Kingdom Hearts 3D

It's very fitting that a trailer for a game that takes place in a dream is as trippy as this trailer is.  No, really, I've been following Kingdom Hearts for a while and I have NO IDEA what is going on besides the basic set up.  (Namely, that Sora and Riku are completing their Mark of Master exam.  This was the letter in KH2, and we've seen the Mark of Master exam in Kingdom Hearts: BBS.)

(Spoilers for the other KH games ahead)

It is interesting though, many scenes in this trailer are relating back to the side or filler games.  The Mark of Mastery exam, as stated before, was in Birth By Sleep.  Vanitas (Evil Sora) and Master Xehanort (the old creepy guy) are also in Birth By Sleep. The black haired Kairi is actually Xion who is one of the main characters of Kingdom Hearts 358/2... until it was revealed she was actually a Replica and was drawing power from both Roxas and Sora so she tricked Roxas into killing her so she could return to Sora, erasing everyone's memories of her in the process)  The the Somebodies in the trailer (Ienzo, Aeleus, and Lea) originally debuted as Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories.  Namine also debuted there. (She's the blond Kairi in the white dress) And there is suspicion the other Riku is a "Data Riku" from Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded.  (I haven't played Re:Coded so I can't judge)

But what is interesting is various scenes have been remixed, especially from Kingdom Hearts 2.  The famous Roxas/Axel battle is now in CG. 

But on the other hand, Roxas NEVER fought against Xemnas and Sora and Riku have yet to face Master Xehanort.  While it could be a nod to how Sora harbors Ven (who is in Roxas... it's a bit confusing) and Riku was possessed by Ansem:Seeker of Darkness who is actually a form of Terra (Yeah, that's confusing too)  but who really knows at this point.

And THEN there is that young form of Xehanort hanging around which has something to do with Vanitas which makes no sense at all since we've never seen a Xehanort THAT young and while Master Xehanort created Vanitas and semi raised him, they've never had a spiritual connection like the rest of the groups.

THEN there is "The World Ends With You" crew.  While the Kingdom Hearts games have included Square Enix Cameos before (Cloud and Zack are minor plotpoints in the Olympus Colosseum worlds) they're usually a bit more varied.  (While Final Fantasy 7 easily has the most characters, they share the sage with Final Fantasy 6, 8, 9, and 10(-2).)  But so far, almost the entire cast of TWEWY has shown up, and all in one world.  It's rather odd, even for an admitted marketing ploy.  (SE has admitted that they want to make a TWEWY sequel, but they need to increase awareness of the TWEWY crew so they were inserting into Kingdom Hearts)  That being said, putting in one of Josha's iconic lines is a nice touch. 

One thing that is interesting, though, is the utter lack of Ven, Aqua, and Terra (other then Terra and Ven's semi alternate forms) While Birth By Sleep and Re:Coded makes it clear that the three need to be saved in order for Light to win in the battle against Master Xehanort, and Re:Coded also states that they've tracked down at least 2 of the heroes of Birth By Sleep, it is interesting none of them show up, not even Master Eraqus who taught them.  While we might see more later, the absence is notable.

The choice of the three "Somebodies" that came back is interesting.  While we always knew Lea/Axel would come back (everyone likes him way too much and he appeared for almost no reason in Birth By Sleep)  Ienzo/Zexion and Aeleus/Lexaeus are an odd choice.  They only appeared in Riku's story in Reverse/Rebirth mode in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and as part of the short tutorial in 358/2.  Why have just those three (and Xehanort) come back?  As far as we know, they hold very little knowledge of the series' inner workings.

Square Enix makes fantastic trailers, but one of their main problems is they spoil too much. A few months before Birth By Sleep was released, many fans guessed that Terra would end up possessed by Master Xehanort (who was the real villain of the game) and become the Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 reports.  That's not happening here.

Check out the short version of the trailer on the official website

I can't wait until we get a localized trailer, I hope it's the long one.  And I can't wait until we find out more about this game.  It's way too trippy, but it's awesome.