The first-ever batch of screenshots released for Kingdom Hearts Dark Road gives players an inside look into the game's story and gameplay. There are eight images in total. Three of them reveal cutscenes, two display in-game menus, and the final three show off combat.
The devs behind Kingdom Hearts Dark Road released the images in celebration of the game's return to regular updates. They sent the shots out at random to fans that tweeted the official Dark Road Twitter account using the hashtag "KHDRScreenshotPreview."
The first image of the cutscene batch shows Young Xehanort's first meeting with his future Heartless. Here, Young Xehanort obtains the ability to time travel while also learning of his future self's plan for Kingdom Hearts.
The second image focuses on Dark Road's new characters: Urd, Hermond, Bragi, and Vor — Xehanort's friends. The final image sees Xehanort returning from his world-hopping adventures and discussing them with his best friend, Eraqus.
The collection of KH Dark Road gameplay screenshots display the game's card-based battle system. The first shows how players can use cards to unleash special attacks similar to those in Union Cross. The second reveals that Xehanort and his friends have abilities that allow them to empower themselves and other allies with stat boost like "MAG Up," which boosts Magic.
The final image shows that the battle system also took cues from KH: CoM, as players can stack cards to multiply the power of the resulting special attack. However, unlike CoM, the cards stacked have to be of the same color.
The final set of images display two of the game's five available menus. The first gives players a look at the Album. Whenever Xehanort defeats an enemy in battle, that enemy's information will be cataloged here. Since the same devs that worked on Union Cross work on Dark Road, the Album should also display any cards Xehanort has collected so far, be they from enemies, the Shop, or other sources.
The second image — the last of the eight — shows the Stats menu, which shows off Dark Road's leveling and deck building system. Unlike Union Cross, Dark Road will increase Xehanort's stats with every new level he achieves. He has five stats in total: HP, Strength, Magic, Defense, and Magic Resistance.
It's unclear if Magic Resistance helps Xehanort resist status effects like sleep and poison, or if it's a defensive stat dedicated to all magical attacks. Kingdom Hearts has never featured an "M. Resit" stat before, instead opting to use the Defense stat to calculate damage received from everything. If a magic-centered defense stat now exists, Dark Road might be taking elements from Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
As far as deck building goes, it looks like players can set up to ten cards of the same color in any one deck. There are three available colors: Red, Blue, and Green. If Dark Road, follows the same system as Union Cross, then Red represents Strength, Blue Magic, and Green Speed. Each one counters the other in a rock-paper-scissors fashion.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is currently delayed.