Square Enix have confirmed that as part of their E3 booth, visitors will be able to quite literally get their hands on Kingdom Hearts 3. In other words, actual game play though there’s no details on what this entails. We could be seeing a contained demo or some sort of pre-release build similar to what was an offer at the Kingdom Hearts 3 Premiere last week. Namely a quick jaunt through the Hercules-themed Olympus Coliseum and the Toy Story-inspired Toy Box area.
Thank you to all those who attended the #KH3Premiere last week! Fans can get their very first chance to play @KINGDOMHEARTS III at Square Enix's #E32018 booth!? Hope to see you there! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ik7ggNTayY
— SquareEnixUSA (@SquareEnixUSA) May 25, 2018
After years of speculation, Kingdom Hearts 3 was first announced at E3 2013 with subsequent teases, engine switches, resourcing conflicts, and delays over the years culminating in a release scheduled for 2018.
Following on from the helplessly convoluted, but endearingly charming story from Kingdom Hearts 2, you resume control of franchise protagonist Sora in the company of a host of characters including Donald Duck, Riku, and Mickey. Sora and her squad must defeat returning antagonist Master Xehanort while searching for the seven Guardians of Light. The game features a host of Disney, Marvel, Final Fantasy, and Pixar characters you can play or at least interact with throughout your play through.
Kingdom Hearts 3 will feature game worlds based on Disney franchises, including Tangled, Toy Story, Big Hero, and Monsters Inc. as well as established world’s from previous releases. Continuing with the Disney flex, attacks now carry names that relate to real world Disney theme park rides. In addition, mini-games within the title evolve around classic cartoons starring Mickey Mouse. As you can see, the tradition of zany mashups continues in Kingdom Hearts 3.
In terms of a release date, Square Enix fleetingly mentioned an announcement scheduled for early next month. The game is more or less confirmed to release before the end of this year, though the 5 year development cycle (and 16 years since the last mainline release) suggests further delays cannot be totally written off. Given the long build up to release, let’s hope the final game was worth the wait.
