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News ► KINGDOM HEARTS 20th anniversary trailer + event announced



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For the sake of getting this out of my system, I'm a doing a top ten predictions list for the event. Will all of these happen? Heck no, but ideas have been circulating in my head for a week+ now:

10. IDK, some sort of commemorative pin set, another Japan-only concert, tote bags, & other dumb crap no one cares about.
Just getting this out of the way first. This shit is everyone of these sorts of events.

9. Dark Road ending launching shortly after event
The most obvious predictable reveal, probably.

8. New mobile game
Look, it's gonna happen. Square isn't done making mobile games, therefore it's only a matter of time before there's another KH game. Especially after Genshin Impact became such a big deal I imagine S-E is chomping at the bit to roll out their own bigger budget phone titles.

7. Melody of Memory DLC expansion
Nomura said they planned on MoM being a "completed compedium" but let's face it, Nomura says lots of things that ended up not being true. MoM is just missing too much music to leave as is. To make a prediction list within the predictions list:
-More KH3 tracks, a lot more.
-Daybreak Town & WiR worlds/tracks
-More classic Disney songs
-Story expansion with Team Kairi as the playable team (Kairi, Lea, Pluto)
-2 new boss stages: either YX or Chernabog to give DDD belated representation & the final boss of new story expansion (of which I have no solid ideas for)

6. Kingdom Hearts III.5 collection for PS5/XBS
-A remastering of KH3+Remind with improved load times & whatever other upgrades they can fit in
-MoM with it's new DLC included
-UX/DR Theater Mode

5. Disney+ series reveal
One of the other safer bets, assuming the rumors were true.

4. "Project Oath"/Verum Rex game
Probably will be the big main event of the show, the long awaited next major console entry of the series. I'm also fully on board the theory that there'll be Disney worlds & they'll be based on live action remakes of past worlds. Somehow this will inexaplitably be how Jungle Book makes its KH debut.

3. Warriors game from Omega Force
And now I really start getting more out there with the predictions, because where's the fun in playing it safe? ;) OF's been making musou games with just about every other major property in Japan & KH has already dipped its toes in the waters of large scale battles before with the 1,000 heartless war, the rapidthrusters in Land of Dragons, & the knock-off Space Invaders in BBS. Why not do a whole darn game like that?

2. An "everyone is here" 20th anniversary multiplayer game made in Unity
Out there idea #2. It kind of astonishes me that the vast majority of worlds throughout the series history were recreated as faithfully as they were in MoM. It almost feels wasted all that work. Most worlds were only used for 2-3 songs & players are gonna be too focused on the enemies/notes to really pay attention to the environments. For that matter, MoM has a great deal many enemies from the series, from tons of heartless to nobodies, unversed, dream eaters, & even Maleficent's goons. It has me thinking that they could make a whole 'nother game out of all those assets.

And since it's the 20th anniversary, they could use the notion of a KH game featuring every past world returning as a way of celebrating the series history.

Past that I also think it's high time for Square to take another whack at the multiplayer driven game concept that was attempted before with Days. Except this time with the GoL as the playable roster instead of the org.

Plus it would give the Switch a proper KH action-RPG game that's not cloud streamed. That'd be a win right there.

1. Kingdom Hearts 4
Most likely not happening at the event itself as they'll wanna be focusing on VR as the next big entry for the time being. Unless of course VR is called KH4. Unlikely but who knows? I just don't wanna wait another 13 years for KH4, they should be working on it now instead of holding off until later like they did with KH3.
I was working on one of these myself, but since mine would have had a lot of the same stuff on it, I'll just mention my other ideas (only one of which is likely anyway, but the others are so outlandish that I just had to mention them).

1. Announcement of Melody of Memory Light Novel (maybe Dark Road as well but it's probably too soon for that)

2. Surprise soft launch of aforementioned Mobile Game (in Japan only of course)

3. Kingdom Hearts:The Ride (Tokyo Disneyland exclusive)
 

Oracle Spockanort

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I’ve got a few to add as well.

1. Kingdom Hearts Dark Road The Novel - Nomura and Kanemaki will either flesh out the story there or Kanemaki will go barebones. But she’ll make Xehaqus absolutely and irrefutably canon in the way only a BL novelist could.

2. New series of KH novels not written by Kanemaki - Nomura and SE probably were the ones who pulled the cord on that Brooke Vitale middle grade novel series, but I can easily see Nomura seeing that as an opportunity to get the book publishing side of both SE and Disney to get a writer approved by him to get something he would like to see out there published.

