‘Kingdom Hearts 3’ And ‘2.8’ Jump Fest 2015 Trailer Is Excessively Pretty For PS4 And Xbox One

A new trailer for Kingdom Hearts III and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue dropped during the Jump Festa exposition in Japan on Saturday. Square Enix managed to show off new footage from the upcoming game PlayStation 4 and Xbox One title while opening the door to new questions in the HD remake for the PS4. Also, the footage is all just extremely pretty.

Square Enix released a single trailer to cover both the latest Kingdom Hearts remake and the upcoming sequel. The first three and a half minutes of the Jump Festa trailer are dedicated to Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 with the final two minutes giving a sneak peek at Kingdom Hearts III gameplay.

The Kingdom Heart HD 2.8 footage is a mix of gameplay and cut-scenes from the compilation game. It contains a remastered version of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, which was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS; the cinematics from the mobile title Kingdom Hearts Unchained X, and an all-new playable chapter called Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage.

A Fragmentary Passage is completely new and is played from the perspective of Aqua. The chapter is set off the storyline of Birth by Sleep and links to Kingdom Hearts 3. The cinematics for Kingdom Hearts Unchained X is possibly the most interesting of the trailer for those that haven’t played the mobile game. It concerns a missing page to a prophecy the heroes don’t know about. That missing page refers to a traitor in the midst of the heroes that was likely stolen by the same traitor. It will be interesting to see who of the Guardians of Light ends up being the traitor, if any. Dedicated fans of the series may just have their hearts broken.

The Kingdom Hears 3 gameplay footage is full of new gameplay footage. it is similar to what has been seen already, but still stunning to look at how Kingdom Hearts graphics translate so well the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. The footage shows new fights taking place in the Tangled universe along with battles in Twilight Town and Yen Sid’s Tower. This includes the familiar gameplay mechanic of locking on to several targets and sending the hero in to attack each in succession.

A fun moment comes at the end when Sora summons a small buggy and hops in with Goofy and Donald. All three put on some cool looking shades before shooting enemies with the mounted guns for a shooting gallery moment. In many ways, It is reminiscent of the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride at Disney World’s Tomorrowland; just with three guns instead of two.

The end of both the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 trailer and the Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer mention the games are “Now in Development.” Square Enix will presumably try to get Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 out prior to Kingdom Hearts 3, but a release date for both is very much in the air. Rumors swirled about a potential 2015 release, as reported by The Inquisitr, but quickly became obvious it was not going to happen.

The current rumors are for Kingdom Hearts 3 to be released sometime in 2016. Again, it seems likely Square Enix would want Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 to be released first, however.

For those that don’t know, the entire collection of eight Kingdom Hearts spread across different platforms have been complied into Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix for the PlayStation 3, along with the upcoming Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.

What did you think of the new Kingdom Hearts 3 gameplay footage from the Jump Festa trailer? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Square Enix]