I hope that there are fewer spells in KH3 than in BBS and DDD. I want each spell to feel unique, and to feel excited when one gets upgraded.

I do love how spells like Aero affect the environment now. I also love the connection between Blizzard and Flowmotion. It really "flows" and is how I pictured Flowmotion when it was first announced for DDD. I do still want big magic attacks like Mega Flare to return though.

What KH2 did really well was make each magic spell unique. For example, Fire was a short range AoE, Blizzard was a long range single target, and Thunder was a weaker, long range AoE.

This means each spell was very unique in its abilities and meant there were situations beyond just elemental weaknesses where you would use different spells. (Fire+Final Form has one of the highest DPS of the game if you get close to the enemy, Blizzard is great for stunning bosses and finishing them, Thunder is a great crowd controller, etc). This makes it very different from other RPGs where each spell is basically the recoloured version of each other.

Hopefully, KH3 will keep this trend. I see that Aero has already taken Fire's place as short range AoE. Blizzard appears to have a mobility element as well as a non-tracking missile.

Also, magic combo system is still in! You can see this when Sora's fighting the water creatures, where he finishes off on a powerful Fire spell. This is good!

The water element was utilized by DDD for the first time, there are no magic commands but some link attacks/style that use it. Of course there is also the Dumbo summon in KH and CoM but it dealt ice damage.

DDD was also the first game where light damage was dealt. I really hope we get a complex elemental system in KHIII and that all spells will be useful for a long time.

It'd be nice if each spell had a learning curve to it. Sora should really start off with all the basic spells, and accumulate more knowledge about how to use them through his adventures. Learning about how to hone blizzard/ice-based magic by adventuring through a "Frozen" world and encountering Elsa would help to tie that narrative into the overarching plot in a subtle but meaningful way. It would also negate the need to "reset" his magic abilities. With Attraction Flow, Keyblade transformations, Forms and whatever else they decide to throw in, there will be more than enough combat skills to accumulate and expand on throughout the game. Magic should be a primary game play function, along with X mashing for Keyblade strikes.

Magic was always something I thought KH did exceedingly well for a real time combat system. Its only real weakness, as with most KH game play mechanics, is that it's not strictly necessary in most titles; giving it an added tactical dimension, such as the Blizzard sliding for momentum or how Fire appears to be useful for rapidly casting and retreating at a tough moment, might encourage people to integrate it into their game play style. Regardless, I know I'll be happy with anything similar to magic in KH2. I love mixing some spells into my physical combos and feeling like a wizard.

Oh man. Now looking more closely to the trailer with these gifs, I realized how much detail I missed. The grass moves and all other things. The magic used here looks really cool. Can`t wait to see more!

Imagine Haste applied to this acrobatic Sora *___*

Uh, Aero has been that small wind attack rather than a shield ever since Chain of Memories.
It looks exactly like it did in Birth By Sleep, no less.

I hope that the balloon spell from DDD returns. That was one of my favorites in the series because of how original it was compared to the other spells.

Still bitter that Command Deck is pretty much dead, but if we can get Balloon, Mega Flare, Zero Gravity, the Surges, Time Splicer, that cool command Sora and Riku had in DDD that I forget the name of that was light and dark, and Reflect, I'll be a slighty more happy camper.

On the plus side, the current magic looks very pretty. Nice to see some of the Heartless will still be a threat (probably only to Donald and Goofy but still).

Man, I still can't get over how awesome these spells look in the trailer. I wonder if some of the more advanced spells such as Glacier and Meteor will return.

This is really awesome! I'm looking forward to seeing if Sora can utilize Water magic. I'd also like to see Reflect make a return. It's a fun spell to use. Also an upgradable Faith magic would be cool as well.

I'm so excited about the Blizzard spell! So excited about the Blizzard spell!

In fact, it reminds me of an idea I had some time ago, where if Flowmotion was to come back (which now it seems to be: eep!)--and you were Flowmotioning over a water area, for example--the Flowmotion attack should then change to something water related!

But, yeah: this Blizzard thing is even better, me thinks! :)

Never before have I been more excited for magic in this series! It all just looks SO glorious to behold.

And amazing job analyzing all of this in the midst of everything else going on, Chaser. It's given me a lot to think about/hope for, and just including the gifs here makes it even easier to understand:) Brava, brava, bravissima.

I hope that you can carry your blizzard spells along walls to increase your flow motion abilities. Flow motion was too static in ddd. Plus, how cool would it be to be like Frozone.....but with a keyblade