Toominator

It is with great pleasure that we present to you the premiere episode of KH13.com's brand new Kingdom Hearts-centered podcast - The Usual Spot. Hosted by Toominator and SeaSaltShelby, this first episode is our Dive to the Heart; we tell you how we became fans of the series, list off our "favorites" and "least favorites" of the series, and end with a unique challenge. We quiz each other on our knowledge of boss fight quotes in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. Come listen or watch, and see if you can do better! There are two unique experiences with our podcast. We will be simultaneously releasing episodes on YouTube and Podbean. YouTube allows you to watch the recording of our podcast, but is better saved for an online experience. Podbean allows you to listen to the audio file online, or you can download it to any device and listen to the episode on the go. The choice is yours! Click here to download or listen on Podbean! We plan on releasing episodes every other Sunday. Episode 2 will release on Sunday, November 11. We hope you enjoy the premiere episode of The Usual Spot!

On April 6th, 2018 word got out that popular Kingdom Hearts YouTubers such as SkywardWing, HMK, and TheGamersJoint would be among the first people to play Kingdom Hearts III. We at KH13.com are pleased to share that staff members Toominator and Raxaimus will also be among the first people in the world to get their hands on Kingdom Hearts III! Unfortunately, we cannot share any further details. We thank the staff of Square Enix for this incredible opportunity, and we look forward to sharing more information in the future!

