Hero of Light XIV

Odds are pretty good that they'll still make a CGI opening and closing for KH3. It's such a staple of the series that only really gets ignored for smaller titles like Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, and Coded. Every larger installment like KH1 and KH2 still get CGI openings and closings to start and end their stories, and even Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance still get CGI openings at the very least. 0.2 also had a beautifully made CGI opening, and even though the in-game scenes look closer to the CGI quality, there's still a clear difference between the two and the openings and closings all have a much better style and flare. If anything, ignoring outside factors, this pattern in the series tells me that only numbered installments like KH1 and KH2 get "the full treatment" of a CGI opening AND a CGI closing, so it's very likely that KH3 will get the same treatment. After all, it seems like they're sparing no expense with this title to give it the flare it needs, I really doubt they're just going to ignore capping it off with CGI openings and closings.

Sonic, but closely followed by Amy, Silver, and Blaze. X3

Who is the Iblis Trigger? I'm asking for a friend...

That's what I always ask. Especially since their Toy Story forms seem to have new clothes, I was really hoping that meant it would cross over to their standard appearance. It would really be nice to see their style be matched up too, they're pretty integral characters to the story like Sora and Mickey are.

Gonna be honest, didn't really watch the video, but I agree with ya nonetheless. It'd be a really smart idea to have Kairi and Lea act as your tutorial characters in order to learn the BARE BASICS of the game. You know, the classic KH basics: walking, running, jumping, using items, attacking, combos, blocking, evasion, health recovery, magic, locking on, opening treasure chests, and basic Situation Commands (ie: look at/open this door, pick thing up, lift barrel, etc.). Give all of that basic stuff to Kairi and Lea so that by the time you actually start Sora's journey in Olympus Coliseum you're not wasting time teaching Sora how to do basic stuff AGAIN like he always has to, you can just teach him the more advanced stuff like Magic Situational Commands (Firaza, Blizzaza, Curaza, etc.), Flowmotion, Link attacks/Limits, Shotlocks, Freerunning, Attraction Flow, Drive Forms, etc. It'd be a really smart way to get players to FINALLY play as Kairi and complete the original trio, as well as to start Sora off at Level 1 without making the player feel stupid by having to teach him how to jump and run AGAIN. PLEASE NOMURA, I NEED TO PLAY AS ALL THREE OF THE DESTINY ISLANDS TRIO, PLEASE JUST GIVE US KAIRI, EVEN IF IT'S JUST FOR THE TUTORIAL!!

A good old Olympus Coliseum with some actual crowds of NPCs cheering you on would be pretty dang cool, especially if they get really crazy later on. Though it would also be nice if it was handled in a similar vein to Mirage Arena as well, having a more extensive range of returning enemies and bosses, along with more unique bosses and challenges. Then again, I would settle for both Mirage Arena and the Coliseum being in there if it meant that online multiplayer was included. That way Mirage Arena could be the multiplayer challenge area while the Coliseum could be single player campaign challenges. I'd still like both to have unique challenges themselves but it would still be really cool to get the best of both worlds, in some form or another.

I would have picked both "Frozen" and "Please Stop" if I could. X)"

As a Sonic fan, I'm a sucker for rail grinding sections. X)

I don't know, I'm still skeptical. I'd rather see more footage and proof before I claim anything like that. Maybe that is what they're doing, but it still feels too early to say, for me anyway. I'd just rather have more variety than 3 yellow forms, 3 blue forms, and 3 red forms. I'd rather have the one for each, then other unused colors, like orange, green, and purple, or whatever else there can be (Anti black and Final silver/white for example). It just seems lazy to map multiple forms to only 3 colors.

Um, that's asking for a bit much I think. Even if Star Wars was to be included in KH3, odds are more likely that Sora and co. would be on the side of Rebel Alliance, because they are the "good guys" of the series. Yeah the world of Star Wars is much more complex and political than a simple battle of "good vs evil", "light vs dark", but even if there are "nice guys" in the Empire, it is still poised as the evil force of the series. At best you could just hope for Sora being part of the rebellion but noticing the hardships that some of the Emperial subjects and foot soldiers have to deal with and that just motivates him to take down the Emperial bosses even more. Kingdom Hearts rarely diverts from the paths and patterns of the movies it sets foot in, and as complex as the series has gotten so far, at the end of the day it's still a very basic "good vs evil" story, and I don't see that really being challenged until after KH3 at least.

