Kingdom Hearts 3 News: Interview Reveals Switch to Unreal Engine 4 [POLL] - Release Date in 2015?

Kingdom Hearts 3 is still a ways away in terms of being ready for release to the general public, but that hasn't stopped a few interesting tidbits of information from being released in the meantime.

It was previously thought that the upcoming video game would be using developer Square Enid's latest engine: the Luminous Studio. Now it has been revealed that the company is switching the games development to run on the Unreal Engine 4.

In an interview with Famitsu, Kingdom Hearts 3 director Tetsuya Nomura explained the change. "Due to the impact of changing the game engine to the Unreal Engine 4, which we did for various reasons, there is some difficulty rendering images, and with the full support of Epic Games, we'll be able to progress smoothly."
Nomura went on to say that development was proceeding as schedule and that he left Final Fantasy 15 in the middle of production to focus work on Kingdom Hearts 3.

Plot details on the game are scarce, but it has been confirmed that the next Kingdom Hearts game will feature the return of Sora, Riku, Donald Duck, Goofy, King Mickey and other characters that fans of the series should be familiar with.

In addition to this the basic premise of the game has been shared as well. Sora, Donald and Goofy will be searching for the seven guardians of the light and the 'Key to Return Hearts'. Riku and King Mickey meanwhile will be looking for previous we idlers of the Keyblade to stop Master Xehanort from balancing the light and darkness, leading to the final confrontation between Soar and Xehanort.

The first true sequel to 2005's Kingdom Hearts 2 on the PS2 is sure to delight fans, but Nomura also discussed some changes that might be on the way.

Among these potential changes, it is rumored that the implementation of Marvel and Star Wars characters will be in the game to reflect some of Disney's most recent acquisitions. This would also mean that some characters would have to be removed.

However it is not certain if this is true. Per Breathecast, Nomura plans to adhere to the restrictions that Disney is placing on the game. Nomura remains confident that the gameplay will not be impeded, as he said that the, "battles will surely last longer."

Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced at E3 2013. It is currently eyed for a release in 2015 on the PS4 and Xbox One.