We have waited a very long time for Kingdom Hearts 3– over a decade, by the time it does release. We thought that it would be out by now, given that it was originally officially announced in 2013, but its development seems to be coming along slower than expected, and Square Enix instead seem to be pushing Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD, a highly enhanced remaster of the Nintendo 3DS exclusive Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, as the flagship Kingdom Hearts product for now.
However, a recent job listing made by Square Enix Japan for their Osaka development team – the development team working on Kingdom Hearts 3 – seems to indicate that the game may be about to near completion soon, at least for some aspects of the game’s development. The job listing in question is for a lighting artist, but it seems to indicate that the job will require post production work on the game’s lighting. So given that the duties for the job need to be performed during post production, and if the job listing has been put up now, that has to mean that the game is nearing post production- that it is at least close enough for Square Enix to start looking for someone, at least for the lighting in the game- and hey, if one thing is nearing completion, who is to say that other things won’t soon as well?
Could this, then, imply a 2017 release date for Kingdom Hearts 3 after all? I have so far refused to believe that that might happen, especially given that Tetsuya Nomura, the game’s director, is also working on Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and that Square are already launching a major flagship game, Dragon Quest 11, next year. But this seems to indicate otherwise- 2017 will surely be an interesting year for Kingdom Hearts fans.
[Thanks KH13]