Welcome to KH13's trailer analysis for the D23 Japan 2018 trailers (yes, trailers, because we received two new trailers)! Let's get right into it. The trailer starts with Sora, Donald and Goofy in the Tangled world calling out an unknown character. Then, we get our first glimpse of Marluxia in Kingdom Hearts 3. We've been given hints to Marluxia's appearance, especially in the Tangled world, thanks to the flower-attack using, scythe-wielding Nobodies seen in the Jump Festa 2016 trailer. One thing to note about his incredible character model is that his eyes are blue, thus we are led to assume he has not been "norted". He further confirms this by claiming he is part of the ONLY Organization, the original Organization XIII, not the new 13 seekers of darkness who will take on the 7 guardians of light as is written in the Book of Prophecies. Speaking of eyes, there has been a lot of concern over Sora's eyes in this opening scene. It seems as though his eyes have a green-ish tint, but it looks like this is a result of the lighting, since Sora has blue eyes in the rest of the trailer. Here, we can clearly see his eyes are mostly blue with a strange green tint on the bottom. All in all, not a cause for concern! The trailer then cuts to new Toy Story footage. We can hear the use of Sora's Theme in the background, but it sounds different than other versions used in previous games. Many are saying it is the Orchestra version of the song. Also, it looks like this is the scene directly before or directly after the footage we saw at D23 2017. We see Sora, Donald and Goofy running off toward the same group of heartless we saw them running toward in the previous trailer. Shortly after, a Monsters Inc. world was confirmed to be true after previously being leaked back in December. Compared to the images in the leak, it seems as though each character model got a re-hash, especially Sora. However, the orange fur seen in the leaks will play a major part further on in the analysis! Sora now has grey fur as the default, and the stripe pattern largely resembles a Chirithy, which may or may not be a coincidence. The characters all make their acquaintances and the trailer cuts to our first bit of gameplay. The first thing to note is that the command menu looks ... different. Yes, the world-specific designs for the command menu return in Kingdom Hearts III. The design changes from world to world, and will still change colors depending on whether or not Sora and company are in battle mode. We also see 5 party members used again, with Mike and Sully joining the fray. During this scene we also see the Monsters, Inc. Keyblade. It looks a lot like a wrench-type weapon wearing a hard hat, a staple in the Monsters, Inc. movie. The keychain is Boo in her handmade monster costume, and a blinking light can be found on the other side of the "teeth" of the blade. In the next cut, we see Sora and company in battle. They are fighting Unversed, both old (Flood) and new. This will make sense at the end of the trailer! One thing I noted in this section of the trailer is that, for the first time in a recent Kingdom Hearts III trailer, enemies drop Blue orbs upon defeating them. Even in the recent D23 2017 trailer, only a select few enemies dropped orbs, and they were only HP and Focus orbs. The strange thing is that the orbs that drop in this trailer are very obviously blue. This shot shows three different orbs being dropped - Green (HP?), Yellow with a dark spiral (Focus?), and these Blue orbs. One can assume they are for MP, but this is a change from the MP "bubbles" used in previous games. However, the MP "bubbles" from previous games are not seen in the trailer, so this very well could be their replacement. Next, we get footage of the Monsters, Inc. Keyblade's transformation. The first stage is called Quick Claws, and uses, as expected, quick slashing attacks. You may have noticed, also, that Sora now has the orange fur seen in the leaked images. It seems as though this is a result of using the Keyblade transformation. I would like to take a minute then to confirm a bit of a theory going around surrounding Sora's clothes during Keyblade transformations. We've seen the yellow Brave Form during the Olympus Keyblade transformation, the red Power Form seen during the Toy Story Keyblade transformation, and a currently unnamed Blue Form during the Starlight Keyblade's transformation. It seems as though these drive forms and the Keyblade transformations are connected. Perhaps each Keyblade (and its corresponding transformation) corresponds to a certain type - Defense (yellow), Magic (blue), or Attack (red). From what we've seen so far, it looks like Defensive forms focus on single-enemy, conservative battles while Magic forms focus on keeping a distance and using projectiles to attack, leaving Attack forms to focus on crowd control and large amounts of enemies. This could potentially add another level of strategy in choosing the appropriate weapon for each individual situation. I am unsure, though, which category the Quick Claws belong too. The yellow fur tells us Defense, but the red stripes and the obviously-offense focus of the Quick Claws say otherwise. Continuing on with the trailer, we see the return of Reaction Commands, when Sora uses one to climb back onto the railing after avoiding an electric pulse. He then uses the same projectile Flowmotion attack used at the very beginning of the D23 2017 trailer. The trailer then cuts to the Tangled world again where we see Rapunzel and Flynn Rider for the first time. Rapunzel uses her hair and the environment around her (latching onto trees and swinging around) to attack, while Flynn uses a frying pan and a barrel to fight the heartless. We also get a glimpse of the new Tangled Keyblade. Unfortunately, it's tough to get a good shot of the Keyblade because this section has a lot of fast-paced combat and combos against the dandelion heartless... yet again... The Keyblade resembles Rapunzel's tower with a design that resembles her hair wrapping around it. The next cut shows Sora using the Tangled Keyblade's transformation - Mirage Staff. This clip further confirms the theory about Sora's clothes - they are Blue here and his movement, and even the way he "holds" his weapon, strongly resemble Wisdom Form from Kingdom Hearts II. We don't see him attack anything here, but he is seen skating around while an elemental heartless attempts to hurt him. The next cut shows Sora swimming in order to traverse the terrain, much like he did in Kingdom Hearts. Swimming hasn't been used since then for some reason, but it returns here. Then, we see Sora summoning Ariel from The Little Mermaid to aid in battle. I have seen this taken in two ways: 1. Ariel being a summon means there is no Atlantica world (much like how all summons in Kingdom Hearts II came from Disney worlds not included in the game). 2. Atlantica is in the game, and she is a summon much like how Genie and Tinker Bell were acquired from their respective worlds. In my personal opinion, Atlantica will NOT be in Kingdom Hearts III simply based on the fact that Nomura claims that almost all worlds in the game will be new. The next shot is of Sora using the Shotlock while using the Mirage Staff transformation. We knew from the Orchestra trailer that each Keyblade transformation has its own use of the Shotlock command, and we see that move for Mirage Staff here, called Spectral Rays. He is using it on the only Nobodies in the trailer - a Dusk and a "Marluxia-themed" enemy. We then see the Finish command for Mirage Staff, which summons a large tower (similar to Rapunzel's tower) that Sora stands on top of while enemies below are destroyed with magic. The interesting thing here is that Mirage Staff is the only portion of the Keyblade transformation we see in the entire trailer. Is there only one phase? It may be, or there may be an option to finish before changing into the second part of the transformation. In any case, we only see Mirage Staff and no indicators are shown to change to anything else. We are then brought back to the Toy Story world, where Sora and company are taking on heartless in a ball pit of sorts. Sora activates Hyper Hammer and then quickly uses the Mad Tea Cups attraction flow. It is still unclear how Attraction Flow is activated, seeing as no on-screen indicator appears before Sora summons the Tea Cups. Nomura stated that Attraction Flow is very location-specific, and so far this ball pit and Twilight Town are the only locations we've seen this Attraction Flow used. We do know that the Mad Tea Cups have an attack called "Cup Slide" if that's any compensation. We then see the gang fighting what looks to be a boss in the Toy Story world. Looking at the background of this fight, I have no idea where it takes place. There are giant toys and dolls floating in the background, and instead of ground or even sky, it's nothing but clouds. Are we suspended in the air? Are we in some sort of fantasy? No clue but it is a bit outlandish. Aside from that, we see Sora, Buzz and Woody use an attack called Rocket Ruckus, which looks to be either a world-specific or boss-specific attack, meaning it can either only be used in this world or only during this boss. My immediate thought is that it is acting like a Limit Command from Kingdom Hearts II. This could be a Limit with Buzz and Woody, and like the Scream Strike with Mike Wizowski coming up shortly in the trailer. One thing I noticed from the trailer is that, as they are getting ready to launch off, Buzz's lips move as if he's saying something, but there is no dialogue. Perhaps this means there is more voice recording to do, or there is no actual dialogue here. In the next shot of the boss fight, the world has gone dark, much like the second phase of the final boss battle in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage-. While Sora is platforming, we also see a square indicator, much like the ones seen in the D23 2017 trailer that let the players know it is a surface that you can use the Shotlock Flowmotion on for travel. The last bit of gameplay takes us back to Monsters, Inc. where Sora uses a Flowmotion attack on a heartless. We are then shown the second phase of the Quick Claws Keyblade transformation - Twin Yo-Yos. These combos allow for Sora to keep a distance as the Yo-Yos travel to smack into enemies. The finish command turns both Yo-Yos into a cage that then crush any unlucky enemy that ends up between them. All the while, a command for "Scream Strike" hangs out until the Yo-Yo finisher is used, which further confirms my Limit Command theory. It seems as though transformations take precedence over the other moves, seeing as the same button would need to be used in order to activate them, and the finisher is used first. The "Scream Strike" turns out to be a silly move where Sora bowls Mike Wizowski into a group of heartless, who all seem to be standing in perfect formation. How nice of them! Immediately following that attack, a Meow Wow dream eater from Dream Drop Distance appears to aid Sora in battle. The cut of the trailer does not allow us to see just how the Meow Wow is summoned, so for now that remains a mystery. During the Wonder Balloon attack mode, Sora has the option to perform the Balloon Rush or Tornado Jump attacks, or to cancel the mode altogether. It seems as though we don't actually see either of these attacks, as the trailer just shows a rush of different types of Dream Eaters pouring out of the bursting Meow Wow, attacking nearby enemies. The final seconds of the trailer show Vanitas - a surprise to most. However, the Unversed seen in the Monsters, Inc. world now make sense. Vanitas claims that he needs the other half of himself residing inside Sora. He is of course referring to Ventus. Sora calls out Vanitas by name and shocks himself, as he has never met him before. This is clearly Ventus speaking through him, much like Roxas cried through Sora in Kingdom Hearts II when he left his friends Hayner, Pence, and Olette behind. Vanitas is donning an Organization coat, confirming his place in the 13 Darknesses. The trailer ends with reconfirmation of a 2018 release. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The second trailer has just a few new, notable bits. The first new bit is the shot of Sora dropping into Olympus Coliseum. It is safe to assume that this is the actual shot of Sora entering the world directly after the 2.9 scene in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep 0.2 because he is seen in his Kingdom Hearts II outfit. The lighting in this shot has also been altered slightly since we last saw it in the Orchestra trailer. A treasure chest seen on a floating island in the distance also changed locations for some reason! We are also shown footage of Sora going through the cinematic transformation into Mirage Staff - still no attacks. Sora also fights the Rock Troll in his Kingdom Hearts II clothes, implying that we get to fight the Rock Troll fairly early in the game. The Rock Troll also starts losing health this time around when Sora attacks him! Young Master Xehanort also seems to have gotten a graphics enhancement, and his ears are now a bit pointy. A montage of both new and old cinematics are shown, but there's not much to say of them because there is no dialogue heard over the new song by Utada Hikaru - Don't Think Twice. More characters, such as Xemnas, Ansem, and Sora received graphics updates as well. The final scene of the trailer shows Riku and Mickey for the first time in Kingdom Hearts III. It can be assumed that the contents of the suitcases the duo carries off in 2.9 are their new clothes, shown off here. Riku's keyblade, Way to Dawn, has been broken at the end. How this happened, no one knows, but we can assume the two have an epic battle right before this scene. This also leads me to believe that the second playable character in the game is none other than Riku. I expect to play as Riku alongside Mickey in the Realm of Darkness as they search for Aqua. This could also be where 0.2 was to be included in Kingdom Hearts III. Nomura once mentioned that the entirety of 0.2 was to be in Kingdom Hearts III but was removed due to there being too much content. As for the "other me" Riku makes reference to, much of the fandom expects Riku-Replica from Chain of Memories. My problem with this theory is that Riku should supposedly have no recollection of the events of Chain of Memories. We will just have to wait and see! Mickey seems just as confused as we are. If I missed anything notable, or if I made a mistake please let me know in the comments below (civilly) and I will make adjustments! I hope you enjoyed this analysis! May your heart be your guiding key. Watch the new Kingdom Hearts III trailers from D23 Expo Japan 2018 here, and don't forget to catch up with our coverage of the event here!

