Footage was revealed today from the "Kingdom Hearts 3" premiere event that took place in California. Among the demo players at the event was Chris Kohler, who took to Kotaku.com to tell us about the experience. According to him, the demo consisted of two parts: a brief journey into Olympus, the setting of Disney's "Hercules," and into a Square Enix/Pixar type of toy store with the characters of "Toy Story."

Demo version details

The first part of the demo taking part in Olympus featured the two-headed titan, Lythos, who hurls boulders at Sora as he runs up the side of the mountain.

The battle that ensues once Sora arrives at the top involves hacking at the titan's feet until the game indicates that you can move to the titan's head. Kohler goes on to describe that at some point in the battle, he was able to trigger an "Attraction" -- a type of ultimate attack. This attack summons a roller coaster and helps Sora finish the battle.

The second part takes place in a "Toy Story" realm and immediately features the movie's cast, with Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the rest of the gang. Sora and his companions -- Goofy and Donald Duck -- become toys in the same style, and after a dialogue scene, they all decide to investigate the Heartless at the local toy store.

Kohler described the toy store as an "impossibly grand amusement emporium," quoting the game's co-director -- Tai Yasuo -- regarding their inspiration to create their own toy store mixing Square Enix and Pixar creations. True to this, the setting features multiple references ranging from "Barbie" to "Dissidia Final Fantasy."

There is a lot of room to explore here and grab resources from some surrounding Easter eggs.

The battle scene involves more ultimate attacks and new powers. One of these seemed to involve being about to pilot a toy robot! Despite the fun times featured in the demo, the mini-games that were previously teased this year were not shown at the event.

New gameplay features

Kohler described some new features "Kingdom Hearts 3" has, but a summarized version on Express.co.uk described that players can now switch between keyblades, which opens many new possibilities for combat and battle effectiveness.

Keyblades from different stories such as "Tangled" or "Monsters, Inc" will provide players with a wider range of abilities.

One very anticipated character, "Wreck-It Ralph," that has been talked about leading up to the premiere event was also revealed in the demo, and on Twitter earlier this morning:

The rest of the game appears to play much like the earlier games, which will appeal to longtime fans of "Kingdom Hearts 3." While some players of the demo have described some clunky parts of the game and long cut-scenes, these problems seem minor, and even the harshest critics so far are still excited for the full version.

More Disney favorites were also rumored to appear earlier this year.

Release date and other details

While the official release has not yet been confirmed, Square Enix did say that it would come out in 2018, with the official date set to be revealed in a few months. The #KH3Premiere hashtag on Twitter also revealed stunning photos of the event's exterior, as well as more screenshots of the game itself.

Even though the release date has not been confirmed yet, it appears that longtime fans and new players alike will have plenty to talk about until it comes out later this year. "Kingdom Hearts 3" will be released in 2018 for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
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