franchise; and yes, that's likely an expectation that is genuinely unrealistic, given that KH3 has been more or less uniquely afflicted by the trifecta of poor conceit, poor presentation, and poor execution.

I was just reminded that State of Play exists so a Re:Mind trailer could potentially show up here if Playstation decides to hold one this month.

You mean you were 'ReMinded' lol. When is this State of Play thingie? I'm thirsty for any potential ReMind news.

[ATTACH type="full"]12045[/ATTACH]

When is this State of Play thingie? I'm thirsty for any potential ReMind news.

They haven't announced one yet. But in the event they do, we could get a trailer there xD

This pretty much sums up my own general thoughts tbh. I'm not personally excited for these DLC additions because they don't really address the primary issues I've had with the game, nor did I expect them to. Nonetheless, they add improvements and options to those who already enjoyed the base game that released at launch, and when I view it from that perspective, it's... fine.

For me, what made KH3 such a terrible experience was the forced, contrived, and broken narrative (too much of which just objectively didn't make sense) stuffed with filler nonsense, sequel fodder, and unearned, rushed, or otherwise non-existent "conclusions." It felt more like they injected needless set-up; wasting much of the game's already limited runtime, instead of just concluding things smoothly. Like.... There's literally no reason we had to waste so much time on all the Ux crap, when they could've simply addressed it all in the very next game anyway. And to make it worse, I don't really care for any of it. So, when I look at Re: Mind, all I can see (from the areas that I'd care about) is just more sequel fodder, or things that further convolute an already inconclusive ending. In addition to seemingly mediocre/pointless "pay-offs" (ex. LW fighting Terranort, only to inevitably lose and robb the fight of any potential catharsis it could've generated), we get more reason to think nothing is even remotely as it seems by the end: Luxord isn't Luxord, apparently; Sora's dead, but not really; Xion's here, because suddenly a heart isn't more than just data I guess; etc. Which only underscores how the very trajectory of the game has been derailed in favor of.... Whatever Nomura's got cooked up next.

I guess, what saying is that, for all it's content, Re: Mind doesn't seem to be looking to address any of the issues I had with the base game, nor could it really, even if it tried at this point. So... I'm mixed.

Sometimes makes me wonder how things could have gone if they didn't lose a year of development.

The extra stuff like the photo mode sounds like it could be a blast, but it's so hard for me to be excited over the story stuff. There's no way the DLC can properly address the issues KH3 has. I mean, it's at least trying to add more to the Keyblade Graveyard events and not having Sora stick his big shoes into every fight. That is at least going in the right direction somewhere, unless it turns out to be from another time rewrite then not really, because then the original, not very good events still happened.

As much as I hated KH3's trailers showing nearly everything, I wish that we knew exactly everything that Re:Mind will be doing story-wise before it hits. I just want to know what I'm getting into so my mind isn't buzzing about possibilities. lol

I don't think the year of lost development was much of an accomplice to how KH3 handled its story. More like KH3 had the same amount of hours of campaign as the previous two KH titles, but with more to tackle (an entire saga) and less time (Disney worlds taking priority). You can pretty much get a sense of closure for individual sagas in the Keyblade Graveyard. TAV get closure, ARX get closure, Riku gets closure with Ansem, representing KH1; Xemnas gets his closure, representing KH2; Young Xehanort pretty much represents DDD and Master Xehanort what started in BBS and ended in KH3.

I feel like the closure we got in the Keyblade Graveyard should have been worked during the game, and not just exclusively in the final world.

Eeeeh, I disagree to an extent. While you are right that they had a TON of stuff to cover and they did do that to an extent, I think the year of development they lost really hurt them in the long run. It meant having to likely cut down a lot of planned content and having to rush to remake and put together what they had, which would inevitably mean cutting aspects of the story. This happens in really any creative media all of the time.

The game hides it well but you can easily tell there was more there that they wanted to do. Frozen's world, while being rather straightforward, has this massive ice maze with no plot reason for it existing besides the fact that suddenly Larxene can build ice buildings with her LIGHTNING POWERS. Or the fact that they have us going up and down the mountain. Or Hans just being there. This is easily a case of them only having those specific assets created with a team of execs breathing down their necks and they needed to put together enough of a cohesive story to make it all work together.

