Mobile Portal

[Luminary]

Thanks to Nomura’s comments at the premiere, we know the device Sora play Classic Kingdom on is called the Mobile Portal and will have many other features besides CK. Of course, an obvious one is a camera mode. Judging by the picture taken on it with HPO and Donald, I’d say this feature has a 95% chance of inclusion.

But I just had another theory about something it might be used for.

In the demos, I don’t see any save points. My first reaction was it was unnecessary to have saving in a demo. However, I then noticed that there was auto saving happening with the word “saving” appearing under Sora’s health bar. While it could still just be a demo thing, it got me thinking. What if they do away with save points?

(Yes, they were in the Orchestra trailer. But I have a possible explanation for that.)

This Mobile Portal seems likely to be the KH version of Breath of the Wild’s Sheikah Slate. What if it is called the Mobile Portal because it allows us to access the Gummi ship, teleport to locations around the worlds like in .2, and save the game manually whenever/wherever we choose? This being the case would also explain the save points in Olympus as Sora probably doesn’t have the Mobile Portal yet.

To me, it would make a lot of sense to delegate the save point’s features to this device. While a staple of the series, they’re a bit obsolete. But adding the Mobile Portal would provide an in-universe explanation for moving on from them.

Whay do you guys think?

 

[Chaser]

Save portals are in. We've seen them and, like 0.2, were disabled for this demo.

Higher difficulties in 0.2, like critical mode, do not reward the player with HP and MP drops from enemies or items in the environment. To refill Focus, you would need to buy a bunch of items (were there any items in 0.2 that refilled only Focus?) and then pop them off every so often whereas having save portals lets the player recharge for free, as is done in previous games.

The autosave is because the areas are so large, if you die they don't want you to have to redo a bunch of progress. Previous games, clicking continue meant loading your file from when you entered a room / after a cutscene. Now it will take you back to the latest autosave so you're not taken all the way back to the start of Galaxy Toys and your progress wiped.

Throwing saves behind a device is what most games do. I've just finished Yakuza 6 where I could only save my game through the mobile phone, however it is my understanding that this is how it has always been done in the games (the only other game I've played, Yakuza 0, had saving through phone boxes because mobile phones weren't a thing).

For KH3 to throw their save behind a device, I feel, would lose the importance of the saves themselves. Knowing a save is there because a big battle is coming up lets you prepare and brings your excitement up. Getting to have a free refill of your HP, MP, and Focus is a joy because, if anyone is like me, items are rarely used because I tell myself they are saved for special occasions but then never use them at all).

 

[Meow Wow]

https://youtu.be/GNebfmXqHQ4

At about 20 seconds in, you can see a save point appearing...

0.2 had save spots along with auto save, it is hard to see due to the sizing issues of the screen. KH3 will be no different. There is no reason to get rid of save spots. They also serve more importance than saving. What about healing and restoring mp/focus? If they got rid of save spots, how are you supposed to utilize the save points other features?

Demos don't have save spots because they're short. You're SUPPOSED to beat them in one go. I think the mobile portal is going to act as a sort of journal, that's all.

 

[Ranma]

Save points aren't being replaced, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Mobile Portal allows you to teleport to previous save points.

 

[Luminary]

https://youtu.be/GNebfmXqHQ4

At about 20 seconds in, you can see a save point appearing...

0.2 had save spots along with auto save, it is hard to see due to the sizing issues of the screen. KH3 will be no different. There is no reason to get rid of save spots. They also serve more importance than saving. What about healing and restoring mp/focus? If they got rid of save spots, how are you supposed to utilize the save points other features?

Demos don't have save spots because they're short. You're SUPPOSED to beat them in one go. I think the mobile portal is going to act as a sort of journal, that's all.

I explained that save point’s presence in the post. It would be before Sora gets the Mobile Portal. So that one save point’s presence doesn’t disprove my theory.

