Considering that fans have been looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 3 since the credits rolled on KH 2 back in 2005, it’s safe to say that expectations are very high. Square Enix has a lot of weight on its shoulders and will need to deliver a memorable and substantial experience to justify that huge gap between mainline series entries.
Luckily, according to director Tetsuya Nomura, it sounds like Kingdom Hearts 3 will be as big as fans hope. In fact, the sequel is reportedly so big that the size of one world trumps the entirety of a whole game.
While speaking at D23 Japan a few weeks back, Nomura had a lot to say about the development of Kingdom Hearts 3. As always, Nomura avoiding giving specifics, but one of the more interesting things he had to share focused on the progress of the game’s three phases. Additionally, he added that players could expect each world in Kingdom Hearts 3 to offer unique gameplay opportunities and its own open world – so much so that he likened each world to its own game.
Of course, some will take this to mean that Kingdom Hearts 3’s worlds offer gameplay hours on par with past KH titles, but that is unlikely to be the case. Maybe that’s true when compared to some of the shorter, spin-off Kingdom Hearts games, like Birth by Sleep, but a world bigger than all of Kingdom Hearts 2 would have to be massive.
“This Kingdom Hearts is a bit different. One world is equivalent to one [previous] game, and the things to do for each world are vastly different.”
Thus far, Square Enix has revealed a wide variety of Disney worlds from Tangled to Toy Story to Monsters Inc. But even so, Nomura says that there is at least one world that has yet to be revealed. And as it turns out that world is Nomura’s favorite.
The prospect of worlds that are of a massive scope and size is sure to excite fans, but truly any news about Kingdom Hearts 3 that suggests it is on track for a 2018 release is enough. It has been a long road from the initial announcement to now and Square Enix seems intent on delivering Kingdom Hearts this year.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is set to release in 2018 for PS4 and Xbox One.
Source: WCCFTech