Or let's look at Tangled's world. The Kingdom of Corona is beautiful and amazing but there is a giant dark forest in the middle of the whole world with really nothing to do in it? And conveniently it keeps SDG apart from Rapunzel and Flynn for the bulk of their bonding? And they don't even bother to touch on the most important aspect of Tangled's plot: Rapunzel's hair. But we have these (cute) moments where we just arbitrarily bond with Rapunzel to no true end. I feel like these little aspects show they wanted to do more with this world but ran out of time.

100 Acre Wood speaks for itself.

And you can easily tell that they whittled at the main story along the way too to make sure they could get everything done. Riku and Repliku's storyline, Aqua/Darqua's storyline, whatever tf Kairi and Lea were doing.

Everything that coalesces in the Keyblade Graveyard is merely a result of the constant changes. Like we already know Nomura was constantly changing everything from before the Keyblade Graveyard all the way to the end of the game. I think it is very possible they HAD planned to have some of what happened in the Keyblade Graveyard happen in earlier parts of the game but they had to make do with what they had.

I also think they lost more than a year of development. There. I'm saying it. I think they lost probably closer to two years of development by having to remake assets from the cheap asset farms they contracted for KH3.

Disney was apparently slow at getting back with them at times, and combining that with the fact that they had to deal with separate Disney teams for each world; I think they just didn't have the time to do some things. Like look at this:

“and [plotting] was largely down to what their feelings were on what they wanted to happen. There were some teams that were like, ‘Ooh, if you make a new story, you're going to kind of ruin the world that we created,’ whereas there were teams, like Toy Story, who said to us, ‘Well, we can't have it in that world, but if you want to make a new story, that's fine.’” Even within studios, teams could be markedly different in what they wanted from their own Kingdom Hearts world: “From team to team,” Nomura continues, “the kind of colour, or the way they did things, the feel was quite different. For example, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc., those two teams were completely different from each other.”

(from here.)

It honestly just sounds like a big pain the ass.

Same. The loss of development was obviously a contributing factor to the areas in which the game felt broken and half baked, but at the same time, there are certain creative decisions that just seemed like poor choices on the writers part (regardless of the lost work). Like... It would be one thing if plotlines were just rushed, but certain parts were just flat out broken or unnecessary.

In the end, I'm honestly just curious to see how this dlc tries to "fix" any of the narrative issues.


It probably WAS a pain, tbh. I think most of us sorta knew the issues with certain Disney Worlds were, in part, a result of the weird system surrounding their development. Which is definitely a shame, as lost potential always is.

Yeah, they can even just drop the trailer on their social media whenever as well. In fact, a State of Play would be really good because you'd think there'd be one in December and 2020's got a lot of stuff on the horizon.

Thanks for giving us your input. It really makes a lot of sense, but only makes thing sadder. Thankfully, I've seen that the Japanese gaming industry is starting to refrain from subcontracting other companies to help them build assets. Now that they have all the assets they needed for subsequent KH titles, hopefully developments are smoother.

I'd actually disagree on this. Frozen's problems were probably a directive from Disney themselves. I'll just give a quick list because I've been wanting to really talk about this in depth for months:

