Kingdom Hearts III Pre-Release Spoiler Discussion Thread

[Dandelion]

I regret joining these forums. The leaks have made the worst of you worse and the best of you cringy.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Yeah, the scene with the chains is during the face off against Terranort and Vanitas, with Aqua and Ven as party members. I do have to say, I like that we are at least getting a gauntlet where we get to fight with the other GoL, even if the implication is that they can't win without Sora, at least we get to spend some time with them ending their respective arcs. But, OK, here's the thing. Vanitas's ending is fine, he basically decides he's going to be Ven's darkness because it's what he wants, but they don't recomplete or anything. Ven just accepts that Vanitas has chosen his path, Sora protests, but then Vanitas disappears so it's not clear if he's dead or what. Also Sora did see his face and Vanitas just explains it away as him being "Sora's shadow," which, I guess?

But the real problem is Terra's stuff. A lot of fan theories are validated, so that's nice: the Guardian for Terranort is in fact Terra's heart or something, but the execution is...really bad. Like unintentionally hilarious cheese-whiz bad. Terranort summons the dark chains which capture Aqua, Ven and Sora, and then he just laughs maniacally while waving his arms through the air, which causes the chains to swing around and shit, lol. Then he threatens to kill Aqua and Ven and the Guardian shoots out and rescues them. Then it tears the wraps off its mouth and speaks with Terra's voice, repeating the phrase, "I will set this right." Sora shoots a beam of light at Terranort, and Terra's heart is "released" from the Guardian and shoots into Terra, and I guess that's how Terra gets his body back. No mention of Eraqus, no clarity on what happens to the Xehanort part of Terranort. There is a really sweet scene where the BBS trio reunites, but it's not earned at all. The sequence of events leading up to it hardly make any sense, and it's Sora who ultimately frees Terra, not Ven and Aqua, although Terra pays lips service to them by saying they guided him through the dark blah blah. Sooo yeah.

Oh, and Kairi gets kidnapped [I]again[/I] and this time she gets killed by MX from the look of things. That's what causes edge Sora to come out for the second time this game. aljfs;lfajhiowhtueihr

Anyway onto the Days trio.

It is a good thing to have my 10.000th post about the issues of the BBS crew, lol.


So I guess the chains part is either before or after the actual gameplay fight.

What's the thing with Vanitas now? Does he actually change sides or is just defeated? That they don't fuse or "recomplete" is to be expected as 1) Vanitas has his own heart separate from Ventus, 2) Ven explicitly does NOT WANT to have Vanitas within him again and 3) they have developed so far apart that any fusion probably won't result in a 100% reunion anyways.
It's a bit weird from your explanation though what exactly Vanitas' and Ven's stance towards each other is in the end. Do they still mutually hate each other? Do they agree to just keep out of the other's sight or what?

Having the other GoLs as party members is a wonderful thing and one of the things I wished for so this is certainly a plus point as it involves the characters instead of having them as total bystanders.

It has been done before though that Terra's intervention is triggered by Aqua and Ven indirectly though so if they weren't present Sora wouldn't have had a chance to free Terra.
That there is no mention of Eraqus is odd though I guess the main issue to be happy about is that TAV are finally together again.

Puuhlease, again that old schtick and then with obligatory "kill before your eyes"-crap. Oh wow, who would have guessed. My My, Kairi fans are going to be completely furious at this.

Spoiler Show

Ven and Roxas' little moment looking at each other was short, but I liked it. Xion telling Sora Kairi was going to be alright was super random though, outside of fighting her a few minutes earlier she hasn't even met her.

Hopefully there will be a follow up on Roxas and Ven either in the ending or the epilogue, them being twins in looks is too great an opportunity to miss.
Wat? Kairi and Xion fight each other? Does that mean she's indeed a SoD?

 

[Pokie]

Spoiler Show

I'm so mad that Kairi gets abducted and she just does nothing, the keyblade is even still in her hands. Everybody is hating on Aqua, but at least she's trying.

 

[mriku90]

I'm very proud of myself for restraining myself from not giving in to any spoilers.

