Kingdom Hearts 3 News - Haley Joel Osment AMA

[vid87]

My question is how they'll keep integrating Disney into all of this. There's only so many times they can dip into the classics before getting stale - the fact that Little Mermaid played out pretty much the exact same storyline both times, even though you clearly kill Ursala the first time and it's never mentioned how she comes back. I don't know about the rest, but without the likes of Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hook, or Hades, the connection between the series and Disney becomes less urgent. I wonder if, somewhere down the line, they'll have enough lore and world-building to just ditch Disney and Square entirely and just be its own thing?

At the very least, I'd REALLY love to see a party system that brings the other characters along like a traditional RPG and stop the crap logic of "no meddling." It would be great to have classic characters interact in new ways and develop stronger personalities outside of their movies and games - Cloud and "Leon" talk to each other, Genie harasses Beast, Ana from Frozen falls in love with Peter Pan - the possibilities in both number and impact are staggering.

 

[Roxas1359]

My question is how they'll keep integrating Disney into all of this. There's only so many times they can dip into the classics before getting stale - the fact that Little Mermaid played out pretty much the exact same storyline both times, even though you clearly kill Ursala the first time and it's never mentioned how she comes back. I don't know about the rest, but without the likes of Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hook, or Hades, the connection between the series and Disney becomes less urgent. I wonder if, somewhere down the line, they'll have enough lore and world-building to just ditch Disney and Square entirely and just be its own thing?

At the very least, I'd REALLY love to see a party system that brings the other characters along like a traditional RPG and stop the crap logic of "no meddling." It would be great to have classic characters interact in new ways and develop stronger personalities outside of their movies and games - Cloud and "Leon" talk to each other, Genie harasses Beast, Ana from Frozen falls in love with Peter Pan - the possibilities in both number and impact are staggering.

Well they haven't always used the same worlds throughout the games. For Birth by Sleep that used Toon Town, the beginning from Lilo and Stich (the space ship), Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty.

For Aladdin they've gone based off the movies, so they could theoretically do Aladdin 3 for Kingdom Hearts 3. For Atlantica, Kingdom Hearts 2 actually followed the plot of the first movie so it's possible for them to do The Little Mermaid 2 (I'd hope not though). For Oogie they could go based off the plot of Oogie's Revenge, especially since both KH2 and Oogie's Revenge were made by Bunea Vista games. As for Hercules, they're probably just gonna keep it as the arena again, unless they bring back the Mirage Arena again which would be nice.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

If and when they do release KH3 they better fucking wrap things up with it. I'm sick of all this SomebodyHeartlessNobodySomebodyagain resurrection cycle bullshit.

Yeah, the story is definitely already convoluted in the first place and Dream Drop Distance absolutely piled on top of that with the ridiculous amount of stuff that happened in the last half hour of that game. It's already pretty over-inflated anyway - lets just end it while you could almost argue that it still makes sense.

I mean I know that it's a story about doofy kid and his significantly more interesting buddies roaming the galaxy to save Disney characters and their worlds from certain doom with magical keys that double as swords, but Square Enix games used to be highly praised for their stories. Birth by Sleep was pretty good, but if all the really weird stuff that happened at the end of DDD is any indication of what's to come in Kingdom Hearts 3, I can only hope they'll leave it there so they don't end up embarrassing themselves.

That said, I'm really looking forward to Kingdom Hearts 3. After following the series since the first installment hit shelves back in 2002, I'm ready for the conclusion.

 

[vid87]

My question is how they'll keep integrating Disney into all of this. There's only so many times they can dip into the classics before getting stale - the fact that Little Mermaid played out pretty much the exact same storyline both times, even though you clearly kill Ursala the first time and it's never mentioned how she comes back. I don't know about the rest, but without the likes of Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hook, or Hades, the connection between the series and Disney becomes less urgent. I wonder if, somewhere down the line, they'll have enough lore and world-building to just ditch Disney and Square entirely and just be its own thing?

At the very least, I'd REALLY love to see a party system that brings the other characters along like a traditional RPG and stop the crap logic of "no meddling." It would be great to have classic characters interact in new ways and develop stronger personalities outside of their movies and games - Cloud and "Leon" talk to each other, Genie harasses Beast, Ana from Frozen falls in love with Peter Pan - the possibilities in both number and impact are staggering.