Just because things have have been done one way in the past doesn’t mean they have to be done the same way in future titles. It’s part of the series’ innovation. We no longer need a party menu. MP refills automatically, which can then be used for restoring health. We’ll also have access to shops for purchasing items, which Aqua didn’t. As for Focus, it really isn’t as necessary as it was in .2 since Sora has so many other abilities besides Shotlocks that don’t consume Focus. Shotlocks can be more for rare occasions and you would need to be more strategic about when and how you use them.

As for the save point’s other features, we don’t need a party menu anymore and everything else could integrated with the Mobile Portal. We already know it’s separate from the journal as Yasue made clear that Jiminy’s Journal is another way to access Classic Kingdom besides the Mobile Portal. The journal could become part of the Mobile Portal, but it is definitely not its sole purpose. It is also how Sora plays Classic Kingdom and Nomura conformed there are several other functions. It seems to be something he is really excited about.

Chaser, as for having them to prep for bosses, that wasn’t the case in .2. The only boss that had a save point right before it was the first Demon Tide. Phantom Aqua, Darkside, and the Devil’s Tide didn’t have bosses right before them. I think KH3 is going for more unexpected encounters.

While .2 gives us a good idea of what KH3 was back when it was developed in 2016, I don’t think it is necessarily an exact blueprint of what KH3 will be like now that it has had two more years to evolve. The Mobile Portal itself probably wasn’t even thought of at that point, especially since there would have been no reason for it in such a short game. It also wouldn’t have been good to change it then since it was coupled with DDD. It kept a consistency between those two paired games.

 

[Chaser]

I’m out and about so I can’t fully reply, but we’ve seen a save point in the Monsters Inc world. They’re in.

 

[Luminary]

I’m out and about so I can’t fully reply, but we’ve seen a save point in the Monsters Inc world. They’re in.

I’m guessing you’re referring to the leaked screenshots since we don’t see it in a trailer? Those appear to be from a much earlier build than where the game was actually at in development when those released. The character models weren’t even finished in those. The save function could easily have changed between then and now.

We’ll see what happens. It’s not like it’s a big deal if they’re still in. It’s a classic feature. But it’s one that doesn’t have to be necessary anymore.

 

[Meow Wow]

I explained that save point’s presence in the post. It would be before Sora gets the Mobile Portal. So that one save point’s presence doesn’t disprove my theory.

Than I would recommend editing your original post so it says D23 2017 trailer, because this isn't the orchestra trailer.

Just because things have have been done one way in the past doesn’t mean they have to be done the same way in future titles. It’s part of the series’ innovation.

Don't know what's so innovating about taking away save spots, but ok.

We no longer need a party menu.

Because KH3 is on a more powerful engine. I wouldn't consider that innovation, because if the old kh games had the capability to have all party members at once, they would.

MP refills automatically, which can then be used for restoring health.

It did in KH2. Didn't hinder anything about the save point at all.

Think about it like this. If the journal had the same functionality as the save spots in KH2, how much would it hinder progress? It would make the game a lot more of a pain in the butt to play. If you needed to level grind limit form, you would have to leave Agrabah every time you ran out of mp. All because you wouldn't be able to wait without depleting the drive gauge. Or what if you're speed running? If you need to quickly heal, and you are low on items, how are you gonna get a quick heal without a save point?

We’ll also have access to shops for purchasing items, which Aqua didn’t.

I don't see a point in wasting items outside of battle. Realistically speaking, you won't have 99 of each item and they'll be used in emergencies. What about scarcity? If specific items are scarce, that means players will be less likley to use them. I'm not saying potions will be scarce, because they won't. But what about healing your party. Save points do that too. You can't rely on cure to heal your party. You wouldn't use 5 potions to heal everybody. You probably wouldn't be using any camping sets or cottages because they're also scarce. You WOULD use a save spot tho.

As for Focus, it really isn’t as necessary as it was in .2 since Sora has so many other abilities besides Shotlocks that don’t consume Focus. Shotlocks can be more for rare occasions and you would need to be more strategic about when and how you use them.

Maybe for your play style. But some may rely on shotlocks more for their individual play styles.

