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The full ‘Kingdom Hearts III’ ending won’t be in the game at launch

KINGDOM HEARTS III – Final Battle Trailer (Closed Captions)

Kingdom Hearts III is the first numbered entry in the series in well over a decade, and dedicated fans are excited to see the climax of Sora’s journey with pals Donald and Goofy at his side. As with any major game release, you have to be careful about spoilers online, so Square Enix opted to not include the full ending for the game at launch.

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In a series of posts on the official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account, Square Enix explained that following the release of the game on January 29, a series of updates would be coming to add more features. Among them is a day-one update that adds bug fixes and the “Memory Archive,” which retells the series’ storyline for anyone (and everyone) who needs to get caught up to speed.

The following day, an update will be added to include the game’s epilogue. This will only be available after completing the game, and since it wasn’t shipped out on the discs themselves, it hasn’t been revealed yet. This is something the development team had been planning for in advance, and fans were told about it after the game was leaked more than a month before its release date.

Wednesday, January 30
Epilogue (video)
*Players will need to have completed #KingdomHearts III and seen the ending to view this video.
[2/5]

— KINGDOM HEARTS (@KINGDOMHEARTS) January 11, 2019

Lastly, on January 31, another secret video will be added to Kingdom Hearts III. As with the epilogue, this requires you to have completed the game, but you also must have “fulfilled certain criteria” during your time playing. We’ll likely learn exactly what that means closer to launch.

It’s worth pointing out that Square Enix said the “main game allows players to proceed to and view the ending without the need for an internet connection,” but an epilogue in something this large in scope could prove to completely change the way the story is framed.

Kingdom Hearts III will be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 29. To prepare for the next chapter, you can purchase Kingdom Hearts – The Story So Far, which contains nine different titles spanning the entire saga. It isn’t available on Xbox One, however — aside from Kingdom Hearts III, the series has tended to stick to Sony and Nintendo systems.

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
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