So I got to see a hands-off demo of Kingdom Hearts and see the game in motion, but I cant tell you quite how it plays. A few things that the Square Enix representative told me right off the bat is that the game will be $39.99 at launch for PS3. He also told me, which will be good news for any HD Collection fans, that you will be able to boot back into the “Game Select” menu from the title screen of any of the three Kingdom Hearts game included in the collection. That is a big step in the right direction for HD Collections, and it is good that Kingdom Hearts will be getting on that bandwagon.
I mostly got to see the Atlantis level of Kingdom Hearts 1. I will say that the game definitely looks sharper and better at a higher resolution that the majority of HD collections that are out there right now. Also, the translation is clearly making good progress because the majority of the text I saw was in English, and the dialogue form the initial scene with King Triton was in English as well.
The PR representative playing the game was quick to show off some of the new features (or updated features, I should say), such as using the right analogue stick to look around as well as skipping any cinematic in the game. He was quick to mention the Ursula cutscene, which is a notoriously long cutscene followed by a very difficult boss, which lead to many an hour of frustration in Kingdom Hearts past.
He also said that “Talk” and “Open Chest” will be mapped to the triangle button, something pulled from Kingdom Hearts 2. Also, special attacks like “Sonic” will be mapped to triangle, and Summon attacks will be there too. Basically, the triangle button is going to be super important, just like in KH2.
I also got in a few questions about 358/2 Days HD, which I was told is, for the most part, made completely from the ground up by the team. All of the scenes being based on original scenes in the game, but reinterpreting and redone as cutscenes in full HD. Also, there will be a “Play All” button as well as a way to play specific groups of chapters at a time. Apparently it will be three to four hours long, “maybe longer”.
No word on an official release date, still aiming for fall, but the Square Enix representative believes they will have more to say soon.