It seems like it is based on the D-Link system from Birth By Sleep mixed with the traditional Summoning system from KH1 and KH2 (I guess technically with Re:CoM also in terms of how you technically need to "summon" your friends into battle). So maybe it is closer to how D-Linking works where Sora relies on his connection to all of his friends out there, but instead of accessing their abilities he actually summons them, and like in KH2 it's through the use of charms or something, so they don't have to be summon gems or their world didn't have to be destroyed like in KH1. It looks like it's essentially a culmination of every style of "summoning" the series has had to offer so far.

It sounds like everyone largely agrees that the E3 trailer this year will include English voice work. It would make a lot of sense, since this is supposed to be release year and E3 is the largest gaming venue in both the West as well as the world at large, it would be the prime place to reveal a trailer like that. The E3 trailers are typically the ones where you show off the most of what you have to offer at that point, and it would also be late enough into development to have at least gotten a few lines recorded, if not the whole thing. Plus with E3 being a largely western world event, it would make sense to show off English voice work and text much more than previous trailers. In short, E3 is likely where it's all going to really start coming together.

Are we sure there aren't any hackers in Vulpeus? Seriously, it's like they just have permanent residence in the Number 1 spot or something, how can Unicornis be so far behind?

Again, Mike is concerned about Boo being discovered and the helicopters from the CDA are roaming the complex. If this really was post-movie, there wouldn't be any need to have all this uproar towards a human child. And again, the old motto is still on the factory. If anything, those balloons and stuff probably don't actually appear until the end of the world's story, where they successfully return Boo to her room and have started using laughter energy. I could be wrong and this is a "sequel story", but the things I brought up kind of contradict that, or at least don't sit well with me.

While it still feels like more of a credits theme to me, I'm sure it could still work as a unique approach to the opening credits as well. Though personally I'd still love a fast-paced remix for the opening, but if 0.2 is any indication, it's that sometimes you don't know what you love until it's given to you, so I guess we'll just have to see what it ends up being later. But I do hope there's still at least an opening remix and a closing remix to this single, that's a pattern I really love with the series and it's music.

FINALLY, somebody else who agrees that it's most likely Riku Replica! You pretty much hit the nail on the head with what I was thinking, there's still a good deal of potential left for his story arc. Plus, somehow seeing Vanitas confirmed to return made the possibility of Repliku coming back a little better, at least as a feeling so far. Plus another point against it being a past version of Riku, if the Organization already got a hold of a past Riku when he was possessed by Ansem, then why even bother trying to recruit him at all in Dream Drop Distance? Young Xehanort didn't really give up until the Symphony of Sorcery, and even then Ansem himself still tried to force Riku into submitting at the last second in The World That Never Was. There would virtually be no point in doing that if you already had the real Riku in your possession. If anything going for two real Rikus would be super redundant and more of a chore since the most current version of Riku can't be corrupted by darkness anymore, so you're just inviting more trouble for yourself when you don't even need to. Data Riku, while more likely of a "candidate" than a past Riku, would still be a bit too much of a stretch. Unless they are going for the whole "data bodies becoming real bodies in the real world" thing that one person on here theorized some time ago (basically Roxas, Namine, and Xion could all be given data bodies to be their own people in), there wouldn't really be much to do with Data Riku. Besides, it feels like the data characters' arcs are mostly completed, Data Sora was able to convince Data Riku that he didn't need to face his demons alone and they both ended up fulfilling their rather limited purposes anyway. The only way they could factor into the plot again is if there was a need to return to the Datascape again, and even then I feel like their involvement would be limited to the scope of that visit. In the end, it just doesn't make much sense to drag Data Riku out of the Datascape there was never any suggestion for his arc to continue beyond where it went. But since Maleficent might still have her sights set on the Journal, who knows, there might still be a chance for the data heroes to have a role to play anyway. In the end it just makes more sense for Riku Replica to be the "other Riku" that he saw in Pranksters' Paradise and might even still be the one he is referring to in the KH3 trailer. Recruiting him to the True Organization would be a smart way to have a "dark Riku" on their side, and works as a good plan to fall back on should they fail in recruiting the real Riku like they had originally hoped. And even if they had succeeded, they still would have had twice the Riku, and it wouldn't be as redundant since they are two separate entities entirely. And I agree that there feels like there's a good chance for a redemption arc for Riku Replica. He was already on his path of trying to become his own person beyond who he was modeled after, and now that Riku himself has already overcome his greatest obstacle, he probably feels like he can help his replica do the same in his own unique way. Because it's likely that Riku Replica is still following the darkness and Xehanort as he sees that it's his only option left to ever have any hope of becoming his own person. So if Riku can help show him that there is a way to become more without having to give in to the darkness, he might be able to come full circle with his journey and help another Replica in a way he couldn't before (he might still be harboring some guilt about what happened with Xion, even if he can't remember her or what happened). I feel that is the only reason why he would even be fondly thinking of something as "the other me", because to try and fix his past self would be counterproductive and there's almost nothing to gain from interacting with Data-Riku (apart from maybe a funny interaction or two), so in seeing his Replica as "the other me" he sees a chance to teach the same lesson he learned to someone else who really needs it. That or he could also be speaking metaphorically. But metaphors are a tricky thing in this series, half the time they almost always end up becoming literal. Either way it's nice to know that I'm not the only one that feels that way, and unlike HMK, I think the idea of introducing yet another version of Riku is just really redundant and ridiculous, even I have my limit when it comes with clone characters.

