KH13's D23 Japan 2018 Kingdom Hearts III trailer analysis

Ok I figured how to comment here so I'll just paste what I wrote on twitter:

Marluxia, in japanese, specifically states that he's in the True (New) Organization XIII. His comment in english is very ambiguous and confusing, but it's implying that he knew the organization's true purpose all along, not that he aligns with the former Organization XIII.

Also:

"One thing I noticed from the trailer is that, as they are getting ready to launch off, Buzz's lips move as if he's saying something, but there is no dialogue."

This also happens in the Mike Wizowski attack and they indeed say things in the japanese trailer, but were muted in the english one for some reason or another (maybe so they didn't need to subtitle it?).

And finally, Riku and Mickey never lost their memories of Castle Oblivion, so he definitely remembers Riku-Replica, though that still doesn't confirm him.

Still, great analysis!

The only thing I want to know is, does the Monster's Inc. world take place after the movie?

I just realized what I commented had already been mentioned in the main text. Though it doesn't seem to have been posted.

The one question my boyfriend and I had about the Marluxia thing, is: wasn't he killed in CoM? I deliberty remembering him being destroyed. I mean, he is one of the ones Axel was in charge of getting rid of in 358/2. So how is he back? Did he die? Or is he like Lea and can remember what happened and is just trolling Sora?

I guess it's one thing we'll find out when we play the game, but the anticipation is going to kill me until then.

You made several mistakes.

First off: Marluxia never indicated that he wasn't part of the "new" Organization, it's more likely meant to be interpreted as that he was always part of it. He says "the only Organization" to suggest that this new one, the "true" one is the only real one that mattered. Just because he has blue eyes now doesn't mean he won't have Xehanort features later. It just seems rather presumptuous to assume that based on those things alone, which could easily be interpreted in many different ways, that he must be some rogue factor.

Second: Swimming HAS been used again since KH1 long before KH3. In Birth By Sleep, there are a few choice moments where the playable characters can swim in water: the waters of Never Land or the great ocean arena you fight Monstro in. Not only that, but Riku can swim in the water in Monstro's mouth in Dream Drop Distance. While swimming hasn't been a frequently re-used ability (not in the traditional sense anyway, since technically you're swimming in Atalantica in KH2 and in DDD Prankster's Paradise your physics are literally "floaty" underwater), it has appeared in more titles than KH1.

Third: Sora's diving in Olympus doesn't automatically mean that that's showing him first entering the world. It's more likely a feature that activates if you leap from a tall area. Keep in mind that there's still footage depicting Sora climbing up Mount Olympus and fighting off the Rock Titan while he's in his KH2 clothes, and way back in the past trailers Sora is still following the path up Mount Olympus in his KH2 clothes. If anything, it's more likely that Sora starts out in either Thebes or at the base of Mount Olympus and has to work his way up the mountain until he can reach the gates of Olympus itself and do whatever task he needs to complete in order to gain his new clothes.

Fourth: Those blue orbs you pointed out ARE the new MP orbs. They aren't new either, if you had been paying attention in 0.2, you'd notice that they are there along with the HP and Focus orbs. They are the new bubbles now, and since 0.2 uses the same engine as KH3, it's only natural that they are using the same items and assets.

Fifth: I think you're making a huge assumption about how the Forms work. Just because we've mostly seen only three forms of three different colors so far doesn't automatically mean that there are specifically three "classes" of Forms with no in-betweens. The new Monsters Inc Form proves as much, his main color is orange with purplish pink stripes, but even if it was more of a yellow, the claw ability doesn't seem very "defensive". The only thing I'd say is supporting your theory is the fact that the Mirage Staff Form looks very similar to the Shooting Star one. I'd say until we see more Forms in the standard world appearance, there's nothing suggesting that there can't simply be more than 3 colors/types.

Fifth: You left out mentioning the Laughter gauge that's present during one of the Monsters Inc world battles (the same one with the Mike attack and the Meow Wow attack). There's a gauge on the upper left corner with Boo's face on it, and it sounds like it's suggesting that either you need to fill the gauge up for Boo to do some kind of laugh-based attack (like say, a laughing fit that causes all the electricity in the factory to overload and wipes out all the surrounding enemies) or it's a danger gauge telling you to finish the fight up before Boo laughs and causes havoc.

And finally sixth: Riku NEVER lost his memories of Castle Oblivion, that only happened to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jimminy. Riku would have remembered everything that happened on his adventure there, including his encounter with the Riku Replica, so that doesn't mean he isn't referring to him as "the other me". That doesn't necessarily prove that he is either, but it at least means that it's still a strong possibility (plus I'd rather it be a character we already know instead of making yet another clone character of Riku, we have enough with Sora and Xehanort as it is already).

