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IGN have recently published a feature and a video on talking with members of the Kingdom Hearts III development team about working with Disney in this project. Toru Yamazaki (art director), Kayoko Yajima (lead facial animator), Tai Yasue (co-director), Koji Inoue and Munenori Shinagawa (animation directors), and Tetsuya Nomura (series director) talked about the rewards and challenges working with Disney and Pixar for the game. The video also shows the Square Enix developers show off some of the work they used for the development. (For those who haven't player or finished Kingdom Hearts III yet, be aware that the video contains some cutscene and gameplay footage from the game.) In the video, Yamazaki explained how in previous titles they would recreate the characters from scratch based off the properties, whereas for Kingdom Hearts III they asked Disney to share their resources with them. Disney have provided the original polygon shapes of characters with guidelines on how to add more detail, such as hair and clothes) on them. However, things didn't always go as planned as those resources were not originally made to be used in a video game. For example, models' joints weren't defined and so had to be added manually and physics-enabled objects like capes needed to be particularly revisited. Of course, making sure your game is as accurate to the film as possible means there needed to be lots of things to be approved over time. Both Disney and Square wanted to make sure that the team were doing an incredible job at recreating their magic and sometimes were there approving things every step of the way. It seemed that every single detail in the process had to get approved before even moving on to the next scene, and any change that they had made needed to be explained. Disney and Pixar not only required changes after things were made; Square needed their approval at almost every stage from concept to finished product. According to Yasue, cutscenes were the most inspected element in the game perhaps due to portraying the source material most intimately. With things needing to be approved almost every minute, other things they had an easier chance with. As it turns out, the crazier the change to the original property the more likely it had a chance of being approved. This is because changing the character so it is not the same but still recognizable, Disney didn't make a fuss due to perceiving it as a new character altogether. For gameplay, they team brainstormed ideas that they thought Disney would be likely to approve for its world and characters before letting them see a walkthrough and accepting comments. Painstakingly, every single gameplay action was scrutinized to the smallest detail. However, Disney's role was not only to correct, but to collaborate as well as things had to have some sort of continuity. For instance, Inoue mentioned that when Square approached Disney with a story about a Wreck-It Ralph summon that pounds the ground, Disney recalled a scene from the movie where he did exactly that. Inoue also talked about how pleased Pixar animators were to see their IPs, such as Monsters, Inc., recreated with technology superior to what they had when those movies were first made. Along with making the Disney experience in Kingdom Hearts III more authentic, getting feedback for their project ended up helping the Square developers in the long run to become better animators and storytellers. Working with Disney was one thing, but also working with Pixar was very different. Pixar was in fact more attached to their property, approving more stages of production and participating in weekly conference calls with the animation teams to ensure the most accurate representation of their IPs. Both Disney and Pixar kept their teams of animators intact following the release of their IPs - and they all had a say in the reproduction of their work in Kingdom Hearts III. Nomura went on to explain how it was working with both companies, how they reacted differently to the same issue (even within the same studio) with how the plot of the world should go as well as how it should look. He also had some convincing to do for the studios to fall in like with his longtime vision of Sora and friends canonically arriving to the Disney worlds. View full article

Originally announced earlier last month, the Kingdom Hearts III edition Walkman and h.ear headphones are set to release for a limited time starting in late March up until April 19. The device ships with a 16gb hard drive and comes pre-loaded with "Face My Fears" Japanese Version by Utada Hikaru and "Chikai" by Utada Hikaru. It's releasing around the end of March for ¥28,880 yen and is available for pre-order here. The hard drive can be extended to 144gb through the use of optional MicroSD cards. As well as the Walkman, the Kingdom Hearts III Edition h.ear on 2 Mini Wireless headphones are releasing at the same time until April 19. They're available for pre-order here for ¥24,880 yen. View full article