I mean I rarely ever take anything those guys say seriously anyway. And when Skyward did say that, I did feel a little skeptical. Guess that feeling paid off. Still, it does seem like a likely time and place to announce a release date, so I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up happening anyway. Sometimes people just make very good guesses, the world is weird like that.

I feel like it's mostly meant to be used so that when he does reveal his face to Sora, it really freaks him out (since for all we know he just kind of wrote off seeing his face in DDD as some sort of "illusion" or something). Then again, they could have just kept his hood on and his Keyblade is enough of a tease for us, plus his lines would already give away who he is. But I guess we'll just have to wait until later before we see where this choice is going, it could be that everyone in Org XIII ditches their robes in the final battle and each have their own outfit to fight in, though I kind of doubt it. I know but usually whenever someone is wearing that coat, they're designed to look as though they aren't wearing anything under it apart from the pants, shoes, and gloves. Even when Riku and Mickey are revealed to have been wearing new clothes underneath the whole time, their coat models are still designed to suggest that they aren't wearing much underneath those. My best guess is that the coats have a certain magic effect to them similar to how DiZ's bandages disguise his true identity or Riku's blindfold suppresses his Ansem form, where once you put one on, it "hides away" whatever clothing you're wearing underneath so that you feel more comfortable in it. Once you remove the coat, the clothes you "hid" return to you as if they never left. TLDR: The coats are probably magic. Which begs the question as to why Vanitas' bodysuit is STILL underneath it. This is the one instance where a different set of clothes are visible underneath someone's coat, which kind of brings the theory I suggested to question. Either it's possible to just kind of circumnavigate that magic if it's desired, or they just simply wanted to completely disguise and obscure Vanitas' true identity and for some reason didn't want to just keep his hood on. In any event, I guess we'll learn in time.

