In case you hadn’t heard. Square Enix held a preview event yesterday they are calling Kingdom Hearts Premiere where invited media and Kingdom Hearts influencer’s were able to go hands on with the game for the very first time and share their impressions and gameplay clips from the event.
Many outlets have begun sharing footage captured of their experience, most of which for now consists of off-screen recordings but if higher quality footage becomes available we’ll be sure to update the article. One of the better looking sets of new Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay comes from Gamespot who have uploaded two video’s from the event. One for each of the playable sections featured in the demo, the Titan fight at Olympus Coliseum and exploration of the Toy Story world, Toy Box.
In the Olympus gameplay you can see Sora first scaling a vertical wall while dodging the Titan’s onslaught of thrown boulders. This scene shows off more versatility than we’ve ever seen so far in a Kingdom Hearts title and leads me to believe that these worlds won’t just be large in overall size but may provide more vertical detail and exploration to go with it as we know Tetsuya Nomura has previously mentioned that one world in Kingdom Hearts 3 could be equivalent to an entire game (referring to previous entries in the series).
Upon reaching the peak we see Sora weaken the Titan by attacking it’s legs before unleashing one of the rumoured many “Attraction” attacks. These are attacks inspired by Disney theme park rides. We see Sora, Donald and Goofy riding the “Big Magic Mountain” ride that spews fireworks almost constantly, showcasing the updated particle effects the team have achieved in this game using Unreal Engine 4 before leading to the conclusion of the battle. At a guess I’d say this sequence takes place early in the game because if you look close enough you’ll notice Sora is still wearing his Kingdom Hearts 2 costume and not the new one we’ve seen prominently in prior trailers and marketing materials.
Jump Into The Toy Box!
The second clip showcases the moment to moment gameplay we’re likely to expect as the norm in Kingdom Hearts 3. It’s very familiar to what we would expect from a Kingdom Hearts title except here there’s a noticeable extra layer of polish. Sora’s hair now react’s to the wind in the environment, the grass and tree’s bend giving the world a greater sense of realistic life and the lighting and particle effects used in the new engine make everything just pop.
The scene features various environments of the Toy Box world, starting in Andy’s room before heading to the streets and then the toy store where a mini boss encounter takes place. And possibly best of all we get a first look at the Wreck It Ralph summon.
Tetsuya Nomura stated at the event that the release date announcement will be coming early next month and that from that point there will be a constant stream of news and new announcements coming for the game. This has me super excited. As someone who has played every entry in the series and loved majority of them I can’t wait to finally get my hands on the game later this year after seeing this new Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay.
Check out select screenshots from the new footage in the gallery below:
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