I figured the boss would happen late in the game, honestly surprised it's this early. Also surprised Aqua stayed in Dark World after confronting Riku and Mickey.

Guess Sora had to get Mickey's keyblade back for him, lol.

Isn't the thread title a bit...spoiler-y?
I'm not bothered myself, just speaking for those that wouldn't want to even come across the thread title.

Fuuu, this hit me right in the feels! Kinda wish thex didn't spoil that, but man I'm so hypeed!!! Also, why would this be early or mid-game? Sora is wielding the BH6 Keyblade, it CAN'T be early/mid-game, right?

YOU WILL NOT FORGET THIS AQUA'S POWER

Y O U ' R E N O T W O R T H Y A S M Y O P P O N E N T

Using BH6's keyblade is kind of funny. If Sora was fighting Aqua I figured he would use Master Keeper.

People didn't like the reveal? I really loved it

I was just thinking I should stop looking at KH stuff, but I can't resist. I can't.

NOOOO AQUA I DON'T WANNA FIGHT YOU

Goofy: We have to let Sora fight alone again for this one? Gawrsh, I hope we get a plot-crucial boss with our buddy in the end!

Agreed about KH2 myself, especially the disappointing final boss. That said, now that FM's in our possession, it doesn't bother me anymore since I'd like to think Engimatic Soldier's the true final boss. ;)
But yeah, I really hope the trio get to have their moments in this. Even if it turns out the AI's as useless as it was in 2, I won't mind. Even in KH2, I liked having them around. It just...felt right, ya know?

The battle music remixes Aqua's theme so beautifully, I know they did the same in 0.2 for Mirror Aqua but while that one just sounded creepy, this one speaks volumes about sorrow and isolation. At least from what I can tell xD

Tell me I’m not the only one who thought they were about to reveal Riku as the second playable character before my jaw dropped? Lol

So presumably this scene comes right before Sora reaches down into the water to grab Aqua's hand, considering where the fight is taking place.

I dunno, I wish I could get excited about this, but nope. When they revealed it was actually Sora facing off against her I just kind of rolled my eyes.

Oof, this is getting very spoiler heavy. If you’ve been meaning to remain spoiler free nows the time to jump ship

So Aqua has about 6 HP bars. The toy alien ship in Toy Story has 2 or 3. The ice wolf from Frozen has 10 from what I counted. Even if Arendelle is the first world of the second batch, that likely means the Aqua fight takes place between the two segments. We haven't seen any midboss footage from Monsters Inc or Tangled yet have we?

I’m not sure how reliable either the Keyblade or her health bars are for determining when this takes place. The former could have been programmed for advertisement. With her health, it could be that she is just a boss that requires more defending and strategy as opposed to just spamming attacks like a lot of the larger creature bosses. So maybe they scaled her HP down so the battle doesn’t go on forever. .

Gosh this is just amazing. Just when we think we have things pieced together, they release new footage and throw us all for a loop. I doubt they are fucking with us but it wouldn't surprise me if someone put Sora in so the real fight is kept hidden, but lordy. Does this mean what Aqua said in the BH6 trailer was aimed at Sora​ :O

I’m surprised that Sora is alone. I thought Riku, Terra, Kairi or someone else with a connection to Aqua would help with the purification process. Hopefully others show up in later battle phases/cutscenes. If Sora is alone I'm assuming the fight will stop because Aqua starts to sense Ven inside him, that'll be the spark needed to awaken her defeated and lonely heart.

This debate if she’s Norted or not might be old by now but If she’s still not wearing a cloak by the time Sora has a confrontation with her this makes me think she really isn’t part of Org 13. Xehanort might have wanted that to happen(her hair and the X on her chest), but something went amiss with his plan. Unless his plan is having her wait in the Realm of Darkness? That seems like a pointless waste for such a powerful vessel.

I do like the new theme. 0.2's Aquas theme was like a horror movie, this is more sad.

This is amazing! Oddly enough, I didn't think Sora would be fighting Aqua after her darkling reveal. Sora is just mute and pull's out his keyblade. DOES HE SHOW NO REMORSE FOR THE BEST WAIFU?

Calling it now, there are two separate events going on here spread out by significant gameplay time.

Event 1: Mickey and Riku's event is near the start of the game where Aqua steal's Mickey's blade and breaks Riku's in the realm of darkness.