You made several mistakes. First off: Marluxia never indicated that he wasn't part of the "new" Organization, it's more likely meant to be interpreted as that he was always part of it. He says "the only Organization" to suggest that this new one, the "true" one is the only real one that mattered. Just because he has blue eyes now doesn't mean he won't have Xehanort features later. It just seems rather presumptuous to assume that based on those things alone, which could easily be interpreted in many different ways, that he must be some rogue factor. Second: Swimming HAS been used again since KH1 long before KH3. In Birth By Sleep, there are a few choice moments where the playable characters can swim in water: the waters of Never Land or the great ocean arena you fight Monstro in. Not only that, but Riku can swim in the water in Monstro's mouth in Dream Drop Distance. While swimming hasn't been a frequently re-used ability (not in the traditional sense anyway, since technically you're swimming in Atalantica in KH2 and in DDD Prankster's Paradise your physics are literally "floaty" underwater), it has appeared in more titles than KH1. Third: Sora's diving in Olympus doesn't automatically mean that that's showing him first entering the world. It's more likely a feature that activates if you leap from a tall area. Keep in mind that there's still footage depicting Sora climbing up Mount Olympus and fighting off the Rock Titan while he's in his KH2 clothes, and way back in the past trailers Sora is still following the path up Mount Olympus in his KH2 clothes. If anything, it's more likely that Sora starts out in either Thebes or at the base of Mount Olympus and has to work his way up the mountain until he can reach the gates of Olympus itself and do whatever task he needs to complete in order to gain his new clothes. Fourth: Those blue orbs you pointed out ARE the new MP orbs. They aren't new either, if you had been paying attention in 0.2, you'd notice that they are there along with the HP and Focus orbs. They are the new bubbles now, and since 0.2 uses the same engine as KH3, it's only natural that they are using the same items and assets. Fifth: I think you're making a huge assumption about how the Forms work. Just because we've mostly seen only three forms of three different colors so far doesn't automatically mean that there are specifically three "classes" of Forms with no in-betweens. The new Monsters Inc Form proves as much, his main color is orange with purplish pink stripes, but even if it was more of a yellow, the claw ability doesn't seem very "defensive". The only thing I'd say is supporting your theory is the fact that the Mirage Staff Form looks very similar to the Shooting Star one. I'd say until we see more Forms in the standard world appearance, there's nothing suggesting that there can't simply be more than 3 colors/types. Fifth: You left out mentioning the Laughter gauge that's present during one of the Monsters Inc world battles (the same one with the Mike attack and the Meow Wow attack). There's a gauge on the upper left corner with Boo's face on it, and it sounds like it's suggesting that either you need to fill the gauge up for Boo to do some kind of laugh-based attack (like say, a laughing fit that causes all the electricity in the factory to overload and wipes out all the surrounding enemies) or it's a danger gauge telling you to finish the fight up before Boo laughs and causes havoc. And finally sixth: Riku NEVER lost his memories of Castle Oblivion, that only happened to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jimminy. Riku would have remembered everything that happened on his adventure there, including his encounter with the Riku Replica, so that doesn't mean he isn't referring to him as "the other me". That doesn't necessarily prove that he is either, but it at least means that it's still a strong possibility (plus I'd rather it be a character we already know instead of making yet another clone character of Riku, we have enough with Sora and Xehanort as it is already). As for other clarifications, someone pointed out that Mike also mouths something during gameplay that isn't voiced in the trailer, much like Buzz. I'd say in all likelihood that it doesn't mean much, just that they haven't gotten around to recording battle cries and stuff for those characters yet. Typically battle lines are some of the last lines you record because they often require a lot of screaming which can really wear out an actor's voice. So by saving them for later you get the most out of your talent instead of wasting time by stressing their voice and waiting for them to recover to continue with story dialogue, the voice work that REALLY matters. Also all of the music in the Monsters Inc world trailer was music from the Orchestra. It's nothing new or even that surprising, this whole time up til now the trailers have been using previous music from the series instead of showing off anything new that was made. For a long while we got Rage Awakened, but ever since last year we've been getting music from the Orchestra tours, which is much more fitting for the scale of the footage they've been showing us. They're just using them as fitting music to match the same tone and mood they're going for in each trailer until it gets to the point that they have some actual KH3 music to share with us. Considering how they've given us a taste of Utada's new single, it might not be long before they release new Shimomura music. (Really hope they release 2.8's soundtrack soon by the way...) Odds are you're probably right about Riku being the second playable character in KH3, but I really hope we still get a chance to play as Kairi, she really deserves to be a full fledged playable Keyblade wielder and we really deserve to play as her after having to play as 2/3 of the original trio for so long. It really wouldn't hurt to add one more playable character anyway, depending on how things are balanced between Sora and Riku. Like if Riku is given his own "episodes" while Sora is the main campaign, then Kairi could easily have her own "episodes" as well. In fact I feel like she would make for a much more appropriate tutorial character, at least for the very VERY basic actions of the game. Walking/running, jumping, attacking, magic, guarding, rolling, locking on, combo attacks, recovery items, that kind of thing. It makes sense for her to be treated as a total beginner to the ways of KH instead of having Sora learn all that again, that way you get to immediately cut to Sora making his way through Mount Olympus, learning the more refined skills of the game like Flowmotion, Shotlocks, Link Attacks, transformations, etc. Marluxia was destroyed by Sora at the end of Chain of Memories, but in Dream Drop Distance it was explained that if a person's Heartless and Nobody are destroyed, they will form back into a whole person again in the place that they were originally split. So Marluxia may have simply reformed into a whole person again. However Dream Drop Distance also revealed that Young Xehanort had been going around recruiting various would-be-incarnations of Xehanort across time and space to become part of the True Organization XIII/Seekers of Darkness, so it's also likely that Marluxia simply got recruited by YX just before he got destroyed. Either way, he is back. The trailer has been very clear in suggesting that this is all taking place during the events of the first movie, since Boo is there and Mike is surprised that there are "monsters" that aren't afraid of humans. At the end of the first movie, everyone has learned to stop fearing kids and have resorted to using laughter as an alternative to scream energy. That is why when Sora and co see the building, it still says "We Scare Because We Care", therefore they are still scaring kids for energy. That's about it. Despite the few mistakes, it was still a decent analysis, just gotta brush up on your encyclopedic KH knowledge every once in a while.