 

[palizinhas]

Wat? Kairi and Xion fight each other? Does that mean she's indeed a SoD?

Spoiler Show

Xion is one of the Seekers, yeah. She changes sides mid-battle (she saves Lea's life, then attacks Sora until he says her name, at which point her head starts to hurt and she falls down), and ends up teaming up with Sora and Roxas to defeat Saix.

 

[KHFan91]

No matter what, I'm looking forward to this game.

I don't care what the naysayers are saying about what's been spoiled about the game, I'm going in with an open mind.

 

[alexis.anagram]

I regret joining these forums. The leaks have made the worst of you worse and the best of you cringy.

Thanks for sharing your feelings.

It is a good thing to have my 10.000th post about the issues of the BBS crew, lol.


So I guess the chains part is either before or after the actual gameplay fight.

What's the thing with Vanitas now? Does he actually change sides or is just defeated? That they don't fuse or "recomplete" is to be expected as 1) Vanitas has his own heart separate from Ventus, 2) Ven explicitly does NOT WANT to have Vanitas within him again and 3) they have developed so far apart that any fusion probably won't result in a 100% reunion anyways.
It's a bit weird from your explanation though what exactly Vanitas' and Ven's stance towards each other is in the end. Do they still mutually hate each other? Do they agree to just keep out of the other's sight or what?

Having the other GoLs as party members is a wonderful thing and one of the things I wished for so this is certainly a plus point as it involves the characters instead of having them as total bystanders.

It has been done before though that Terra's intervention is triggered by Aqua and Ven indirectly though so if they weren't present Sora wouldn't have had a chance to free Terra.
That there is no mention of Eraqus is odd though I guess the main issue to be happy about is that TAV are finally together again.

Puuhlease, again that old schtick and then with obligatory "kill before your eyes"-crap. Oh wow, who would have guessed. My My, Kairi fans are going to be completely furious at this.

Spoiler Show

The chains are after the gameplay sequence.

The Vanitas/Ven thing is "resolved" but only kind of, Ven just insists that they can each choose what they want to be and nobody can tell them otherwise. Vanitas says he chooses darkness and Ven says (begrudgingly), "Alright." Ven and Sora were trying to convince Vanitas to join their side, basically, but he refuses and disappears.

Yeah, I just wish the cutscenes surrounding the fight sequences were more impactful and there was better set-up all around. A looot of checklists getting crossed off in the back half of the game when these conflicts should have been spread out over the full narrative. It's very much a DDD situation, just a ton of exposition and "resolution" in the Keyblade Graveyard along with the final plot twists, which makes me think the preceding story throughout the Disney worlds won't amount to much but stringing the audience (and Sora) along.

Agreed, seeing TAV together again is heartwarming, but the drama is all very ends-justify-the-means, as if seeing them crying in each other's arms is going to erase all the bad plotting it took to get the story there. It's a little exhausting, really, seeing how the writers just gave up on being consistent, and how they had to rob agency and even common sense from the majority of the cast to make everything work according to their design. It all ends up feeling notably anticlimactic.

As a Kairi fan, I'm just disappointed. What else is there to say at this point, though. She's not a real character to Nomura, she's a plot device and a source of salvation/manpain for Sora.

Hopefully there will be a follow up on Roxas and Ven either in the ending or the epilogue, them being twins in looks is too great an opportunity to miss.
Wat? Kairi and Xion fight each other? Does that mean she's indeed a SoD?

Spoiler Show

The Days portion just confused me in general, I'm not even sure where to begin. The Lea/Isa stuff is good to great, and there's a really strong segment where Xemnas is just dousing (metaphorical) gasoline on Axel and lighting match after match. Xemnas is up to here with Axel's double agent shit and he wrecks the poor guy. He might have the single best line in a Kingdom Hearts game: Axel tries to strike him with the Keyblade and Xemnas just smirks and says, "Is that supposed to be a Keyblade?" and straight up shatters the thing. I don't know it was pretty gratifying imo, it helps that Lea's dialogue is...well, it's strong in parts, some of it is bad though. But I like the defiant repertoire between them, Xemnas and Axel don't interact much so it's nice to see them exchanging vitriol. Xemnas really is top tier villain, Paul St. Peter is masterclass.