3. Kingdom Hearts shorts - Short, animated side stories that are cute and lighthearted. CG most likely, with that style Nomura uses for tiny stuff

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3. Disneyland + Disney World installations - there will be some sort of installation at the main parks featuring some sort of interactive game + revamped Disney Cast costumes for maybe a few months in coordination with whatever title releases that year

4. Super Bowl ad - WHY NOT I’m just throwing things at the wall right now

5. Kingdom Hearts: The Musical/Stage Play - instead of an orchestra concert, there will be a Japan-only stage play and/or musical. Honestly I don’t think Nomura is into the whole stage play + musical + audio drama thing that most franchises dive into, but I feel like there would be pressure to have a bunch of stuff to capitalize on the anniversary. Nomura will regret it all in about 5 years and buy another cat to cope.

6. Kingdom Hearts: The Audio Drama - I mentioned it above that I don’t think Nomura’s really into that sort of stuff in relation to his own properties, but I think he’d be intrigued by this as a low-cost expansion of the franchise’s story and lore without the need to create new visuals. He will thusly regret it and visuals will be made to accompany this down the line, but for now it’ll be Japanese audio only and fans in the west will complain until NFTs set the planet on fire.

7. KH NFTs - Dread it, run from it, destiny still arrives. There will be KH NFTs and we will weep that KH is killing the planet one stupid expensive jpg at a time.
 

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Here are my wishful thinking predictions:

1. Rereleases optimized for next generation consoles.

2. Days and Coded remakes: Days is enough of a fan-favorite game that even a low-effort remake would sell, making it an easy anniversary cash-in. Coded has less demand, but it would be awkward for it to be the only game that's unplayable in future collections.

3. Kingdom Hearts III Final Mix. This would restore 0.2 as KH3's prologue and incorporate ReMind into the base game as much as possible.

4. KHUX: The Movie: A Back Cover-style movie that summarizes all the parts of KHUX that are important to future plotlines.

5. Kingdom Hearts Another χ: An offline version of KHX/KHUX/DR that includes everything from the previous games and a few new things to round it out.

6. Another phone game: We all know it's coming, let's just hope it's better than previous efforts.
 
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SuperNova

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Since we are doing wishful thinking lists here's my take

1. New mobile game- We all know SE isn't going to let the end of KHUX and DR stop them from making another mobile game

2. Proper 1.5+2.5 ports to the switch- KH3 will still be a cloud version but I don't see why they can't streamline 1.5/2.5 to have a physical release on the switch

3. KH3 Final Mix release for PS5/Xbox X- This would allow them to bundle KH3 and ReMind together and optimize it for the new gen consoles

4. KHUX Back Cover- Why make a console remake of a shut down gacha game when they can just make another back cover style movie?

5. KH cartoon on Disney+- They already have the scrapped KH1 pilot and the Disney+ rumors from last year

6. Verum Rex/Quadratrum game- 20th anniversary event is the perfect time to reveal the next game release, or at least a trailer. My bets are on it being another DDD style Sora/Riku game
 

Zackarix

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Please no. 0.2 is the perfect standalone story.
0.2 might be fine as a standalone story, but KH3 is very much lesser for the decision to release it separately. For one, the decision to cut out 0.2 turned KH3 from a story with three acts to one with two acts. And I'm pretty sure that the Realm of Darkness was supposed to be KH3's big impressive original world but 0.2's omission meant that there was no longer a place for it in the game, which resulted in the remaining original worlds feeling half-hearted.

But I suppose that you're arguing that 0.2 is too good to be used as a band-aid for KH3's problems. I get that, but I'm ultimately prioritizing what's supposed to be a big epic numbered game over a glorified demo.
 

KingdomKurdistan

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Mulholland Drive was shot as a TV series pilot but had to hastily get some extra footage filmed and be edited into a feature because the TV station rejected the pilot and refused to order the show.

It's widely considered one of the best films ever made. Yeah, the show turned out bad (and non-existient) but the film and game are their own things now. It doesn't exist to satisfy the narrative black holes in KH3.

And 0.2 isn't a "glorified demo". It has a beginning, middle, and end. It tells a complete story. It is what it is: a short game.
 