I’m guessing you’re referring to the leaked screenshots since we don’t see it in a trailer? Those appear to be from a much earlier build than where the game was actually at in development when those released. The character models weren’t even finished in those. The save function could easily have changed between then and now.

Having no save spots would need to be a decision made VERY early in development. Removing them after they were established would take a lot of time that could be used developing the game further.

 

[Leaferian]

Also, save points are 99.999999% likely to be the destination for teleporting just like every other Kingdom Hearts game (except Days I think). They have always had this feature, and it returned as recently as 0.2 with a revamped interface/teleportation explanation. If you're gonna have them in for teleport points there's no reason to disable the healing or saving functionalities. But, also...

I think there's an even more important point than how useful save points as a feature are. And that is that Nomura Tetsuya himself said that he doesn't like taking options away from the players. Even if they did add a method to save or load via the Mobile Portal at any time, there would be no reason to REMOVE save points as an option, and limiting their usage to teleport pads is just outright taking options out of the player's hands and Nomura doesn't do that if he can avoid it.


I can agree that it would be nice to have the save system integrated as a Mobile Portal option, but there's no way that will come at the expense of the base system.

 

[Luminary]

Than I would recommend editing your original post so it says D23 2017 trailer, because this isn't the orchestra trailer.


Don't know what's so innovating about taking away save spots, but ok.


Because KH3 is on a more powerful engine. I wouldn't consider that innovation, because if the old kh games had the capability to have all party members at once, they would.


It did in KH2. Didn't hinder anything about the save point at all.

Think about it like this. If the journal had the same functionality as the save spots in KH2, how much would it hinder progress? It would make the game a lot more of a pain in the butt to play. If you needed to level grind limit form, you would have to leave Agrabah every time you ran out of mp. All because you wouldn't be able to wait without depleting the drive gauge. Or what if you're speed running? If you need to quickly heal, and you are low on items, how are you gonna get a quick heal without a save point?


I don't see a point in wasting items outside of battle. Realistically speaking, you won't have 99 of each item and they'll be used in emergencies. What about scarcity? If specific items are scarce, that means players will be less likley to use them. I'm not saying potions will be scarce, because they won't. But what about healing your party. Save points do that too. You can't rely on cure to heal your party. You wouldn't use 5 potions to heal everybody. You probably wouldn't be using any camping sets or cottages because they're also scarce. You WOULD use a save spot tho.


Maybe for your play style. But some may rely on shotlocks more for their individual play styles.


Having no save spots would need to be a decision made VERY early in development. Removing them after they were established would take a lot of time that could be used developing the game further.

Allowing you to save when you choose gives the player more freedom. Most game franchises have moved from using save points to allowing manual saving anywhere. It’s a pretty common thing in the current game generation. Save points are a concept from the 90’s.

KH1 and 2 had three party members because that was the standard set by Final Fantasy games. It probably also had to do with the engine, but upgrading the technology allowed them have more. So yeah, that’s an innovation for the series. Innovation means to introduce something new or make a change to something established.

The Mobile Portal is not the journal. They are separate things. The interview with Nomura and Yasue made that clear. KH3 doesn’t operate with KH2’s mechanics. The form transformations operate totally different from KH2’s drives so you don’t have to worry about fleeing to a save point to keep your maxed out gauge. If you’re in a room where a save point would be present, you can likely wait a few seconds for your MP to regenerate and then heal.

The Mobile Portal could also include an online Moogle Shop which we haven’t seen yet. So if you’re down on items, just pull out your Mobile Portal and make a purchase. KH2 Moogle Shops could transport items to you through a hologram station, so they could certainly do it over the Mobile Portal.

Tents often didn’t serve much purpose due to Curaga’s area of effect in KH2 and the presence of save points. I personally rarely used them. Getting rid of save points could actually make them an essential item.

Not really. If they’re there, they took them out for the demo. I don’t think it would be as difficult as you think it would be to change it.

