Hello, everyone! The KH13 staff is very happy to announce the launch of our very own public Discord server! We recognize the immense value of live communication among online communities, and as a result, we came to the conclusion that a Discord server would be a perfect fit for users who prefer such an option. For you frequent forum users, please do not be worried; the forums will remain as well-supported and moderated as they have been for the past several years! This is simply being treated as another option for community members to interact with one another.
The server's various chat channels are divided in largely the same way as the forums, with Kingdom Hearts series discussion, memes, and fan art taking center stage. However, as with our forums, off-topic content and spoilers must be posted to their respective channels, in order to remain organized and allow newcomers to continue to enjoy the series unspoiled.
Unfortunately, due to the staff's existing duties, our current Discord moderation team is rather small as of the time of launch. As a result, we are seeking people who are willing and able to assist us in keeping our new server clean and safe for all Kingdom Hearts fans! If you would like to become a moderator of the KH13 Discord server, please use this form to apply for the position.
We hope that you enjoy our new Discord server, and everyone at KH13 looks forward to chatting with you!
What are your thoughts on this new server? Do you have any suggestions on how to improve it? Let us know in the comments, or perhaps even on the server itself!
New screenshots from the worlds of Kingdom of Corona, Hundred Acre Wood, and Twilight Town have been released, along with new information on the plot of Kingdom Hearts III in the form of cutscene subtitles and world blurbs from the official Japanese Kingdom Hearts III website!
From this information, we can confirm that:
A new form of magic, "Water", is present in the game; this screenshot shows "Watara" in green.
Marluxia is helping Gothel get Rapunzel back.
Rapunzel is one of the new Princesses of Heart.
Pascal and Maximus are present in the story.
Sora is told by Merlin that the cover of the Winnie the Pooh book has changed, and dives into the world of the book to investigate it.
Pete and Maleficent have found many "black boxes", but they have turned out to be not the one they were looking for.
Elsa is being chased by the Heartless.
Luxord declares parlay to Jack Sparrow in order to talk about how he is also looking for a black box.
KH13 News Team staff Mio-chan, xionskeyblade, and NihonScribe have kindly translated them for us. They are as follow.
Kingdom of Corona (from Tangled)
The setting of this world is from the movie Tangled. Rapunzel lived in a tower since she was young. She always hoped to leave and go see by herself the lights that appear every year at her birthday. She finally gather her courage, and along the way she encounters Flynn. But her mother, Gothel, goes after her. And it seems that Marluxia from Organization XIII is willing to help her. Just what is his goal…?
“Agreed!”
(or "We got this!" in context)
“Just give up.”
“They finally have their parent and child reunion, so be quiet and watch.”
“Her daughter, Rapunzel, is an important light to this world.”
“I’ll do anything to find it.”
“I worry so much about you.”
(The following screenshot seems to take place in Kingdom of Corona, but it could easily be somewhere else.)
"But where? We have no other choice than following them."
Hundred Acre Wood (from the Winnie the Pooh series)
The setting of the world is from the series Winnie The Pooh. Sora, who was told by Merlin that Pooh’s book cover changed, decided to visit the 100 Acre Wood to investigate its cause. A troubled Rabbit awaited him there…
“You sure love fruits Lumpy!”
“Rabbit has grown flowers just for Pooh’s sake, right?”
“Wait! It’s not over yet. Next up, we have to harvest fruits from the garden.”
“Sora, next up is the flower garden, but..”
“… Instead of greeting me, can you tell me if you had troubles or noticed anything unusual?”
Twilight Town
"There’s a lot of black boxes, and all end up being the wrong one!"
Toy Box from Toy Story
The setting of this world is from the movie Toy Story. An unexplainable incident arises in Andy’s room involving Woody and Andy’s toys. Andy and the other toys disappearance seems to add up with the Heartless arrival.
Monstropolis from Monsters, Inc.
The setting of this world is from the movie Monsters Inc., is. Sora steps into this world and becomes a monster. Sulley and Mike explain to Sora that Monsters Inc. is ‘turning the screams of human children into energy’. But Randall, who doesn’t like Sully, involves Sora and causes problems.