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The_Echo

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0.2 might be fine as a standalone story, but KH3 is very much lesser for the decision to release it separately. For one, the decision to cut out 0.2 turned KH3 from a story with three acts to one with two acts.
But 0.2's story is almost entirely separated from KHIII's. Unlike the Roxas prologue, it is not narratively nor thematically tied to KHIII. Using it as the prologue to KHIII wouldn't make KHIII a story in three acts, it'd be a game with two separate stories.
0.2 as the prologue would stick out like a sore thumb and not benefit the experience of KHIII, narratively or through gameplay, in any way.

It's fine as it is.
 

HakaishinChampa

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Here is the result of my boredom and what I want deep down

Kingdom Hearts 2nd Phase Prologue Collection:

Kingdom Hearts 3 Final Mix:
  • integrates Remind content to be more accessible by having the new abilities appear naturally (Leveling up or certain points in game)
  • Oblivion & Oathkeeper can be earned without proofs
  • New battlegates that allow you to refight various bosses from the worlds like Davy Jones & Sköll
  • Recolored enemies, can be toggleable
  • Can choose between English or Japanese language
  • Ray Tracing for Next-Gen
  • New World - Mirage Arena (unlocks after you beat either Toy Box or Kingdom of Corona):
    • Play as Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Roxas, Mickey, Sora (KH1) and Riku (KH1)
    • Fight old enemies from the Series' past, alongside some surprises
    • Unlock a new Keyblade & Skins for the playable characters such as: Armored Aqua or Dark Riku
  • New Scenario - Train as Kairi in the Land of Departure
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory Final Mix:
  • Contains the Final Mix DLC for Melody of Memory
  • Team Destiny: KH3 Kairi (Leader) with KH3 Riku and KH3 Sora
  • Invite your friends (LOL)
  • Critical Mode Difficulty
  • New tracks added including Face my Fears
Kingdom Hearts Union X:
  • Basically the mobile game as it is right now, includes theater mode
  • New CGI Movie
 

Zackarix

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Mulholland Drive was shot as a TV series pilot but had to hastily get some extra footage filmed and be edited into a feature because the TV station rejected the pilot and refused to order the show.

It's widely considered one of the best films ever made. Yeah, the show turned out bad (and non-existient) but the film and game are their own things now. It doesn't exist to satisfy the narrative black holes in KH3.

And 0.2 isn't a "glorified demo". It has a beginning, middle, and end. It tells a complete story. It is what it is: a short game.
I don't know what Mulholland Drive is, but reworking a rejected pilot into a feature film is an entirely different scenario from what I'm talking about. A more analogous situation would be if there was an epic movie that had its first act or a subplot cut out and reworked into a short film, but that's not the example you provided.

The KH2 Roxas prologue is a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end. Should it have been cut out and turned into into a separate short game?
But 0.2's story is almost entirely separated from KHIII's. Unlike the Roxas prologue, it is not narratively nor thematically tied to KHIII. Using it as the prologue to KHIII wouldn't make KHIII a story in three acts, it'd be a game with two separate stories.
When you get down and analyze KH2's story the Roxas prologue is surprisingly irrelevant to KH2's big picture. It probably could have been omitted while leaving the overall story intact, but that doesn't mean it would have been a good idea. They were able to link the Roxas prologue with the rest of KH2 because they existed in a single game. If 0.2 had remained a part of KH3 it probably would have been more closely tied to KH3's larger plot, even if it only resulted in Aqua having a more consistent and well-rounded character arc. I suppose the damage has already been done because they were released separately, but if it was restored they could at least do things like expanding Riku's playable segments to include more of the Dark World instead of just the Dark Margin.

But maybe I'm just bitter because KH3's story integrity was never a priority, so why should 0.2's be? First they cut out the first act of KH3's story and expanded it into into DDD. Then they cut out the new act one of the story and released it as 0.2. It's no wonder KH3 is so underwhelming narratively, its story is literally in pieces!

And 0.2 wasn't released separately because it was a masterpiece or because it wasn't tied closely enough to KH3's story. It was supposedly because KH3 was getting too big to fit on a disk, but given that it rounds out 2.8 just enough to justify a $60 price tag and KH3 when released was only about 40 GB I suspect there were ulterior motives. Regardless, it was not a creative decision.
 

