Jake

After appearing on AmiAmi on October 8, 2016, showing a February 2017 release date in Japan, Square Enix has updated their North American online store with the Kingdom Hearts II Organization XIII Roxas Play Arts Kai. The Play Arts Kai is scheduled for an End of May 2017 release in North America, and cost $120 USD on the Square Enix North American store. You can read the description, as well as some looks of the Play Arts Kai below. Click here to view the article

I'd like to see a plot twist in KH3 where he stabs Xehanort in the heart with the X-Blade, and tries to destroy everyone with it as well. Not as a new villain after KH3 though.

Yeah, that was when KH13 was using mybb (which is free). Now we use IP.Board, which requires payment, but is way better looking and has more features to utilize.

On October 9th, 2008, KH13.com was officially created. Today marks 8 years since the creation of KH13, and we'd like to celebrate that with a refresher on the history of KH13 and how it became to be one of the best Kingdom Hearts fansites for news and media. KH13.com originally started in 2008 by KH13 Webmaster DChiuch, with the help of Co-Webmaster Aaron. The website started out as a simple project between friends, however, soon became a full-fledged website for Kingdom Hearts news, media and discussion. At the time, high quality videos and media were hard to come by, so KH13 initially established itself by providing high quality trailer and cutscene downloads. The name "KH13" was eventually settled on in a brainstorming session, after it was discovered that KH1.com through KH12.com were all taken – it seemed fitting that the first available domain would match up with Organization XIII. Around this time, KH13.com began to report Kingdom Hearts news, with the first article on Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. In January, 2009, KH13 decided to do the first major redesign, which was then released on January 14th, 2009. You can check out the design below. (Looks weird today, doesn't it?) The design that is currently in use today is the 3rd iteration of KH13. Skipping ahead to 2011, KH13 had become more well known, allowing us to start sending representatives to E3 as part of the press. sqexgal (now from SQEX.INFO) was our first representative, and former KH13 News Team member Oishii, Kingdom Hearts community veteran @Churroz and KH13 staff member Toominator have all been part of the experience since. One important feature that has been prominent throughout KH13 is our gallery & video archives. Former KH13 Archives Team Leader and News Team member Sora96 has brought the video archives and gallery to what it is today, featuring over 25,000 images and hundreds of videos from the Kingdom Hearts series. Thanks also goes to Everglow, our partner, for recording thousands of cutscenes and playthrough videos for KH13's archives. Our wide selection of videos and images has brought in many visitors for KH13. As 8 years have passed, there have been many individuals who have helped bring KH13.com to what it is today. We'd like to thank the current team leaders of the KH13 staff, which are HarLea Quinn, Toominator, soraspromise, & AndrewHankinson. Aside from the team leaders, we'd also like to thank the current and past team members who have contributed to KH13.com such as (Past) Sora96, (Past) Lu Xun, and many, many more. We'd like to also give the most important thanks of all: to all of you, our readers and the Kingdom Hearts community. Thanks to everyone here on KH13 for sticking with us for these 8 years. We hope to be around for many more, and to continue to provide the latest Kingdom Hearts news and media. We'd also like to share one more thing: KH13 member Aqua7KH recently met Quinton Flynn, voice actor of Axel and Lea from the Kingdom Hearts series. Check out his message to KH13.com below. What has your favorite moment been in the KH13 community in the past 8 years? Let us know in the comments below! Click here to view the article

UPDATE: Square Enix Japan has updated with a listing of their own, showing an official release date for Japan of February 12th, 2017. You can check the listing here. The price is 12,360 yen. AmiAmi has recently updated with the Kingdom Hearts II Organization XIII Roxas Play Arts Kai. This Play Arts Kai, which was first shown off at San Diego Comic-Con, and colored in during TGS 2016, features Roxas in his Organization XIII coat with his dual wielding Oathkeeper & Oblivion Keyblades. The Organization XIII Roxas Play Arts Kai releases in February, 2017 with a base price of 12,960 yen, and 9,170 yen with a discount on AmiAmi. The pre-orders will be up on October 11, 2016. You can check out brand new images of the Organization XIII Roxas Play Arts Kai below with credit to @aibo_ac7 for the tip. Click here to view the article

I don't think people ever said early 2017, most have said late 2017/early 2018. I agree the game is still a bit far, considering the gameplay needs to be finished/fine tuned, the story needs to work out, voice acting needs to take place, and then we have all the wonderful music soundtracks that need to be written to fit in the game.

In Japan, it's currently October 8th, which means it's Tetsuya Nomura's birthday! Happy birthday to one of the best dudes ever. He turns 46 today. Maybe we'll get KH3 before he turns 50?

On October 6th, 2016, in London, UK, Symphonic Fantasies was held featuring music from various franchises including Kingdom Hearts. At the Symphonic Fantasies concert, Yoko Shimomura, composer of the Kingdom Hearts series, discussed music for Kingdom Hearts. Many wondered about the music for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, releasing on January 24th, 2017, and the anticipated Kingdom Hearts III. Shimomura says that she has written new music for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and that she has a ton of tracks planned for Kingdom Hearts III with the high expectations in mind. Shimomura also addressed Kingdom Hearts in general and some of her experiences as she developed and composed the music for the games. You can check out her responses below. Thanks go to KH13 News Team members AndrewHankinson & Aquaberry for attending and taking note of the responses given by Yoko Shimomura. You can also check out some of the pictures they took below. [UPDATE] KH13 News Team Member AndrewHankinson has added the questions from the audience members and answers from Yoko Shimomura including a question asked by KH13 News Team Member Aquaberry. Please let us know if you asked one of the question on the night! View full article

Both are possible, but if that was the case, wouldn't the original DDD rating also have 'Online Interactivity'? It doesn't say so, so this could probably mean DDD was modified (or something new for 0.2?) to have a more 'online' feel to the game.

On October 6th, 2016, the official Australian classification system updated with an official rating for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. The rating given for the Australian version of the game is PG. While most Kingdom Hearts games are rated PG, each game has a specific rating description attached to that PG rating. Most Kingdom Hearts games are attached with the description 'Mild fantasy violence'. However, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue has a different description, hinting at possible online features in the game. You can check out the PG rating description for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue below, hinting at possible online interactivity in the game. You may also check out a list of all rated Kingdom Hearts titles from the past here. The only time a rating ever receives 'Online Interactivity' in their rating is if the game actually has online features. The official Australian classification system rated Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ before its release with a 'G - Online Interactivity' rating. The PS4 title, Ratchet & Clank, doesn't include any online features, and its rating doesn't include any online interactivity. This further shows that Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue will have online features. What do you think could be a possible online function in Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue? Let us know in the comments below! Click here to view the article