As for other clarifications, someone pointed out that Mike also mouths something during gameplay that isn't voiced in the trailer, much like Buzz. I'd say in all likelihood that it doesn't mean much, just that they haven't gotten around to recording battle cries and stuff for those characters yet. Typically battle lines are some of the last lines you record because they often require a lot of screaming which can really wear out an actor's voice. So by saving them for later you get the most out of your talent instead of wasting time by stressing their voice and waiting for them to recover to continue with story dialogue, the voice work that REALLY matters.

Also all of the music in the Monsters Inc world trailer was music from the Orchestra. It's nothing new or even that surprising, this whole time up til now the trailers have been using previous music from the series instead of showing off anything new that was made. For a long while we got Rage Awakened, but ever since last year we've been getting music from the Orchestra tours, which is much more fitting for the scale of the footage they've been showing us. They're just using them as fitting music to match the same tone and mood they're going for in each trailer until it gets to the point that they have some actual KH3 music to share with us. Considering how they've given us a taste of Utada's new single, it might not be long before they release new Shimomura music. (Really hope they release 2.8's soundtrack soon by the way...)

Odds are you're probably right about Riku being the second playable character in KH3, but I really hope we still get a chance to play as Kairi, she really deserves to be a full fledged playable Keyblade wielder and we really deserve to play as her after having to play as 2/3 of the original trio for so long. It really wouldn't hurt to add one more playable character anyway, depending on how things are balanced between Sora and Riku. Like if Riku is given his own "episodes" while Sora is the main campaign, then Kairi could easily have her own "episodes" as well. In fact I feel like she would make for a much more appropriate tutorial character, at least for the very VERY basic actions of the game. Walking/running, jumping, attacking, magic, guarding, rolling, locking on, combo attacks, recovery items, that kind of thing. It makes sense for her to be treated as a total beginner to the ways of KH instead of having Sora learn all that again, that way you get to immediately cut to Sora making his way through Mount Olympus, learning the more refined skills of the game like Flowmotion, Shotlocks, Link Attacks, transformations, etc.

I just realized what I commented had already been mentioned in the main text. Though it doesn't seem to have been posted.

 

The one question my boyfriend and I had about the Marluxia thing, is: wasn't he killed in CoM? I deliberty remembering him being destroyed. I mean, he is one of the ones Axel was in charge of getting rid of in 358/2. So how is he back? Did he die? Or is he like Lea and can remember what happened and is just trolling Sora?

 

I guess it's one thing we'll find out when we play the game, but the anticipation is going to kill me until then.

Marluxia was destroyed by Sora at the end of Chain of Memories, but in Dream Drop Distance it was explained that if a person's Heartless and Nobody are destroyed, they will form back into a whole person again in the place that they were originally split. So Marluxia may have simply reformed into a whole person again. However Dream Drop Distance also revealed that Young Xehanort had been going around recruiting various would-be-incarnations of Xehanort across time and space to become part of the True Organization XIII/Seekers of Darkness, so it's also likely that Marluxia simply got recruited by YX just before he got destroyed. Either way, he is back.

The only thing I want to know is, does the Monster's Inc. world take place after the movie?

The trailer has been very clear in suggesting that this is all taking place during the events of the first movie, since Boo is there and Mike is surprised that there are "monsters" that aren't afraid of humans. At the end of the first movie, everyone has learned to stop fearing kids and have resorted to using laughter as an alternative to scream energy. That is why when Sora and co see the building, it still says "We Scare Because We Care", therefore they are still scaring kids for energy.

That's about it. Despite the few mistakes, it was still a decent analysis, just gotta brush up on your encyclopedic KH knowledge every once in a while.

You made several mistakes.

 

First off: Marluxia never indicated that he wasn't part of the "new" Organization, it's more likely meant to be interpreted as that he was always part of it. He says "the only Organization" to suggest that this new one, the "true" one is the only real one that mattered. Just because he has blue eyes now doesn't mean he won't have Xehanort features later. It just seems rather presumptuous to assume that based on those things alone, which could easily be interpreted in many different ways, that he must be some rogue factor.

 

Second: Swimming HAS been used again since KH1 long before KH3. In Birth By Sleep, there are a few choice moments where the playable characters can swim in water: the waters of Never Land or the great ocean arena you fight Monstro in. Not only that, but Riku can swim in the water in Monstro's mouth in Dream Drop Distance. While swimming hasn't been a frequently re-used ability (not in the traditional sense anyway, since technically you're swimming in Atalantica in KH2 and in DDD Prankster's Paradise your physics are literally "floaty" underwater), it has appeared in more titles than KH1.

