After the recent release of the Kingdom Hearts III Orchestra Trailer, fans have been waiting for the next trailer and the announcement of a new world, promised and finally unveiled at the D23 panel today. While the biggest reveal of the trailer is that Toy Story is going to be the new world premiering, there are plenty of other takeaways and tidbits of information to be gleamed.
Sora’s Transforming Keyblade – More Forms Revealed
We’ve seen Sora’s new transformative keyblade in action a couple of times now, but the trailer sheds some more light on it. First off, the “Two Shoot Blaster” seen previously in the D23 Expo Japan trailer form 2013 has now been renamed to Double Arrowguns – a reference to loyal Organization XIII member Xigbar, whose signature weapon was two arrowguns. That keyblade is also shown to be able to transform from the arrowguns to a Magic Launcher form as well.
Rail Shooter Mechanics
In previous trailers, Sora has been shown jumping down to earth from Olympus. However, this trailer shows new mechanics that resemble a rail shooter as Sora glides back down and shoots projectiles at Heartless using the shotlock mechanic. Whether players will have a choice in which method they use or if the methods are story-locked is still unknown.
Firaza Command
The Firaza command makes a reappearance after previously being shown in the Orchestra trailer. Whether this is meant to be analogous to the level 4 fire spell “Firaja” seen in a handful of previous Final Fantasy games, a mistranslation of that spell or a completely new Fire spell is yet to be seen.
Toy Story Keyblade and Transformations Revealed
While the Toy Story world is a huge reveal, we also get to see Sora’s Toy Story themed keyblade and its two transformations. The keyblade itself is themed to match Woody and the Wild West, it’s shaped like a cactus and has rope wrapped around it with a bandana and Woody’s hat at the top, with the Sheriff’s badge as the teeth. The handle themed is to Buzz Lightyear and the Star Command symbol is displayed prominently at the base of the blade. There’s also a cute Toy Story alien keychain dangling from the end. When the keyblade is transformed, it morphs into Hyper Hammer or Drill Punch, both themed to Buzz.
Toy Story Characters and Locations
While the story for the level in the game is confirmed to be unrelated to the movies, the trailer does offer a look at some of the locations and characters available. Andy’s room, Andy’s yard and the toy store Galaxy Toys (Owned by Vic the Visitor according to the floor logo) are all shown. Additionally, Woody, Buzz, Rex, Hamm, Sarge and the green army men and the Pizza Planet aliens are all shown in the trailer, with a cameo appearance by the Luxo ball. Part of the plot is that their friends have gone missing after one of the members of Organization XIII showed up, so it’s unknown who else might be putting in an appearance. Fingers crossed for Wheezy!
Toy Story Gameplay
Buzz and Woody are both shown to be allies in the Toy Story level, which would mark the first time that Sora has two party members from a world with him. Additionally, Goofy and Donald are still in the party, making it a whopping five members as opposed to the usual three. While fighting in Galaxy Toys, Sora is also shown to be able to jump into toy robots a la mecha anime, in order to use them to fight other bots, each bot design having its own unique set of moves.
Kingdom Hearts III is currently set for a release in 2018 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles.
Are you excited for the Toy Story world? Want to try out rail shooter mechanics or are you most excited to finally have a release window for this long overdue sequel? Let us know in the comments below!
