'Kingdom Hearts 3' Release Date & Characters: Title Delayed? Square Enix Shares Details on Announcement Rules; Classic Character Being Added, Who is it? [Rumors]

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Fans of the anticipated game "Kingdom Hearts 3" will surely be disappointed because new reports suggest that Sora's next adventure will be delayed again.

Christian Post reported that "Kingdom Hearts 3" is pushed back to a 2017 release. The release date of the game remains intriguing to fans because the development team did not offer any window for its initial release.

According to Design & Trend, "Final Fantasy 15" and "Kingdom Hearts 3" are created on different schedules. Both titles are developed by the same team. Thus, there's a chance that the policies of one project will help fans understand the other.

"Final Fantasy" director Hajime Tabata revealed a crucial detail about Square Enix's policies. "According to Square Enix's official rules, we are allowed to announce the release date for a game once it gets to this stage in development," he said. Thus, the project has to reach a certain completion status before the team is allowed to announce the release date.

Game director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed that the release date was moved in an interview with GamesTM.

Although the game is another year away, the director promised that it would be a whole lot better than the previous alterations of the "Kingdom Hearts" series.

Since the team switched to a more advanced engine, they were able to do the modifications that they wanted but couldn't achieve on the previous hardware. Nomura confirmed that they implemented a new battle system and introduced new and unique moves. He also teased that the Keyblade Transformation, the plot where Sora has gone through a test of mastery will be part of the combat.

"There have been many bold additions to Kingdom Hearts III in combat and those are only possible because we have access to the better hardware but it hasn't necessarily been things I couldn't have done then. It's more that I learned from the experiments of the spin-offs."

Nomura also disclosed that their switch to the new engine was a process that it seems starting from the scratch. "We pretty much had to start from the ground again. We had to make sure that we could recreate our key effects in the Unreal Engine and that the effects we specifically needed for Kingdom Hearts could be adapted," he said. "That goes a long way to explaining the long distance between the announcement and now when we're able to reveal more information about the title."

Meanwhile, there are continuous rumors that Winnie the Pooh will be joining the roster of "Kingdom Hearts 3." KingdomHeartsInsider reported that Winnie The Pooh and Tigger would be featured in "Kingdom Hearts 3." However, fans should still take these reports with a grain of salt because neither Square Enix nor Disney confirms it.

When do you think "Kingdom Hearts 3" will arrive? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.