Kingdom Hearts has been a saga of… well, it’s been a saga. It all began way back in 2002 with its bizarre mix of Disney, Final Fantasy, and original content. The series quickly got a reputation for being convoluted. Well, you can experience it all at once, if you can stand it anyway, with a new super collection coming soon.

As announced by Square Enix, the Kingdom Hearts All-In-One Package will come to the PS4 in March. It includes 10 different “experiences” from the franchise, beginning with all the HD Remix Collections, up until the latest entry, Kingdom Hearts 3. Some of the titles are represented as cutscenes instead of the original games. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t include the Re:Mind DLC recently released for Kingdom Hearts 3.

The All-In-One Package will be a physical release and will seemingly only release on the PlayStation 4 on March 17th. Kingdom Hearts will also continue  with a new mobile title, Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road, sometime after mid-February.

The Kingdom Hearts series had its long awaited third entry in the series last year. Hardcore fans will know, though, that despite the number 3 attached to the name, it was actually something like the eighth or ninth entry. And it seems the series won’t be slowing down after this milestone by any means.

The series’ creator and head director Tetsuya Nomura took to the official Japanese Twitter for a lengthy update on the game’s future in a special Q&A. He confirmed that there is now two new dedicated teams working on the franchise, which means that there will most likely be a lot of potential spin offs and sequels down the road. In fact, he said there was a new game coming “surprisingly soon.” Thanks to Twitter user GOLDPANNER for translations, and you can see the full transcription below.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is available now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the HD remasters of previous games available on PlayStation 4, and also coming to the Xbox One later this year.

Part 1 pic.twitter.com/n1VGQeQMkj

— GOLDPANNER (@_KH_ENGLISH) January 22, 2020

Part 2 pic.twitter.com/2q11ACYWPS

— GOLDPANNER (@_KH_ENGLISH) January 22, 2020

Part 3 (final, re-upload due to missed line) pic.twitter.com/xjHER8gRMW

— GOLDPANNER (@_KH_ENGLISH) January 22, 2020

Kingdom Hearts 3 headlines the lot of games Square Enix have brought with them to Gamescom 2018. While at the event, Square Enix Europe’s community manager, Sunil Godhania, showed off a section of the game to IGN, while also speaking about several new details on the game.

Among the various details that were shared, Godhania spoke briefly about the final bosses of each of Kingdom Hearts 3’s worlds. This is something we haven’t seen anything of in the build up to the game’s launch, and there’s a very good reason for that- according to Godhania, Square Enix have made a conscious decision to keep each of these final bosses secret, and won’t be revealing them before the game’s launch at all, letting fans discover them for themselves and not have the surprises spoiled.

There’s a lot of other details in the video as well, about things such as Sora’s transforming Keyblade, the increase in party members, collectible emblems, and more, so be sure to take a look through the link above.

Kingdom Hearts 3, the resolution of the long-running saga, will be launching on January 29, 2019 for the Xbox One and PS4. While earlier reports indicated that the game would have upwards of 80 hours of content, Square Enix have since then clarified that the final amount of content in the game hasn’t yet been nailed down.

Last week, Resident Evil 2 broke into the top 15 of Famitsu’s weekly charts for the most highly anticipated upcoming games (as decided by votes from their readers), and it’s now moved up in the rankings even more. The upcoming remake of the PS1 classic comes in at #9. Meanwhile, permanent fixtures Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3 retain their places at number 1 and 2 respectively.

In the last few weeks, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has also consistently been in third place, and it holds that position this week once more. Meanwhile, riding on a wave of loads of new recent information, Persona Q2 comes in at fifth place, just behind Warriors Orochi 4 at number 4. Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee follow close behind in 6th place.

Code Vein comes in at number 8, while Switch exclusive Bayonetta 3 comes in at number 10. You can check out the full top 10 below. All votes were cast between July 19 and July 25.

1. [PS4] Final Fantasy VII Remake – 806 votes
2. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts III – 644 votes
3. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 501 votes
4. [PS4] Warriors Orochi 4 – 334 votes
5. [3DS] Persona Q2 – 331 votes
6. [NSW] Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee – 315 votes
7. [PSV] Romancing SaGa 3 – 281 votes
8. [PS4] Code Vein – 279 votes
9. [PS4] Resident Evil 2 – 257 votes
10. [NSW] Bayonetta 3 – 244 votes

Thanks, Nintendo Everything!