But after that it gets right back to being messy. Xion is being controlled by the Organization (I guess?) and she tries to stop Xemnas from killing Axel, but then Xemnas orders her to do it instead. So she's going to but then Sora steps in. Sora knows who she is for some reason and that freaks her out. Xemnas calls her a worthless puppet and knocks both her and Sora flat. He's going to kill Xion and then Sora starts glowing, a light shoots out of him, and Roxas comes down from the sky with Oathkeeper and Oblivion in hand. He tells Xemnas he was able to come back because Ansem the Wise and Zexion did something, and I guess the reason all the SoDs were able to come from different periods in time is because their hearts came without a body and so they were placed in Replicas in the present. And Roxas implies he's somehow using one of those Replicas but maybe it's just one that Zexion made for him?? And then he says he needed a "connection" to make him whole, which I suppose was Xion and Axel. Anyway that's when Kairi gets kidnapped by Xemnas and Sora, Xion and Roxas fight Saix while Axel sits it out since his Keyblade's done for. Saix dies, basically admits to Axel that he was jealous about him making new friends, and they talk about how all of this started because they were trying to find "her." Doesn't specify who "she" is but it's probably one of the Ux girls or something. Saix semi-apologizes and Axel says they'll meet again. Sora runs ahead to go find Kairi, Xion starts sobbing, Axel jokes that he should have brought some ice cream. I love the Days trio so it worked for me alright, but again, the set up is just really rushed and awkward due to the pace at which information is just being unloaded. There's no emotional centerpiece to any of it.

Spoiler Show

I'm so mad that Kairi gets abducted and she just does nothing, the keyblade is even still in her hands. Everybody is hating on Aqua, but at least she's trying.

Spoiler Show

Yeah, gotta hand it to Nomura and crew, they really stuck it to people who thought Kairi would have some agency and an expanded role in this game. You showed us Nomura!

 

[Squood!]

I regret joining these forums. The leaks have made the worst of you worse and the best of you cringy.

Talk about blunt. But, you're honestly right. I had to leave for a while because of how bad things were getting around here.

 

[mriku90]

So it seems people are now liking what is happening. Seems like KH3 fooled some people cause outright bashing it turned to praising it not even an hour later.

 

[Zul]

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Spoiler Show

...12 years...TWELVE years ago...we saw Kairi get kidnapped and facepalmed simultaneously.

Twelve years of waiting, she's finally trained with a keyblade, she's participating in the final battle. She says "Sora, I'll protect you."

...

...then she gets kidnapped.

I have no words, I have been reduced to only the following video.
[video=youtube;ZNTrfCgpGZA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNTrfCgpGZA[/video]

You know what? I have a theory, KH4 is going to be different, KH4 won't have Kairi being dragged off by the arm again.

This time someone is going to pick her up by the leg and hurl her into a cigar box or something.

 

[Squood!]

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Spoiler Show

...12 years...TWELVE years ago...we saw Kairi get kidnapped and facepalmed simultaneously.

Twelve years of waiting, she's finally trained with a keyblade, she's participating in the final battle. She says "Sora, I'll protect you."

...

...then she gets kidnapped.

I have no words, I have been reduced to only the following video.
[video=youtube;ZNTrfCgpGZA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNTrfCgpGZA[/video]

You know what? I have a theory, KH4 is going to be different, KH4 won't have Kairi being dragged off by the arm again.

This time someone is going to pick her up by the leg and hurl her into a cigar box or something.

Spoiler Show

Look boi I'm just glad she got to be a party member, even if it was for a short time. That's all I ever wanted, and I got it.


......oh..........she's actually dead...and we're gonna have to "wait and see"...

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Spoiler Show

Xion is one of the Seekers, yeah. She changes sides mid-battle (she saves Lea's life, then attacks Sora until he says her name, at which point her head starts to hurt and she falls down), and ends up teaming up with Sora and Roxas to defeat Saix.