As more Japanese websites post new articles recapping D23 Japan 2018, more information about Kingdom Hearts III and Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross] is revealed. According to ure.pia.co.jp, a video was shown which featured the Japanese voice actors for Sora and Kairi sharing their experience working on the series. Additionally, the site shares new information regarding a major update to Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross] coming this spring. Miyu Irino (Sora) and Risa Uchida (Kairi) greeted the fans in their video. Irino shares that his favorite world so far to voice Sora in was Toy Story, and he's excited for the final product. Uchida commends her character for being so brave and confronting the darkness, something she admits she might not be able to do herself if put in a similar situation. The video ended by assuring the audience that they have greatly enjoyed their experience working on the Kingdom Hearts series, and that relationships between the voice actors and the development team are strong and healthy! Concerning Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross], the article mentions that a major update will be coming to the game this Spring, including a Player vs. Player feature. Also, a brand new world to the Kingdom Hearts series will appear in the game. This world has not appeared in a Kingdom Hearts game to date and will not be one of the worlds in Kingdom Hearts III - so this world is completely new to the series. A specific release date was not given for the Spring update, and the new world was not specified. This information will be revealed in the future. Watch the new Kingdom Hearts III trailers from D23 Expo Japan 2018 here, and don't forget to catch up with our coverage of the event here!