Kingdom Hearts 3 is almost upon us, and as its release date approaches, we’re beginning to see more stuff that will be featured in the game. One of the things we’ve seen is the Gummi Ship, which is returning to the franchise after some time, and according to Tetsuya Nomura, there is a very specific and good reason for its inclusion in the game.

Nomura was asked about the Gummi Ship and why it’s being featured in the game in an interview with US Gamer, and he said that he feels like it’s a core part of the very basics of the Kingdom Hearts series. To be more specific, he’s talking about the mainline, numbered games.

“In Kingdom Hearts numbered titles, the Gummi Ship has always been there to travel between the worlds,” Nomura said. “Gummi Ships are part of the basics of Kingdom Hearts, and as a numbered title in the series, I thought it was necessary to have it in there to complete the package.”

He then went on to talk about how he likes to have as much variety of gameplay styles in Kingdom Hearts games as possible, from RPG mechanics, to shooting, to adventure elements. The Gummi Ship, Nomura says, plays into that element of gameplay variety. “This is something that [Hironobu Sakaguchi] told me once, which is that Final Fantasy is a title that just has everything in it,” he said. “I wanted to bring that to Kingdom Hearts. In Kingdom Hearts there’s the shooting game, there’s the RPG, there’s the adventure game. It has action, command battles, and everything. There’s customization with Gummi Ships, and they bring with them the shooter aspect and the travel aspect. It’s just a part of Kingdom Hearts. That’s why I thought it was necessary to have it in the title.”

Kingdom Hearts 3 is not far away now. It launches – at long last – on January 29 for the PS4 and Xbox One.

Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake were both announced quite long ago by Square Enix as an incredible one-two punch, and obviously, people were incredibly excited when that happened. Since then, though, the anticipation has continued to get stronger, while the games themselves constantly seem to be far away from release. Kingdom Hearts 3, thankfully, has been confirmed for a January 2019 release, after multiple years of waiting, but Final Fantasy 7 Remake still seems to be no closer to release than it did years ago.

According to Tetsuya Nomura, who’s directing both these games, the process of deciding when to announce big upcoming games is a complicated one, due to a number of factors, but he admits that both games were indeed announced by Square Enix too early. “Deciding when to announce your game to the public is always difficult,” Nomura said in an interview with Italian magazine Multiplayer (translation via KH Insider). “I understand why some companies wait as long as possible, and I definitely think it’s a good thing for them. But in our case, we receive pressure from the fans even when we do not announce anything. They’re always asking us ‘are you working on this?’ or ‘why don’t you make a sequel for that?’.  Even after the announcement, the situation does not change, because then they’ll move onto asking us ‘when will it release?’ or ‘when will you show a new trailer?'”

“People are waiting for new information regardless of whether the game has been announced or not,” Nomura continued. “It’s great when we manage to keep it secret for as long as possible, but these days, a lot of important projects become victims of rumors and leaks. Honestly, I prefer that we officially reveal our games instead of seeing a leak or a rumor circulating online. Especially when part of the development is outsourced to other companies, there is always the risk that people outside the in-house team will spread information and images online. It is even worse when, during the development, a fake rumor sprouts that people start to believe, and it becomes necessary to decide whether to answer and deny.”

He then went on to speak about Final Fantasy 7 Remake, admitting that the same happened with the announcement of that game as well. “The same thing happened with the remake of Final Fantasy 7. I am well aware of the fact that we announced it too early, but even in the industry, word was beginning to spread that we were working on the game, so we just decided not to keep it more secret and officially reveal it.”

Kingdom Hearts 3 is definitely (we hope) launching on January 25 for the PS4 and Xbox One, as Square confirmed during E3, while Final Fantasy 7 Remake now seems to have moved into the production stage of development– though when it will be out is something neither of us really knows yet. However, Square Enix have said that the development on the game is moving along better than expected. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates on both these games.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is almost upon us- well, relatively speaking. It’s definitely closer than it’s ever been, and new information on the game is being unveiled every day. Recently, the game’s producers Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue sat down for an interview with Famitsu (translation via Goldpanner), and revealed plenty of interesting new details on the game.