Hear hear, so Xehanort's control of his vessels isn't as absolute as advertised?

They team up to defeat Saix? Not Xemnas? Heh, looks like good old "Inndeeeed"-dude will be around for the finals.

Spoiler Show

The chains are after the gameplay sequence.

The Vanitas/Ven thing is "resolved" but only kind of, Ven just insists that they can each choose what they want to be and nobody can tell them otherwise. Vanitas says he chooses darkness and Ven says (begrudgingly), "Alright." Ven and Sora were trying to convince Vanitas to join their side, basically, but he refuses and disappears.

Yeah, I just wish the cutscenes surrounding the fight sequences were more impactful and there was better set-up all around. A looot of checklists getting crossed off in the back half of the game when these conflicts should have been spread out over the full narrative. It's very much a DDD situation, just a ton of exposition and "resolution" in the Keyblade Graveyard along with the final plot twists, which makes me think the preceding story throughout the Disney worlds won't amount to much but stringing the audience (and Sora) along.

Agreed, seeing TAV together again is heartwarming, but the drama is all very ends-justify-the-means, as if seeing them crying in each other's arms is going to erase all the bad plotting it took to get the story there. It's a little exhausting, really, seeing how the writers just gave up on being consistent, and how they had to rob agency and even common sense from the majority of the cast to make everything work according to their design. It all ends up feeling notably anticlimactic.

As a Kairi fan, I'm just disappointed. What else is there to say at this point, though. She's not a real character to Nomura, she's a plot device and a source of salvation/manpain for Sora.

So if I parse this correctly, both Sora and Ventus basically do offer Vanitas a second chance and his overbloated ego still gets in the way. Figures.
Ven's insistence that everyone can choose what they want to be by themselves is also somewhat to be expected, and obviously the exact opposite of Xehanort's "abomination beyond salvation"-type of assessment.

If it's DDD quality of cutscenes and setups I know what to expect.
So pacing is still a major problem it seems.
I guess I'll just have to swallow the whole it's a Sora-only show then.
This isn't going to get over very well when people start to analyze the whole thing.

Ouch, so despite all characters (except Donald) getting hit with the idiot ball at least once, Kairi still has it the worst?
Jeez, I can already see the internet explode in February.

Spoiler Show

The Days portion just confused me in general, I'm not even sure where to begin. The Lea/Isa stuff is good to great, and there's a really strong segment where Xemnas is just dousing (metaphorical) gasoline on Axel and lighting match after match. Xemnas is up to here with Axel's double agent shit and he wrecks the poor guy. He might have the single best line in a Kingdom Hearts game: Axel tries to strike him with the Keyblade and Xemnas just smirks and says, "Is that supposed to be a Keyblade?" and straight up shatters the thing. I don't know it was pretty gratifying imo, it helps that Lea's dialogue is...well, it's strong in parts, some of it is bad though. But I like the defiant repertoire between them, Xemnas and Axel don't interact much so it's nice to see them exchanging vitriol. Xemnas really is top tier villain, Paul St. Peter is masterclass.

But after that it gets right back to being messy. Xion is being controlled by the Organization (I guess?) and she tries to stop Xemnas from killing Axel, but then Xemnas orders her to do it instead. So she's going to but then Sora steps in. Sora knows who she is for some reason and that freaks her out. Xemnas calls her a worthless puppet and knocks both her and Sora flat. He's going to kill Xion and then Sora starts glowing, a light shoots out of him, and Roxas comes down from the sky with Oathkeeper and Oblivion in hand. He tells Xemnas he was able to come back because Ansem the Wise and Zexion did something, and I guess the reason all the SoDs were able to come from different periods in time is because their hearts came without a body and so they were placed in Replicas in the present. And Roxas implies he's somehow using one of those Replicas but maybe it's just one that Zexion made for him?? And then he says he needed a "connection" to make him whole, which I suppose was Xion and Axel. Anyway that's when Kairi gets kidnapped by Xemnas and Sora, Xion and Roxas fight Saix while Axel sits it out since his Keyblade's done for. Saix dies, basically admits to Axel that he was jealous about him making new friends, and they talk about how all of this started because they were trying to find "her." Doesn't specify who "she" is but it's probably one of the Ux girls or something. Saix semi-apologizes and Axel says they'll meet again. Sora runs ahead to go find Kairi, Xion starts sobbing, Axel jokes that he should have brought some ice cream. I love the Days trio so it worked for me alright, but again, the set up is just really rushed and awkward due to the pace at which information is just being unloaded. There's no emotional centerpiece to any of it.