Arendelle from Frozen
The world of the movie Frozen opens with a snowy mountain, where Sora & co. are greeted by a chagrined Elsa. Sora is amazed by Elsa’s powers, but she is chased by the Heartless. As Sora tries to help her, he encounters a member of Organization XIII, Larxene.
The Caribbean (from Pirates of the Caribbean)
The setting of The Caribbean is from the adventure movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. Sora, Donald, and Goofy rowing towards World’s End, meet up once again with Jack Sparrow. Jack explains that he has a chance to defeat Davy Jones and that he is in search of a box. Organization XIII member Luxord appears declaring Parley, stating that he was also looking for a box.
Olympus (from Hercules)
The setting of this world is from the movie Hercules. Sora, who lost his powers and searches a way to recover them, came to this world to ask help from Hercules. Maleficent and Pete also came to this world looking for something: a box. There, they encounter Hades who wants to take revenge on Hercules…
San Fransokyo (from Big Hero 6)
Set after the movie Big Hero 6. Sora and his friends are excited to be in a big city, the likes of which Sora has never seen. There, they meet “Big Hero 6,” a group who stated that they are “protecting the city.” As they work together as a group with Sora to take down the Heartless, they encounter a strange enemy. Also, the one who stands in front of Sora is a figure donning the black coat who appears to be Riku…?
Japanese organization CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) has given Kingdom Hearts III a rating of A for content that is suitable for all ages. According to this rating, the game should contain no content that should offend children.
The rating is displayed on the Japanese website for the game.
Thanks @orange_desuyo_n for the tip!
Kingdom Hearts III has also been rated E10+ by ESRB and PG by ACB.
In Europe, it has been rated PEGI 12, according to which it shows "violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters or non-realistic violence towards human-like characters would fall in this age category." Furthermore, this rating allows: "sexual innuendo or sexual posturing can be present, while any bad language must be mild"; "gambling as it is normally carried out in real life in casinos or gambling halls can also be present (e.g. card games that in real life would be played for money)."
German organization USK (Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle) has rated the game 12 (suitable for those above 12 years of age). A general description of video game featured under this rating can be found below:
In an interview with Game Informer, Sony Interactive Entertainment has stated that they will not be participating in next year’s E3 as they are “exploring new and familiar ways to engage the community in 2019”. In the interview they stated that, "We are looking at events as a whole and how we can speak more to our fans and continue to wow them. The timing of PSX and E3 didn't allow for that, but lots of exciting things to come, and we hope to share shortly. Some of our biggest games will have key milestones next year so we will work hard to blow those up." The company also clarified that they will not be holding any press conferences around E3.
This news comes in light of the fact that we are entering the 25-year anniversary of the PlayStation, with games like the Final Fantasy 7 remake, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding and The Last of Us Part 2 in the pipeline, Sony has a big year ahead of them.
SuperGroupies will be releasing exclusive Kingdom Hearts III apparel themed after Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, and Axel! For a limited time between December 1-5, these character-themed clothing and accessories, including jackets, bags, watches, and jewelry, will be sold at a pop-up store at the Seibu Ikebukuro Main store. Preorders for limited items, item displays, and photo spots will be available for fans between December 1-5, with an estimated arrival date of late April. Fans will also be able to pose with a Twilight Town clock tower backdrop at the store!
For customers preordering at the Seibu Ikebukuro Main store or SuperGroupies online store, 2 posters will come with each item purchased! Newly drawn posters of characters wearing the limited time items and real life model posters will come in a set for the bonus! In the gallery below, you can find the drawing of Sora wearing his SuperGroupies themed apparel; more drawings of the other characters will be revealed soon.
You can find more information about the campaign here.
You can find more information about the products, including their product purchase pages, here.
You can find general promotional pictures below, along with a gallery for each character! You can also find a photo album of the designer, Keyblade designer, make-up artist, and photographer and pictures of the work behind this Kingdom Hearts III line! The artists behind the line were interviewed; we will publish a translation of the interview as soon as we can!
A video was also released showing footage of the make-up, dress-up, and photoshoot sessions for the models as they cosplay Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, and Axel, and put on their character-themed SuperGroupies apparel! You can watch it below.