Event 2: Sora's is the near the end of the game and doesn't take place in the realm of darkness, but rather Sora has used his power to dive into hearts in order to enter the depth of Aqua's heart which has taken on the mirror image of the realm of darkness (like how Sora's heart depths were DI's image in DDD) as a result of the deep sorrow that has consumed her. Sora is fighting the inner Aquanort and will destroy her completely thus destroying Xehanort's seed in her and un-norting Aqua.

Event 2 will then lead into Aqua and Sora going to CO to wake up Ven and thus that gets us that scene with Vanitas, Aqua, and the barrier shielding Ven.

I do wonder if this may have just been created for the presentation since the pause between Aqua saying her line and Sora being revealed is suspiciously long... but regardless, it was a nice surprise!

Didn't watch the footage. The only new footage I wanna see from KH3 is for any remaining Disney worlds. As is now, that last trailer was a sign to me that now's the time to stop watching trailers.

Crazy how after all these years we got to point where things are in spoiler terriotry now, but here we are. Startin' to remind me of those final BBS trailers. At this rate, probably won't be able to watch the Jump Festa trailer.

I can’t imagine this being too late in the game. Why give Mickey a new Keyblade and advertise him with it if Aqua is going to take it and not give it back until after the last Disney world? If that were the case, just let her take the regular Kingdom Key D and then give Mickey a new one like Riku. I doubt Mickey will go without a Keyblade the bulk of the game. I also find the fairly low amount of damage being dealt with an end game Keyblade suspicious. Idk.

What I would like to see is this be Sora’s final test to earn the Mark of Mastery. They’ve been foreshadowing Sora saving Aqua since as early as Blank Points, but certainly since 0.2’s opening sequence. Dude is our main protagonist and it has been made clear time and time again that this game is Sora’s story. Since KH2, there haven’t been any games where Sora has gotten to show that he’s the one to save everyone. Let this be a point in the story where he proves why he deserves that role after his failure in DDD. Also, as others said, Ventus’ heart being with Sora only exacerbates why he should be the one to save her.

Well the last trailer only gets closer for me confirming that it isn't actually Aqua, [SPOILER]but instead maybe a Vanitas-like version of her. Since we saw him using a keyblade on her.[/SPOILER] Either way Nomura said he wouldn't spoil anything major so I'm just going to trust him all the way.

It looks sick and I'm so very mad that they decided to show it. Looking forward to seeing how much better the mechanics are in 3 than 0.2, which was, on it's own, very good for the Phantom Aqua fight.

I was prepared for spoilers, but this just leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth. This is starting to spiral out of control, even for them.
KH III is your next ace Square, at least try to treat it as something precious and close to your chest.

Ahhhh yeah this was indeed pretty spoiler heavy. But im curious on why Sora didn't say anything and didn't have much of a reaction, so im starting to wonder if maybe he was just placed there to throw people off from who you are really playing as :/
But even if this is indeed legit then I guess Im lucky im not a huge Aqua fan so this hasn't affected me as much as others. As long as the final battle world and everything related to Roxas's 'big secret' remains hidden I am fine aha.

I'm hoping they pull an Infinity War where the showed things in the trailers that didn't happen in the movie to surprise audiences. It's cool and all that we're going to fight Aqua (and the music going along with it sounds great, can't wait to hear more of it) but having Sora do it? I dunno, I hope he's a place holder for the second playable character or something (it'll be pretty cool if we played as Ventus, dunno how that would work but I think that would make a nice parallel to the Aqua vs Ven/Vanitas fight in BBS).

If they are hiding the second playable character by putting sora in there the only people come to mind are riku as a redemption fight or kairi as repaying a favor in bbs

Kinda cool that this is the way Sora meets Aqua for the second time, both having been forever changed by stuff. I don't think Aqua can recognize Sora at all-- if she did, she'd probably be overcome with pride, because the dude's a complete badass in this game and in general. If this is the point where he defeats her and then rescues her, you can definitely take her out of the XIII new seekers; they've got plenty as-is, and everything about this, from Sora's HP to Aqua's HP just screams 'mid-game'. So, if it all gets wrapped up here, we'll have Aqua as an ally on the side for the rest of the game, which is interesting.

I find myself curious about her potential relationship with Sora and company-- is the game going to spend time setting them all up as friends, or just have them be allies? The fact that Aqua and Sora are in the same peer group by age, with her being 18, is really surprising, considering she's actually 14 years older than him.