When the pair was asked about any interesting gameplay features in the game they wanted to talk about, Yasue went into brief detail about some mechanics specific to the in-game worlds. “There’s a very exciting Attraction Flow in OLYMPUS,” he said. “We would love for you to play it very thoroughly. In the Toy Story TOY BOX World, as I said before, you can control robots – and there are several types of robot. Also, in TOY BOX, investigating is crucial, so make sure to enjoy all the toys and features. Personally, I hope you try hitting the gas tank and watching Sora and the others’ reactions.”

Kingdom Hearts 3 is due out later this year for the Xbox One and PS4. It is currently without a more specific release date, but we expect that, and other details on the game, to be announced in about a weeks’ time at Square Enix’s E3 press event. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more updates on the game.

Thanks, KHInsider.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to have plenty of variation in terms of gameplay styles and mechanics, which is going to be be driven primarily by the variety of worlds included within the game that players will be visiting. That’s according to Square Enix’s Tai Yasue.

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently sat down for an interview with Square’s Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue, and the pair spoke about quite a lot of stuff, revealing plenty of interesting details. When asked about the variation in gameplay in Kingdom Hearts III, Yasue mentioned that there’d be plenty of it, thanks to each world having unique mechanics for players to fiddle with.

“Each world adopts new features,” Yasue said (translation via Goldpanner and Khinsider). “In OLYMPUS, which you can play a demo of, you can dive from the sky and climb walls. OLYMPUS in particular has a sense of scale to it. Also, KHIII includes the evolved forms of gameplay from past titles in the series. For example, the multi-storey maps from KH3D are even more powered up in KHIII – not only can you kick from wall to wall, you can now also run straight up walls. We have adopted all sorts of elements that allow you to really adventure, and the maps are vertically expansive.”

Kingdom Hearts 3 is expected to launch sometime this year, but it does not yet have a more concrete release date. We expect it to be one of the main attractions at Square Enix’s E3 showings in a couple of weeks, so that’s probably when a release date will be announced. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for continued coverage.

Kingdom Hearts III is going to be a very real thing soon enough – no, it really is! – and as the days go by, new details are emerging on the upcoming RPG. The official US PlayStation blog recently got the chance to play a demo of the game, and the impressions they posted revealed some interesting details on the game.

Firstly, Tetsuya Nomura, the game’s director, has talked about how the game’s theme will be “resolution”. This is the final game in the series’ narrative arc about the battle against Master Xehanort, so it makes sense that resolution seems to be a pervading theme in the game, for both big stories and small.

In addition to that, there’s some other interesting little tidbits in the impressions as well. For instance, Toy Story’s Woody seems to be having issues with making sense out of Kingdom Hearts’ mind-bending narrative (we feel you, Woody), while the video game-obsessed Rex seems to be having a tough time with defeating a Bahamut boss in a game he’s playing.

There are some other interesting details in there as well. For instance, the Hercules world in the game is inspired by the Yosemite national park, while the demo also reveals Wreck-It Ralph as an in-game character. He was supposed to be saved for a reveal for later on, but Square Enix decided to include him in the game demo itself.

Kingdom Hearts 3, slated for release on Xbox One and PS4, is currently without a concrete release date, but we expect Square Enix to confirm it at their upcoming E3 press event. Stay tuned for more details.

Real, live people have played Kingdom Hearts III. I know, hard to believe that the game is actually real. Since Sora, Duke and Ryo have made it back, guess Mr. Freeman is up next. But I digress.

A showcase event this past weekend allowed lots of other venues to go hands on with the upcoming JRPG that’s been console generations in the making, including many Japanese outlets as well as western ones like Gamepot, Game Informer, IGN, KH13, KHInsider, Kotaku, PlayStation Blog, Polygon, ShackNews, VentureBeat, USgamer, and VG247. You can thank them for the gorgeous screens in the gallery and some of the footage below, most of it focusing on the gorgeous looking Toy Story world.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is expected to launch in 2018 for Xbox One and PS4, with director Tetsuya Nomura telling Famitsu that it will be dated in early June. Sounds like we have something to look forward to at E3 this year.