Why Kingdom Hearts Fans Should Keep an Eye on Luminous Realms
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The Kingdom Hearts games have been lauded for their compelling worlds and combat, paving the way for many design inspirations. A solo developer by the name of Yahya Danboos is taking this love for the series and applying it to their own craft; Luminous Realms, described as a “thrilling action-RPG adventure,” bears heavy influence from Kingdom Hearts‘ first and second mainline entries, which has many fans excited about updates to the project.
Yahya, who can be found detailing their design process on social media @YahyaDanboos, has been working on Luminous Realms for over a year now. The title’s Steam page shows a glimpse into what can be expected from the passion project. Fans of the Kingdom Hearts series will be quick to recognize mechanical inspiration in its gameplay preview, from collecting green HP orbs and “munny” through defeating enemies to the inclusion of a Trinity Jump-inspired prompt. Though the indie title is still in development, its mechanics and combat loop look to be a promising emulation of Kingdom Hearts‘ earlier game design and something those fans may want to keep an eye on.
Indie Title Luminous Realms Shows Nostalgic Inspiration From Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
Yahya cites KH‘s level design as being a clear inspiration, and this shows well through Luminous Realms‘ gameplay preview. Though its environment has yet to be rendered, the level still manages to evoke the feeling of Kingdom Hearts‘ Traverse Town in its lighting and platforming. Akira, the game’s playable protagonist, emulates Sora‘s movements in a more weighty manner reminiscent of the series’ earlier days, complete with a quintessential dodge roll and jump. More recently, the developer has even reproduced a guard mechanic and enemy lock-on system, continuing the title’s feature implementation.
Given the difficult nature of game development, especially with solo-developed projects, it’s impressive to see how well Luminous Realms‘ features emulate Kingdom Hearts’ own combat and traversal, showing a promising outlook for the project’s continued progress. Its development is still in the phase of feature refining and implementation at the moment, as Yahya looks to be taking to heart feedback from the community. Though the project was once set to be an open-world experience, it has now become more focused on contained-level design, a feature that further harkens back to Kingdom Hearts‘ roots.
Luminous Realms seems to be quite faithful to the Kingdom Hearts series, though there are a few ways that Yahya looks to incorporate their own spin on the material. Based on the title’s Steam description, the game will eventually include story elements tied to its protagonist, which would help to diversify its experience while maintaining its mechanical inspirations. The developer has also noted that they will be making changes to the art style to help imbue the project with its own identity, though this will be later down the line. As its development moves forward, it will be interesting to see how the title distinguishes itself from its inspired source material.
As Yahya continues their development of Luminous Realms, fans can check out their devlogs through Patreon, shedding some more light on the developer’s thought process and intentions behind the title’s features and implementation. Though the game is still in its early development phase, the gradual addition of its mechanics and faithfulness to its inspiration already emits a sense of nostalgia that is sure to intrigue fans of the Kingdom Hearts series. As indie development becomes more and more recognized throughout the industry, showing support for developers like Yahya can make all the difference in helping to make passion projects like these a reality.
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