A press release came out today showing that <em>Kingdom Hearts III</em> has shipped five million copies worldwide, making it the fastest selling game in the franchise's history. </p> <blockquote class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote=""> <div class="ipsQuote_citation"> Quote </div> <div class="ipsQuote_contents"> <p> <span style="background-color:#ffffff;color:#666666;font-size:13px;text-align:left;">SQUARE ENIX® proudly announces that<span> </span></span><strong style="border:0px;color:#666666;font-size:13px;padding:0px;text-align:left;vertical-align:baseline;"><em style="border:0px;font-size:13px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;"><u style="border:0px;font-size:13px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;"><a href="http://www.kingdomhearts.com/" style="border:0px;color:#b10000;font-size:13px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;" rel="external nofollow">KINGDOM HEARTS III</a></u></em></strong><em style="border:0px;color:#666666;font-size:13px;padding:0px;text-align:left;vertical-align:baseline;">,<span> </span></em><span style="background-color:#ffffff;color:#666666;font-size:13px;text-align:left;">the latest mainline entry in the beloved action RPG series, has shipped more than five million units globally, both physically and digitally, across all platforms since its January 29 release, making it the fastest selling game in the history of the series.</span> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p> You can check out the full press release <a href="http://press.na.square-enix.com/releases/1362/kingdom-hearts-iii-becomes-fastest-selling-game-in-franchises-history" rel="external nofollow">here</a> talking more about the announcement. The image they included on their social media can be seen below. <a class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image" href="https://www.kh13.com/uploads/monthly_2019_02/51168224_10156055181115841_2724443106136031232_n.jpg.730a68c5b653d546aee42c031b289077.jpg" data-fileid="11349" data-fileext="jpg" rel=""><img class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" data-fileid="11349" data-ratio="100.00" width="750" alt="51168224_10156055181115841_2724443106136031232_n.thumb.jpg.bd079da89564947792a278257e0fdc4f.jpg" data-src="https://www.kh13.com/uploads/monthly_2019_02/51168224_10156055181115841_2724443106136031232_n.thumb.jpg.bd079da89564947792a278257e0fdc4f.jpg" src="https://www.kh13.com/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></a> We want to thank everyone at the <em>Kingdom Hearts</em> team at Square Enix! View full article

The Square Enix store recently updated their member rewards section, which now includes the pre-order bonuses for Kingdom Hearts III from other countries. Fans can redeem their points for five different items, including two different yo-yos, a calendar, a button set, and a light up key chain. The point reward requirements are below. Kingdom Hearts III - Puffy Light up Heartless Key chain 100 points Kingdom Hearts III - Button 3 Set 150 points Kingdom Hearts III - 2019 Calendar 200 points Kingdom Hearts III - Light up Yo-Yo 100 points Kingdom Hearts III - Molded glow in the dark Yo-Yo 80 points View full article

The Kingdom Hearts III's Update 1.03 comprising the "secret movie" is now available for download on the PlayStation and Xbox stores! Kingdom Hearts III is following the footsteps of a number of past games in that players can unlock a secret ending after satisfying certain conditions depending on the difficulty level they have chosen. For Kingdom Hearts III, one must capture a certain number of photos of the Mickey Mouse lucky emblems that can be found around the worlds. For beginner difficulty, they must capture all of them; this is less in standard mode, and even less in proud mode. What kind of secret ending does director Tetsuya Nomura have in store for us? Will it foreshadow the events in the next game in the series? You can discuss in our Kingdom Hearts III forum! Follow our master coverage of Kingdom Hearts III and stay up to date with the latest news via our Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr! Latest Kingdom Hearts III news: - "Face My Fears" debuts at #98 on Billboard's Hot 100 - Kingdom Hearts III sold over 600,000 physical copies in Japan - Kingdom Hearts executive producer Shinji Hashimoto has reflected on Kingdom Hearts III's release with a message to fan View full article

On the release of Kingdom Hearts III internationally, the Kingdom Hearts official Twitter account posted showing off an exclusive crown filter for Snapchat. When used, it displays a crown similar to the one in the artwork of Sora sitting on the throne, with a Keyblade on the top of it. You can check out the tweet below, with the Snapchat scan code! Follow our master coverage of Kingdom Hearts III and stay up to date with the latest news via our Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Discord! Latest news: - Kingdom Hearts III releases worldwide along with Update 1.02; Launch Day! and Launch Commercial videos released - Skrillex talks about producing "Face My Fears" with Utada Hikaru - Kingdom Hearts III trophy list View full article