I also had the idea that rather than taking save points away, the Mobile Portal could allow you to set up your own where you choose. Allow you like four per world and you can pick them up and set them down wherever you want. That way if you needed to leave the world and wanted to come back to a specific spot, you could set up a save point to transport yourself back to that specific spot when you return.

 

[Chaser]

Chaser, as for having them to prep for bosses, that wasn’t the case in .2. The only boss that had a save point right before it was the first Demon Tide. Phantom Aqua, Darkside, and the Devil’s Tide didn’t have bosses right before them. I think KH3 is going for more unexpected encounters.

I wasn't referring to 0.2 with the save points before big events. You're emotional after the Demyx battle and you fight heartless alongside various Final Fantasy characters. It's tough, it's fun, you don't know what's coming. You reach that little cavern and Goofy joins the party again. A small bit of hope in this epic fight. Considering what you just went through, you consider that maybe it's over but you're in an area in the middle of a war and there's a save point. You know that they want you to heal up and save your game because there's something big just ahead.

Same with The World That Never Was. You have just breached the castle and fought off lesser Nobodies and you know that your presence will soon be acknowledged by Organization XIII. You get a small breather in a room with a stair case and there's a save point next to a Moogle shop. "Oh crap", you think to yourself, "shit is about to get real".

While .2 gives us a good idea of what KH3 was back when it was developed in 2016, I don’t think it is necessarily an exact blueprint of what KH3 will be like now that it has had two more years to evolve. The Mobile Portal itself probably wasn’t even thought of at that point, especially since there would have been no reason for it in such a short game. It also wouldn’t have been good to change it then since it was coupled with DDD. It kept a consistency between those two paired games.

The Mobile Portal was thought of back in 2016. You don't come up with this kind of idea for mini-games that late in development. To plan and implement those mini-games takes time, and you also have to participate in a collect-a-thon in order to get them all. That requires level planning, game design, graphic and art designers, and testers to work in conjunction to perform trial and error to get it to work.

They also had to have some idea of what world they would be bringing to UX in 2015 when they announced that a world never used before in KH would be brought in. They were silent on it for so long because they would have just decided when the KH3 mini-games are completely ready, they could implement them in UX.

I’m guessing you’re referring to the leaked screenshots since we don’t see it in a trailer? Those appear to be from a much earlier build than where the game was actually at in development when those released. The character models weren’t even finished in those. The save function could easily have changed between then and now.

We’ll see what happens. It’s not like it’s a big deal if they’re still in. It’s a classic feature. But it’s one that doesn’t have to be necessary anymore.

I'm a bit surprised you're so dismissive of what was seen during development and trailers considering you build a whole theory about July being the release date out of a flyer that had three Julia dolls for sale. I think if you can stretch your imagination to that kind of extreme, you can deal with save points still being a thing in Kingdom Hearts III.

 

[alexis.anagram]

I like the idea of having both options. Save points can act as markers of key areas in the world which would be helpful given the enhanced scale of them, but with all the space between save points, manual saving using the Mobile Portal would help take the pressure off the player to have to traverse back and forth over vast distances to find the nearest spot to save and turn off the game. I'd like it if the Portal feels integrated into the core concept of the game rather than ornamental. As it stands right now I'm pretty ambivalent about it: the mini-game function doesn't interest me and I can't see myself using a photo/camera mode either, unless there's an in-game mandate to do so. Something like the Camera Man from Earthbound, ha.

I also like Ranma's suggestion that the Portal could act as a teleportation device between save points. Serves the same function as manual saving, basically.

 

[Luminary]

I'm a bit surprised you're so dismissive of what was seen during development and trailers considering you build a whole theory about July being the release date out of a flyer that had three Julia dolls for sale. I think if you can stretch your imagination to that kind of extreme, you can deal with save points still being a thing in Kingdom Hearts III.

