Entitled the ‘Final Battle’ Trailer, this new trailer shows off a lot of the story-centric content to come in Kingdom Hearts, along with reusing Utada Hikaru & Skrillex’s ‘Face my Fears’ as the main backing track, supported by Utada Hikaru’s ‘Don’t think Twice’.
You can view the trailer below; following it will be my own breakdown of the trailer’s content:
The trailer begins with Sora narrating over a scene of Xehanort summoning the enigmatic ‘Kingdom Hearts’ in the Keyblade Graveyard, stating:
…They can take your world…
…They can take your heart…
…Cut you loose from all you know…
…But if it’s your fate… Then every step forward… Will always be a step closer to home.
Accompanying this quote are a selection of interesting scenes – To begin, the scene with Master Xehanort shows at least six replica Keyblades, all designed around his own, floating around him on a rocky spire as he’s engulfed in the light of Kingdom Hearts – He then is shown floating in front of Kingdom Hearts, similar to how Xemnas did in Kingdom Hearts 2, as the scene fades to black and shows Aqua being consumed by the darkness in the Realm of Darkness – As the light resumes, it shows a set of rocky pillars in a circle, housing the various members of the New Organization XIII, standing proud in the battlefield.
As ‘Face my Fears’ kicks in, it cuts to a scene of various meteorites destroying the world of Olympus, homeland of Hercules, and a variety of explosions at the Monsters Inc. factory – Following this, Buzz Lightyear appears unconscious in a stream of darkness, as he’s whisked off to an unknown place, as Rapunzel pushes away Mother Gothel in her tower, leading to Flynn, Sora, Donald and Goofy riding towards the tower on Pascal the horse – Repeats of scenes shown prior in the Thousand Acre Wood shows Tigger leaping into Sora’s embrace, as the group then ends up meeting Scrooge McDuck and Remy in Twilight Town. Elsa then ascends a set of icy stairs straight out of Frozen, as Anna succumbs to cryostasis, Kristoff rushes to her aid as it then cuts to another scene with Jack Sparrow facing off against Davey Jones, before switching to Sora and Baymax laying the smackdown against some enemies in San Fransokyo.
Stitch then makes an appearance as a new Link Summon, able to surge out plasma barriers that deal electric damage consistently to those who are unfortunate enough to be trapped within – In a surprising twist, Riku is also shown to be a playable character for a portion of the game, unsupported by allies in the Realm of Darkness, presumably in his pursuit of Aqua – This is before a new Ratatouille Keyblade is shown off, along with the Frying Pan Keyblade Transformation. A series of world-themed minigames focusing on the new rare ‘pudding’ Heartless is then showcased, with the first being a balance-type game using the Mad Tea Cups Attraction Flow, a Space Invaders-like minigame using Port Royal’s cannons, some sort of bouncing minigame in San Fransokyo, and a dancing minigame in Tangled. A new Tangled-themed Heartless is then shown off, taking the form of a horse-drawn chariot with three towers on it’s back carriages, as Sora basejumps into the waters of Port Royal to face a large and intimidating shark-like Heartless.
The Toy Story Gigas mechs are also shown off in a sort of survival or score attack-like mode, before it cuts to Sora again in Port Royal smacking Davey Jones around – A new clip is then shown in Monsters Inc, where some dark, gloopy monster is shown summoning minions, before Sora ascends Rapunzel’s tower to take down a treant-like Heartless boss, ending the first half of the trailer with a truly impressive showcase of the final battle against Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed.
As the narrative continues, Kairi and Lea (Formerly Axel) sit atop a sunny hill, as Kairi excitedly awaits her next bout of training with Lea, as Lea begins to remember a faint recollection of Xion – An interesting detail as Xion had faded out of existence and memory in 358/2 Days, and had only been briefly remembered by Sora mistakenly in Dream Drop Distance – As ‘Don’t think Twice’ kicks up, Sora, in his Toy form, rushes to attack Young Xehanort, who asks him to “Find the hearts joined to yours”. As Siax is finally shown off, he looks towards a ‘re-invited’ member of the New Organization XIII, who may possibly be Xion… As we’ll discuss later.
Vanitas confronts Sora in Monsters Inc, pulling up an image of Ventus’ heart, asking for him to rejoin his heart with his, before the trailer cuts to a worried looking Pete wondering where in the world he and Maleficent should even be looking for the mysterious Black Box we last saw Master Luxu carry in Unchained X; Maleficent dismisses his question, instead telling him that they’re on the brink of another Keyblade War. A Chirity then seems to chastise Sora for not already having learned how to restore a person’s heart, even after it was lost, a supposedly common power according to the Chirity – Axel (Or possibly Lea) shares sea salt ice cream with Siax atop the Twilight Town clock tower, as Siax states he has awakened to a ‘new purpose’. Micky is then shown in either Yen Sid’s tower, or Twilight Town, judging by the general aesthetic of the scene, saying that they’re all in this together, before switching to the Twilight Town mansion, where Ansem the Wise is confronted by Ansem Seeker of Darkness, before Riku and the newly ‘Norted’ Riku Replica clash before Ansem Seeker of Darkness in the Keyblade Graveyard – Young Xehanort further taunts Sora in an unknown world (As Sora is neither a monster, ruling out Monsters Inc, and isn’t wearing his visor, possibly ruling out San Fransokyo), as Young Xehanort claims there’s a “high price to pay for wielding such power foolishly”.
As swarms of Heartless spawn from the ‘Norted’ Riku Replica in the Keyblade Graveyard, Kairi, Sora and Riku are overwhelmed, as Lea, in another part of the graveyard questions who a cloaked figure wielding the Kingdom Key is – Considering Sora is fighting Heartless, Roxas has been shown with Oathkeeper and Oblivion, and Ventus has no access to the Kingdom Key, it’s only plausible that Xion has been ‘Norted’ by Xehanort. Upon this figure disappearing, Lea is struck down countless times by Xemnas’ finishing laser barrage move from Kingdom Hearts 2, as Siax watches in his Berserker Form – Sora and Ventus are then captured by a set of odd purple chains (Spoiling Ventus’ fate and revival), as Mickey is absorbed into a card by Luxord – Donald then, presumably uses Megaflare to shoot a powerful red beam of energy somewhere before collapsing in front of an already damaged Goofy, Sora, Kairi, Mickey and Riku – As Lea (Possibly mistakenly referred to as Axel in this scene) and Kairi are swallowed by hordes of Shadows, Mickey, Donald and Goofy seem to share the same fate, as Riku defends a hapless Sora from an oncoming wave of Heartless, stating “Sora; you don’t believe that. I know you don’t”, presumably towards Sora’s defeated stance, maybe leading to him feeling that there’s no winning this fight.
As Sora lets out a gut-wrenching scream, crying his eyes out, the scene cuts to black, showing the logo, before showing twelve identically cloaked figures in a Greek-looking area, filled with cable cars and windmills – As Xehanort is shown, stating:
Once a seat of power for all Keyblade wielders, I and my other selves can be one… In Scala Et Cailum
It’s currently unknown what Scala Et Cailum actually is, but it is known that it has something to do with Xehanort’s end goals.
So that was the latest trailer! A LOT to break down for us fans, to be sure… Let us know your thoughts and theories below!