who wants to meet up and play this in the windowsill with me? to keep things authentic, my personality will go through a re-write between moves and I will go from a creepy evil schemer to a well-meaning but misguided friend right around the time you start cheating.

Don't forget to have a wistful glance up at the nighttime sky as a music video inexplicably starts playing and your chess board turns into an anime opening.

In all seriousness, I am so gonna buy this. And I'm not even good at chess.

I don't even know how to play chess. So if I was Xehanort and Eraqus pulled that cheating move on me, and he said it was legal I'd have believed him.

This is kinda a surprise. It's common to see two characters playing chess with other characters lives on the line, but very rarely do they make merch out of the chess pieces. I would love to have this set with all these iconic pieces and reenact the KH3 chess game. Square has declared war on my wallet this year.

Every time I see this chessboard, my mind is like
“Have you heard of the ancient keyblade war? Yeah, the Master’s favorite story.”

Waiting for someone to say “4D chess”…

Anytime now…

No Foretellers chess pieces from the ending yet?

I mean, "false checkmate" exist.

No, I’m sure if this set sells well, they will produce additional pieces or have a V2 of it.

So if anyone were to play with the pieces they would have to make up their own rules? That could be pretty creative

They even have the little raises, which while cool confuses me even more on how to play this version of chess.

suddenly i feel like taking up chess again.

I DON'T CARE IF IT'S NOT A REAL CHESS SET OR NOT EVEN A REAL GAME! I will buy maybe 2-3 of these! OMG! It will be a perfect decorative piece.

That or they need to assign the pieces roles.

Place your bets on how expensive it's gonna be

Gunning for $200 but part of me thinks it'll be even more

Gonna buy it anyway

Okay, I'm definitely buying this (I don't usually, but I LOVE chess boards). My only question is: What are the rules to 3D chess? What do those raised squares mean in the game? In this case, are they just aesthetic? If so, then can someone that knows chess still explain to me the rules to 3D chess?

100% chance this is going to be crazy expensive but it's really cool to see they're actually making it. I'm super interested to see what it looks like in more detail.

SE always referred to this as a "chess-like game" and not chess outright so the rules are not going to be the same as 3D chess. But this is probably meant for display and not for actual play.

I wanted it when I saw it the first time....but I fear the price tag. lol

I have no clue how to play chess, but Im gettin' me some KH 4D Chess lol
Does anyone know of a pre-order link, or any dates?
And does anyone know if it'll play like regular chess except raised squares? I guess Im mainly asking about the chess pieces.

I don't think there are enough pieces. And there are too many unique pieces regardless.

I doubt they're going to go all-out and make a genuine game of it. Probably just a decorative piece.

The board is also not built for it. It's not checkered.

I thought that might be the case. Through all the trailers, Publicity cuts, and of coarse the opening itself, I was noticing that the pieces all (accept for "pawn" type pieces) represent different characters, each one unique. Unlike chess, having 2 castle, rook, bishop, and knights.
Never underestimate Square and fantasy enthusiast though. There was a multi-platform Chess game featured in Star Trek TNG and Voyager that they release in RL, and it actually had rules and everything. Im pretty confident it originated as a fictional game Star Trek anyway. Would be awesome if SE did the same. Would really make the KH Fan feel like they're emersed in the KH universe.

Neat, Axel and Roxas pieces in the back corner.

If the price is what I think it is, that better be resin and 24K gold-plated!

I was just about to point this out, they are pieces we never got to see in-game, surprisingly. So this is awesome.

In fact in terms of major characters, I think the only ones we didn't see the pieces for were Axel, Roxas, Xion, and Namine (if we assume the kinda iffy pieces were Demyx, Vexen, and Repliku).

I don't assume Namine would have a piece at all, but I do wonder if there's a Xion hiding on there somewhere, perhaps amid the dark pieces.

Roxas certainly didn't have a piece in-game. Or any of the Sea-Salt trio really. What do their symbols look like?

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I figure after this board is released, that if SE doesn't publish its own rules some fans might come up with their own set of rules for how to play this game.

I'm definitely interested in this though I have no idea where I'd put it.