 

Third: Sora's diving in Olympus doesn't automatically mean that that's showing him first entering the world. It's more likely a feature that activates if you leap from a tall area. Keep in mind that there's still footage depicting Sora climbing up Mount Olympus and fighting off the Rock Titan while he's in his KH2 clothes, and way back in the past trailers Sora is still following the path up Mount Olympus in his KH2 clothes. If anything, it's more likely that Sora starts out in either Thebes or at the base of Mount Olympus and has to work his way up the mountain until he can reach the gates of Olympus itself and do whatever task he needs to complete in order to gain his new clothes.

 

Fourth: Those blue orbs you pointed out ARE the new MP orbs. They aren't new either, if you had been paying attention in 0.2, you'd notice that they are there along with the HP and Focus orbs. They are the new bubbles now, and since 0.2 uses the same engine as KH3, it's only natural that they are using the same items and assets.

 

Fifth: I think you're making a huge assumption about how the Forms work. Just because we've mostly seen only three forms of three different colors so far doesn't automatically mean that there are specifically three "classes" of Forms with no in-betweens. The new Monsters Inc Form proves as much, his main color is orange with purplish pink stripes, but even if it was more of a yellow, the claw ability doesn't seem very "defensive". The only thing I'd say is supporting your theory is the fact that the Mirage Staff Form looks very similar to the Shooting Star one. I'd say until we see more Forms in the standard world appearance, there's nothing suggesting that there can't simply be more than 3 colors/types.

 

Fifth: You left out mentioning the Laughter gauge that's present during one of the Monsters Inc world battles (the same one with the Mike attack and the Meow Wow attack). There's a gauge on the upper left corner with Boo's face on it, and it sounds like it's suggesting that either you need to fill the gauge up for Boo to do some kind of laugh-based attack (like say, a laughing fit that causes all the electricity in the factory to overload and wipes out all the surrounding enemies) or it's a danger gauge telling you to finish the fight up before Boo laughs and causes havoc.

 

And finally sixth: Riku NEVER lost his memories of Castle Oblivion, that only happened to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jimminy. Riku would have remembered everything that happened on his adventure there, including his encounter with the Riku Replica, so that doesn't mean he isn't referring to him as "the other me". That doesn't necessarily prove that he is either, but it at least means that it's still a strong possibility (plus I'd rather it be a character we already know instead of making yet another clone character of Riku, we have enough with Sora and Xehanort as it is already).

 

As for other clarifications, someone pointed out that Mike also mouths something during gameplay that isn't voiced in the trailer, much like Buzz. I'd say in all likelihood that it doesn't mean much, just that they haven't gotten around to recording battle cries and stuff for those characters yet. Typically battle lines are some of the last lines you record because they often require a lot of screaming which can really wear out an actor's voice. So by saving them for later you get the most out of your talent instead of wasting time by stressing their voice and waiting for them to recover to continue with story dialogue, the voice work that REALLY matters.

 

Also all of the music in the Monsters Inc world trailer was music from the Orchestra. It's nothing new or even that surprising, this whole time up til now the trailers have been using previous music from the series instead of showing off anything new that was made. For a long while we got Rage Awakened, but ever since last year we've been getting music from the Orchestra tours, which is much more fitting for the scale of the footage they've been showing us. They're just using them as fitting music to match the same tone and mood they're going for in each trailer until it gets to the point that they have some actual KH3 music to share with us. Considering how they've given us a taste of Utada's new single, it might not be long before they release new Shimomura music. (Really hope they release 2.8's soundtrack soon by the way...)

 

Odds are you're probably right about Riku being the second playable character in KH3, but I really hope we still get a chance to play as Kairi, she really deserves to be a full fledged playable Keyblade wielder and we really deserve to play as her after having to play as 2/3 of the original trio for so long. It really wouldn't hurt to add one more playable character anyway, depending on how things are balanced between Sora and Riku. Like if Riku is given his own "episodes" while Sora is the main campaign, then Kairi could easily have her own "episodes" as well. In fact I feel like she would make for a much more appropriate tutorial character, at least for the very VERY basic actions of the game. Walking/running, jumping, attacking, magic, guarding, rolling, locking on, combo attacks, recovery items, that kind of thing. It makes sense for her to be treated as a total beginner to the ways of KH instead of having Sora learn all that again, that way you get to immediately cut to Sora making his way through Mount Olympus, learning the more refined skills of the game like Flowmotion, Shotlocks, Link Attacks, transformations, etc.

