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For those wondering, the scenes from 3D are in fact in HD, or at least greater quality then we've ever seen in trailers or in-game. As with the teaser for 2.5, the textures are not updated, but the anti-aliasing is greatly improved. For your reference, you can compare below. Note that the color is off and it's a little foreshortened, since it was captured off-screen. I did a quick color correct and got rid of the bad perspective, but it's not perfect.

I'd buy it even if it were $60.They probably won't go that high though. My guess is it'll be a digital download for PS4, maybe with a disk option, between $20-40. Especially if it's releasing fairly close to KH3, it'll be hard to justify a big price tag. MGSV: Ground Zeroes was I believe 30 for digital and 40 for physical. Though that game is pretty overpriced considering how short it is, so maybe it's not the best comparison.

Odds are KHX will be there in a very limited capacity. Just enough to give a taste for the setting, maybe some story elements. They won't have time to show any of the fluff.

They all have something unique, but Birth by Sleep's rendition definitely sounds the most complete to me. Most versions are pretty simple, which is fine because it's a nice melody. BBS's has multiple parts to it, and a strong build-up which makes it feel a lot more dynamic. And as was already said, it was put to excellent use in the BBS secret ending. I'm also quite partial to Always On My Mind, and how it was used at the end of Kingdom Hearts.

They both have special moments tied to them, which helps them stick with me more. But that aside, I think they're really great pieces.

Yeah, that's basically what I'm hoping for, haha. A 10 minute or so thing, to fill in any gaps they wanted to fill.

Well, whatever it is, I will probably refrain from watching it until December, but it'll be nice to know what it is at least.

Exciting news. I was hoping they would add something like that. Very curious what it's about. I doubt it's a KH3 teaser, if it's attached only to re:Coded. I also doubt it's an announcement for KH: DDD HD, since they say it's completely new content (and it's a relatively new game, so they may wait a little longer, if they even do it), but it's still possible. I'm guessing it's an extra scene(s) that ties in to 3D, or possibly other games.

I'm curious if they're leaving the "Birth By Sleep -Volume Two-" bit at the end of BBS, since that's canceled. Kind of hoping they address that in some way.

I hope they at least get a ride called The Hydra's Back, so people can get up on it.

Have fun, guys!

This should be my last comparison, then :p Prepare for more obsessing over detail. Dialog/visual spoilers (from scenes in the trailer) below.

Keyblade Graveyard looks great. Sadly, the keyblades are still just textures, but the added quality and variety in color vastly improves the look. Seems like they changed the shape of Ven's face to look a little younger. It's subtle, but they may have also made Aqua's lips a little fuller and pinker. There are a lot of variables though (difference in english/japanese lip sync, not the exact frame, different overall color in source footage), so not sure on that.

Sora's textures are also looking quite a bit better. And I must say, KH2FM's glow effects are looking amazing, as seen with the shot of Xemnas' dragon, and the stained glass the Roxas fight (not pictured here, but seen in the previous trailer).

Thanks for the news. We're coming up on release now. I'll probably look at a few videos, but I'm gonna try and hold off on Re:Coded until it releases here.

The one for Kingdom Hearts sounds plausible. Though maybe Cura = (Max MP x 3) + 18, and Curaga = (Max MP x 3) + 27. Just a guess, so take that with a grain of salt.

At level 100, Max HP is 111, and max MP is 19 (these include equipment enhancements and beginning of game choices, so you can't have both). It takes 2 curagas to heal completely. (20 x 3) = 60. 60 + 27 = 87. 87 + 1 (for second chance) = 88/110.

Most people don't maximize their MP though: on average it's probably about 10 MP at that level. So Curaga would do (following the same equation) 57 HP, rather than 87.

I can't do it since my PS3 is busted, but if you or anyone wants to try, you can test it pretty easily. Go to the coliseum and fight sephiroth with the Oblivion keyblade (and second chance). Let him hit you until you have 1HP left, then pause and exit the match. If memory serves, you should have the same HP as when you forfeit. Heal yourself and see how much you get back. Then equip the Oathkeeper and repeat. See if there's a difference in how much HP you get back (with Max MP+2, compared to Oblivion). If you have a save file from when you just beat Hollow Bastion first visit, that's ideal, since you can try it with Cura first, then again when you get Curaga from Aerith. Just make sure you don't level up in between.

I'm a bit hazy on KH2, but I think it always restores full health. At the very least, I can't recall a time when I used Cure in KH2, and it didn't heal me completely, so they spaced out your Cure upgrades in such a way that it corresponds perfectly with your HP upgrades. That seems to be the case for Sora at least. In this video at 0:40, Sora uses Cura, and it heals completely with maximum (or at least very close to maximum) possible HP.

Donald's might be different (for sure in the Pride Lands, since he heals 3 times, for smaller increments). I can't recall if Donald heals for max HP. If not, it may be based off of a static HP number, and maybe combined with with his magic stat. I think the difference between Cure, Cura, and Curaga, for Sora is the range of the spell. In other words, how far you can be from your party members for it to also heal them. Not sure though.

I come bearing way too many comparison shots, and full analysis. Usually I put them in the same image, but it's probably better to have them separate so you can just use your left/right arrow keys to see the changes.

A lot of the changes are really subtle, but they do make a difference. Considering there's an improvement to most textures in all the Disney worlds, that's pretty impressive. Textures that should have very sharp edges, such as bricks and patterns (like on the drapes in Enchanted Dominion), have the biggest improvement. The transparency maps on plants/trees also look much better (see images of Terra in Castle of Dreams, and Ven at the Coliseum). And check out the image with Terra and Hercules. In the top left those distant buildings look like they changed from bad texture to actual polygons.

