In addition to talking about what’s been causing the delay for Kingdom Hearts III and working on his first full-HD title, Tetsuya Nomura shared some more info about Keyblade transformations and summons in an interview with Game Informer.
Here’s what Nomura shared about Keyblade transformation and other combat elements for Kingdom Hearts III:
“First and foremost, each Keyblade will have its own form that it can transform into, and it’s different per Keyblade. There are at least two different forms it can take. For example, in Toy Story, you saw the giant hammer and then the drill. Another one was at the beginning of the trailer where you saw Sora shoot arrows and it [then] turned into a bazooka, so there are two different forms. It also has multiple layers in terms of transforming; you start out with your first phase of transformation, and if you successfully connect your combos, the [next] transformation will happen.”
Nomura couldn’t share more about how you active the transformation process, as it is still in development. “We’re still trying to finalize the specifications, but that being said, it is subject to change, so it might evolve into something even more impressive,” he said.
While the Kingdom Hearts III director couldn’t share too much about summons for the game, which is one of the aspects he wanted to make improvements for, he did share a bit about his new vision for summons:
“If I could provide a glimpse, I’ve made it more pretty,” he said. “Not just the literal modeling, but it’s more about how we’re expressing it that has become more pretty.”
And last but not least, Nomura talked about wanting to utilize the environment more for Kingdom Hearts III by having Sora interact with it more than ever. He used examples from the recent trailer where we see Sora running up cliffs and jumping on rubble in Hercules’’-themed Mount Olympus world:
“It’s a new mechanic that we’re implementing in Kingdom Hearts III. The Japanese name is Athletic Flow. I don’t know what the English final name is just yet. It’s based on the Flow Motion mechanic, and it’s basically revamped and introduced as a new mechanic in Kingdom Hearts III. You’ll be utilizing the environment to propel yourself to an area that you’re not normally able to go to, or again, running up the cliff during battle. Those can be expected in each of the different worlds you’ll be traversing through.”
Kingdom Hearts III releases in 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Check our previous report for more about an additional playable character, extra party members, possible Switch version, and more.
