Square Enix stealthily dropped some news of its own among other publishers' E3 presentations. It took the form of a short trailer for the first Kingdom Hearts III DLC ReMind. In less than a minute and a half, the footage managed to tease more lore about the game's secret villain, show new Keyblades for Sora, and confirm the return of playable Roxas. That's right, the long-lost Nobody will finally be controllable in all his dual-wielding glory.
As for what the DLC will cover, it seems to take place right at the end of the game. Rather than move on to show how Sora intends to find Kairi, or what Xigbar is planning with the black box, we will be treated to more of the final battle. Particularly, more banter between the villains to explain their motivations. We'll also see the boss battles against Organization XIII from a new perspective, with the trailer showing playable fights as Riku, Aqua, and Roxas.
In some ways, this DLC promises to be everything fans wanted from the original game. A preview demo featuring Aqua, as well as talk leading up to the game's release, raised hopes that we'd control more than just Sora. Unfortunately, the final product ended up being about 95% Sora's adventure. ReMind seeks to rectify this by letting us play as several Keyblade wielders of light.
The most exciting of these for many fans is Roxas. He was a popular character in Kingdom Hearts II, and no one else has taken on his signature dual-keyblade fighting style since. Even Sora, who could use two Keyblades in Kingdom Hearts II, only ever uses one Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts III.
Sora isn't totally left out, however, as he finally gets the Oathkeeper Keyblade back. The traditional late-game weapon was mysteriously absent from the game, and fans are happy to see it return.
Unfortunately, it's not all happy reactions. Several fans are critical of the DLC for not really extending the scope of the story. They're upset that, rather than delivering on several of Kingdom Hearts III's ending cliffhangers, Square Enix is choosing to revisit the final sequence. Also, saving things like the Oathkeeper for DLC seems like withholding. We may be at the beginning of another long, drawn-out era of Square drip-feeding the story of Kingdom Hearts to sustain interest.
Kingdom Hearts III ReMind is due this winter for Xbox One and PS4.