Spoiler Show

Yeah, gotta hand it to Nomura and crew, they really stuck it to people who thought Kairi would have some agency and an expanded role in this game. You showed us Nomura!

So at least Xemnas is up to some quality and Lea/Axel is really going to further earn his redeemed status?

Heh, so Ansem the Wise actually has a hand in Roxas' return? Well, that's finally a character making amends to those he actually wronged, even if it happens behind the scenes again.

The whole Replica scenario and Roxas needing something to be "whole" (which implies completing his own new heart through connections as explained in DDD) makes actually sense and was widely theorized beforehand so that's actually something they got right.

Lol, that bit about Lea's Keyblade is hilarious and will probably satisfy quite some of those who didn't like that he got one.
So Saix is like Riku was in KH 1 only without doing the turn around in time.

So the main problem is pace and setup all over again. Most things are "good" but could be vastly better, just like it was in BBS and DDD.
Do I get it right in this vein?

I will of course form my own opinion on the whole thing when I play it myself as I don't actually look at the spoilers on purpose.

Yea, that's why I expect part of the fandom to be up in flames when the whole thing hits.

 

[palizinhas]

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Since the new leaker has already finished the game, I'm guessing the "her" storyline will be picked up in future games. Which I guess means Lea and Isa at least will be relevant in the next saga. Alongside probably Ven and the 9-12 Org members because they're from Ux. With the confirmation that Sora will always be the main character (despite the fact that his ending in this game is apparently ambiguous), that's at least one out of every trio.

 

[KingMickeyMouse]

Judging from the spoilers...this is the greatest Kingdom Hearts game I could have ever possibly asked for! :biggrin: The suprises, the Disney characters being awesome, the boss fights, everything.

I’m actually crying of happiness! My 12-year long expectations have officially been exceeded. What an amazing finale! Thank you Nomura!

 

[Raz]

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Okay, I totally cried at the RAX reunion. I couldn't help it. My babies have been through so much and they're finally together.

IDK why but the emotional payoff was way more present for them than for TAV? The acting/plotting of that sequence was just so much better.

ALSO

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I'm assuming Vexen had a hand in helping bring back Roxas. And that Demyx is in league with Vexen and that 'body' he was carrying in the trailer was actually one of the replicas that facilitates the return of Roxas?

 

[Neo_]

Not even dodging spoilers or anything, but just got home today and am so overwhelmed by the content that I may just give up trying to catchup and just experience it firsthand.

 

[David/Vaddix]

Does anyone know who the new 7 princesses are? I really want to know.

 

[Neo_]

I've never been big on the KH story, but this shit looks so good that it may actually motivate me to learn it and play all the games I haven't; as for now, gonna grab some popcorn and watch part 7. :redface:

 

[I_Need_ThemLeaks]

I am full with spoilers right now. I know all lol. Forget buying this game now don't need it lol

 

[Raz]

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Okay, I'm not sure I buy the redemption of Xemnas or SoD at all. Why all of the sudden do they feel bad? Why would Riku EVER miss SoD? Xemnas used and abused his subordinates terribly and now he suddenly sees that he 'took them for granted' and that he is just a lonely sad boy? Idk, man...

Oh, and...

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This will probably be explained in-game, but shouldn't losing literally all of the Organization be a bad thing for MX? Like, all of his horcruxes are gone? Or was having them all in his gang just so he could get the X-Blade as a result of 13 Darknesses and 7 Lights fighting, regardless of who ended up winning the majority of the battles? Who are the scary soldiers who surround him in Scala? Just more replicas?