Pretty much exactly as one would expect, hahah.

Which leaves the questions of
1) What is Xion's symbol anyhow,
2) Is that pointy dragon-head looking doodad indeed Repliku's symbol,
and 3) Why? Lol

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I noticed that one of the pieces looked like a dark crown piece. Though after zooming in a bit it looks more like the symbol on Xion's light attacks. Could that be the Xion piece?

Hmm, Maybe? The only symbol I could remember with her is the Kingdom Key for her Data Battle. Roxas and Axel's are their signature weapons, so I assumed she's have something similar. But thinking about it, her light attack symbol is her Final Form mask which kinda resembles a crown. That could be it.

Yeah, Xion's piece is that other crown. Square Enix's Japan store announced sets of charms for the trios earlier this year with the same symbols:

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Oh, nice! Though my wallet is weeping, there's so many cool new KH merchandise on the horizon.

That's right. This visually clears it up. Especially with Roxas and Axel's symbols. That dark piece more then likely is Xion's due to the shape of it.

I think you're right on the money here, and the far right piece looks like the dark version of Terra's piece. So then the question is what that middle piece might be.

Does anyone know what Dark Riku's symbol is? Would it be a dark version of Riku's symbol?

The general consensus seems to be it's the last gold piece here, the golden dragon-head looking doodad--why that is, however, I'm still to this day totally unsure.

Half those symbols I can't figure out. First thing this KH chess set needs to do is tell who is who. None of these symbols look like Dark Riku. Yet there is one that looks like Vexen's who wasn't even in the war. So confusing lol.

Correct, but notice, as we were kinda getting at, the Roxas, Axel, and Xion symbols aren't included on this art piece, and did not show up in-game.

As for the ones that *are* included, here's what we have:

On the Light set, from left to right: Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Terra, Aqua, Ventus

On the Dark set, likewise: Master Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, Xigbar, Saix, Yong Xehanort, Marluxia, Vanitas, Larxene, Demyx*, Vexen*, Luxord, Riku Replica*

*Note: These three asterisked I am not totally certain of, but seem within reason and the best possible guesses; the rest of them I am pretty much certain of, and can dig up reasoning and evidence to support them if need be

Strange that Axel isn't at least on the lights but Terra is. I know he was last minute but so was Kairi. Demxy and Vexen but no Terranort and Xion? I think I'm reading too much into it though. Still the symbols of the pieces fascinate me.

While this artwork doesn't show a dark Terra piece, a dark Terra piece does show up very briefly in cutscenes in-game, though it's hard to catch. They likely figured there was no point in putting the same drawing in this art book twice, just with a color swap.

But yeah, for some reason, Axel, Roxas, and Xion don't appear anywhere, in-game or in art here--not sure if maybe they were trying to keep their final alignments secret or what, and if maybe the lack of Axel was to represent his place as a bit of a rogue/surprise player in Xehanort's eyes.

I can more or less see the way all of these symbols represent their respective people...EXCEPT Repliku. That one just comes out of nowhere for me. I can see how the Demyx and Vexen ones look like a part of their respective weapons. I can see how Xion's works. But that Repliku thing. All I ever see is something related to Maleficent.

It makes sense to not show a Roxas piece and even Xion's since the game ignores her until the very end. But Axel not having one is still strange to me. I know the chess pieces don't mean much to the overall story of what happened but I dunno. Just feels odd. I suppose it doesn't matter now because everyone now has a piece.

Why wasn't Maleficent a Seeker with that form you just showed in that gif lol.

Really makes ya wonder, doesn't it?

Honestly, and this has definitely been said by others, the whole point of Repliku's piece looking like that could be intentional, just to kinda showcase Riku's relationship with Maleficent in his darker days, even if Repliku himself never had that.

The Seeker Riku seemed to kinda combine all forms of antagonist-Riku we've seen so far anyways: he pretended to be Ansem-Riku at first, he used data/Blox in a callback to Jimminy's Journal Riku (who went bugged and fought us in Dark Riku's outfit at one point), and in the end he turned out to be Riku Replica.

