Hmm, must have missed that part. I thought it was an HD movie version of [chi], like 1.5's Days and 2.5's Re:coded. Ah, well, with the way things usually go with this series, I'm sure a fully 3D and voice-acted version of [chi] is in the cards, even if not anytime soon.
Most people are eager to see the Foretellers, Chirithy, Ephemera, (and maybe somehow our protagonist?) rendered in 3D graphics, fully animated and voiced... and don't get me wrong, I'd like that too, but somehow I'm hoping that the [chi] stuff in 2.8 also includes the new Disney characters - Gaston, Maurice, Razoul, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, it's been ages since they've been in anything. XD Call me crazy, I'm still one of those kooks who thinks the highlight of KH is the Disney part, I dunno...
Ah, giving this thread a bump just on the off-chance that answers can be found.
Well.... they DO always release the trailers in public later, the Final Mix versions have been released internationally in the HD Remix packages, Chi and Coded have gotten much better-looking remakes which were/will be released internationally, and media is ALWAYS released in its home country before the rest of the world, so... nope, none of those things are really a problem. Just standard operating procedure... as much as there's anything "standard" about having to constantly remake and repackage your games.
All right, check this out: http://ffchaoticcosmos.livejournal.com/415613.html?thread=6783357 A height chart of all the characters in the Dissidia: Final Fantasy series. Now, I'm wondering... would such a thing be possible with the Kingdom Hearts universe? I've seen an Organization XIII height chart - not nearly as well put together as this one - and T-renders floating around of Goofy and Tigger, so... I'm wondering if there's a way to present something as ambitious as this Dissidia project. Much more ambitious, since there's a whole shipload more characters in the KH saga than there are in the minimalist world of Dissidia. I just think it would be extremely cool to have little virtual dolls of every character, outfit, monster, and weapon in the series, in nice standing-up-straight T-render form so all the details can be carefully examined. And to get "official" heights for not only the KH originals, but a vast number of beloved Disney characters as well! ...It's something I would be very, very interested to see. So, how would such a thing be done? I don't quite understand the explanation there for why Aerith couldn't be included in the chart, but I don't think that would be an issue with KH... because if you go down to the Kingdom Hearts wiki, every character or outfit that doesn't have an official render has a fanmade one instead, and the only characters without official renders are the crazy-obscure ones: Ariel in her wedding dress, the Beast's human form, Kiara - characters that only appear during the end credits of KHII, so obviously it's possible to dig through the code and find just about everything and create really good renders out of them. (and yet the Undead Pirates still have really crummy renders, but I'm sure that could be rectified...) This whole notion isn't totally illegal, is it?
...Is that a thing that's going to happen? KHIII, assuming they ever get around to releasing the dang thing, will be released on the PS4, yes? Then we have 1.5, 2.5, and 2.8 - possessing all three of those titles will give you the entire series and then some, at least story-wise. But which of those titles are PS3, which are PS4? Does one need to own both a 3 and a 4 in order to play all three collections? I keep seeing conflicting reports about that, I figured I might as well... ask humans, I guess.
I used to write KH fanfiction. I gave up, because nobody really read it. It was set ten years after Xehanort's ultimate defeat and featured Max Goof, Webby Vanderquack, and an OC named Skye - successors to Goofy, Donald, and Sora - going on a mission to various worlds. Because that's how I write fanfiction. People often comment to me how my writing resembles the next installment of a franchise more than it resembles fanfiction. Thing is, people don't really read that in the Kingdom Hearts fandom. People read high school AUs and fluffy romances. It was profoundly depressing. So, I deadfic'd it...
I for one am thrilled that it'll be set after the events of the movie. We don't have to see Sora standing idly by while the characters poorly reenact scenes from the movie in THIS world, no sir, it'll be an original story, just like all the worlds from the first game. :D And the corrupted Baymax is inspiring; it's a BRILLIANT way to fit the events of Big Hero 6 into the way the Kingdom Hearts 'verse works. They're really going back to their roots with this one!
It just occurred to me... when Kingdom Hearts III comes out, the first time someone says "Sora! Donald! Goofy!" I'll probably, completely on reflex, stand up and applaud. 'Cause, you know... been a loooong time since anybody said that. Sure it was annoying, but what it symbolized... I think it would cause me to be overcome with emotion. Know what I mean?
