The Worlds
So far throughout all the Kingdom Hearts III trailers to date, four separate worlds have been shown off or announced: two returning, two new. The veteran worlds are Twilight Town and Olympus Coliseum, although from the looks of the E3 2015 trailer it’s shaping up to be straight-up Olympus. The world is much more open than we’ve ever seen it before, and Nomura has stated that all worlds will be as ambitious.
Not only will the player have greater areas to explore within each world, they will also allegedly be able to explore them without cutting to separate screens. “In previous games, you’d run to the end of an area and it would go dark before transitioning to the next stage — now it’s become seamless, as you can see in the trailer when Sora jumps off the mountain you’ve just battled up.” We haven’t seen enough of Twilight Town to know how different it will look, but we’ve at least seen enough to know it will be present in the game.
The two new worlds come courtesy of Disney’s computer animation department, in the forms of Kingdom of Corona and San Fransokyo from the films Tangled and Big Hero 6 respectively. Kingdom of Corona is the main feature of the aforementioned E3 2015 trailer seen below. While you get a stellar look at Rapunzel’s tower and the surrounding wilderness, the film’s heroine (or any other characters from it, for that matter) has yet to make a public appearance.
Big Hero 6‘s inclusion is going to be a wholly unique experience, as Sora’s time in San Fransokyo will take place after the events of the film. The Heartless manage to take control of the original Baymax left behind in the portal during the film’s climax, presumably resulting in the fight presented in the concept art shown above. That art will have to tide fans over for now, as no in-game footage from the world has been revealed at this time.
Nomura has also mentioned that nearly all the worlds featured in Kingdom Hearts III will be brand new to the series. With the confirmation that a fresh trailer will drop at the D23 Expo in Japan on Nov. 3, it is likely we will see a fifth world revealed then.
