Kingdom Hearts III

This page details one or more prototype versions of Kingdom Hearts III.

In late August of 2024, a Xbox One devkit containing the Premium Showcase build of Kingdom Hearts III was found and dumped online. While it's almost identical the demo that Square Enix would release later on for consoles like the PlayStation 4 or Switch 2, there are many files that shows how incredibly unfinished the game's state was at that point, which is rather either remarkable or crazy when you take in consideration that the full game would release eight months later.

General Differences#

Leveling Up#

Premium Showcase	Final

The graphic for when receiving a level up was quite similar to what previous entries had. It's unknown why this was changed for the final game.

The Deep End#

The boss theme for when fighting the Rock Titan was slightly different in the Premium Showcase build, using less instruments and being a minute shorter when compared to the final version.

Voice Clips#

Due to it being early build, many of Sora's voice clips are outright taken from Kingdom Hearts II and Dream Drop Distance as a placeholder.

Abilities#

In the Premium Showcase, Sora has access to certain abilities that isn't accessible during the Olympus section in the final game:

• High Jump without the use of Second Form.
• Shotlocks.
• Access to Links, such as Wonder Balloon.
• More HP than normally possible.
• Fire has been upgraded to Fira.
• Can use Aerora, Cura, and Blizzara.

Unused Cinematics#

Unfinished Cutscenes#

Cutscenes in a unfinished state can be found in the files, three of which are are meant for Arendelle, while the last one is for Toy Box. The Arendelle cutscenes has a second video in the bottom right corner, showing clips from the Frozen film and rough sketches that usually show Sora being hazardously implemented into scene. Interestingly, the Toy Box actually uses models from Final Fantasy Versus XIII as a placeholder.

Early Animations#

Three test videos can be found, showing Sora in a test map performing either a Attraction or a Team Attack in a gray test map.

Test Effect Animations#

Four videos containing seemly random effects can be found. It's currently unknown what this was originally intended to be used for during development.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Opening Leftover#

Watch on YouTube

A slightly early version of the opening animation from Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- can be also found within the files. It's missing the Disney logo at the start and has various text on top it, including it's internal project name.

Unused Graphics#

Placeholder Weapon Icons#

All of the weapons that Sora, Donald, Goofy can equip have placeholder icons when viewing them from the status menu, which mostly features early concept art in the Item folder.

Keychains#

Along in the Item folder, there's also separate graphics that shows up-close concept of keychains for the Keyblades that Sora can equip.

Save Portraits#

MenuFace contains placeholders for the portraits that appears on your save file. While nearly everyone doesn't have a proper portrait, Sora does and it's taken from a render when the game was initially announced.

Loading Screen#

00_system folder contains remnants when the loading was originally supposed to have either Sora, Donald, or Goofy offering helpful information to the player. It also features Kingdom Hearts II Sora in the KHUX artstyle, which never gets used in the final game. Why this was replaced with the very divisive Instagram rip-off is unknown.

Placeholder Title Screen#

011_title contains a placeholder version of the title screen, featuring early concept of Sora.

Battle Report#

The 18_battlereport has a early version of the Battle Report when finishing the game, using the artwork from Re:Chain of Memories as a placeholder. It also mentions critical mode, which was not available for the final game at launch.

HUD Portraits#

Face folder contains portraits used when on the field or during combat. While Sora in both outfits, Donald, Goofy, Ventus, and the all of the Disney characters portraits, everyone else are currently in a unfinished state and aren't rendered properly.

Colette Tatou#

Among the assets for the Remy cooking minigame exists a unused graphic that's just a screenshot from the 2007 film, Ratatouille. It features Remy and Colette Tatou, the latter of which does not appear in the final game at all.

Brightness Check#

A placeholder version of the screen when adjusting the game's brightness exists. The only difference is the dummy kanji in the upper left corner.

