New 'Kingdom Hearts 3' Gameplay Reveals Insane Combat Features

Kingdom Hearts 3 is still due out in 2018 and, after the latest preview event, the game's director revealed that we should have a firm release date early next month. This morning we were treated to several hands-on Kingdom Hearts 3 previews, and a lot of new gameplay footage! You can check out a fairly in-depth written preview from GameSpot right here, and enjoy some incredible new gameplay footage above!

Those who went hands on with the game got to explore two different areas: a Battle Colosseum from the world of Hercules, and a "Toy Box" world from Toy Story. The Toy Box is by far the more interesting of the two as it opens things up considerably, and offered players a variety of locations to explore, enemies to fight, and hidden secrets to discover.

Kingdom Hearts 3, as you might expect, is going to be absolutely packed with Easter eggs; not only from various Disney franchises, but from Square Enix properties as well. Expect to see familiar faces, objects, and references from Disney cartoons, Pixar movies, Disney World rides, Final Fantasy, and more.

In the footage above you can see that combat has been overhauled, and while it maintains a familiar system for basic attacks and magic, more involved offensive options begin to open up as you acquire summons, which are now part of the link system. You can see the player summon Wreck-It Ralph near the end of the footage above, taking control of Ralph to set up various blockades and barriers, which he then smashes to deal massive damage to surrounding foes.

GameStop's Alessandro Fillari noted in his preview that, while these attacks are incredible to behold, they "...can be tough to keep track of, with all the moves and skills you have at your disposal. This might have been because the Toy Box level is a little later on in the game, where you'll have new weapons and abilities to use, but it felt overwhelming and somewhat daunting to try and figure out the mechanics of these moves, how to activate them, and which ones to use exactly for certain situations--which has me worried that some younger fans may find themselves lost with certain aspects of gameplay."

Performance, too, was noted to be mainly stable, with some noticeable drops in frame-rate during more intense battle sequences. That was on an Xbox One X, so we have to wonder how the game will hold up on base PS4s and, more especially, on base Xbox Ones.

We don't have long to wait, though! An E3 release date reveal is very likely, so stay tuned for all of the latest Kingdom Hearts 3 news!