Well they haven't always used the same worlds throughout the games. For Birth by Sleep that used Toon Town, the beginning from Lilo and Stich (the space ship), Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty.

For Aladdin they've gone based off the movies, so they could theoretically do Aladdin 3 for Kingdom Hearts 3. For Atlantica, Kingdom Hearts 2 actually followed the plot of the first movie so it's possible for them to do The Little Mermaid 2 (I'd hope not though). For Oogie they could go based off the plot of Oogie's Revenge, especially since both KH2 and Oogie's Revenge were made by Bunea Vista games. As for Hercules, they're probably just gonna keep it as the arena again, unless they bring back the Mirage Arena again which would be nice.

True enough, or at least other parts from the movies they haven't explored yet - the KH3 trailer shows what looks like the Rock Titan on Mount Olympus, so Zeus might show up. And I'm calling right now that they're throwing in either/both Tangled and Frozen (Ilsa + Blizzaga spam = no brainer). However, while I know what you mean by using sequels (KH2 borrowing from Aladdin 2), I don't think they'll lift from them directly as they want to keep those characters relatively stable, so I don't think we'll see Aladdin's dad or Ariel's daughter; I mean, that'd be great, especially if it means Johnathan Rhys Davies gets work, but I don't think it's happening.

 

[nyankaty]

I stopped caring about KH since KH 2. It became pretty obvious they were purposely just making cliffhanger after cliffhanger to milk the franchise.

As much as I LOVED KH, I'm kind of in the same boat. I haven't played any of the many spin-off storylines; I've stuck only to KH1, KH2, and a brief, rage-filled partial playthough of CoM and if KH3 doesn't wrap up Sora, Kairi, and Riku's story, I'm done. I won't buy KH4, 5, 10, 283. It's going to turn into the goddamn Land Before Time franchise where there's so many sequels that they didn't even bother numbering the last few. Screw that nonsense.

Instead of making so many random games with what seemed to me to be subpar characters, I really think they should have focused on the great thing they had going with the original three instead of making up whatever crap they could to make as many games as they could on as many consoles as they could (as exclusives).

Guh. KH is a touchy topic for me!

As much as I despise the kind of commercial tactics that go into doing spin-off games, I have actually played most of those games (by luck/friends with the good portable console,...etc) and in the case of KH I would say some were worth their while:
-Birth by Sleep has the best gameplay of the serie and an interresting storytelling structure
-358/2 Days has the worse gameplay but a terrific story with great characters. In the end Sora and Kairi aren't such interesting characters in term of depth, Riku has a little bit of development but it stays simple stuff (from light to darkness and back again). Meanwhile Roxas, Xion and Axel are much more interresting in Days
-Chain of Memories is a good link storywise between KHI and KHII. But the gameplay is so frustrating and so different from the rest of the serie that I never understood what it was doing there
-Coded, I haven't play but it brings nothing to the story and re-use assets from previous game. If you have to past one of these, past this one
-Drop Dream Distance...is fun experiment I'd say. The story is difficult to understand on a first playthrough (even by KH standards) and only becomes important to the serie in the end, as a kind of introduction to KHIII.

Anyway, time to end this thing

Ya know, Birth By Sleep is actually the only one I was ever interested in because it sounded and looked the most engaging. And yeah, Chain of Memories....that's why I only did a rage filled partial playthrough. I really appreciated what they were attempting with that battle system and I appreciated the story, but JFC I could not even get halfway through that game before I turned it off forever.

 

[Voulan]

2015 seems to be a pretty logical release date, considering that Tetsuya Nomura has stated in an obscure interview somewhere that he wanted to have yearly KH releases since 358/2 Days, which thanks to 1.5 and 2.5 has been going good so far. That means that next year the only possible KH game to be released is in fact 3. It also makes sense in a marketing sense to release all the games in package deals just before the big one so everyone is up to date and perhaps willing to try it out if they haven't looked into the series before.

