The director for developer and publisher Square Enix's forthcoming action-RPG, Kingdom Hearts 3, discusses the enhancement of the game's combat system.

Ever since Kingdom Hearts 3's announcement at E3 2013, fans have been clamoring for as much information about the forthcoming entry in the Disney-centric action-RPG franchise as possible. However, the game's creators have been maintaining a good deal of radio silence as of late when it comes to a the sequel's current state in the development process.

Thankfully, Tai Yasue, the co-director for both Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts 3, recently sat down with the fine folks over at GamesBeat to talk about the evolution of the series, the reason why the third entry in the franchise didn’t have a major showing during E3 2016, and perhaps most importantly, some details about enhancing Kingdom Hearts 3's combat and magic.

During the interview, the topic of the developers experimenting with the series' battle system for each release was broached, with Yasue being asked what works best for the franchise as a whole. Interestingly enough, the co-director says that the magical points system has "worked well," but he is hesitant to rehash similar gameplay aspects moving forward.

"[The magical points system] worked well. But we don’t want to do the same thing over and over again. In Kingdom Hearts III and 0.2 we wanted to enhance this system for the next generation. Using magical spells, we wanted the environments and enemies to react in a meaningful way. It doesn’t just explode. It lingers on afterward. If you shoot a Blizzard, for example, it creates a place where you can skate on the ground. We wanted the magic to dynamically interact with the environments."

As the interview progresses, the Kingdom Hearts franchise's roots in the storytelling and gameplay styles of Final Fantasy is brought up, prompting Yasue to point out the uniqueness of the former when compared to the latter, with Disney's properties being a prime component in helping Kingdom Hearts have its own voice. With that in mind, there are no current plans for Final Fantasy worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3.

Although Kingdom Hearts 3 wasn't featured as prominently as 2.8 at this year's E3, even though it was one of the most anticipated games for the 2016 expo, Yasue made the case that its developers felt the best move was to focus more so on 2.8 since it will be releasing worldwide at the beginning of December. Even so, that doesn't take the pressure off of the third chapter's creators when it comes to delivering a top-notch experience. Kingdom Hearts 3's co-director, while determined to make the most engaging and enjoyable game possible, seems incredibly optimistic it will provide fans with a satisfying experience and then some by tying up all of the strands and loose ends in the series' previous efforts, saying, "They all come together."

While it remains to be seen exactly which direction Kingdom Hearts 3's story will take, it should come as no surprise to fans that Square Enix is drawing from as many Disney properties as possible to complete the game. As it happens, the studio's developers have confirmed it will will feature content from Pixar, such as a summon inspired by the Toy Story series. Not to mention, Disney Interactive has revealed that Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to remain as current as can be by incorporating assets from the popular animated comedy Big Hero 6 for one of the game's worlds. This is all exciting stuff, of course, but hopefully developers will be ready with more even updates in the near future so that fans won't feel left in the dark.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is currently without an official release date, but it is expected to launch for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Source: GamesBeat