Our friends at Diamond Select Toys (@CollectDST) were kind enough to send us a few pieces from their Kingdom Hearts Select series of figures for review. We made an unboxing/review video for you all, which you can view below: These figures are great for collectors because they offer unique figures for characters who have yet to receive the action figure treatment: Axel, the Soldier Heartless, and the Dusk Nobody. They all stand fairly easily, save for the dusk who needs a special stand. The accessories accompanying Sora, Axel, and Mickey are great quality and make for a fun display. The downfalls include spotty paint jobs, awkward face models, and not many posing opportunities due to a lack of points of articulation. Overall, these figures are good quality, durable, and will fit into any collector's collection. Thank you to Diamond Select Toys for this opportunity. After seeing this review, would you be willing to purchase this line of Kingdom Hearts action figures? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Following the announcements made at D23 2017, including a new Toy Story world and a new, lengthy trailer for Kingdom Hearts III, series director Tetsuya Nomura talked with the staff of IGN. In speaking with IGN, Tetsuya Nomura claims that their main focus is releasing the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Kingdom Hearts III, but that they will consider releasing Kingdom Hearts III for the Nintendo Switch. You can read Nomura's full quote below: Nomura also talked about possibly releasing Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX on the Xbox One, saying that it is in consideration but that there might not be enough interest besides with the Western audience. Would you like to see Kingdom Hearts III on the switch, or Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX on Xbox One? Let us know in the comments!

Following the release of her book, Kingdom Hearts II, published by Bossfightbooks, Alexa Ray Corriea agreed to speak with staff member Toominator to discuss major aspects of the book and also talk a bit about the recent and coming trailers for Kingdom Hearts III. Alexa has been a games journalist for various video game news sites such as GameSpot and Polygon, and now dubs herself a full-time author. Her book is essentially a collection of essays analyzing some of the deeper themes and character tropes seen throughout Kingdom Hearts II, while also including a bit of Alexa's own personal connection to the series. In this interview/podcast, both Toominator and Alexa explore these analyses and give listeners a good overview of what readers can expect from the book, while also discussing the topics further - going beyond what is in the book itself. Please enjoy the discussion below, and be sure to pick up Kingdom Hearts II by Alexa Ray Corriea on bossfightbooks.com or Amazon.com, available as a paperback or e-book.

Some of the KH13 team are attending the "Kingdom Hearts Orchestra - World Tour -" concert in New York City on the 24th of June. And after the success in London and Los Angeles, we thought this would be another great opportunity to meet up with fans before the concert begins! We will be meeting at the United Palace in New York City on Saturday the 24th from 4:00pm until guests begin to be seated. We'll be in a public space so even if you're going to the concert the night before or are an eager fan, feel free to pop round! We welcome all! As well as a meet up, KH13 have created a 3rd booklet to give to Yoko Shimomura (composer of Kingdom Hearts soundtrack) after the concert to show our appreciation of her musical talents in the franchise. Fans who meet us at the concert hall beforehand and write a small compliment/message within the booklet, will receive an exclusive KH13 sticker! We will have 3 choices, but they will be limited! Few things to note before writing in booklet: Maybe write it out beforehand so you can just copy it in booklet on the day; we want to reduce the amount of spelling errors or mistakes as much as we can. We’ll ask that you write in capital letters so it’s easier to understand/translate for Yoko Shimomura. We will also be creating another short film of the meet up before the concert of what we got up to on the day! We will be taking general shots of the group, but it will also let you show off cosplays and let you say why you love the franchise. Of course if you don't want to be a part of this, you can just tell us on the day. The film will hopefully be created and uploaded within the following week! If you take any pics with us be sure tweet about them using the hashtag #KH13MeetUp. We look forward to seeing you all there! You can also join our Facebook event page to get all the updates about the meeting by clicking here.