I mean, the other two songs of the series barely have any connection to the actual plots of their games. Simple and Clean is about taking uneasy steps in a relationship and Sanctuary is about having a comforting place/person/state of mind to go back to and feel secure in. You can make slight connections how some lines could be INTERPRETED as having a connection to the games, like "When you walk away, you don't here me say, please, oh baby, don't go..." could be likened to how in KH1 everyone is being separated or having to temporarily part ways in order to eventually get back home, or "You showed me how to see, that nothing is whole and, nothing is broken..." could be likened to how some Nobodies (like Roxas and Namine) are not as broken as they may think or how despite the fact that everyone in the game starts out separated they will ultimately find away back to each other and be whole again. However, those are the ONLY connections to their actual games, and even then I had to sort of make them up. Never Think Twice may be very well similar in that its lyrics likely aren't meant to be taken as literally having any connection to the actual events of the game, but there may or may not be a few lines that could be interpreted as being reminiscent of some large overarching theme that the game has, like how KH1 was being separated but connected and KH2 was about coming back together and picking up the pieces. Utada's songs are meant to be songs first, what she sings in them are meant to be relatable to every day life or whatever mood and image she's trying to go for. The KH games are no exception, she just happens to have a particular mood or mindset in mind when she's making songs for them, the lyrics are still largely about her or anyone she has in mind while making them.

I'm still sticking to the idea that that may have been Riku Replica recruited by Young Xehanort some time before his demise, really it's the only thing that makes sense if you want to avoid making ANOTHER alternate Riku (which at this point would just be redundant). I mean Riku already brings up how he once gave into darkness and how he then faced the replica who was made to master the darkness in a similar manner. Well logically speaking there would be no need for Young Xehanort and Ansem to try and recruit DDD Riku if they already have his KH1 self, so the only other possibility left would be recruiting his replica, which works as a good fail-safe in the event that they can't recruit the real thing. Plus as soon as Riku mentioned him, the Memento/Chronicle for Chain of Memories is unlocked, and the same thing happened when Sora saw Vanitas, the Birth by Sleep entry was unlocked. And look what ended up happening, Vanitas is back in the flesh as a recruited seeker. Nothing is set in stone yet, but the likelyhood of Riku Replica being one of the last few yet to be revealed members of the True Organization XIII is looking better and better by the second. And it would make for an interesting story arc too, Riku Replica starting out as one of the members, convinced it's his only purpose left to him, knowing that he's doomed to fight and loose to Riku in his own time, but Riku shows to us how far his arc has come and actually manages to help convince his Replica that he can walk a similar yet unique path, his own road to dawn. Speaking of Vanitas, am I the only one who thinks it's kind of silly that he's wearing his whole suit and helmet underneath his Organization coat? I get that he was born in it but come on, that just looks a little bit excessive, Ansem doesn't have to wear his suit underneath his coat. How would he even fit that mask underneath that hood anyway, there's no way any cosplayer would be able to get away with that, I can barely get my Roxas wig to retain it's shape under one of those things. Not a big deal or issue, just a little silly in my opinion.

Uh, what's wrong with her feet? They're facing the camera as though she was facing forward, but her body and arms are clearly positioned as if she was facing the opposite direction. It's like when you intentionally twist an action figure's body to be facing opposite directions, it looks confusing. Is she supposed to be turning like she is in the original movie shot? Because if so, that dress isn't helping, the ripples aren't following her body's natural movement at all, it's like her lower half is just glued in place. I'm just so confused...

The size of one of the previous games huh? In that case, it must be one of the relatively "smaller" titles, like Days, Re:coded, or even Re:CoM to some extent. My first guess would have been Castle Oblivion, since technically speaking you spend a whole game exploring that place, but they described it as a "new world" so that might not be the case then. But the idea that it might actually breach the 100 hour barrier, as well as all of these other things being jam packed into it? Oh man, this is going to be heaven.

I'm all for Super Buu, especially if he's given the ability to absorb other fighters as a Super/Ultimate/whatever finishers are called. He's by far one of my favorite DBZ villains, maybe even my most favorite.

I'm one of 10 people (hopefully more, lol) who are hoping that Super Buu will be added into the roster as DLC. It's really annoying how often he gets skipped over in favor of Kid Buu in most expanded media when if you think about it he's arguably stronger (doesn't mean Kid Buu isn't more dangerous tho). Plus I just want more funny character interactions between him and everyone else, particularly 21.