[SPOILER]
"The Frozen world's whole story isn't fleshed out"
The Frozen world's whole story isn't as fleshed out even as much as Tangled's in which they did skip some stuff but you understood the basic motivations of the Protagonists and Antagonists even if they didn't dive specifically into Mother Gothel's reasons for wanting Rapunzel... Also she's still named after cabbage. In the Frozen world only Anna's reasons for wanting Elsa back and why Elsa doesn't want to go back are explored, but like you said Hans just comes out of nowhere as the villain even though we never met him before which I don't think has ever happened in a KH world. Outside of Chain of Memories of course but that was usually just the world bosses of KH1 who we have met before and not plot important characters.
[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]
"The songs"
There were multiple songs which we have only really had in Antlantica and "Let it Go" was given a full length production with graphics that are better than most of the game's cutscenes.
[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]
"Level design"
The Ice Labyrinth is probably made just so that there is some semblance of actual exploration instead of just going up and down the mountain seven times. I mean for me at least, they failed, but they tried. I think I know why this is but I'll get to this at the end.
[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]
"This world is probably the only world in which the organization member does absolutely nothing."
Larxene is an absolute non-entity in this story. She's only there to stop our main characters from interacting with the plot of the movie. They try to give her a reason saying that SDG should just butt out and not meddle, but not only is she a villain (which is to say they should take anything she says with a pound of salt), but meddling in the events of movies and cartoons is one of the core tenants of Kingdom Hearts.
[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]
"Hans does nothing."
I know I already covered this in the part on the story but this is so egregious that it needs to be stated twice. HANS the main antagonist of Frozen isn't cavorting with the Heartless or the Organization. No. He shows up just to die. And doesn't talk at all.
[/SPOILER]

Now the specific reasons that I think The Mouse did this on purpose is that they could easily use this game to keep Frozen in the public eye. Now at the time, KH3 was supposed to come out 1-3 years ago, and back then (and even now) Frozen was a good cash cow for them and even when the progress had to be reset that was still good that it came out this year as a little known movie by the name of "Frozen 2" came out this recently.

The problems with this level also line up too well. Frozen is shown off but not too much, making it so that if you didn't see it and/or buy it you may be compelled to pick it up, and if you don't already know the story you might be interested by the teases they gave to the full movie. To do that more easily keep the MCs out of the story as long as possible (mountain), Keep the villain away from the story too (irrelevance), and put as many nods and songs from the movie into this even if they aren't explored at all (Sven and his moose, all of the songs, Hans etc.) So though I might be crazy I think that whole world was just a reminder that Frozen exists.

EDIT: Wow the headers didn't show up. I'll fix that now.

Dark World was probably also meant to have more to it considering it was given a world logo. Land of Departure didn't even get that much despite also being briefly playable.

A super minor one, but the early bit where SDG are launched from Herc's statue to rescue a girl. It's a weird cut from flying into the sky to the girl somehow being rescued. It makes sense time-wise to cut something small like this, but it's also the first blatantly obvious piece of cut content, and from the first world too.

Another is while Nomura did say the Restoration Committee didn't appear because there was "no room" due to there being so many characters, knowing how much development time they lost, the lack of room is probably due to having to focus on recovering and the Disney. It explains a lot on why the original worlds got the shaft.

This is why I'm hoping Disney worlds take a back seat. For now at least. Dealing with Disney is itself a pain. Having to not only comply to weird rules/restrictions, but the back and forth and having to wait who knows how long for their response, which would slow down other things, is wholly inefficient. I can only imagine how much time was lost solely on this.

And this goes back to how Nomura SHOULD have had other people working on the story alongside him. Even if he thought it would have taken too long to get everyone up to speed (which it really wouldn't have) it would've helped big in the long run.

Arendelle problems are because of Disney, not because they were working against the clock.

We're talking about Frozen here, guys. Disney being overprotective of their best selling animated movie back then is much more believable than Square not having time to do it justice.

@VioletPluto already did a good job in explaining the reasons, so I won't bother.

Things that I think they were forced to change due to behind the scenes problems:

- 100 Acre Wood being just one area is fishy and feels like they just put it for the sake of having one more Disney world.

- I can give a free pass to Demyx, but an important member like Saix not having a specific world for himself is questionable.

- Riku scenario. It doesn't make sense they only reveal Riku, who was already playable a couple of times before, close to the game release and he being playable only during two boss battles. I'm not even talking about a Radiant Garden scenario, they could have reused 0.2 assets to make his Realm of Darkness section bigger. Seems like a smart thing to do.

I never thought of that, Violet Pluto, that they might be trying to encourage people to buy the film by leaving big parts out. I mean, I'm a minority in that I enjoyed the world even though Anna should've been a party member. Still, I can understand your point.

Yeah... The slim interaction between SDG and Saix (not to mention Vexen as well) was disappointing.

