KINGDOM HEARTS Missing Link Coming 2024!

[Luminary]

For those interested in how the gameplay works, this is a pretty good thread back from the prototype test. Of course, some things have changed. I wish we could get it fully translated, but Google translate can get you most of the gist.

https://x.com/toro_cocoron0te/status/1614282385113354242?s=46

Something that may catch people off guard is that to play from home, you’ll need to use AP to do anything other than move around. Whereas if you actually go to the locations where the battles, etc. are, AP isn’t needed. I’m sure AP will be monetized somehow for those who want to play from home.

 

[LucemFerto]

I'm very of two minds when it comes to Missing-Link. On the one hand, Dark Road was really well written and had a lot of fun character interactions and interesting ideas. I did enjoy meeting new characters in a new era and getting to know them and how they maybe reflect current characters; especially when it's done competently like Dark Road (and not fully hampered by being a drip-feed mobile game like Union Cross).

With the Kingdom Hearts team getting a more varied selection of writers (after 10 years of only Oka and Nomura), I am very optimistic toward the games having a fresh feeling at least, much like Dark Road. What they presented and talked about so far is super intriguing, I love how independent this era of time is even from Union Cross and Dark Road, I am super excited to meet new characters and learn about new concepts (especially with one of the FFXIV writers being responsible for the script this time) ...

... but on the other hand, the fact that this is a freemium mobile game - much like Union Cross - leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I understand that this is probably something out of the creative teams control and that they no longer have a handheld market to fall back on instead, but still in terms of predatory gameplay, gameplay experience and ESPECIALLY game archival, it rings a lot of alarm bells.

Chi and Union Cross were allowed to run for 8 years or so, but Square has been much more cut throat with its mobile titles recently (see: First Soldier). I am worried about getting left with an incomplete experience a year after launch. Hopefully, Nomura has enough sway to still get his story out there somehow (and to eventually remake Chi, Dark Road and Missing-Link as console experiences)

 

[SuperNova]

My one biggest fear is thinking about how far Square is gonna go with drip feeding content. The Agrabah saga of X should stay in the past. I don't want to be gated with AP only to spend the next month chasing after a monkey and no story progress thank you.

 

[MATGSY]

... but on the other hand, the fact that this is a freemium mobile game - much like Union Cross - leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I understand that this is probably something out of the creative teams control and that they no longer have a handheld market to fall back on instead, but still in terms of predatory gameplay, gameplay experience and ESPECIALLY game archival, it rings a lot of alarm bells.

I mean Switch is there, MoM showed a perfectly good template for side games, obviously designed for Switch but also releasing on PS4/5/XBox/PC. Shame they didn't follow it up with a proper action RPG.

 

[Chie]

This should be too obvious for me to even say anything, but yea of course the "astral plane" that "connects reality and unreality" would be the actual real Earth's layout being filtered into a phone game's graphics

E: wtf is this

 

[PikaPal]

Man it sure is nice to get some KH news again even if it's for a mobile game.

Also nice to hear some voice acting in the trailer which the other two games lacked so fingers crossed the game will feature it.

 

[Luminary]

This should be too obvious for me to even say anything, but yea of course the "astral plane" that "connects reality and unreality" would be the actual real Earth's layout being filtered into a phone game's graphics

E: wtf is thisView attachment 16253

Yeah these kinds of maps are standard for geolocation games. I’m not really surprised Nomura made a canon explanation for it, but I figured it was just going to be the larger world of Scala.

It does look better than other world maps for similar games though. And I don’t think we can expect super high quality for the GPS map when not even Google and Apple Maps generate 3D building models worldwide.

I’ve seen people suggest the robed person indicates story missions, but I don’t think that’s the case. Maybe they are mystery boss battles.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

This should be too obvious for me to even say anything, but yea of course the "astral plane" that "connects reality and unreality" would be the actual real Earth's layout being filtered into a phone game's graphics

E: wtf is thisView attachment 16253

It’s a Tonberry turned human.

 

[Chie]

It really does look like it has to be a Tonberry in some way, though it somehow also feels loaded to use the Sephiroth Clone imagery that was also referenced by robed ansem and org xiii

 

[Luminary]

Did some digging and I think the hoods may be the area enemies talked about in this tweet:
https://x.com/renaalarie/status/1614084163434340352?s=46

They seem to be juiced up versions of regular Heartless.

 

[Agroogrooiya]

That screen tearing, the rampant cuts to not really show off much, the floaty game"play"...yeah I'm not touching this with a ten foot pole. This should've been a console release.

 

[Launchpad]

That screen tearing, the rampant cuts to not really show off much, the floaty game"play"...yeah I'm not touching this with a ten foot pole. This should've been a console release.

It's funny how inherently fun and enjoyable it is to run around and smack Heartless around in KH games, only for SE to repeatedly ask "how can we impede and disrupt this gameplay loop with esoteric ideas?"

 

[Chie]

I mean I would respect an esoteric idea, or indeed, an "idea". Normal phone game BS is not even that though

 

[Luminary]

Ads are starting to pop up! There’s a better look at the new world. I’m leaning Neverland, but something about it seems familiar that I can’t quite place.

 

[MATGSY]

Nice to see Minnie get some respect.

 

[Luminary]

KH3: “There is no violence in the Hundred Acre Wood. ”

Missing Link: “Bludgeon Heartless with a statue of Winnie the Pooh. ”

 

[MATGSY]

Blood and Honey world confirmed.

 

[Zettaflare]

Ads are starting to pop up! There’s a better look at the new world. I’m leaning Neverland, but something about it seems familiar that I can’t quite place.


View attachment 16254View attachment 16255View attachment 16256View attachment 16257

Kind of reminds me of some of the islands from The Caribbean in KH3. Though with a bit less realism.

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

Any thoughts on this as the potential identity of Missing Link Mystery World?

 

[LoneFox]

KH3: “There is no violence in the Hundred Acre Wood. ”

Missing Link: “Bludgeon Heartless with a statue of Winnie the Pooh. ”

Just like we did with Pooh medals in UX. Nothing new here.

Kind of reminds me of some of the islands from The Caribbean in KH3. Though with a bit less realism.

I bet that's exactly what it is. The same models rendered with simpler shaders (GPU programs), and possibly using lower resolution textures as well, to work around the limitations of mobile hardware.