It's the middle of February, and as promised, Kingdom Hearts has delivered more details concerning its upcoming mobile title, Dark Road. Last time, followers of the game only learned what its official name is, but news this time around presents gameplay details, appearances, and even tie-in events.
First and foremost, Dark Road will be accessible on the same app as Kingdom Hearts Union X[Cross], the other mobile game currently unfolding. The Kingdom Hearts development team that created Union Cross also created Dark Road, so this makes sense for the most part.
That said, the gameplay for Dark Road looks to be, as predicted, similar to Union Cross, albeit with a few distinctive differences. According to the Dark Road Twitter account, battles will move at high speeds, and players will have to rely on their reflexes to "flick cards" if they want to win. Therefore, in this game, cards will take the place of the medals that players use to attack in Union Cross. For those who don't know, Union Cross sees players using medals based on Kingdom Hearts characters to perform basic and special attacks. Dark Road seems to do the same thing, only with cards, which gives it a bit of a Chain of Memories feel.
How exactly the flick mechanic works remains a mystery, but it sounds similar to the Flick Rush mini-game found in Kingdom Hearts 3D. In Flick Rush, players pit Dream Eaters against each other and attack and defend by flicking cards up onto the screen, whichever card(s) had the highest value wins, and whoever runs out of health first loses.
Kingdom Hearts Union Cross will be hosting an event that allows Dark Road players to gain points that they can trade in for cards when the game releases. To participate, players need to have a Union Cross account created before Dark Road releases. If this account has medals cataloged in the medal album, the player will receive points to spend in Dark Road. The more filled out the album, the more points earned. Luckily, for those that don't want to participate, Dark Road can still be played without playing Union Cross.
An exact release date for Dark Road wasn't specified, and the tweet didn't give any indication on when the Dark Road account would release more information like it did last time. However, Union Cross' Twitter releases new details about its game frequently. Since it currently has an event tied to Dark Road, it will probably release more information about the game soon enough.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will be available on Amazon, Android, and iOS devices in spring 2020.