The PSP textures have the saturation jacked up, so it's easier to see on a smaller screen. In most cases, I think the more natural hues on the HD version look better. Unfortunately, certain areas of Neverland and the Dwarf Woodlands seem to actually take a slight graphical hit as a result. The grass textures that are essentially one solid color benefited from high saturation because it added a little graininess, which kind of faked detail. The smoother texture in this case makes it look a bit flatter.

And of course while the anti-aliasing isn't perfect, it's much than how it was. Notice how the PSP aliasing hides Snow Whites' corner eyelash.

Obviously it's not going to be perfect on all fronts, but I appreciate how much work they're putting into it.

Glad to see that they're syncing the lips for the english voice acting in KH2FM. It bothers me a little that they still have the japanese VA for the Castle Oblivion members, but not a huge deal, I guess.

Also really happy to see that they fixed the horrible texture stretching under Roxas' arms that was in the original KH2FM. They had it in the first trailer and I was a little worried that they wouldn't fix it. Compare the first shots of the trailer with this one.

What's with the sky in Castle Of Dreams though? It's just a single color O_O Hope they fix that.

Cool trailer. Probably gonna end up buying another PS3 for this game, now that my old one's out of commission.

Wow, that Destiny Islands sunset looks really pretty. Hope it holds up when it's moving.

Not entirely sure. Maybe since he's always with you by default, it would be too good. Like, you could exploit it more easily with tough/secret bosses, by setting his behavior so he only heals you, so you get two heals out of him per recharge. I guess it also kind of incentivizes you to use the world-specific party members by making them a little better. It's a trade off for not being able to use that ally's drive form.

If you insist :P

If I had to guess, I'd say it's a replacement for turning off MP charge for magic abilities. I do that all the time so I can use attack magic (basically) all I want, but then still have at least 1 MP left over to cure.

Giving you the option to disable MP charge for your allies' moves would complicate things too much, and if you're really on top of your healing, then after a while the ally would be stuck with low MP and wouldn't be able to do any powerful attacks that require MP. They would have to heal before their MP would start recharging again.

So basically it lets your allies be a little more useful. They can heal, and then still have enough MP to use another one of their techniques (or just heal again) before having to recharge. It would be boring if they were just your healing slaves (though you can still set their behavior to do that if you want).

He just thought it was a typical storm at first. No reason to say goodbye. He just panicked and ran out because he was worried the raft would drift away, or get destroyed.

And yeah, the world is called Destiny Islands (plural). Meaning there's at least two in that world. In KHII, we saw the starting island in KHI was off in the distance from where Kairi and Selphie were. And in BBS, Riku mentioned that there was a "main island" where people lived. And that Sora's dad took them on the boat to play on that island.

I think it's fine how they handle the parents. It's not that they don't care about their parents: it's just the parents aren't really important to the story. We only see parts of three days (only a few hours), on the island where they go to hang out. Part of the "Disney magic" is about making it just about the three of them going on an adventure and nothing else. Having too much emphasis on the parents and their ordinary life would take away from that. I agree that it's a little weird, but for good effect. Making them orphans creates unnecessary drama, and makes it harder to relate to for an average child. Even if they're orphans, that raises even more questions. What happened to their parents? Do they live in an orphanage? Are there any adults, or is it just an island of children?

Riku does say "We may never see our parents again", but that was because their world was being destroyed. Their initial plan wasn't to never return, but things changed and Riku didn't know if they could return home after. And at that moment Riku was acting strange, presumably already having met Ansem. Riku being so casual about leaving everything behind makes that scene more surreal and dreamlike. Clearly Sora thinks it's weird because of how reluctant and quiet he is during that scene.

And to correct what Sennitz said, everyone forgot about Sora (because of what Namine did in Castle Oblivion), but not Riku. Both Kairi and Selphie remembered him, but Selphie didn't remember Sora at all, while Kairi could only remember this boy that she used to be friends with.

No big deal, dude. But thank you :P

I don't think it's at all lazy of them to not go for a hyper-realistic look. As nice as it is to see a game with crazy high-res textures and displacement maps, I'd much rather see a game that has solid art direction, which is what Kingdom Hearts has always been about. It's the reason why KH1 still holds up, whereas games that WERE on the cutting edge of graphics for their time, like Devil May Cry 1, Half Life 2, FFX, etc. don't age as well. Yeah, Kingdom Hearts didn't have realistic textures or dynamic lighting, but it made up for it with a clear style and great facial rigging, and animation that, while not super intricate, feels very natural. A lot of games from that era had lip-syncing that was god-awful, and animation in general was clunky (you could see the characters starting and stopping as they go through their cycles).

The Kingdom Shader, as we've seen it so far anyway, is by no means a simple cell shader. It has Ambient Occlusion, and interactive lighting. I don't think the series would benefit from pushing it fully in the direction of their CGI sequences. Ignoring the fact that it would be near impossible to get the same feel (since each shot in those FMVs are lit individually like a film, whereas in real-time you generally just use the one light setup of that location in-game), that extra detail and shading would clash with all the Disney parts of the game. Whenever I see the ending sequence of KHII, where Mickey, Donald, and Goofy appear, they always look so out of place to me. I think the pastel look of the KS is a step in the right direction. Mind you, it will still take me some getting used to it.

Bear in mind, this is not necessarily what the final product will look like. They're still in the early stages and a lot could change. I am however, cautiously excited to see what kinds of things they do to change their shaders to fit with different worlds, as they mentioned they would be doing. It's a new idea for the series, which makes it a bit scary, but it could end up being pretty awesome.