My best guest for why there was a light Terra piece and not an Axel piece is that the originally Destined Guardians, where the Destiny Trio, Wayfinder Trio and Mickey.

I mean in DDD Mickey did make it seem like the Guardian's he was planning on were himself, Riku, Sora, the Wayfinders and maybe Kairi, seeing he knew of her wielding in TWTNW.

While this explanation kinda works for the Guardians, it really doesn't hold up with the Darknesses. Yes, we know that Vexen and Demyx were original candidates, that were later benched by the Replicas. Maybe in the original line up, in which Terra was a light, Maleficent was one of the 13?

That said I wouldn't really know what the purpose of there being originally destined Seekers and Guardians and than the alternative, if the whole Seekers Vs. Guardians thing is over with now.

So that's actually a bit of a thing I'd like to make a bigger thread/topic all about at a later time--I would like to investigate the exact "timeline" of the True Org's members, and I'm not entirely sure how much of the narrative given by characters regarding that might actually be misleading. Demyx implies the two Reserve members were benched in favor of "Replicas", but who that means and whether that's even accurate is tenuous at best. Again, topic for another time/place.

I don't generally think the lineup on that art book represents things accurately, because in the game cutscenes, there is a dark Terra piece along with the light one. So I think the art book stuff is just there to represent references of what assets were used in-game, and so a drawing of the dark Terra piece would have been superfluous.

I think what was there in-game was supposed to be sort of a compilation of everyone who is considered a major Light or Darkness in general, at least from the start. Again, weird that Axel was absent from the board, and Donald and Goofy as well. But with the Seekers, I can see them just having all Seekers present, including reserves, but excluding the ones that were meant to be spoilers/surprises narratively speaking (so basically just Xion).

Idk, it's a bloody mess, and I need to get my research and paperwork together to post one, maybe two, threads that tie into this mess, just to gauge public opinion and knowledge on the matter.

I've wondered about the Seekers timeline as well. Vexen and Demyx are sub-members yet they act like they were benched as if they were active but no longer. Then there's the whole "why do you even need bench members when they have 13+ members already." But like you said for another thread.

I'm not surprised by that this is a real thing AT ALL...so I'll probably be begging my family to get it for me as a present xD

Count me in. I’ll open with an en passant and then you’ll proceed to talk about some war with keys involved which I know nothing about. You’ll tell me to drop the facade, but I’m just too clueless. You ramble about the future, light, darkness but dude we’re playing chess, so can you JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME FOCUS?!

idk how to play chess but im getting it still

i think the dragon one is terranort and the bird looking one is vexan and the one to its left is demyx.


the dragon is terranort and the bird looking one is vexan and the one to its left is demyx. this was the og 13 seekers but for some reason xehanort and/or numora changed that idea.


its not riku replica. its terranort cus he was norted before riku replica and was xehanort's 1st vessel

I don't know how to play chess at all, and the moment I saw this in KH 3 trailers I was thinking "there's no way in heck they're going to actually make this into merchandise, they can't even release the organization's weapons officially"
And here I am, proven wrong, and wanting this thing just to display it.

I may sound dumb asking this, but which one is the dragon one? Trying to figure some of these pieces out confuse me.

the last one

Huh, I suppose from a certain angle it looks like a dragon. Though I don't know what a dragon has to do with Terra. They should have given him a piece that looks similar to Lingering Will...or one that resembles nuts. You know Terra is a fan of nuts.

During the game cutscenes there are gold Terra pieces. Terra actually gets tossed around the board a bit.

I think those two pieces are Vexen and Demyx, showing their shield and sitar upside-down to symbolize that they're reserve members who defect from the dark side.

I was wondering the same thing... I would hope to get it for 100, but could see it going all the way up to 5... just depends on what it's made of.

i would pay over $500 for this set to be made of quality materials. Bottom line is either its gonna be super expensive or crafted with shitty reflective paint or an aluminum shell, and abs resin with lead cores to give the pieces some weight. Real marble/polished metal pieces is definitely asking too much but anything else won't have the authenticity that we all want.

I will bypass authenticity for a reasonable price tag lol (I understand I'm in the minority on that).