I'm surprised that no one's mentioned The Jungle Book yet. (no, wait, someone did, but not in such a way as to place it on the speculation list) It's not exactly on my wish list, but I think it's the single most likely new world to appear. After all, it's been deleted from two games: KHI because its aesthetic would be too similar to Tarzan, BBS for unknown reasons, but probably related to the use of King Louie - Louie is a pretty obvious caricature of his original voice actor, Louis Prima, and Disney isn't allowed to use Louie without permission from Prima's estate. If we assume both of those issues have been cleared up, they're probably going to go ahead and finally use a Jungle Book world. Second in likelihood would be a return to Agrabah: I find it likely it'll come back, as a staple of the series almost as prominent as Olympus.... I'm not so sure about the King of Thieves idea. I'd love it if that was true, I just don't see it as very likely. Yes, there's been an appearance by Experiment 221, and KHII's Agrabah plot vaguely resembled The Return of Jafar, but I just don't think that the Kingdom Hearts series will ever truly deal in Disney sequels for its world plotlines. If I'm wrong, I'll be very happy to be wrong, but I just don't think it'll happen. There's one thing I feel with absolute certainty: Toy Story. Maybe not a world, but some sort of Toy Story material. Totally agree with what Roxam said about Marvel and Star Wars; it'd be great if they had some kind of presence in KHIII, it would suck if they devoted actual worlds to them. I'm also internally ruling out anything that came out less than three years ago. While they have jumped on fairly recent works (Pirates of the Caribbean and Tron: Legacy had KH worlds a mere two years after they came out), I think that too much amazing new Disney stuff has come out in the interim between KHII and KHIII to go for the super-recent. Anything from 2012 or before is fair game, but not after. And I do think it'll favor the new: Nomura said something about how he's having more interaction with the original directors of the Disney properties than ever before, and I think it was said outright that it's because more of those creators are alive than had ever been in previous installments. Keeping in mind that a vast majority of the material in KHII came out in 1990 or later... so KHIII might be even MORE focused on recent stuff. Wow.
It didn't ALL look like Tangled. Most of it looked like the setting of Hercules. Finally stepping outside the Coliseum and heading up Olympus, from the looks of it. (although, yeah, that also MIGHT have been the dam from Tangled...) And young Eraqus... anybody else get a Quinton Flynn vibe? I feel like that was him... Significant double-casting of Eraqus and Lea? That's a previously-unexplored connection. Of course, I could be wrong.
It's Aeleus, in case you're interested in making another sneaky edit. On that subject, how did Elaeus become such a common misspelling? I know the American version of KHII missed the significance of the apprentices' names - giving us Bleig, Dilin, and Eleus, forcing us figure out for ourselves what their names were until BBS - but didn't the UK version spell them right? Or am I mistaken?
YESSSSS! He still wants to do Birth By Sleep: Volume 2. I think it can still work as a full game. Who knows what kind of experiences she has down there? Who she meets who has connections to the rest of the series? Plus, the secret episode ends with her realizing that Cinderella's world has fallen into darkness, so... there's the world-travelling aspect of the game, right there. A midquel that fills in the gaps of ten years of wandering around? The possibilities are endless...
Well, if you wanna get technical, there IS only one Marvel world, hehe, but... it never occurred to me that there could be Marvel material that's based on the comics and cartoons instead of the Marvel Studios movieverse, that would actually be pretty cool. I'm thinking.... Captain America shield for Goofy, and Mjolnir and/or Loki's scepter for Donald, I think that would be really cool, especially if it was the only Marvel material to appear in the games - but yeah, if there's a world based on Marvel COMICS, that might actually be pretty neat. So if I could choose one, it would either be based on the cartoon "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes", or the actual movie of "The Avengers". If I had to. You know what I'd like? You know how the tournaments in KHI and II include Leon, Yuffie, Cloud, and Tifa as opponents, first separately and then all at once? What if they did that with members of the Avengers? Eh?
Well, I'm definitely on board with people who fear Marvel and Lucas material. I definitely don't want that. It's just not Disney. That's my biggest fear, but I'm also afraid that the series will end up like "Lost", finishing the story without actually resolving any of the plotlines. This especially scares me because we know it'll be the end of the Xehanort Saga, but not of the series - I'm afraid that the game will put too much effort into hooking us into the next chapter of the story. I want KHIII to feel like a real ending.
