Ten years is too long in between video game offerings. While it is true that most successful franchises like GTA or even entire video game consoles refresh themselves every five years, it has been a while since the hit franchise Kingdom Hearts has a true successor to Kingdom Hearts 2. Considering that Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced at E3 2013 (E3 being a big video game show held annually at the LA Convention Center) this is one sequel that is way overdue. This is the latest news about Kingdom Hearts 3 with the Release Date and News Updates, as well as ties to Final Fantasy.
News about Kingdom Hearts 3 is pretty scarce. Moviepilot reports that there is a brief gameplay segment with a beautifully rendered Sora with some interesting acrobatic abilities and new attacks. The game was announced at E3 in 2013, and yet hardly anything was heard in 2014. It was during that year when Nomura announced that Kingdom Hearts 3 would be using the Unreal Engine, which meant that the game is huge and required something big behind it like that.
As those who know the Kingdom Hearts series, it often incorporates Disney characters in its story, as well as Disney Worlds. It has been reported that Tangled and Big Hero 6 will somehow make their way into Kingdom Hearts 3, and that could be just the beginning.
It was also reported before that there might be a delay of the game due to working with Disney. Tetsuya Nomura has discussed the Disney style of 2D artwork, and how he wanted to apply it to the next Kingdom Hearts game. It was first shown off at an E3 trailer, and this "Kingdom Shader" is an application of Disney's 2D animation on 3D video game graphics.
In addition to the Disney licensed material, Square Enix also owns the Final Fantasy series, which also make their way into the Kingdom Hearts series. According to Parent Herald, Steve Burton, the man behind Cloud's voice in Final Fantasy VII, could be involved in Kingdom Hearts 3. Burton's response on Twitter was "Doing something in a few weeks! I'll let you know". Most people interpret the non-answer to Final Fantasy characters being involved in the next game.
Speaking of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 15 is also long overdue. There has been a lot of progress made in that game, and it will probably be available by the end of this year. In fact, at the end of this month is going to be a big event where Square Enix will announce the Final Fantasy 15 release date.
It is quite possible that Final Fantasy 15 is going to somehow be involved in Kingdom Hearts 3, but it is a question of how. As for the release date of Kingdom Hearts 3, Square Enix could probably live on the hype and eventual release of Final Fantasy 15 alone. It will probably devote the entirety of 2017 to the year of Kingdom Hearts 3.
