Twelve years have passed since the release of Kingdom Hearts 2 for the PlayStation 2. Since then, fans of the franchise have eagerly awaited the return of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey to main stage consoles, instead, getting a deeper insight into the Kingdom Hearts universe with a variety of handheld console games. Although these handheld games did help with character development and Kingdom Hearts backstory, they limited the amount of Kingdom Hearts fans that could play. In 2013, Square Enix announced that Kingdom Hearts 3 was in development during the Sony press conference and would later confirm that the franchise would also be coming to the Xbox One. At E3 2018, the world finally got the answer it had been waiting for: the release date of Kingdom Hearts 3. Although Kingdom Hearts 3 is scheduled to be released on January 29th, 2019, we had the opportunity to get two hands on previews with the E3 2018 demo!
On day one of E3, we had the opportunity to play the Kingdom Hearts 3 Olympus demo. From the start of the demo, the Unreal Engine graphics looked amazing rendering the environment to an almost realistic representation that will have players grateful that the game has been delayed for so long. The wall running mechanic felt unusual at first because of the camera angle but was easy to figure out once the basic premises was understood. Players had the opportunity to either avoid the falling rocks that the Titan knocked loose or to swing at the rock in order destroy it at the risk of taking damage and falling. Even though we took the direct route to the Titan for a majority of the demo, we did attempt to explore the surrounding terrain and, from what we were able to see, Kingdom Hearts 3 will be the biggest game in the franchise.
Combat in the game flows naturally with Sora being able to lock on to enemies in order to weave his attacks together for high damage combos. Summons were present in the demo where the player could summon Spirits (Good Dream Eaters) to battle the Titan or release it to deal extra damage. Combat, specifically, against the Titan felt a little frustrating due to the added element of special jumping stones to elevate Sora onto the Titan’s head; if unaware of how this mechanic works, the climbing system can be rather frustrating when it launches Sora off and making him restart the process. Once on top, Sora must attack the Titan’s head in order to trigger the Attraction’s Summon. The Magic Mountain Attraction adds a colorful element to the battle while providing an easy-to-understand element that is used to deal more damage to Sora’s enemies. Kingdom Hearts 3’s combat feels smoother than some of its previous counterparts but the player is easily able to adapt due to similarities between Kingdom Hearts and other open-world exploration games.
During our second demo at the Square Enix Booth, we had the opportunity to try out the Toy Story world. At the start, we were loaded into Andy’s room where we met the main characters from Toy Story (Woody, Buzz, Rex, Mr. Pig, and the Soldiers) who were confused by the new toys in Andy’s Room (The Heartless). We had the option to use the Hyper Hammer to deal additional damage to the low-level Heartless. The Hyper Hammer allows Sora to propel himself to different enemies and, at the end of a major combo, slam the ground to deal damage to an area rather than a specific Heartless. After a brief use of the Hyper Hammer, we decided to try out the Mad Tea Cups that had us spinning around Andy’s Room slamming enemies into objects. Like any other Kingdom Hearts game, there are chests hidden throughout the level that the player will have to explore in order to find.
Once we exited Andy’s Room, we took to the streets in order to get to Galaxy Toys, but before that, we needed to depart the Heartless in our way. We used the new drill punch feature that drilled through the different enemies, finishing with a drill attack that could reach the heavens. Sadly, we did not discover the ability to switch between key blades natively until after the demo was complete; this feature meant Sora could use the Olympus, Tangled, and Toy Story keyblade all during the same battle. The Pirate Ship attraction was fun to use, but watching it spin around was a bit nauseating. Once we arrived at Galaxy Toys, the giant mech battles started. Fighting other giant mechs controlled by the Heartless felt smoother than the majority of other mech games. Rather than feeling like the mech was its own entity, it felt like an extension of Sora.
Based off of both demos, it is safe to say that Kingdom Hearts 3 looks like it is going in the right direction, if not a masterpiece. The combat system flowed smoothly thanks to the many years that the developers had to perfect it. It will be interesting to see all the different attacks and combinations that will be available upon release and how the player will be able to choose what abilities and attractions to equip. With the game running in Unreal Engine 4, the environment was breathtaking and well-polished to where each cutscene provides very little to no rendering time in between and smooth integration that allows players to resume gameplay right after. The addition of two more party member slots no longer makes the player decide who to bring with them on their journey; it will be interesting to see if each world will provide the player with more than two heroes to party up with and how players will react to making a difficult decision on who to choose upon the game’s release.
The biggest concern that we have with Kingdom Hearts 3 is that there might be too many options that will overwhelm the player, but based off our hands on time with the game, fans have no need to worry about the fate of the franchise. We eagerly await the release of Kingdom Hearts 3 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on January 29th, 2019.