Yeah, I really love how all the worlds that were introduced in KHI kind of do their own thing, but the fact that every world that's debuted since then has just followed the movie is a big letdown. Though I find it a nice consolation that KHII, BbS, and 3D all have more than one visit to each world, which enables new material in addition to the movie plot, so I think if that tradition continues with KHIII, I'll be satisfied with the new worlds. I just hope it's a mix of new worlds and returning ones. I figure Olympus will come back, because it's a pretty major staple of the series, and I'd like Agrabah to return, although apparently most fans are sick of it, so the developers might take that to heart. So while I'm sure that every new world will be a thrill to discover, I think when the game actually comes out, it'll be the returning worlds that'll be more enjoyable. Because, you know, they'll have to actually write something.
I just had a crazy idea. Okay, remember how KHII had the Battle of the 1000 Heartless? And there was the promotional image, where there were a bunch of Behemoths and Wyverns and all sorts of Heartless - but when the game came out, due to system limitations, the Battle of the 1000 Heartless ended up being a little bit of a letdown. But.... well, it's been many years. What if KHIII gives us a REAL battle against 1000 foes? That idea came into my head earlier today and I couldn't get rid of it. Oooooooh, I hope the development team remembers that missed opportunity and seeks to remedy it... EDIT: Whoops, I didn't realize there was a Kingdom Hearts III sub-forum... can someone move this to there?
- I am Groot! - I am Groot! - I am Groot! - I am Groot! - I am Groot! - I am Groot! - I am Groot! - I am Groot! ....Sorry, I like Groot. XD Don't we all? Okay, for real, though: - YAH! - Come and take some of THIS! - Unh! - I'm not done yet... - Thanks, partner! - Protect me. - no..... I refuse..... - I'm BACK IN THE GAME!
Getting sidetracked is an RPG staple. Everything is for gaining items and experience (with a dash of world-building) until those certain checkpoints that are plot-relevant. Those points are clearly outlined in KH: they're the series-original worlds. Every RPG has those shifts between 'plot area' and 'sidequest area'.They're more seamlessly integrated into the game world as a whole, sure, but they're seldom any more plot-related than the Disney worlds are. Towns and dungeons, you know. That's what the Disney worlds are. The equivalent of a normal RPG's towns and dungeons. You know how KH shows a world map, and first you play a plot-relevant world, followed by an assortment of Disney worlds you can choose to play in any order before moving on to the next segment of the main plot? Sounds like a standard RPG floor-plan to me. As for your final thought, Square doesn't pay licenses. From a legal and financial standpoint it's a Disney game, for which Square does the heavy lifting, so the licenses (with the exception of Tarzan) are a non-issue and Disney foots the bill for voice acting, which is certainly not a problem, Disney being Disney and all. I doubt this alternate-universe version of KH we're dealing with would be cheaper for Square, or make the game longer. There would be expenses toward designing new worlds from scratch, brainstorming character concepts, writing scenarios. There's still a lot of creativity involved in translating the Disney films to game form, but it's because they have so many pre-made environments and characters to work with that the games can be as big as they are. The games would be much shorter and, like you said yourself, what would they be then but a decade-spanning Final Fantasy story? (I hope I'm not causing any offense, I'm enjoying this debate if you are)
Yes, they could do that, but they would not. They wouldn't be remotely connected. They'd be a load of useless sidequests with nothing to do with the actual story. That's just how RPGs work. You can't honestly believe that if there was no Disney, then every little bit of gameplay would have some big unifying theme? No, no, people would be rushing through all the peripheral worlds to get to the plot-critical parts same as they do now. What would the worlds be if they were all original? Well, they'd be: desert level, jungle level, undersea level..... all with no bearing on the plot. Having them all in Disney movie form makes them WAY better than normal filler. If you think that wouldn't happen, if everything in the games would be connected, then the answer to the question "How would Kingdom Hearts be if Disney wasn't incorporated?" is "Way too short". ^^ 'Cause I can't help but notice that there's not a whole lot of gameplay in those parts of KH that are plot critical. Lots of talkin'. All the interconnected parts, they're already IN the game, and if that was all there was, there'd be far too few hours of gameplay.