Even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and especially the Frozen worlds, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. world given how clingy and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was I say the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.

Regarding Corona, Honestly, I made a lot of complaints on Kingdom of Corona, before which you can view here, here and here. But literally I was more frustrated with Corona than Arendelle in my unpopular opinion, cause like you said Sora, Donald and Goofy stood out like a "sore thumb" in Kingdom of Corona and literally don't know what has happened especially during the 2nd and last acts of the world.

On top of that, not only Sora and the gang never question Rapunzel's long hair along with witnessing Rapunzel’s magic powers through her hair, but they also didn’t know about Mother Gothel true colors and remained blissfully unaware about her after their first and ONLY time encountering her until Marluxia reveals her real colors to them through context. Wanna hear the worse part, they, especially Goofy (who is supposed to be the intelligent one of the trio) didn’t grow suspicious with Mother Gothel especially when she coldly dismissed them and said they were “useless and of no help”. I mean If I was present with them and after our first encounter with Gothel once she dismiss us and leaves, I too would be the first to question and feel suspicious about Gothel especially when she coldly dismiss us as “useless” and wether if she really is Rapunzel’s “real mother” (which she isn’t). Even they also remain blissfully unaware that Flynn/Eugene got knocked out and when they (particularly Donald and Goofy) see him again they don't question what happened to him they just say, "Flynn Sora's unconscious" and "Oh no Rapunzel is held Captive" etc. it felt too preachy and over the top.

Lastly, the rest of it when Flynn went out to rescue Rapunzel (Gothel stabbing Flynn/Eugene, Eugene cutting Rapunzel's hair causing Gothel aged to dust, Rapunzel healing Flynn/Eugene) just had Sora Donald and Goofy being just "There" in the background not knowing what's happening ever since Flynn went of to the tower to rescue Rapunzel (yeah they saw Gothel's cloak before it was immediately turned into the Grim Guardianess Heartless by Marluxia and witness Flynn/Eugene dying until Rapunzel revived him with the Healing incantation) but they weren't acknowledged by the cast until after Eugene was Healed.

Just Imagine if SDG were involved during the climax of Wreck-It Ralph, Moana and Zootopia but are just "there" in the background not knowing what's going on and doing their own conflict (e.g. Fighting a Giant Heartless), while the movies characters just primarily play out like in the movie but don't acknowledged SDG until after the conflict is solved.

Also, even Gothel and Rapunzel saw/Encounter Marluxia ONCE none of them ever bring up his name nor mention his name again for the remainder of the world, which honestly made Marluxia's appearance in Corona felt "shoehorned". At least with Monstropolis, Toy Box and San Fransokyo, the inhabitants do acknowledged the Organization XIII member and not brush them off, particularly the former when Randall had a "teamup" with Vanitas.

I say the Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts III that had the most strictness from Most strict to NO restrictions are:
[LIST=1]
[*]Arendelle (Obviously, as said in most interviews by Nomura and the development team and MOST KH fans)
[*]Monstropolis
[*]Kingdom of Corona
[*]Toy Box (to some degree, but not quite)
[*]The Caribbean
[*]San Fransokyo
[*]Olympus
[*]100 Acre Wood
[/LIST]

It's not just Arendelle in fact most of the New Disney Worlds (minus Big Hero 6) had guidelines from Disney as well, even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and Frozen worlds, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. given how picky and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was I say the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.

Lastly I feel in my unpopular opinion that Kingdom of Corona was more frustrating than Arendelle especially during the stories 2nd and 3rd Act.


Same can be said on the other Disney worlds introduced to KH3 (minus San Fransokyo) as Disney was also being restrictive to them as well. Even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and especially the Frozen world, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. world given how picky and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was I say the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.

I remain cautiously skeptical about the more recent Disney animated films becoming worlds in future games after the Frozen and especially the Tangled world's being wasted in Kingdom Hearts III.

Can I ask what you mean by this? I abstained from looking anything up about KH once people started leaking the game, so whatever crazy events that happened during those entire 1-2 months is still unknown to me.