Earlier today, the D23 Expo site was updated to include the activity schedule for the three-day event. The most recent Kingdom Hearts III trailer confirms that the game will appear at D23 with a new world announcement in addition to a new trailer on July 15th, 2017, but the current schedule released on the D23 website does not list a Kingdom Hearts event on July 15th. There is a note made on the page claiming that the schedule is not final and is schedule to change. You can view the schedule by clicking on the image below:

Back in 2014, Seth Kearsley revealed the storyboards for a rejected Kingdom Hearts TV show, which he was set to write/direct, on his deviantART page. Fourteen years after his initial attempt at creating a Kingdom Hearts TV show, Seth is currently in the process of making the show a reality once again. We contacted Seth for an interview in which we asked him about his vision for the show, why he decided to try and make the show happen again, and what worlds he wants to see featured in the show. Check out the full interview below: A huge thank you to Seth Kearsley for this interview! Best of luck to you on getting the show green-lit!

The official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account has announced the limited edition of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX for sale exclusively on the Square Enix Online Store. The Limited Edition contains both Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX for PS4, and a unique pin featuring Sora from the cover art of each of the two titles in the collection. You can view the promotional image included with the tweet below:

The boxart for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX has been revealed via its listing on Amazon Canada. You can view the image below, thanks to reddit user m0rtadello. Nomura previously stated that no new art would be made for this collection, and based off of this new image, it seems as though that holds true. What do you think of the boxart? Let us know in the comments! UPDATE 1: The boxart for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX has been uploaded and fixed by Square. The original upload had Xion's hand mysteriously disappear in this air. You can check it out below. UPDATE 2: The back of the box has been shown off thanks to @K_Everwood on Twitter! View it below:

Update: The Xbox One logo has been added back to the Kingdom Hearts III website. As of January 23rd, 2017 the official Kingdom Hearts website went through a massive overhaul. The website now includes various links that seek to explain some of the lore of the series, as well as characters' roles and the many worlds that can be explored throughout the series. However, among these changes is the notable removal of the Xbox One icon on the Kingdom Hearts III section of the website. In the Worlds section of the website, it is also interesting to note that the logo used for Port Royal is the upcoming movie, Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. The area seen towards the end of Kingdom Hearts II and in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep has also been named "End of Sea". Thank you to Nathan Hatton for the tip!

An update file is ready for World of Final Fantasy, which includes the free Sora Champion Summon DLC. This update is available for all regions that World of Final Fantasy was sold. Square Enix has also released a new mini trailer ahead of the release of the free DLC, which includes some of Sora's summon cinematic. The downloads for the Sora champion summon can be found here. You can check out the trailer below: Update: The Sora Champion Summon DLC will be available to download for free in North America and Europe from January 24th, 2017 until Mach 31st, 2017. Will you be using Sora as a summon in World of Final Fantasy? Let us know in the comments!

As of 10:00am EST on 1/11/2017, it is January 12th in Japan, which means Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue has officially been released! This is the first new Kingdom Hearts release for consoles since 2012's Dream Drop Distance on the Nintendo 3DS, so many fans are excited about the release, but that also means spoilers will be across all platforms and social media outlets. To commemorate this release, we encourage you to join the discussion on our Kingdom Hearts 2.8 forum, but we will also be heavily enforcing policies regarding spoilers. Please read the spoiler policy here before posting to the forums. Prior to the official release, the trophy lists for both Kingdom Hearts 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- and Kingdom Hearts HD Dream Drop Distance were revealed. Feel free to check out these lists and make a plan of action for completing the game! (SPOILERS) One fan was also lucky enough to receive a copy of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 early, and they showed us the disc and provided some in-game screenshots of -A Fragmentary Passage-. We also want to warn fans of the possibility of the "lengthy scene leading into Kingdom Hearts III" being released across social media platforms. In addition to that, streamers are sure to be playing this game on Twitch, YouTube, and UStream, so be careful to avoid spoilers! Congratulations to fans in Japan who are currently enjoying Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and may your hearts be your guiding key!