It’s not often that we learn about content that was cut from games early in their development. Kingdom Hearts III was massively anticipated for years before it launched in 2019. Even now, however, things are coming to light about the game’s plans that never reached fruition. While we can only make assumptions based on limited info, these reveals are interesting and raise questions about certain pieces of content. Following on these small clues, we can speculate about why the final product was the way it was.
Blonde Yozora
When players first dove into Kingdom Hearts III in 2019, they were excited to see a massive story arc conclude. However, many new elements were brought in to lead into future installments. The opening of the Toy Story world shocked everyone with what seemed to be a trailer for an entirely unrelated JRPG. While initially presented as merely a video game within the video game, the protagonist of this game Yozora has since become a key character in the DLC package Re:Mind and Beyond. In our leaked pre-production footage, we see an early render of Yozora’s reveal but with a notable difference: he’s blonde.
Yozora in the final game has dark hair, leaning towards a silvery-grey shade. Visually, he looks similar to both FFXV’s Noctis and KH’s own Riku. However, this blonde version of Yozora resembles other Square-Enix characters like Roxas and Cloud Strife. Yozora has seemingly been used as an expy for Noctis in the final iteration of the game. Cutscenes of him echo trailers for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the unreleased game starring Noctis that was reworked into FFXV. Fans have assumed Yozora was always intended to serve as a reference to Noctis, but his early blonde iteration begs the question if that was added later in development.
Vroom Vroom
An even bigger reveal was given to us by X user @ligero_miguel AKA 13th Vessel. They reveal in a post a list of the planned worlds to feature in Kingdom Hearts III. While most on the list appeared in the final game (albeit some in cutscene form only), one stands out: “Cars (Tentative).” Disney’s Cars is one of the many franchises launched by Pixar’s animation studio. Kingdom Hearts III featured the first use of Pixar movies as a basis for worlds in the franchise. The game ended up utilizing Toy Story and Monsters Inc. as settings for worlds in the final release. Ratatouille also provided the character of Remy as a minigame side character.
However, the idea that Cars was tentatively planned for the franchise is curious. Along with the other worlds, it would not evenly fit into the final game’s structure. It also would be complex from a gameplay perspective, likely requiring Sora and co. to take on vehicular forms. We can currently only speculate about the idea for this world. Perhaps it would serve as a sort of racing minigame. Alternatively, it could’ve overhauled Sora’s gameplay like The Lion King world did back in Kingdom Hearts II. One thing is for sure, it would’ve transformed the discussion of the final product had Cars made it into the game.
Final Thoughts
The rest of the pre-production footage that has been leaked is interesting, showing some alternative cutscene plans or early iterations. The community will most be interested in the things that were removed or heavily changed before Kingdom Hearts III was finally released. It is possible Square-Enix will comment on this leak, but that seems unlikely. The footage is out in the open now, however, and the internet never forgets. While it may later be removed, it has certainly been archived and spread around everywhere Kingdom Hearts has fans. We can only wonder if a Cars world is coming to us in Kingdom Hearts IV, which fans eagerly anticipate more news on.
Edit (8/31/2024): Square-Enix has begun to remove the footage from those who have posted it. The article’s screenshot of said footage has been removed.
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