He's also stated that 3 will wrap up the Xehanort saga, so from there on in it will have a new story, but luckily with the same heroes as before. I think he's also said he's going to stay clear from spin-off titles now too, hence the need for 1.5 and 2.5. I remember he also said he's looking forward to when KH 6 comes out, so we're in for the long haul.

 

[Leemaster777]

My question is how they'll keep integrating Disney into all of this. There's only so many times they can dip into the classics before getting stale - the fact that Little Mermaid played out pretty much the exact same storyline both times, even though you clearly kill Ursala the first time and it's never mentioned how she comes back. I don't know about the rest, but without the likes of Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hook, or Hades, the connection between the series and Disney becomes less urgent. I wonder if, somewhere down the line, they'll have enough lore and world-building to just ditch Disney and Square entirely and just be its own thing?

At the very least, I'd REALLY love to see a party system that brings the other characters along like a traditional RPG and stop the crap logic of "no meddling." It would be great to have classic characters interact in new ways and develop stronger personalities outside of their movies and games - Cloud and "Leon" talk to each other, Genie harasses Beast, Ana from Frozen falls in love with Peter Pan - the possibilities in both number and impact are staggering.

Personally, I feel like there's still plenty of gas in the tank as far as Disney properties are concerned.

Olympus Coliseum could still potentially be used at least a few more times. I won't be satisfied until we get a full-on battle with all four titans on top of Mount Olympus. Neverland also has enough to work with for more stories. They only covered the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, so they could conceivably have the others in there. 100 Acre Wood always has the chance to return as a mini-game hub. We got the beginning of Lilo and Stitch in BBS, so why not continue the story?

And that's just worlds that have already been explored. There are a TON of other movies they could pull from. Like:

Bambi
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book (which almost happened in BBS)
Robin Hood
The Rescuers
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Pocahontas
Atlantis
The Emperor's New Groove
Treasure Planet
The Princess and the Frog
Frozen
And pretty much every Pixar movie

And, again, that's just the animated stuff. Who knows what they'd pick if they added more live-action stuff?

 

[vid87]

My question is how they'll keep integrating Disney into all of this. There's only so many times they can dip into the classics before getting stale - the fact that Little Mermaid played out pretty much the exact same storyline both times, even though you clearly kill Ursala the first time and it's never mentioned how she comes back. I don't know about the rest, but without the likes of Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hook, or Hades, the connection between the series and Disney becomes less urgent. I wonder if, somewhere down the line, they'll have enough lore and world-building to just ditch Disney and Square entirely and just be its own thing?

At the very least, I'd REALLY love to see a party system that brings the other characters along like a traditional RPG and stop the crap logic of "no meddling." It would be great to have classic characters interact in new ways and develop stronger personalities outside of their movies and games - Cloud and "Leon" talk to each other, Genie harasses Beast, Ana from Frozen falls in love with Peter Pan - the possibilities in both number and impact are staggering.

Personally, I feel like there's still plenty of gas in the tank as far as Disney properties are concerned.

Olympus Coliseum could still potentially be used at least a few more times. I won't be satisfied until we get a full-on battle with all four titans on top of Mount Olympus. Neverland also has enough to work with for more stories. They only covered the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, so they could conceivably have the others in there. 100 Acre Wood always has the chance to return as a mini-game hub. We got the beginning of Lilo and Stitch in BBS, so why not continue the story?

And that's just worlds that have already been explored. There are a TON of other movies they could pull from. Like:

Bambi
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book (which almost happened in BBS)
Robin Hood
The Rescuers
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Pocahontas
Atlantis
The Emperor's New Groove
Treasure Planet
The Princess and the Frog
Frozen
And pretty much every Pixar movie

And, again, that's just the animated stuff. Who knows what they'd pick if they added more live-action stuff?

Yeah, like they could do The Lone Ran-- goddammit.

Seriously, as far as live-action, I think "Black Hole" or "Narnia" might be the best bets. I don't know how Pixar lines up in terms of licensing but I guess now would be the time to dip into that particular well.

I'd love to see Davy Jones as a boss, especially if fighting him involves the Kraken.

Also, I wonder what other Square series will be involved (other than Lightning).