I haven’t dismissed anything from a trailer. Why are you guys still bringing up a silly theory about the possibility of the release date being an Easter egg that I made clear several times wasn’t something I really thought would happen? (But the poster WAS from a trailer and is still present as of Thursday, while the save point was from a stolen developer’s screenshot from who knows when.) Seriously, several times that I’ve posted something a staff member doesn’t like, that theory is thrown in my face. The next time it happens, I’m withdrawing myself from this forum and discontinuing my support of KHI. There’s no point in me contributing here if that is just going to be used against me any time I make a theory that someone doesn’t have a better way of discrediting. So I kindly ask that you set the gracious example and please not bring that up again as I’ve already withdrawn any belief I had in that theory. If it were something I was still clinging onto, I could see the reason for bringing it up. But I’ve been saying for weeks now that I think November is the best time for release.

I don’t know what has you under this impression that I won’t be able to deal with save points returning? Just because I bring up a theory of how they might be replaced does not mean I have some crazy vendetta against save points. It’s not a big deal at all one way or another. I just wanted to discuss the theory.

Now back to the topic which I would prefer we stay on:

I get what you’re saying and it was great for a PS2 game. But Kingdom Hearts 3 and most modern games opt for an experience that is more seamless. Having to stop to save interrupts the flow of actually playing the game, which is why autosave is so useful. It saves the game without the player having to stop playing. Then when they want to quit, they save right where they are and come back to the same spot later.

Do you have a source that the Mobile Portal was in development at that time? I mean, I think they’d be more focused on more important features at that point like constructing the worlds which weren’t even finished as of February. Mobile Portal and Classic Kingdom are not the same thing. Even if CK was in development that far back, it doesn’t mean that the Mobile Portal was. They could have been planning another method of playing them like in an arcade or something. We haven’t even seen a PS4 build of the games yet, so they’re probably still working on integrating them as we speak.

I actually really like Leaferian’s proposition that they could use both systems. We could use the Mobile Portal to teleport to any save point instantly. That way we could escape from hairy situations if needed. Keep the functionality of healing and all that for save points, but the Mobile Portal could let you fast travel between them and also perform Quick Saves or allow you to jump to Gummi Ship from any location.

 

[Chaser]

I haven’t dismissed anything from a trailer. Why are you guys still bringing up a silly theory about the possibility of the release date being an Easter egg that I made clear several times wasn’t something I really thought would happen? (But the poster WAS from a trailer and is still present as of Thursday, while the save point was from a stolen developer’s screenshot from who knows when.) Seriously, several times that I’ve posted something a staff member doesn’t like, that theory is thrown in my face. The next time it happens, I’m withdrawing myself from this forum and discontinuing my support of KHI. There’s no point in me contributing here if that is just going to be used against me any time I make a theory that someone doesn’t have a better way of discrediting. So I kindly ask that you set the gracious example and please not bring that up again as I’ve already withdrawn any belief I had in that theory. If it were something I was still clinging onto, I could see the reason for bringing it up. But I’ve been saying for weeks now that I think November is the best time for release.

I brought it up because both your theory and a save point came from the same trailer. You publicised that theory pretty much everywhere so I was just bringing up a point that in that same trailer, we saw a save point. I just don't see the point of having them only be a thing in a single world, replaced by a device given a world later. I know the plot reasons for why the device is given to Sora, but I think it'd be rather stupid to teach the player that "you save via these save points" and then take that away an hour or two later with "actually, no you use this device and only this device from now on".

Also, I'm not staff. I'm an independent contractor who helps out when others are busy or asleep (which, ironically, is most of the time). If I see holes or flaws in a theory, then I express my own independent points about how it doesn't work or show that things .

I don’t know what has you under this impression that I won’t be able to deal with save points returning? Just because I bring up a theory of how they might be replaced does not mean I have some crazy vendetta against save points. It’s not a big deal at all one way or another. I just wanted to discuss the theory.

I don't think you have a crazy vendetta against save points. I just think you're whole argument of "they've been removed because they're archaic" is flawed, as is the idea that Square Enix would remove them based on the success of some Nintendo games.

