NihonScribe

During the live Sony E3 showcase, a new Kingdom Hearts III trailer was revealed! The trailer features more footage of gameplay and characters, alongside the reveal of Pirates of The Caribbean returning as a Disney world! Kingdom Hearts III releases on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 25, 2019 in Japan, and January 29, 2019 to the rest of the world. You can now watch the latest Frozen trailer and Square Enix E3 Showcase trailer! Check out our coverage for Kingdom Hearts III at E3 2018 and keep an eye on our Twitter for our live updates!

During the live Square Enix conference at E3, a new Kingdom Hearts III trailer was revealed! The exclusive video features more footage of gameplay and characters such as Ratatouille, Kairi, Lea, and more! The footage was available previously to those that attended the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra on June 9th, 2018. The thumbnail used for the picture features Sora and Rapunzel; while this was not shown in this trailer, it was shown in the trailer shown to the the Los Angeles Kingdom Hearts Orchestra attendees. Sora and Rapunzel seemed to be engaged in what looked like a dancing mini-game. News Team staff Raxaimus reports that during the Orchestra trailer, no button prompts were seen for this scene. What do you think of the new information? Let us know in the comments below! [update: Jun 11, 2018] The Japanese version of the trailer has been uploaded onto Youtube! Kingdom Hearts III releases on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 25, 2019 in Japan, and January 29, 2019 to the rest of the world. You can now watch the latest Frozen trailer! Check out our coverage for Kingdom Hearts III at E3 2018 and keep an eye on our Twitter for our live updates!

Famitsu Weekly released an article recapping everything revealed during the Kingdom Hearts III premiere event. Screenshots and their translations, provided by news team members Mio-Chan and NihonScribe, can be viewed below!

Welcome to KH13’s roundup of all the latest merchandise revealed from the latter half of April up to the present. Check out pictures of the new merchandise below! First, Hot Topic introduced a Kingdom Hearts Keyblade key chain. You can purchase this for $7.12 with their current 20% discount! The rest of the items are from ThinkGeek starting with their Kingdom Hearts cosplay wallets! Each are stylized in the form of either Riku or Sora’s costume. Each one costs $19.99. Their other items include a Kingdom Hearts Roxas cosplay necklace ($14.99), a Keyblade Master cuff bracelet, a heartless cuff bracelet, and a Sora cosplay necklace ($9.99). Both Keyblade Master/Heartless cuff bracelets can be bought for $14.99 each! This concludes our latter half of April through May roundup covering the latest Kingdom Hearts merchandise! What are you most excited about getting? Let us know in the comments below!

Famitsu released an issue on April 18th, 2018 showcasing a three-page feature on the Kingdom Hearts Union x[cross] 2018 fan event, aka "Dandelion Meeting," which took place at Disney's House of Blues Anaheim in Anaheim, California. The feature talks about the activities carried out across the event, the Classic Kingdom Trailer, and the question and answer section of the discussion panel with Tetsuya Nomura among the development staff! Here is the full article with the panel discussion translated by team members Mio-Chan and NihonScribe. Images below are from the design panel discussion.

Welcome to KH13’s trailer analysis of the “Classic Kingdom” trailer revealed at this past weekend’s Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross]: Dandelion Meeting fan event! With a title like “Classic Kingdom,” the trailer expertly hooks viewers in with a poignant call to gamers’ nostalgia in the form of LCD inspired minigames created through the unreal engine! But first, the graphics! We start off with Sora and Co. in an updated Twilight Town surrounded by Haynes, Pence, and Olette in new outfits. This is the first time the Twilight trio have been seen in the unreal engine and they look fantastic. They're rocking a new style, involving plaid similarly to Riku’s new makeover, but they are still similar enough to be recognizable as Roxas’ easygoing pals from Kingdom Hearts II. Sora is in the middle of the group holding a device. In the next shot we see him and Donald and Goofy staring at a device he’s holding as well before we cut to the LCD goods (cue adorable soundtrack). Next we are introduced to Sora, Mickey, and Minnie in 2D, moving in a way similar to Mr. Game-And-Watch. We are then treated to a montage sequence of four mini games. First Sora and Mickey are introduced in the new gameplay style, traversing across unstable building beams being arranged by Pete to reach Minnie. Then the games start. Each one is based off a classic Disney cartoon with the same name. The first game is called “The Barnyard Battle.” It is a rhythm game in which Mickey and Sora shift from left to right, bopping cows falling to the sides of them. It works similar in the vein of Dance Dance Revolution (and looks just as punishing). The second game, “The Karnival Kid,” involves Sora working hard as a server, cooking hot dogs and piling up a specific dish upwards in the direction of a wanting customer (ranging from Goofy, Mickey, and beyond). Players will be able to tell the specifics of the order based on the speech bubble that shows up over the customer’s head. “Giantland” is the next game shown with Sora working to avoid a giant’s tantrum through various obstacles before swinging on chandeliers above him to reach Mickey. This was the only minigame shown previously at the D23 Event 2017 in Japan. It’s nice to see its return here. Lastly, “Musical Farmer” is the final minigame shown which has Sora shifting tubes and collecting eggs that birds drop down the tubes into baskets before delivering them to either Mickey or Minnie on the sidelines. The trailer ends with Sora smiling at the pseudo-Switch-looking device before turning excitedly towards his friends. It's a great detailed close-up that really highlights Sora’s eyes and facial features. The graphics continue to improve with each trailer giving fans much hope for the finished product. But if you need a break from fighting heartless, these minigames should take you back to a simpler time. It serves as a nice reprieve and great addition to the various series of minigames in the Kingdom Hearts series along with the aesthetics of the Timeless River world in Kingdom Hearts II. No matter how much time passes, it looks like there will always be room for the classics and it's great to see Square Enix pull inspiration from early Disney cartoons once again! I’m looking forward to seeing what the others have in store. As someone who was lucky enough to experience a few of these games at the event itself, I think they are a great addition. “Karnival Kid” really had me on my toes. Cooking isn't easy folks! What were your favorite parts of this new trailer? Who thinks they’ll become addicted to these new minigames? And how do you feel about the Twilight trio’s new look? If there are any details I missed please let me know in the comments below! I hope you enjoyed this analysis! You can catch the charming trailer here. Don't forget to check on our live coverage of the event here for more details on some gameplay and other exciting info on Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross]!

James Woods confirmed on Twitter that he is working on Kingdom Hearts III! You can view the tweet below. Previously, the only news we had on voice work for Kingdom Hearts III was the Japanese dub given to us in previous trailers from the 2015 E3 trailer up to the last ones revealed at D23 Expo 2018. Which other Kingdom Hearts voice actors do you think will be next to reveal their work for the latest installment? Let us know in the comments below!

Bandai is bringing its line of Kingdom Hearts figures to the West with its upcoming release of the Kingdom Hearts II Sora S.H.Figuarts figure on January 25, 2018. The beautifully crafted figure, which was previously released in November 2017 in Japan, stands at around six inches with two sets of hands and faces alongside Sora’s signature Kingdom Key Keyblade. The figure is highly posable and sits at around the same height as the Bring Arts line of figures. You can take a look at the pictures of the figure below: Bandai’s first in the S.H.Figuarts line is distributed by Bluefin Distribution for US and Canadian markets, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon for $59.07 USD here. Will you be pre-ordering this figure? Let us know in the comments!