Yeah something a missed here there no way Nomura would spoiler a fight just like that as a side note how great was irino at the panel even when he sounded like sora once in a while lol

Something feels very off about this. From the amount of HP bars giving a slight indication when this happens, to the lack of Goofy and Donald (granted them being absent for fights isn't anything new,) to the basic Command UI. It makes Sora come off as hiding Riku being playable rather than him actually being the one there.

Eh at the same time I don't really see the point in doing all this then if the playable character there isn't really Sora. Like if it was Riku then it's not really much of a surprise. xD

The UI not having a world specific look is another reason I think that Sora isn't actually in the realm of darkness but rather is in a place that merely looks like it, hence my earlier idea this is Sora battling inside of Aqua's heart to destroy the Nortversion of her. Because he's not in any actual world or tangible location and thus there is no world unique UI just a basic one.

I find it really disappointing they shown this boss fight like it was nothing. Maybe it isn't as a big deal as it seems but folk can claim it's not spoilers because Square shown it all they want however it is indeed spoilers for the game and makes me proceed with caution when it comes to even the official stuff now. I don't trust how far down the rabbit hole Square will go. Pun intended.

Yeah, I guess I really don't understand why they'd hide Riku being playable, unless his UI and animations aren't finished somehow.

As far as the voice actors go, Chaser, does Japan generally do ensemble recording? I know here in the US that's more common for anime dubs and cartoons than it is for video games.

Honestly I wouldn't put much stock in the VA's not knowing about this fight. It seems a lot of times the KH VA's don't actually know what they are recording lines for. YX's english VA actually talked in the past about being upset that when he was recording that chess scene for KH3 he repeatedly was told not to voice YX there the way he voiced him in DDD, but wasn't given any explanation why. It's not until the finalized trailer was shown that he found out the YX he was recording lines for in that scene was a different version of YX, one at different stage in his life not the time traveling boy who has yet to leave the islands proper.

So Aqua and Sora's VA were likely recording lines for this fight without ever realizing they were.

Ahahahaha... Forget being afraid of spoilers. Start being afraid of SE's KH3 marketing moves.
This went from "Nomura you don't reveal enough!" to "NOMURA PLEASE NO DON'T SHOW US MORE" very fast. I never thought I'd say something like this
I agree with Laurel on the Infinity War trailer thing, showing lots of events in the trailers but so heavily decontextualized and chronologically vague that no one can ever guess what is actually happening there. Rewatching Infinity War trailers after seeing the movie taught me how well-made a trailer can be without even revealing a single true fact about the narrative. Aka trailers can be master trolls in a good way
But this is plain frightening, even if Sora is a placeholder playable character. Fighting Aqua was pretty much supposed to be a huge thing, but they revealed it like it was... nothing 'that' important. I feel bad for our mods who are the newshounds, they can't avoid seeing new content and if the new content will be of THIS kind... brrrr...

this is so sad, KHI play Chikai
"I don't wanna knooow"

I was barely okay fighting Aqua as Aqua. This wrecks me. ;A;

I really don’t think this is a red herring as far as Sora goes. I think this clip being shown is probably why Sora and Aqua’s voice actors were the two on the panel to begin with.

Could it be possible that they took out Sora talking because they wanted his actor to act out the scene? Considering he was like "AQUA!?!?"?

Ah true. Guess since I have no clue what they were saying it makes ot hard. xD

Has it been mentioned here that Aqua has a reflection but Sora doesn't?

Yeah this is looking more and more like something that was made purely as like a gift to the voice actors being there.

It could be that his reflection would have shown Master Defender as his equipped Keyblade, which I’m thinking we may be forced to use for this particular fight for story reasons.

Look at Aqua's fingers. She's absolutely a Darkling and not a Nort.

I can understand that but here I did take I think a really good picture of it, took awhile since this image is on screen for like a split second.

I'm with Chaser. I can see his shoes and the Keyblade reflected in the water, but not once do I ever see Sora's actual body.

I mean I can see why you might find it weird but I really do think it's just the lighting. Sora never stands in spots as bright as Aqua and instead is in water so dark that his reflection only shows when there is a source of light like right on him, which happens during certain attacks but the light is always small so only bits close to the water are shown. Notice in that picture Aqua has no reflection at all for the same reason Sora's is barely seen, because she's floating above water that is nearly pitch black.

I guess we'll just wait and see.

