I'm gonna be honest... I think while it's fine to be disappointed, some of the reactions all around the internet like "Kingdom Hearts is ruined!" and "THIS IS THE WORST THING TO EVER HAPPEN!!!" are absolutely outta pocket lmao. Freaking out so much, even Chicken Little is like "damn bro chill." Let's all relax and eat some Sea Salt Ice Cream.
First off, I know it's cool to #BlameNomura for everything regarding KH, but let's not forget the interview he did not that long ago when the UX Team came to him with a "groundbreaking idea" which will become the "double feature". He didn't come up with it,
they did. Proof:
In regards to KH scenarios, I wrapped up the story for Re Mind, as well as the two story quests for UX. All that is left is to finish the remaining two story quests. However, I have received another mysterious request... Let’s just say this request involves an unannounced 3rd story line for KH. Once I complete this mysterious request, I’ll complete the 2 remaining story quests for UX.
And once all of that is complete, the 3 story lines will ○○○○○○○……
Very intriguing, right?
Now that things have calmed down after the release of KH III, the KH Series has been growing with many more phases with many things in the horizon. Please continue to love and support KINGDOM HEARTS Union χ[Cross]!
The other day, some UX Staff members came to me for some shocking consultation. I think a revolution of change may fall upon UX.
The hint is “double-feature.”
Until next time!
Secondly, while it would've been great to have a full console game for Xehanort (and it's not impossible to get this in the future eventually), remember that Nomura himself said that he didn't have the time to do it, because the saga wouldn't end if he did. But with the Foretellers/Master of Masters coming to the forefront, Xehanort defeated, and Union X possibly reaching its climax with all the mysteries currently unfolding, it might really be important for us to know what exactly Xehanort saw that made him change.
What's the "quickest" (Iol not really when you look at UX BUT technically...) way to get the story out? A Union X-style mobile phone game. Dev time wouldn't be as strenuous as a fully-fledged AAA title, the art style and system is familiar so it's not requiring a huge overhaul (which is why it'll be in the UX game launcher), and despite what people say, we all DO care about the story very much. So when you consider what would be the most efficient, this makes a ton of sense. Everyone would love a 0.2/BBS style Xehanort game, but if our choices are either UX-style or nothing, at least we're getting
something. Besides. When UX JP updates the story every month, it's a big discussion on KH Twitter. The fact that we have potentially TWO stories updating every month makes things a lot more active, so while it's not the A1 idea we all want, it's a lot better than silence from DDD to X[Chi] to BBS 0.2.
Thirdly, I'm interested in the premise of the battle system. On the left-side, it has something that reminds me of FFX's CBT (or Conditional Turned-Based Battle/Count Time Battle), where it shows the Act List and how many turns Xehanort and Eraqus have before the Enemy strikes. They've said it's more fast-paced, so this is most likely going to be less like UX where you just use all your medals in one turn and hope it's enough to defeat your enemy before they nail you on their turn, and more like a turn-based system with the cards either doing different attacks or having certain abilities attached to it (so one card does damage x0.5, one card could paralyze the enemy, meaning you gain an extra turn, and so on).
What's interesting is that there's no HP bars for the enemy. Instead, there's a Heartless icon and BP icon with numerical values, a back button and an Info button... So there's most likely more to this new system than what we can see from one screenshot. Next to Xehanort's HP Icon, we see Status Boosts, three small icons with a space between the next three, so three might be for Xehanort and the other three for Eraqus. The more I'm looking at this, the more I think that there's definitely a lot of reworking done into this system, so I'm gonna remain optimistic! I'm digging it.
Also, you can see in the empty slot where the cards are held, the emblem for the Book of Prophecies is present. Maybe like the medals in Union X, the Book of Prophecies is granting them powers throughout this experience. As a matter of fact, it's strange how Eraqus and Xehanort even had an opportunity to explore the Age of Fairy Tales, because as far as we know through regular time-travelling means, that shouldn't be possible. There's that weird machine thing that was revealed in the latest UX update, and we saw that machine all the way back in KH1, but as far as we know... That machine was never finished (unless it eventually was?), so that might not be it either.
The only other idea I have is that the whole world tour is a projection itself, sort of like what was going on in UX, but in reverse. Young Xehanort and the Master of Masters are shown meeting in the ReMind trailer (YX was given the black coat by the MoM), and MoM seemed to know all about YX going on that journey. So it couldn't have been the first time they met. What if he was the one that allowed all this to happen, and that's why Emblem Heartless are showing up? Timeline-wise, they shouldn't exist. But if it's all a projection, it would make sense. The precedence is there.
Overall though, I think while it's natural to be disappointed, I think we should wait and see because there might actually be more to this than we know. Of course, it doesn't help that there's barely any information out, but they did say it's a standalone title, so there'd have to be reasons for this. If not, they could've just done what they did for the Keyblade War and make it a special event or something.