At the PlayStation Lineup Tour last September, a surprise announcement for a free Kingdom Hearts VR interactive movie surprised everyone. The trailer showed off the player swinging their Keyblade at some shadows in familiar locations, however, this was not the case for what released. After being delayed twice, fans who own a PSVR were getting impatient. Currently, it is exclusive to the Japanese PlayStation store which makes it a bit difficult for most fans to experience. A worldwide version has been confirmed, but so far no current release date has been announced. Now the question rises, was it worth the wait? Once it's booted up, you're greeted with a title screen with two options: Start Collection Collection is currently unavailable and won't be until Spring, when the second part is expected to release. Start brings you to a new menu showing off a world selection screen. Since it's just a preview, only Gummi Ship and Destiny Islands were available, with a "coming soon" spot for Twilight Town. It was very weird seeing Twilight Town in the coming soon section, seeing how it was in the original trailer. It is however teased at the end of the Destiny Islands section! Gummi Ship Choosing the first option, you're immediately sent inside the Gummi ship during the cut scene titled "2.9 - The First Volume-" with the Mickey Mouse Club March playing in the background for the intro. You experience the cutscene in a first person perspective as Donald and Goofy talk to Sora inside the cockpit of the Gummi ship. I originally thought this preview required PlayStation Move but it does not. Pressing the trigger on the back of the right Move controller does clench Sora's fingers on the steering wheel I noticed, but other than that nothing else seems to work with it. After there's a bit of talking, Sora takes out his Keyblade, points it in front of the ship in the space and opens a portal. Once you shoot through the portal, you enter a kaleidoscope like tunnel filled with scenes from the series. It moves quite slowly, so you can see all kinds of scenes from Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. Strangely enough, Donald and Goofy have completely disappeared so you're in the cockpit all by yourself. I do wish there would be more of an interactive part in this section, but it did it's job. Once you reach the end, you're taken back to the world selection screen. Destiny Islands The second world, Destiny Islands drops you right above the entrance to the backside of the island in the old game engine. As it fades out and back in, you're in Sora's perspective as he's sitting on the Paopu fruit tree with Riku and Kairi. Riku and Kairi have a bit of a conversation, as they look out at the ocean for a few minutes before a projection light show of Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance's opening starts playing out in the ocean. Destiny Islands was definitely really nice, and the longest of the two for sure. I definitely enjoyed the really pretty light show with the stars that fell down during the experience, and the detail of Riku and Kairi both watching the opening as they move towards wherever the projection currently is. Once the opening ends, it fades out and after a few seconds fades back in at the top of Twilight Town's clock tower. You're able to look around only shortly as it plays a short scene with Roxas, Xion, and Axel talking as they sit at the top eating ice cream before fading out to a "coming soon" screen. Once that scene ends, it concludes the preview for the Kingdom Hearts VR Experience. Before jumping into right into the Kingdom Hearts VR Experience and downloading it for yourself, people have to realize that it's not the game that was shown off at the PlayStation Lineup Tour back in September in it's current state. For now, it is merely an interactive video experience where you are put in Sora's perspective in specific locations throughout the series and nothing more. Now to answer the question I stated above, "Was it worth the wait?" I could say both yes and no. Yes to those who wanted something to experience in VR that's related to the Kingdom Hearts series and understand the fact that the "swinging Keyblade" section has not been released yet and this is merely a preview. I loved the experience not only because I love everything related to the series, but it was really cool being in the pilot seat of a Gummi ship, or sitting on top of the clock tower and looking off just to see how it's like. The reasons I could say it isn't worth the wait was because of how short it was, and it containing barely any content after being delayed twice. With a run time of just 10-15 minutes, it goes by quick without feeling like anything really happened. Being advertised with interactive fighting sections at the reveal, it's easily understandable being upset they weren't included in this preview. Your experience playing it will definitely differ, but it all depends on the person. View full article