The_Echo

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But maybe I'm just bitter because KH3's story integrity was never a priority, so why should 0.2's be? First they cut out the first act of KH3's story and expanded it into into DDD. Then they cut out the new act one of the story and released it as 0.2. It's no wonder KH3 is so underwhelming narratively, its story is literally in pieces!
You're forgetting that 0.2 was always a separate story from KHIII. The story of Aqua's time in the RoD is a sequel to BbS, not a prologue to KHIII. It's called 0.2 because it's a fragment of the story that would have been "0.5" as teased in Blank Points.
We got a post-DDD frame story only so that its place in the release timeline felt more organic.
0.2 was never a part of KHIII's story. It was only going to be included because Nomura wanted the 0.2 story to be told before the end.
And 0.2 wasn't released separately because it was a masterpiece or because it wasn't tied closely enough to KH3's story. It was supposedly because KH3 was getting too big to fit on a disk, but given that it rounds out 2.8 just enough to justify a $60 price tag and KH3 when released was only about 40 GB I suspect there were ulterior motives. Regardless, it was not a creative decision.
As I recall Nomura said that he broke 0.2 off to give the fans something to chew on while KHIII was still in development.
Nomura was talking about storage issues after 2.8's release.
 

Luminary

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When it comes to 0.2, I say compromise and have it remastered and packaged with KH3 as an optional experience like Re:Mind. From a story perspective, I actually think it would be just fine as the opening of the game due to how it connects to Riku and Mickey’s subplot. I actually replayed it leading right up to KH3’s midnight release and thought it flowed together pretty well.

But from a gameplay perspective, I think they’d have to do too much reworking for things like tutorials and figuring out what to do about the side content like the Zodiac fights. I doubt people would want to linger around to do all that stuff before getting to KH3 proper.

So yeah, I think just bringing the graphics up to KH3’s standards, making other technical improvements, and including it as an optional experience to select from the main menu is the best option.
 

AdrianXXII

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Seeing other's put together a list of things they're expecting made me want to put together my own. I'll start from what I think is most likely and move down to what I could imagine but don't see as likely.

1) Kingdom Hearts "3D vol. 2": A new Kingdom Hearts game (Project Oath?) in the vain of Dream Drop Distance, to celebrate the anniversary in 2022 or 2023. I personally am hoping for a 2022 release, but I'm not going to hold my breath on it, seeing I know with the pandemic things might have been delayed and SE kind of struggled with KH3's development it'd probably be similar here.

2) More Kingdom Hearts Merchandise: More anniversary figures, like the Thrown Sora and Kairi figures, and more merchandise, including pins and maybe a PS5 with KH theming. Most of the merchandise would most likely be exclusive to Japan or very slow to come to NA and EU.

3) Kingdom Hearts "New Mobile Game": Another Kingdom Hearts Mobile game, that no one asked for, with a decent story drawn out over years that could have been told in a fraction of the time. Probably continuing the more Chibi art style.

4) Kingdom Hearts 4: The next Kingdom Hearts "mainline/numbered" game announced to be released in two or three years. We know it's already in production, but with how long the development cycle takes I expect it not to come out until 2024 or 2205. I think 4 to 5 years should be long enough for the team that worked on KH3 to be able to be able to make another game, as long as they're sticking to the engine they used to make KH3.

5) Anniversary collections: Like the one announced for the Light Novels, just for the manga and games. This feels a bit more like a stretch seeing there's already so many collections and they just announced the Switch Cloud versions. A new Gen collection, just don't hit so hard, if you can just use the PS4 versions.

6) The Disney+ Animated show: The rumored Kingdom Hearts CGI show. Either part of the canon, progressing the story like the Star Wars and Marvel shows do or a retelling that's it's own separate canon like the Mangas and Light Novels.
With how Disney seems to be trying to expand on everything they own, I feel like Kingdom Hearts would be part of that attempt. It'd also work to help them expand the appeal of the service to people that like more anime-like stories.

7) Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory Final Mix: I'd imagine it'd include stuff like more songs, proper KH3 worlds, more teams, more skins and a bit more story maybe show casing what the other trios are doing. As much as I'd like it, the age of Final Mixes is kind of over and it's been a year with no signs of a DLC, which would make more sense for this era of gaming. Still I'd like to get more Melody of Memory content, hopefully a sequel isn't out of the question.

8) Kingdom Hearts Fragmentary Passages: 0.2 type episodes as games to fill out the year between KH3 ending and Limit Cut. Reusing assets from KH3 to give us Playable episodes as Aqua, Riku, Roxas and Kairi, either Filling out the year of expanding on stuff from Limit cut and Melody of Memory.

9) Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Re:Coded Ports: A port of the DS games either on the consoles or mobile. With how retro games are having success as ports lately, I could see them porting the games, with minor graphical tweaks.

