YOU’RE A TOY! T-O-Y, TOY!
Last week at the D23 Expo, we got an extended look at one of the new worlds coming toKingdom Hearts III. Much to a lot of people’s surprise, the game will feature alevel based aroundToy Story, famous for being the first full length CGI film. For years, the goal of recreating that film with real-time graphics has been a dream for hardware manufacturers. Sony famouslyclaimed that the PS2was capable of providing the same visual fidelity, though that was obviously hogwash.
Now, though, it seems totally possible. With a cursory examination of theKH3trailer,Toy Storylooks exactly the same as it did in the film. Woody’s movements and scale are recreated flawlessly and Andy’s room is basically a 1:1 replica. Have we finally achieved graphical nirvana?
Leave it to Digital Foundry to take a much closer look at things most users would gloss over. While the conclusion is a bit mixed (certain aspects look better while others are just too far out of current GPU reach), it is fascinating to see which elements are stronger than the 1995 classic and which could be improved in a few short years.
Personally, I’m more excited aboutKingdom Hearts IIInow thatToy Storyis involved. I understand why Square Enix has focused on more recent Disney films with the spin-off games, but the entire reason my generation got interested in this series was because of its inclusion of classic Disney properties. There really isn’t anything more classic to people in my age group thanToy Story, so its recreation feels like a return to form.