Square Enix have updated the Press Site and the Japanese site with new screenshots and character renders from Kingdom of Corona and Hundred Acre Wood along with the world icons for both worlds. Also included are two screenshots of Pete and Maleficent from Twilight Town. You can view them in our galleries below.
In a now unavailable tweet, Twitter user @kh_amaru posted a scan of a Kingdom Hearts III feature on what seemed to be the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. You can see the scan below.
It seems that amongst the screenshots featured, one of the Tangled ones shows a never before published seen.
We will soon provide translations of any new information covered in this feature.
UPDATE [Nov 13, 2018]: While there is no new information on the game besides the new screenshot, Shonen Jump is giving away a copy of Kingdom Hearts III to 500 lucky readers! Translations are available thanks to KH13's Solis!
Barcelona Games World has announced the Kingdom Hearts III demo will be playable at their 2018 event. Kingdom Hearts Executive Directo Shinji Hashimoto has confirmed on Twitter that he will be in attendance.
Koch Media will provide six game booths with Kingdom Hearts III so that attendees at Barcelona Games World can play in part of the worlds of Hercules and Toy Story.
The event will take place from November 29th to December 2nd at the Fira Barcelona Gran Via in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. You can check out more about the event here .
From November 15, 2018 to November 18, 2018, Lisboa Games Week will be taking place in Lisbon, Portugal where the Kingdom Hearts III demo will be playable! Attendance will be 12€ on November 15th and 16th and 15€ on November 17th and 18th. The event's program guide can be viewed here. Thank you @Sakuraba Neku for the tip!
Will you be attending Lisboa Games Week? Let us know in the comments!
Kingdom Hearts III had the biggest public presence yet a little more than a week ago at Lucca Comics & Games 2018 in Italy. The Toy Box and Olympus demos were made playable, and the whole of Villa Bottini was turned into a gigantic Kingdom Hearts hub, with each room fashioned after different Disney worlds in Kingdom Hearts III with world musical themes to accompany the visuals. Andy’s room featured a gigantic table and other furniture, Arendelle had a sled and snow, The Caribbean transported visitors to the Black Pearl via treasure chests and the ship’s wheel on a model wooden stern, and fans could take pictures while hugging big cutouts of Baymax. Visiting the Villa with a special Kingdom Hearts passport and trying the demo were also awarded with lanyards, badges, and refreshing seasalt icecream.
The icing on the cake for Italian fans and those around the world, however, was the Share the Magic panel hosted on Saturday, November 3, at the Chiesa di San Francesco, with Kingdom Hearts III’s executive producer and brand manager Shinji Hashimoto as special guest. Hashimoto-san not only delivered information on what to expect from Kingdom Hearts III, which is coming out in less than three months; his visit also brought a new Kingdom Hearts III trailer (which we were more than happy to analyze)!
I was delighted to take part in this fantastic panel as a press member for KH13, and am happy to report the full panel to you, as follows. You can also take a look at our album for the event at the end of this article.
Many thanks to other attendees, such as @omniacrystallis, @MyriamSephiroth, @ventusdream, @MABE_GlaRpF and @fioririccardo4, whose pictures and tweets have been occasionally used and shared in this report where indicated.
(photo by @omniacrystallis)
Presenter (abbreviated hereon to P): Hi everyone! Welcome to the Share the Magic Kingdom Hearts III panel. We're here to talk about one of the most awaited games of the next year, and, before we start, I want to thank you all for your participation and the enjoyment you showed during these Lucca C&G days. I know that many of you had the chance to try the demo, and during today's panel we're going to focus on the mechanics of the gameplay of KH3. The panel will be fully in English, and some image material will also be shown. Pictures are allowed; filming, however, is not. Without further delay, I'd like to join me on stage Sunil Godhania, Community Manager for Square Enix.
(photo by @omniacrystallis)
Sunil: Thank you everyone for the stage introduction! Just like you guys I'm a Kingdom Hearts fan too, I grew up playing the games, and I'm very excited, I'm very humbled to be allowed the chance by the development team to let me be here today. So please, I'd like to ask you another round of applause for the amazing development team working on Kingdom Hearts III, who give me the chance to talk you about the game!
P: You can start talking about the series.
