Analysis of the Kingdom Hearts III gameplay footage from Jump Festa

[soraspromise 380]

New Kingdom Hearts III gameplay footage debuted towards the end of a new Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue trailer that premiered at Jump Festa 2016. This new footage featured the use of magic, the return of Shotlocks and Nobodies, new Heartless, as well as a new Attraction Flow named "Shooting Ride".

 

The footage begins with a cutscene of Sora, Donald, and Goofy in the Kingdom of Corona, seemingly heading towards Rapunzel's tower. From there, the cutscene smoothly transitions into a battle against the dandelion Heartless that were initially revealed at E3 2015. As Sora battles with the Heartless, he uses several magic spells including Aero and Fire. When these spells are used, they effect the environment as well; Aero will move the individual blades of grass while Fire spells will leave tinder marks on the ground. While the Heartless are somewhat spread out in the beginning of the battle, the smaller ones begin to circle around the bigger Heartless and begin to work as a group, as detailed by Tetsuya Nomura in a past interview.

 

In the next scene, Sora encounters several Nobodies floating down in a valley. These Nobodies twirl about through the air while showering petals of light below. With the use of dodge roll, Sora is able to avoid the petals before being launched into the air with the help of Flowmotion. The design of these Nobodies seem to heavily suggest the return of Organization XIII member, Marluxia.

 

On Mount Olympus, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are walking along a path when they encounter a group of flying Heartless. The HUD starts off blue when in a state of peace, but turns orange as the group encounters enemies and as Sora summons his Keyblade. From there, the screen zooms in and enters a Shotlock mode, an attack tactic featured in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. The player is given two options: "Shot Flow" or "Athletic Flow". Athletic Flow is chosen for this battle, and Sora launches into a high speed attack, easily moving between the flying Heartless with a technique that seems similar to Flowmotion. In order to keep the attack going, the player must push assigned buttons as they pop up onto the screen. Sora is surrounded by a blue glow during this period and unleashes a powerful spinning attack to finish off the Athletic Flow.

 

When a Shotlock command is used, this will deplete the yellow bar featured above Sora's health and magic bars on the bottom left portion of the screen. Though buttons are not assigned yet, it can be assumed that each button will lead into a different Shotlock.

 

Moments later, Sora falls into the river and is swept away by the current. In this state, it seems that Sora is defenseless against enemies, but the current is moving so fast that he could potentially escape without damage. As Sora is swept away, we also catch our first glimpse at a treasure chest.

 

The next scene features a battle in Twilight Town and focuses on new Nocturne Heartless. These new Heartless use elemental attacks, just as their predecessors, but feature a ring around their bodies that they include in their attacks. Sora uses magic skills as well as classic maneuvers such as dodge roll, guard, and air slide against these new Nocturnes, Large Bodies, and Soldiers.

 

Lastly, the new footage ends at the Mysterious Tower. As the trio enters battle, Sora raises his Keyblade and creates a portal from which the Shooting Ride Attraction Flow appears. Sora, Donald, and Goofy all jump into the car and Sora puts on a pair of glasses. Once the glasses are on, the screen changes into a sort of first person shooter state. From there, the player can send out short blasts that will launch enemies into the air. Once the Heartless are launched into the air, the player can do more damage with these blast attacks. Just like the Shotlock attacks, the Attraction Flow attack Shooting Ride also ends in a powerful finisher, featuring a bright swirl of many lights and launches several Heartless into the air at once.

 

The Shooting Ride also keeps a record of the points the player gains while shooting down enemies. Just as it will do more damage, the player will also earn more points for shooting enemies that have already been launched into the air. Taking advantage of the finishing attack will also help to give players a higher score.

 

After showing off dodge roll, magic attacks, as well as physical combos, Sora performs a Shotlock attack once more and starts to use "Shoot Flow" before the trailer fades into the Kingdom Hearts III logo.

 

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[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Gahh, all the gameplay shown in the trailer was glorious, and I love how beautiful the game looks!  I think that one of my favorite features the trailer showed was the badass Shotlock attack Sora did that resulted in an "Athletic Flow" attack!  My God, that was insane!  I also loved how he was slipping when he fell into the water!  Adds a nice detail to realism there, if I do say so myself!  Overall, everything about the trailer looks amazing, and I can't wait to see more!

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Also noticed a few key features. Right before Sora gets swept up by the current, a fire spell that Donald launched still affects the landscape as it is burning a little flame in the grass on the ledge. Also right before the Shooting Ride/Astro Blaster appears the command menu has a green command appear for a second, suggesting perhaps a sort of reaction command-like/Triangle button feature.

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

So cool to see the shotlocks again. I could not believe they put them in.

[soraspromise 380]

Also noticed a few key features. Right before Sora gets swept up by the current, a fire spell that Donald launched still affects the landscape as it is burning a little flame in the grass on the ledge. Also right before the Shooting Ride/Astro Blaster appears the command menu has a green command appear for a second, suggesting perhaps a sort of reaction command-like/Triangle button feature.

 

I had to try to pause almost frame by frame to see what it said myself lol but it actually just says "Shooting Ride" so it's probably just used to activate that specific Attraction Flow.

 

 

So cool to see the shotlocks again. I could not believe they put them in.

 

I'm very happy about it too. Aside from the Command Deck, the Shotlock feature was one of my favorite things about BbS. Throughout the entire series, BbS was by far one of my favorites gameplay wise (at least with Aqua and Ventus--I'm terrible with Terra haha). 

[Moochieh32 676]

Here are some others:

 

- In addition to the shortcut menu, it seems you can be able to use all magic spells in a single shortcut menu and peform any with just one button. In previous Kingdom Hearts games, the amount of spells you can cast in a shortcut is limited to 4.

 

 

- If you look very closely when Sora performs his attacks, you'll notice these things popping up "2p" and "3p" which come up in different colors. Could be certain point gaining for either leveling your current Keyblade (since you can get them with normal strikes too) or etc. They're for something however.

 

 

- Sora can step around his allies with a swift dodge, giving combat a bit more realistic feel 

 

Screenshot of the Treasure Chest

 

 

Screenshot of the Shooting Ride being listed in combat

 

Edited December 23, 2015 by Moochieh32