 

 

 

Marluxia was destroyed by Sora at the end of Chain of Memories, but in Dream Drop Distance it was explained that if a person's Heartless and Nobody are destroyed, they will form back into a whole person again in the place that they were originally split. So Marluxia may have simply reformed into a whole person again. However Dream Drop Distance also revealed that Young Xehanort had been going around recruiting various would-be-incarnations of Xehanort across time and space to become part of the True Organization XIII/Seekers of Darkness, so it's also likely that Marluxia simply got recruited by YX just before he got destroyed. Either way, he is back.

 

 

 

The trailer has been very clear in suggesting that this is all taking place during the events of the first movie, since Boo is there and Mike is surprised that there are "monsters" that aren't afraid of humans. At the end of the first movie, everyone has learned to stop fearing kids and have resorted to using laughter as an alternative to scream energy. That is why when Sora and co see the building, it still says "We Scare Because We Care", therefore they are still scaring kids for energy.

 

That's about it. Despite the few mistakes, it was still a decent analysis, just gotta brush up on your encyclopedic KH knowledge every once in a while.

I think it's taking place after the movie because the balloons are up on the scare-floor which only happens at the end of the movie when they discover laughter

Hey, 2 things i wanted to raise:

1) as everybody else said, Riku didnt lose his memory (though i personally doubt he is talking about repliku).
2) in the japanese version of this trailer, on time code 2:46, sora performs an air dash, im pretty sure we havent seen that before.

otherwise, fantastic breakdown

were people really surprised by the return of vanitas? i was convinced he was part of the new organization long before the leaks with the unversed 

I think it's taking place after the movie because the balloons are up on the scare-floor which only happens at the end of the movie when they discover laughter

Again, Mike is concerned about Boo being discovered and the helicopters from the CDA are roaming the complex. If this really was post-movie, there wouldn't be any need to have all this uproar towards a human child. And again, the old motto is still on the factory. If anything, those balloons and stuff probably don't actually appear until the end of the world's story, where they successfully return Boo to her room and have started using laughter energy. I could be wrong and this is a "sequel story", but the things I brought up kind of contradict that, or at least don't sit well with me.

 

Fifth: I think you're making a huge assumption about how the Forms work. Just because we've mostly seen only three forms of three different colors so far doesn't automatically mean that there are specifically three "classes" of Forms with no in-betweens. The new Monsters Inc Form proves as much, his main color is orange with purplish pink stripes, but even if it was more of a yellow, the claw ability doesn't seem very "defensive". The only thing I'd say is supporting your theory is the fact that the Mirage Staff Form looks very similar to the Shooting Star one. I'd say until we see more Forms in the standard world appearance, there's nothing suggesting that there can't simply be more than 3 colors/types.

 

1. These 3 classes would actually make sense not only because of the Dream Sword, Staff and Shield you have to choose 2 from in the beginning of the first game, but also the recurring trio of Red, Blue and Yellow in the games (Valor/Wisdom/Master, Fire/Ice/Lightning). These are probably the basic classes with more, special classes are to be added in the later part of the game.

2. That orange and purplish color is just his fur, his jacket is red much like Power Form.

3.Not just similar, Mirage Staff and Double Arrowheads Drive Form are the exact same, stars on the sleeve and everything.

1. These 3 classes would actually make sense not only because of the Dream Sword, Staff and Shield you have to choose 2 from in the beginning of the first game, but also the recurring trio of Red, Blue and Yellow in the games (Valor/Wisdom/Master, Fire/Ice/Lightning). These are probably the basic classes with more, special classes are to be added in the later part of the game.

2. That orange and purplish color is just his fur, his jacket is red much like Power Form.

3.Not just similar, Mirage Staff and Double Arrowheads Drive Form are the exact same, stars on the sleeve and everything.

I don't know, I'm still skeptical. I'd rather see more footage and proof before I claim anything like that. Maybe that is what they're doing, but it still feels too early to say, for me anyway. I'd just rather have more variety than 3 yellow forms, 3 blue forms, and 3 red forms. I'd rather have the one for each, then other unused colors, like orange, green, and purple, or whatever else there can be (Anti black and Final silver/white for example). It just seems lazy to map multiple forms to only 3 colors.

I am not the only one that noticed the chess board in the 2015 trailer right? The void gear symbol is right there, as is a flower, a ram, a set of dice, hour glass all as xehanorts peices; I always thought it was a little more symbolic then what was lead on.(in fact if you watch the chess game part you will notice that

Eraqus has a taken a void gear peice and xehanort takes one of eraqus peices which looks like the symbol on aquas and Terra’s clothing). Sorry little tangent, just find it odd everyone is surprised with vanitas.

As for “the other me” I have a feeling it is his younger Ansem infested version tbh.