I get what you’re saying and it was great for a PS2 game. But Kingdom Hearts 3 and most modern games opt for an experience that is more seamless. Having to stop to save interrupts the flow of actually playing the game, which is why autosave is so useful. It saves the game without the player having to stop playing. Then when they want to quit, they save right where they are and come back to the same spot later.

I know the whole purpose of an autosave, but the existence of it in the demo proves that it is just so if the player dies they don't have to re-do everything. It doesn't completely dismiss the existence of save points, nor does it prove that a device like the Mobile Portal is now being used to save or teleport.

Do you have a source that the Mobile Portal was in development at that time? I mean, I think they’d be more focused on more important features at that point like constructing the worlds which weren’t even finished as of February. Mobile Portal and Classic Kingdom are not the same thing. Even if CK was in development that far back, it doesn’t mean that the Mobile Portal was. They could have been planning another method of playing them like in an arcade or something. We haven’t even seen a PS4 build of the games yet, so they’re probably still working on integrating them as we speak.

Obviously there is no source for the Mobile Portal, as I do not believe anyone knew it was a thing before last April, but these kinds of things are planned well in advanced for video games. They aren't decided on and implemented so late in development, and different teams within a company work on different parts of the games. Most were working on worlds, but that doesn't stop a handful of developers from working on the games so the point about the worlds not being finished doesn't really stand because not everyone is working on the worlds.

For Ralph to have been chosen as the UX world, they would need to know the gimmick for which it would have relevance. Even if, in 2015, they didn't know that it would be Ralph, they knew that it would be an original world not used before and won't be used in KH3. With Wreck-it-Ralph being the world, it gave them time to port the mini-games and make them work with touch screens. That is Classic Kingdom, yes, but this doesn't mean that the Mobile Portal hadn't been considered at all at that time though, or was a recent invention.

 

[Launchpad]

Damn I'm posting in this epic thread to remind myself to check later; I know it's gonna be a sizzlin' one

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Seriously, several times that I’ve posted something a staff member doesn’t like, that theory is thrown in my face. The next time it happens, I’m withdrawing myself from this forum and discontinuing my support of KHI.

Sorry, but this was on my radar while scoping the recent posts. All Chaser was trying to point out was that you have used less evidence for a theory in the past, but proof was presented to you on why save points might be in and you attempted to dismiss it. He was only pointing out a double standard and not trying to use your "July" theory against you in any malicious manner.

Also just in general, we are all human beings with varying opinions and you shouldn't try to think that Chaser or any user online will agree with you on everything...or anything really.

When you post a theory to a public forum, that opens it up to critique. If you have had theories that were correct or incorrect in the past, you need to acknowledge that those theories can and will inform others on how they respond to your future posts. In general, it is how peer review works.

But that is all I really have to say on the matter.

I don't really care about save points and how they will be implemented. Just as long as we have access to saving and area teleporting like in past games, I'm cool.

 

[Luminary]

I haven’t dismissed anything that was presented in a trailer or any legally shown footage/screens. I’ve only offered explanation of how it could still fit with the idea. As far as the illegally leaked images go, I’m not saying they have absolutely changed. I’m only saying that those screens were from far enough back that it could have been changed if Square Enix wanted to change it. San Fransokyo wasn’t included in those leaked files with the screenshots and Monster’s Inc was confirmed to be one of the early developed worlds, so this could potentially be from as far back as 2015 before BH6 was confirmed. We don’t know.

The thing is, I try not to deal in ultimatums that things have to be one way or another because we ultimately don’t know what all has happened or will happen during development of the game. Things can and do change during the development process. So unlike some people, I’m willing to consider that changes might have been made.

I’ve had plenty of ideas hit and just as many miss. I don’t expect everyone or anyone to agree with me. I WANT to discuss the ideas I have and see what people like or dislike about them. That’s why I’m here and it’s how the ideas grow and get refined. (Like how Leaferian’s post made me think it would be a good idea to integrate both systems together.) Or I humbly rescind them if they get completely disproven, as in the case of my July theory.

 

[Chuman]

i am from july and this game is pretty great. also i miss savepoints and my family