I don't expect the DLC to fix any of the narrative problems in KH3 story, since that would be impossible and would pretty much mean creating an entirely new game. At most I'm hyped just for extra playable character scenarios like exploring the Dark Realm and the other KG battles, and fun side stuff/minigames like the new photo mode and whatnot.

After the frustration they went through, I wouldn't be surprised if Nomura and team thought "never again." Maybe since KH3 was the BIG game, Disney were just being more insane than usual, but how they're involved can't keep going on like this.

Agreed. We might think it's ridiculous because we're all KH fans, but I can see it on the other side too. Disney is a multi-generational company that thrives on maintaining the magic that's in their IPs. And kids went nuts over Frozen. To this day, the most popular Disney costume is Elsa. Do You Want To Build A Snowman is a song these kids know by heart, and parents understand how popular the movie is just by seeing their little ones lose their minds. So imagine how Disney is feeling when it comes to this. They're probably not willing to take as many chances, and especially because Kingdom Hearts as a franchise is getting a lot more popular now. So even though we probably originally had a more fleshed out Arendelle, Disney probably saw the money come in and didn't want to take ANY sort of risks.

It's a shame, because Arendelle would've been the perfect world to start diving more into the New Seven Hearts, but at least we know Elsa and Anna both are part of the Seven. So it's not like we'll never see them again, and hopefully the next time, they'll be more lax.



And it would be a shame too because of the really cool movies coming out, but if it's going to be a huge stress on the team going forward, I'd rather them pull from older material instead. Even summons like Simba had to be "different" because of Disney, and they never had an issue before.

It's not just Arendelle in fact most of the New Disney Worlds introduced to Kingdom Hearts III (minus Big Hero 6) also had guidelines from Disney as well, even Pixar also put guidelines to Nomura and Square Enix on the worlds based on their movies (Toy Story and Monster's Inc.), of course not in the same level as the guidelines seen in the Tangled and especially the Frozen world, but it was mostly noticeable In the Monster's Inc. world given how picky and restrictive they were on not allowing Randall to be a boss (more so a mid-boss) in the level, compared to the Toy Story world imao. I say that San Fransokyo, from Big Hero 6 was the ONLY new Disney world out of the 5 new Disney worlds (Kingdom of Corona, Toy Box, Monstropolis, and Arendelle) introduced in KH3, that Disney didn't put Guidelines and restrictions on given that the story was set after the events of the movie instead of being a retelling of the original film which allowed Nomura and his team creative freedom, of course credit goes to Roy Conli (producer of Big Hero 6) who came up with the original story.

Lastly, I feel in my unpopular opinion that Kingdom of Corona was more frustrating than Arendelle. I already made a lot of complaints on Kingdom of Corona, before which you can view here, here and here. But frankly I was more frustrated with how Sora, Donald and Goofy stood out like a "sore thumb" in the world and literally don't know what has happened especially during the 2nd and last acts of the world.

There is an interview to Nomura after the concert from Famitsu and they talk about the premium menu.

I tried to translate it, but since English is not my native language, it's difficult to me to translate it directly to English, so here are the important points about the interview:

- The number of photos it depends on the capacity of the save data so we will have to put the photos that we don't want to delete on a external storage device before delete them. - Nomura wanted to add a mode more difficult that Critical mode, something like Bushido Battle that you get killed in one hit, but there were opinions that no one could clear the game if they do that so they decided to let us, the players change options. - The interviewer asked if we can change the options to be killed in one hit but Nomura replies that No, it's not that extreme but still people that aren't really good will not clear the game. - The interviewer asks if we can change the premium menu inside the game whenever we want and Nomura replies that the there is certain time at the opening/prologue of the game when the Premium Menu is added, we can change the options whenever we want from that moment. - The interviewer then asks for example if we start critical and there is a enemy that we can't defeat, we can change the option of the premium menu, and then Nomura says that Yes, since it's something apart from the Difficulty Modes.

So, it seems that the premium menu with the Black Code, Photo mode, etc is inside the game and not in the main menu(i thought it was on the main menu)

Source: https://www.famitsu.com/news/201912/10188159.html