P: Okay, but first, we're here for what everyone has been waiting for, Kingdom Hearts III. Its gameplay is even better than before and even more fun. My question would be to speak about those new introduced features. I'd like to remember that the game releases on 29 January on both Xbox One and PS4.
Sunil: Maybe we should start with the story? Tetsuya Nomura said that one of the key themes of Kingdom Hearts III is "resolution", but also the conclusion of the Dark Seeker Saga, which runs around Master Xehanort, and I think it's a point that many of you are seeking to [finish] since the start of the franchise.
(photo by @omniacrystallis)
P: For the first time ever, in Kingdom Hearts III, players will be able to visit some favorite Disney and Pixar worlds.
Sunil: Yeah that's correct, that is the very first time in the saga that the people will be able to join Disney Pixar worlds, and actually I'm not sure if anyone has had the chance to try the KH3 demo. Did you enjoy the demo?
Crowd: "Woooo!”
Sunil: Did you also try seasalt icecream?
Crowd: "Woooo!”
P: So, maybe we move forward to the gameplay. Starting from the Keyblade in KH3 are more fun to use and even more powerful.
Sunil: Keyblades are the main weapons in KH. It’s the main [one] Sora uses. Each has its own design. Keyblade from Disney and Pixar worlds are very creative. Dev team paid close attention to details, points of interest from each film, and used references to build Keyblades from the ground up.
P: The amount of detail is just impressive.
Sunil: Yeah that's amazing. For example, the Toy Story Keyblade can transform into Hyperhammer and it’s the first time Keyblades can transform into alternative weapons. My favorite Keyblade transformation is Stormfall.
[Brief new gameplay with Baymax was also shown on screen. Sora was riding Baymax while "racing" through the bright circles on the highway in San Fransokyo.]
P: Let's move to something new in Kingdom Hearts III, the Attractions, never seen before.
Sunil: [Explains briefly what Attractions are, and gives examples like the teacups and pirate ship.]
(photo by @ventusdream)
[According to this source, new visuals of a fight with the Fire Titan was shown.]
P: About the team-up and the chances of using other characters, for example the Link system…
Sunil: Yes, that's right, you may recognize this guy from KH 3D Dream Drop Distance! [Talked about basics of Link systems and how excited they are about Meow Wow’s return.]
P: Let's move to something very important to the old fans of the series, the Gummiship.
(In this photo by @omniacrystallis, you can see a Gummiship constellation!)
(photo by @omniacrystallis)
Sunil: Gummiship allows player to move from different worlds in KH games...Now there's a special battle mode, and all the surrounding are massive.
P: Let's go on the minigames. I understand that in KH3 we'll have a lot of minigames.
Sunil: [Talked briefly about the mini-games in Kingdom Hearts III such as snowboarding with Goofy in Arendelle and Classic Kingdom mini-games.]
P: Right now, we have a very special guest joining us all the way from Tokyo to answer some of your questions about Kingdom Hearts III. So please join me to welcome him on stage, the Executive Producer Shinji Hashimoto. Hi Hashimoto-san!
Hashimoto: Buonasera, buonasera!
Crowd: *Cheers loudly*
P: Have you enjoyed your time in Italy so far?
Hashimoto: Yeah, I absolutely love Italy, thank you guys so much for having me here.
P: Thank you very much for joining us here. First of all, what can you tell us about your role in the series?
Hashimoto: It has been about 20 years now I've been working on the series, and for the first and second game I was just a producer, but this time around, I'm the executive producer and brand manager.
P: Can you talk to us about the origins of your involvement in the Kingdom Hearts series.
Hashimoto: So, I think you guys are probably referring to the elevator story. Some people think I met the CEO of Disney or something like that, but this was all before Square and Enix companies combined. The episodes goes back to when we were set in Meguro, Tokyo, and in the same building, also Disney Interactive's section dedicated to video game production was there. I ended up in the same elevator with the woman who was in charge of the games division. This woman was named Miss Yamamoto, she was a producer of Disney videogames. And she was also the one who approached me asking, "Oh, are you from Square?" Then she said "Oh I'd really love to talk to you about videogames, but, uh, of course we can't have a meeting like that in an elevator, so we should meet up in the meeting room and discuss about this." And back then, Disney was very interested into our company, and she said they really wanted to do something with us, and that's how the Kingdom Hearts series was born. I wonder why you guys are always up to [asking about] this elevator thing. *smiles*
Crowd: *laughs*
P: Okay now it's time for the Q&A session. We asked the community for some questions to ask to Hashimoto-san on KH3, and we selected some of them. The first one is about the story.
