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Square Enix and Disney have announced that Kingdom Hearts 3 is to be released in 2018, having been first revealed at E3 in 2013. With the announcement, made at the D23 Expo, was a trailer, showing off the Toy Story world, the first world in the Kingdom Hearts series to be based on a Disney Pixar film.. You’ve certainly got a friend in me.
The new trailer follows the series protagonist Sora, with Donald Duck and Goofy, as they go to Andy’s room, where they meet the Toy Story luminaries Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Hamm, Rex and Sarge. Joining together, they investigate the disappearance of the other toys and Andy, in a story set after the events of Toy Story 2. On first impressions, Square Enix has been able to brilliantly capture the whole look of the Toy Story world, whilst effectively adding the Kingdom Hearts cast in a unique visual style. That figures, I suppose.
Kingdom Hearts III has been in development for quite a long-time, and many fans of the series were worried that the game would never see the light of day. Kingdom Hearts director Tesuya Nomura spoke on this in a group interview via. Gamespot, stating that many of the development issues were simply tied to the game evolving with the technology, and later switching over to the Unreal Engine (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/kingdom-hearts-3-director-tetsuya-nomura-explains-/1100-6451732/).
‘At long last, we are excited to open up the Kingdom Hearts universe to include the world of Disney Pixar’s ‘Toy Story,’ said Nomura. ‘I’m sure fans have been anticipating the inclusion of this world for many years’. I think they’ve been anticipating anything about the game in general to be honest Nomura-san, but this is a start.
