Dark Road finale to be delayed further, new release date TBD

[Sign]

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, which was scheduled to receive its offline version and remaining story this winter, will be delayed further due to major additions to the scenario.

【お知らせ】
今冬配信を予定しておりました『KHDR』オフライン版アップデートは、大幅なシナリオ追加のため、リリースまでもう少しお時間をいただくこととなりました。
少年から青年、そしてマスター時代まで。
ゼアノートの辿る物語の再開まで今しばらくお待ちください。#KHDR #KHUX #_KH pic.twitter.com/Z9Vf03RMaU

— キングダム ハーツ DR公式 (@KHDR_PR) February 28, 2022

From boy, to youth, to master... Please wait a little longer until the story of Xehanort's journey resumes.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

but it’s been what? A year since they announced this? Let us be free of this, SE!

 

[GreyouTT]

My shitpost in DR General awoke the PR team.

Still banking on Battle Network tbh.

 

[Sign]

I knew this would happen. It sucks but eh, they can take their time.

At least they didn't wait until March 19 to tell us lol

 

[Face My Fears]

Does anyone else suspect that this has something to do with them gearing up for the next stage of Phase 2?

They probably were finalizing key story elements in Phase 2 and were waiting to iron those out before including them.

It kind of sucks that such important scenes are being reduced to KHUX graphics. It looks like the scene where Xehanort uses No Name for the first time (or steals it) is going to be shown. That would have been epic to see in KH3.

 

[Sign]

Does anyone else suspect that this has something to do with them gearing up for the next stage of Phase 2?

They probably were finalizing key story elements in Phase 2 and were waiting to iron those out before including them.

It kind of sucks that such important scenes are being reduced to KHUX graphics. It looks like the scene where Xehanort uses No Name for the first time (or steals it) is going to be shown. That would have been epic to see in KH3.

Personally, no. DR was still extremely early in its story when the game was taken offline: only 3 episodes had been released, and they were still worldbuilding and establishing the setting and characters. We have no idea how many episodes they had remaining, and thus no way of accurately predicting how long it should take them to finish all of that work. Even when the game was on a regular schedule and alternating with UX, it seemed like they were struggling to get story updates out on time. IMO their original release schedule vastly underestimated the amount of work they had left to do and led everyone to set the wrong expectations.

While the tweet does say the further delay was caused by major additions to the scenario. I don't think those would have necessarily come from Phase 2/other titles (although it is certainly possible!), but rather that stories can evolve unpredictably as they are being written and the team may have simply decided to expand DR's scope.

Anyways, I'll take this time to remind everyone again that there's only 2 cutscene animators working on this game and of the impact the pandemic has had on game development, you know the drill, yadda yadda.

 

[Face My Fears]

Personally, no. DR was still extremely early in its story when the game was taken offline: only 3 episodes had been released, and they were still worldbuilding and establishing the setting and characters. We have no idea how many episodes they had remaining, and thus no way of accurately predicting how long it should take them to finish all of that work. Even when the game was on a regular schedule and alternating with UX, it seemed like they were struggling to get story updates out on time. IMO their original release schedule vastly underestimated the amount of work they had left to do and led everyone to set the wrong expectations.

While the tweet does say the further delay was caused by major additions to the scenario. I don't think those would have necessarily come from Phase 2/other titles (although it is certainly possible!), but rather that stories can evolve unpredictably as they are being written and the team may have simply decided to expand DR's scope.

Anyways, I'll take this time to remind everyone again that there's only 2 cutscene animators working on this game and of the impact the pandemic has had on game development, you know the drill, yadda yadda.

Well what I meant was that they probably got so far ahead with Phase 2, while Dark Road's production was constantly delayed that they got new ideas from Phase 2 to throw into Dark Road.

They probably would not have gone in that direction if Dark Road had stayed on schedule.

If this is the case and they put Phase 2 stuff into Dark Road, I'm actually not sure how I feel about that. On one hand it is connecting Xehanort's story to Phase 2, but on the other hand it somewhat robs Xehanort (and the Dark Road characters) their own stories independent of Phase 2. I'm not too fond of continually using solo stories to explain future stuff. Dark Road should really be about Xehanort's downfall - not about shocking reveals like "Xehanort went to Quadratum!"

 

[MATGSY]

"64 years later" is how long this update is taking.

 

[kirabook]

I'm still wondering if this is a story that really needs to be told.

 

[Squood!]

I fucking hate Dark Road.

 

[The_Echo]

This just makes me even more curious how much content Dark Road will wind up having.

And even more surprised that it's still free.

 

[Squood!]

This just makes me even more curious how much content Dark Road will wind up having.

And even more surprised that it's still free.

should you even c a r e

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I'm still wondering if this is a story that really needs to be told.

I wanted it told just not in this format

 

[Squood!]

I still don't understand how something that just looks horrifically easy to animate takes so long to animate

 

[Chaser]

What a shit show.

 

[kirabook]

I wanted it told just not in this format

I do get that. I mean, I'm all for lore dumps. But... this is just ridiculous. The format isn't good and Xehanort's story is supposed to be done, I just don't know why this has to be told through his point of view I guess. I feel like things are getting a bit too bloated or something

 

[The_Echo]

should you even c a r e

Whether or not I """should,""" I do, I guess
I don't get twisted in knots over mobile games like everyone else around here. And this one isn't even a gacha-based online service anymore, just a little KH game on your phone. For free. No reason to get butthurt about it.

I still don't understand how something that just looks horrifically easy to animate takes so long to animate

It's not just animating. It's character design and spritework, writing the dialogue, sound design and music implementation... and that's just the cutscenes.
It's still a game, too, so any additional elements on that end also take time to develop.
Ultimately we'll have to wait to see how much content is actually in the game before we can determine whether the dev time was justified.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I do get that. I mean, I'm all for lore dumps. But... this is just ridiculous. The format isn't good and Xehanort's story is supposed to be done, I just don't know why this has to be told through his point of view I guess. I feel like things are getting a bit too bloated or something

It certainly should have been told sooner than now. The Xehanort Saga had a distinctive lack of Xehanort as a person before the villain, but oh well.

I wouldn’t say Dark Road bloated things. UX was really the start of that mess by making Xehanort from Scala instead of from Destiny Islands. It’s bullshit and ruins the connection Sora and Riku had to Xehanort. It was great to see the main villain and heroes come from the same background. Humble beginnings, as it were.

 

[Absent]

I'm sure this whole Dark Road fiasco is some deep metaphor for something.

 

[bambii (aka foreteller)]

Yeesh.

The tweet gives me the impression they had to make several last minute tweaks/additions to the story, probably as they’re finalizing scenario writing for whatever big game they’re going to announce soon. The cutscene teasers are both titillating and disheartening; the latter because it increasingly seems like the lore implications for Phase 2 being stuffed in here are truly significant. I want to see the continuation of the YX + MoM scene for realz, not like this.

They really should’ve pulled the plug on this a year ago and transitioned to either integrating the essential plot elements into the next game and/or turning Dark Road into a Back Cover-like movie or something. Seems to me they fell into a sunk cost fallacy and just kept digging a hole they couldn’t get out, and now they have to finish this ridiculous thing as-is lmao

At least they didn't wait until March 19 to tell us lol

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say they didn’t mean meteorological winter, of which today is… the last day