Question: “The story of this saga has lasted more than 10 years and has been spread over several consoles. Remake and remasters aside, will there be an official summary, to get as clear as possible all the events told so far?”
Hashimoto: So, we've actually already released these in Japan, but we made a series of 5 videos episodes to kind of summarize the story of Kingdom Hearts, and we're planning to release those around the world, so I hope you guys will keep following the story as it will get even more exciting in Kingdom Hearts III.
Question: Will post launch support happen in the short term, or do you have in mind to support the game over several years as you previously did for Final Fantasy XV?
Hashimoto: To be completely honest, I can't say too much to you guys about supporting the game post-release. However, we are considering DLCs, so wait a while, and we might reveal our plans in the future.
Question: Among the revealed worlds, what is your favourite? Which of the revealed worlds was the most difficult to achieve and why?
Hashimoto: Well I can say about a world that wasn’t included in previous games - for me personally, it’s Big Hero 6. It has such a huge map and there are airships with which you can fly to the skies, battle on the ground, there are so many ways you can play and enjoy your experience. In terms of what was difficult about the development, of course with new worlds that means there have to be a lot of new assets, backgrounds, new character designs; put all of that together and you get that it was very difficult.
Question: Thanks to a casual meeting in the elevator the project that gave birth to Kingdom Hearts was born: did you expect this great success?
Hashimoto: It has been fifteen years since now the first game came out, and honestly, in the very beginning, I didn't know what [kind of] game it was supposed to be. And of course a lot of incredible people wanted to be involved, like Mr. Tetsuya Nomura back then, and Disney has so many characters, and when I took all of them into consideration I couldn’t help but feeling something new was going to be born out of this. However, if you’re asking me if I thought it would have become such a success around the world, at the time I don’t think I would have really thought of it.
Question: Will this last chapter include dramatic moments that will bring some tears to the biggest fans of the series?
Hashimoto: So, this is something is really difficult to answer, as each person will feel very different… but I promise you there is lots of drama and lot of things you guys will surely be looking forward to.
Question: What is Hashimoto-san’s favourite memory from his many years working on the Kingdom Hearts series?
Hashimoto: So, like I keep saying, it has been 20 years since the beginning, and as the producer my job is to go around and make contracts, and to make the director and the rest of the group work on the game. Making a game is not simple, it’s actually a lot of work, and so moving on the game was done, it was produced and sold in Japan and then sold around the world. You know, when it’s your first game, the first game of a series, you’re not really sure if it’s gonna sell, but back then it didn’t even sell, it sold out, so it was mostly about re-producing and reproducing [more and more copies], and there was no digital selling option at the time. It’s kind of strange but I was very happy the game sold out, and so as a producer it was really great.
P: We’re almost over with the questions.
Crowd: [laughs]
Question: What’s your favourite Italian dish?
Hashimoto: [He said he really appreciated having dinner with ravioli alla bolognese or alla marinara (accompanied by red wine or fizzy water) and he found them so delicious he thought those were some kind of speciality or something. He might have been talking about tordelli lucchesi?]
P: Any last messages?
Hashimoto: I just want to say thank you to all of you for being here tonight, it’s not very long now until the game comes out, so for all of you who haven’t reserved it yet make sure you do!
Hashimoto: [Asks crowd to pose for a selfie]
[After this, it was said that Nomura wanted to come to Lucca as well, but he couldn’t. However, they had a trailer to show to the fans.]
(photo by @omniacrystallis)
You can take a look at my adventure and Kingdom Hearts III promotion through Lucca and Villa Bottini in the album below, and follow our live coverage of Lucca Comics & Games 2018 here!
![Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross]](https://www.khwiki.com/images/9/93/Kingdom_Hearts_Union_X_Logo_KHUX.png){kind=logo}