Placeholder World Icons#

MenuWorldTitle as expected, contains placeholder icons for every world in the game. While almost all of them are using the final version of their respective artwork, they have the red dummy kanji logo slapped onto them.

Tutorial Images#

HelpItem contains a massive amount of placeholder tutorial graphics, all of which were meant to be featured on the unused loading. While all of them has the red dummy kanji, many feature either test maps, unfinished areas, or mockups.

World Locations#

There's multiple placeholder graphics for the locations that you can land via the world map or save point, exists for almost every single world except for the Keyblade Graveyard, found in the AreaSelect folder. While the environments are the same as they appear in the final game, any NPCs that appears in the graphics are amusingly seen T-posing.

Photos#

There's several placeholder graphics in ExtraLoad meant to represent photos that Sora can take. Most of them are him taking a selfie with Woody, while the others are from a cutscene involving Rex.

Remy's Meals#

There are multiple placeholder graphics of the meals that Remy from Ratatouille can make for Sora to eat in order to increase his stats, which can be found in the RemyCook folder.

PlayStation 4 Assets#

The Xbox One version of the Premium Showcase contains assets for the DUALSHOCK 4 controller for the PlayStation 4 version.

Early Gummi Editor Menu#

71_gummiship contains assets for a early version of the menu when editing the Gummi Ship.

Dummy Sticker#

71_gummiship also contains a dummy sticker for the Gummi Ship, using the graphic of the X-Blade as a placeholder.

Items#

In the Item folder, there's many items that Sora can obtain during the game in a placeholder state. Some with concept art and the rest not having anything at all besides a blue circle and text.

Maps#

navmap_test folder contains graphics for placeholder maps for The Caribbean and Monstropolis. The map layout is the exact same as in the final game, with the only difference being the inclusion of the red dummy kanji.

Map Names#

The Mapnames folder unsurprisingly, contains the names that appears when entering a map. There's a few graphics for each world, either having the dummy kanji or the internal map ID, likely for developers to put which graphic where without getting confused.

Dummy Gummi Blocks#

There are many, many placeholder graphics for the gummi blocks when building a Gumi Ship, which all be found in the GumiItem folder.

Development-Related Text#

Cars World#

world_cs : "カーズ（仮）

kh3_map.locres contains text for every world in the game, one of which being based off the Pixar film Cars. It's unknown this world was scrapped, as it could either be due to time constraints or unable to implement it into the story.

Placeholder Weapons#

    "detail_hercules_00": "ヘラクレス固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_woody_00": "ウッディ固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_buzz_00": "バズ固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_rupunzel_00": "ラプンツェル固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_flynn_00": "フリン固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_sulley_00": "サリバン固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_mike_00": "マイク固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_marshmalow_00": "マシュマロウ固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_baymax_00": "ベイマックス固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_jack_sparrow_00": "ジャック固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_riku_00": "リク固有武器前半詳細（仮）",
    "detail_riku_01": "リク固有武器後半詳細（仮）",
    "detail_mickey_01": "ミッキー固有武器前半詳細（仮）",
    "detail_mickey_02": "ミッキー固有武器後半詳細（仮）",
    "detail_kairi_00": "カイリ固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_lea_00": "リア固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_tera_00": "テラ固有武器詳細（仮）",
    "detail_aqua_00": "マスターキーパー詳細（仮）",
    "detail_aqua_01": "レインフォール詳細（仮）",
    "detail_ventus_00": "フレッシュブリーズ詳細（仮）",
    "detail_roxas_00": "約束のお守り&過ぎ去りし思い出詳細（仮）

While there's no graphics pertaining to them, every single party other member has text showing that they had placeholder weapons during development as well in kh3_item.locres. Terra is also here as well, despite going unused in the final game.

Unused Text#

Magia & Aegis#

"And...",
"these are his super sidekicks, Magia and Aegis!"

kh3_event_ts.locres has unused text for Rex, which he confuses Donald and Goofy for Magia & Aegis, characters from Verum Rex.