I wonder…the text at the beginning mentions “dreams” and “dive”, and then we see Sora falling in a way very reminiscent of Dive Mode from 3D. Of course, the significance of that is questionable.

The music is pretty sweet, though. It sounds like the final boss music from 0.2, maybe a little different? It’s awesome.

The main draw here is a ton of gameplay footage. Flowmotion, Shotlocks, team-up attacks, they all make appearances, plus footage of Sora using his Keyblade’s shield transformation and a ton of other techniques through the new form changing mechanic. I’m starting to be more optimistic about using this system in place of Deck Commands. This looks pretty cool.

There are some minor nods towards story as well, but…honestly, that’s my least favorite thing here. I think this is our first look at Maleficent and Pete (and Hades) in KHIII, and apparently they’re searching for the box that the MoM left behind in Back Cover. That whole plot point was kind of “Eh” IMO. I guess it’s consistent: Maleficent mentioned the Book of Prophecies in 2.5 and is involved somehow in X/UX (we still don’t know how). Still…”Eh”.

And then there’s a scene outside the Twilight Town mansion with Sora, Donald, and Goofy talking to Xemnas and Ansem. I went really quickly from “Ah, Xemnas!” to “Oh, come on, why?”, since the dialogue is Xemnas asking Sora how he plans to bring Roxas back. I’ve gone on about how I don’t want them to separate Roxas from Sora, right? About how Roxas rejoining with Sora at the end of KHII and finding peace felt like a good end to me and that ripping him out of that would only serve to undermine that resolution? I have? Okay.

It’s funny, just last night I asked myself if I actually still like Kingdom Hearts, and even after seeing a brand new trailer upon waking up I still don’t have a proper answer. Hm.