10) Kingdom Hearts re:358/2 Days: A remake of the DS game either as a Console game or a a mobile game. This seems extremely unlikely, though there is a fan demand to be able to play and experience the game. Ideally the remake would improve some of the issues and make it a bit less repetitive in game play, perhaps add a few more puzzles and mini games to make the missions a bit more varied.
 

KingdomKurdistan

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I think 4 to 5 years should be long enough for the team that worked on KH3 to be able to be able to make another game, as long as they're sticking to the engine they used to make KH3.

It makes me so sad that there's such a defeatist sense of low expectations surrounding Square Enix's competence. How badly are they preforming for people to wish they stick to an obsolete old-gen game engine despite the developers of said engine doing everything possible to make the transition as smooth as can be.
 

AdrianXXII

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It makes me so sad that there's such a defeatist sense of low expectations surrounding Square Enix's competence. How badly are they preforming for people to wish they stick to an obsolete old-gen game engine despite the developers of said engine doing everything possible to make the transition as smooth as can be.
Oh I think i worded that poorly. It's not that I want them to stick with Unreal 4 and dont think they should upgrade the underlying engine software. My point was more that I didnt want them to throw out the work they did in KH3 and try and make another in house engine. I rather the reuse what they can and build upon Kingdom Hearts 3 and Re:Mind.

Mainly because i think, if they try and develop an engine and game at the same time, it'll just lead to more delays.
 

KingdomKurdistan

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Oh I think i worded that poorly. It's not that I want them to stick with Unreal 4 and dont think they should upgrade the underlying engine software. My point was more that I didnt want them to throw out the work they did in KH3 and try and make another in house engine. I rather the reuse what they can and build upon Kingdom Hearts 3 and Re:Mind.

Mainly because i think, if they try and develop an engine and game at the same time, it'll just lead to more delays.

I know, it wasn't a criticism of you. It's just a thing I've noticed a lot in discourse has Square Enix where they seem to be the only ones expected to struggle with stuff like this. Lots of people hoping they stay the old UE in case upgrading causes delays. Their fault for giving that impression.
 

Xblade13

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I know, it wasn't a criticism of you. It's just a thing I've noticed a lot in discourse has Square Enix where they seem to be the only ones expected to struggle with stuff like this. Lots of people hoping they stay the old UE in case upgrading causes delays. Their fault for giving that impression.
Part of the reason game development takes so long nowadays is because they keep trying to jump up in graphics and engine every game instead of iterating on something that already exists. The sole reason Call of Duty games come out so often is the reuse of engines and the multi studio pattern they have.

It's getting to the point where some games might look good when they start development, in comparison to the industry standard, but they take so long that they end up being left behind a bit by release. I think the bar people set for minimum visual quality has risen so high that companies can't keep up with it anymore. For me, I keep that bar at the same spot forever, so more games make me happy than it seems for most people, who think the bar has to be raised to each new outlier every time and get disappointed when every single game doesn't reach that peak.

It's why I think the AAA industry is headed for another video game crash and Indies are going to become the only regularly released quality left.
 

KingdomKurdistan

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Part of the reason game development takes so long nowadays is because they keep trying to jump up in graphics and engine every game instead of iterating on something that already exists. The sole reason Call of Duty games come out so often is the reuse of engines and the multi studio pattern they have.

It's getting to the point where some games might look good when they start development, in comparison to the industry standard, but they take so long that they end up being left behind a bit by release. I think the bar people set for minimum visual quality has risen so high that companies can't keep up with it anymore. For me, I keep that bar at the same spot forever, so more games make me happy than it seems for most people, who think the bar has to be raised to each new outlier every time and get disappointed when every single game doesn't reach that peak.

It's why I think the AAA industry is headed for another video game crash and Indies are going to become the only regularly released quality left.

Upgrading Unreal Engine isn't really the analogous, though. It isn't about graphical quality and I feel KH3 was already too photorealistic at times without justifying it artistically.

Systems change and get updated. The old UE was creaking and very limited for what modern games attempt to create. The new ones offers a lot more flexibility, efficiency, and headroom for game design. It does everything the previous one does but does it a lot quicker and more easily. That's before you factor in graphical upgrades and new features and expanded scope. And with the seamless migration process It's not like they have to discard anything previously developed.

In all industries, keeping up with the cutting edge applications is seen as desirable, especially for those at the forefront of said industry like SE is for gaming. It's odd to see such resistance (and misplaced resistance at that) among those who keep abreast of video game industry news.
 
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