Disney + Final Fantasy = a long-awaited, chaotic rampage of shiny awesomeness!

If, like me, you’ve been waiting for the return of the twisted lovechild of Disney and Square Enix, the wise head developer Tetsuya Nomura has answered our prayers.

Officially announced at last week’s D23 expo, Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of those games we thought was never gonna happen. Since the release of Kingdom Hearts 2 in 2005, fans have been yearning for the next game.

The main character is an adolescent boy named Sora roams between worlds from various Disney movies with his friends Goofy, captain of Disney Castle’s knights, and Donald, Disney Castle’s court mage; wrecking evil creatures known as Heartless with his magical Keyblade as they go.

If you haven’t guessed yet, the king of Disney Castle is Mickey Mouse, another Keyblade wielder who plays a key role (pun intended) in the game’s story.

The series, despite being heavily influenced by Disney, is not going to be easily understood by kids. It’s got one of the most complex, convoluted stories (thanks, Japan) in gaming history. Which is so long and complicated, I can’t even remember the reasons why most of the things in the game actually happened.

In fact, the lore is so deep, they couldn’t even cover everything in just two games. The franchise has spawned multiple titles across many platforms, each telling different stories and filling in the gaps left by the main titles.

The games fall under the ‘action RPG’ genre, with a heavy focus on combat which can never be considered dull or boring in any way.

Fight scenes are packed to the brim with sparkles, fireballs, lightning bolts, and all manner of insanity.

Now that I’ve finished trying to sell you guys this game, let’s get on with it.

Not much is known about what the story in KH3 will be about, but we do know which worlds it will include. A reworked Olympus Coliseum (Hercules) will make a return, as well as the new additions of Tangled, Big Hero 6, and Toy Story.

Earlier this year, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 was released, which featured an HD version of KH2, along with several unnumbered titles. Back then, everyone was like: “We don’t want this, give us part 3!” So why did it take so long?

Nomura stated that they had switched to a different graphics engine midway through development, which caused some delays. “There was a decision made to switch to an external engine… Unreal Engine 4.

So there was a bit of a setback there, but it was a decision the company had to make, so it was inevitable.”

All the waiting has finally paid off, and a 2018 release date has been confirmed. After only catching a whiff of it at E3 2013, and having to wait 15 years for the next numbered game in the series, a year of release is good enough for me.

There better not be any more delays, or I will hold the development team at gunpoint myself.

– Tyler Roodt

Categories: Education