I’ve spoken extensively about games that I love and games that I’m incapable of finishing. This week is a similar topic: a new game in a series that I love to watch others play. This franchise smashes together two other incredibly popular franchises: Kingdom Hearts. The two other franchises that came together to create this super-popular love child are, of course, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy and the media giant Disney.
Prior to the 2013 announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3, the series was made exclusively for Sony consoles and Nintendo handheld devices. The main games, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, were released for the Playstation 2, with several spin-off games being released for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. With the announcement of the forthcoming Kingdom Hearts 3 came the news that it would also be available for the X-Box One console. The hype was real, with an initial estimated release date of Holiday Season of 2015.
Of course, with the title of this article in combination with the general tone, you may guess that the release date came and went without a new game on the shelves of millions of fans. Here we are in 2017, still waiting for the third installment. In the meantime, Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5, and Kingdom Hearts 2.8 have been released. The first two are just remakes of the original games, although each disk also contains a game previously released on the Nintendo systems as well, and can be played on both the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4. 2.8 is a bridge between the ending of Kingdom Hearts 2 and the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 3, with Square Enix having announced that they had too much content for the new game to possible include it all. 2.8 was released in January of this year for the Playstation 4 and also contains Dream Drop Distance HD, a game initially released on the Nintendo 3DS.
As it currently stands, Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of my own personal most anticipated games. It has a projected release date of 2018, which is quickly approaching. At this rate, however, I will believe in a release date when I actually hold a copy of the game in my hands. It is unlikely that I’ll actually play it (I’m still in the first world of the first Kingdom Hearts). I am firmly in the “I will play this game when I have grandchildren and live in a nursing home because that’s how long it will take to come out” camp.