Tbh, I was kind of disappointed when I saw this. Not only because it's a carbon copy of Phantom Aqua (like I expected it to be), but I was also really hoping to fight her (or some kind of unique boss) with Riku at the beginning of the game. I mean I suppose it's still possible (though it's pretty suspect that Riku looked to be injured before Aqua stole Mickey's keyblade), but not very exciting either way since there probably won't be any real consequence even if you do fight her twice(as Riku and Sora), just based on the fact that you.... fight her twice. Story-wise, all I could think about was main character syndrome which was something I was praying for this game to avoid. I mean, the entire narrative purpose of Riku & Mickey being told Aqua's story, getting there new clothes, and going to RoD in the first place was to save that character. 0.2 really seemed to set things up to come full circle: Aqua saves Riku; Riku saves Aqua. That, and the mastery over darkness being a key development for that too.

On a side note, was I the only one who got the impression that if Master Aqua and Aquanort fought, the latter would just sort of get destroyed? I'm basing that off the fact that she did fight herself 3-4 times (4 if Zodiac Aqua was canonically fought while she was in "The World Within") in the RoD and came out on top, unlike Riku AND Mickey (both of whom are Masters themselves) here struggling with a mentally broken Keyblade Master with no keyblade, lol. I mean even if she ambushed them... it's still a stretch.

I do not quite understand why everyone is indignant.
From the very beginning it was clear that Sora would be the one who would save Aqua. If it was another secret ending, where Aqua weeping with hope calls the name "Sora" does not make sense.

I don't understand why a 30 second clip of what was mostly a cutscene with a single voice line is considered a spoiler when an Aqua boss should've been obvious since E3.

I guess it's more on 'who' is fighting her that is the spoiler. :\

Personally I don't see it as a heavy spoiler nor as a surprise.
If the setup in terms of characters is genuine instead of placeholdering (which I won't rule out due to theories made by others here already) it would just set things back on track in concert with Blank Points.


What does strike me a little negative though is the apparent implication by this that all the other characters are designated as being useless and only Sora can gain lasting results, with the others being only there to take bullets for him and/or end up trapped/injured so he must save them again.

If he had at least Mickey and Riku as party members it would at least look like a team effort worthy of the supposed "friendship"-theme.

So I didn't have computer access until tonight but it seems Hirokey capped and furthered the points on the images I was going to reference. =p

Predictable that Sora would be the one to save Aqua, so hoping Nomura decides to go in a different direction in which Aqua is able to master the darkness and becomes a wild card. :o

I mean, the entirety of Blank Points implied it was Sora who was gonna save everyone. Doesn't mean he won't get help along the way or have backup when he needs it. But Sora is probably gonna be the one who has to deal the combo finishing blow because it's his heart that all these people are attached to in particular.

As DDD showed us, while yes it's Sora who is supposed to save everyone, if he's just left to travel on his own doing whatever, he... can't handle it. He's gotta have backup because he's easily lead astray. I'm glad Donald and Goofy are with him and I hope there are some contrasting moments in DDD. For example, where Sora refused to listen to Riku's echoes and kept pushing forward, I hope to see Donald and Goofy literally right there with him holding him back or shielding in front of him to keep Xehanort's manipulation from working. They've become so protective of Sora so I hope it's even stronger. I mean, it already seems like Goofy has stepped up his dad game.

I'm surprised no one's acknowledging how annoying the commentators are! Sheesh!
Though I suppose since we'll have the game for ourselves soon enough, it doesn't matter....but man, I couldn't make it through these videos since those two guys never shut up!

You think Aqua will go full darkling during her fight with Sora? This could be a two part boss with Aqua transforming completely after Sora beats her the first time.

If there were a step 2 to the fight which entailed Aqua gaining even more Darkling traits, it'd certainly prove what's happening to her isn't simply Xehanort related. It's crawling up her skin. When it covers 100%, she's done for. Maybe. Only a theory of course.

Yeap, it was not annoying at all. I love all the tsugooooooi, hai hai hai. It's cute

Miyu Irino is a gem who has loved KH since he started working on it years ago. Megumi Toyoguchi is <3 and is just super happy to be a part of a series like this.

Yasue is also wonderful and he gets to be proud of the game he has spent tireless hours making happen with Nomura.

Voice from the heavens need not be extrapolated upon since he gets most of the attention anyways.

I’d hardly call any of them annoying.

actually simulating a realtime reflection for Sora could prove to be very taxing on the engine, considering Sora can make flaming lions appear and shoot a million shiny bullets out of magical glowing guns, and create spectral clones out of light, etc. etc.

It's a lot easier to give a detailed reflection to a boss character who's effects can be more easily restrained.