'Kingdom Hearts 3' update: Director Tetsuya Nomura on new Keyblade abilities & Heartless design

The new "Kingdom Hearts 3" screenshot shared during MAGIC 2017. Facebook/Kingdom Hearts III

“Kingdom Hearts 3” has been on the minds of players for years now, but Square Enix has hardly said anything on the matter since its reveal at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2013. However, director Tetsuya Nomura has just revealed a few vital details that all anticipating players should keep in mind.

At the Monaco Anime Game International Conference 2017 on Feb. 18, Square Enix debuted a new “Kingdom Hearts 3” screenshot. The image, which can be seen above, shows Sora fighting a new kind of enemy. “It’s happening in Thebes, and they are fighting a new model of the Heartless,” GameBlog quoted Nomura saying.

So while it is evident that the upcoming game will introduce players to an entirely new kind of Heartless, Nomura also revealed that the Keyblade will have additional features as well. “The Keyblade turns into a lot of things,” he said while the image was shown. “Here, it is a shield, but it can also be transformed into a chariot. This is called Power Form.”

The actual details of Power Form were not revealed, so it is unclear how and when players will be able to take advantage of the new feature. Nevertheless, it is clear that Square Enix is working on providing a tougher gamer experience in “Kingdom Hearts 3.” This is an important aspect to know, especially since fans of the franchise have been waiting years for the release.

Despite this, however, Nomura has also confirmed that the finished product still has “some way to go.” He revealed the same in an interview with Weekly Famitsu (via Gematsu). Nomura explained that production now was different from what Square Enix had done so far, so there was some difficulty in confirming just when “Kingdom Hearts 3” can be expected.

He also touched on why not a lot of material has been released. The worlds that have been under development are apparently worlds that have not been announced, so Square Enix is opting to keep those under wraps for now. Furthermore, they are not in a state that Square Enix can release just yet. It certainly does look like players will have some time to wait until the game’s actual release.

This year marks the 15^th anniversary of “Kingdom Hearts.” It would be a big but welcome surprise if “Kingdom Hearts 3” will be released within the year.