What do you get if you cross the epic role-playing worlds of Final Fantasy with the characters from the Disney films? It's may sound like an odd combination, but Square Enix's long-running series, Kingdom Hearts proves the answer is "an incredibly popular game". Revealed hot on the heels of Final Fantasy XV at Sony's E3 conference, you could be forgiven for thinking both games were Playstation exclusives - especially in the case of Kingdom Hearts, which has mostly been a Sony console franchise up until now - but after the conference, it emerged that both Final Fantasy XV, and Kingdom Hearts 3 would be coming to both the Playstation 4, and the Xbox One.
Fans of the series have had quite a long wait for the next numbered instalment in the franchise, with the Playstation 2 exclusive Kingdom Hearts II being released way back in 2006 - and since then, there's only really been a number of handheld spin-offs to play. The reason for the seven year delay can at least in part be attributed to the series producer Tetsuya Namura being caught up in the development of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which was revealed at Sony's E3 conference to have now morphed into Final Fantasy XV - freeing him up to start work on the next Kingdom Hearts.
Despite being called a 'Keyblade', Sora's hair looks sharper than his weapon.
In Kingdom Hearts 3, keyblade-wielding protagonist Sora is now older, and about to set out on another adventure through a universe packed with references to Disney films and characters, whether you're heading to the Hercules planet and rubbing shoulders with Phil and Hades, or on a quest with the Little Mermaid. The story begins as Sora and his friends learn that all the conflicts over the universe's 'Kingdom Hearts' - the combined heart of all the worlds and a source of great power and wisdom - were all part of the evil Master Xehanort's plan to cause an all-out Keyblade War. In an effort to put things right, they set off on a journey in search for the seven guardians of light to combat the encroaching darkness, splitting into two teams in the process - while King Mickey and Riku head off in search of previous Keyblade wielders, Sora, Donald and Goofy search the various Disney-themed lands in search of the 'Key to Return Hearts'. So far things seem uncharacteristically simple for a Kingdom Hearts story, although we're expecting it to get a whole lot more twisty, turny and confusing once the game lands, especially as Square Enix are promising us "a grand story of unparalleled scale".
While there's nothing in the way of a release date so far, as the game's coming to the Xbox One and Playstation 4, we're not expecting to see much of Kingdom Hearts 3 until 2014 at the earliest. Unless Square Enix have been keeping the game's development on the down low, of course. As with any good E3 reveal though we have a trailer to help whet your appetite, complete with series montage, a look at the new, older Sora on a beach, and a brief snippet of some of the new keyblade-whacking gameplay:
