Kingdom Hearts 3 Release Date Likely Not Until 2015; Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Coming in December

Kingdom Hearts 3 Release Date Likely Not Until 2015; Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Coming in December
Zachary Stieber
6/20/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

Kingdom Hearts III, which was officially announced for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at E3, will likely not come out until 2015.

The game is not mentioned on Sony’s game list for this year. Also, co-director Tai Yasue recently said that Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix is slated to come out in early December for PlayStation 3, further indicating that Kingdom Hearts 3 won’t be released until 2015.

2.5 will help refresh players on the complicated narrative in the series, Yasue told Polygon.

“I think it’s really accessible for the younger generation, [but] story-wise, it’s a bit complex,” Yasue said. “By having 1.5 and 2.5, I think it will be easier to play Kingdom Hearts 3 and understand that story. We wanted the players to experience that in HD and relearn it and re-experience it.”

The original game was released nearly 12 years ago. To fully understand Kingdom Hearts 3, the many connections between the games so far need to be explored.

“As a developer myself, you start to forget what happened,” Yasue said. “There are so many [games]. In a way, it’s a learning experience for us too.”

Previously, developer Tetsuya Nomura added to Famitsu magazine that he is focusing all of his time on developing the story for Kingdom Hearts III.

He added that the reaction to the latest footage of the game was good.

“It seems like everyone was happy, so I’m glad about that,” says Nomura. “However, while we know how far we’ve come from a development point of view, what we showed still has ‘ways to go.’”

Nomura was asked about the gameplay.

“The ‘Attraction Flow,’ allows you to choose moves according to different places and enemies, and especially so during boss fights where you'll be able to pull off unique moves,” he said, according to a translation by Siliconera. “This is an evolution of Kingdom Hearts 3D’s Flowmotion, and will be one of Kingdom Hearts III’s main systems.”

The Keyblade transformation seen in the trailer was also addressed.

“In the trailer, we saw it transform into the shape of a gun, but there are also some other unbelievable transformations,” he said, adding that it is no longer just a weapon anymore. “According to suggestions from the planning side, it'll likely be used as some sort of gimmick. The Keyblade has infinite possibilities.”