Skip to main content

Not so simple and clean: How to view the ‘Kingdom Hearts 3’ secret movie

KINGDOM HEARTS III – Opening Movie Trailer

Square Enix is being extremely careful with Kingdom Hearts 3‘s release to keep players from spoiling the game from each other, and the epilogue and a separate secret movie are being released as post-launch DLC in order to preserve their mystery. You must beat the main game in order to view the epilogue, but viewing the secret movie requires a little bit more work.

Speaking to Famitsu and translated by Kotaku, game director Tetsuya Nomura explained that you must photograph special Mickey Mouse “lucky marks” using Sora’s mobile phone while making your way through the story. The number you need is inversely proportional to your game difficulty, with those playing on “beginner” required to find all of them in order to view the movie. The marks won’t be terribly small, and appear to be made up of debris from the environment in order to partially blend in.

The secret movie won’t be available in Kingdom Hearts 3 on launch day, even if you connect to the internet and download any patches. Instead, it will be added on January 31. The previous day, the epilogue will be added to the game.

KINGDOM HEARTS III – Gameplay Overview Video

Square Enix preemptively chose this release model in order to lower the chance of the full experience being spoiled for the average player. A small number of retail copies leaked over a month before the game’s official release date, and details about the plot are already out in the wild. Of course, if you’re like most of us, you won’t be able to discern what is actually happening by reading a synopsis, anyway, as you haven’t played the various “Remixes” released over the years.

For those who are new to the series, you can get caught up in advance by playing Kingdom Hearts — The Story So Far. The bundle includes nine separate titles, detailing the entire Kingdom Hearts Saga across eight games and one film. Though Kingdom Hearts 3 will be available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the compilation is only available on the latter system.

Kingdom Hearts 3 will be available worldwide on January 29. We’ll have Simple and Clean playing in our heads until then.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Everything we know about Kingdom Hearts IV
Sora lying down on a couch in Kingdom Hearts 4.

Fans of the Kingdom Hearts titles are used to waiting extremely long times between mainline releases. After Kingdom Hearts II on the PS2, the series veered into spinoff territory, with no proper sequel for the entire PS3 generation. Finally, in 2019, we got the long-awaited conclusion to what we would learn was the Dark Seeker Saga. However, in typical Kingdom Hearts fashion, the end of the saga was by no means the end of the story for Sora, Riku, Kairi, and all their Disney and Final Fantasy friends. Both a secret ending, boss, and DLC all pointed toward a new era on the horizon. The only question was how long it would take until we saw what it would be.

For Kingdom Hearts' 20th anniversary event, fans were treated to something most didn't expect to see so soon: A full reveal of Kingdom Hearts IV. Not a side story, prequel, interlude, or dream, but an actual direct continuation from where Kingdom Hearts III appeared to leave off. Not only did Square Enix simply state that the game existed, but a full trailer was also shown. This trailer is short but packed with information and things to speculate about. The full picture isn't clear yet, but we've unlocked all the secrets we can so far to share everything we know about Kingdom Hearts IV and the new Lost Master Arc.

Read more
4 big Kingdom Hearts 4 details emerge in new interview
Sora lying down on a couch in Kingdom Hearts 4.

In Kingdom Hearts 4, our Keyblade hero Sora has a brand new look that finally makes him resemble a realistic-looking Final Fantasy character and a swanky new apartment to go with it. It's an impressive feat for a 15-year-old, assuming he didn't time skip a few years after leaving Donald Duck, Goofy, and all of his friends at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. According to series creator Tetsuya Nomura, however, Sora's new makeover and pad may not last as long as we thought it would.

In a recent interview with Famitsu (with translation courtesy of VGC), Nomura divulged some new details about Kingdom Hearts 4, which he suddenly announced at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event in Tokyo last Sunday -- and on Palm Sunday, no less. He shares the new world that Sora will be roaming around in for most of the game and demystified any misconceptions fans may have about the world of Quadratum. Here are some important revelations from the interview.
Quadratum is an underworld

Read more
Everything we know about Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link
A buynch of keyblade wielders fighting a giant heartless.

Even though it's a tired joke, there's no denying that the Kingdom Hearts series has a lot of spinoff and side games. While the mainline numbered titles only reach Kingdom Hearts 3, though Kingdom Hearts 4 is now in the works, there are actually about 10 titles released across various platforms over the series' 20-year history. All those games were part of the original Seeker of Darkness arc, which came to a final conclusion with Kingdom Hearts 3 in 2019. But, as the DLC and secret ending made clear, that wasn't the end for the series. While we were left with some ideas, we didn't know where the series would go until the announcements made at the 20th-anniversary event in 2022.

This event took the Kingdom Hearts community by surprise in terms of the sheer amount of things shown off. The star of the show was undoubtedly the reveal of a Kingdom Hearts 4, but right before that was another title that shouldn't be overlooked. Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link is another of the spinoff games, but by now, anyone who follows the series should know that there really aren't spinoff games in terms of story and lore importance. If it's been a while since you've summoned your Keyblade and took a deep dive into the heart of this classic series, complicated plot and all, we'll guide you through everything we know so far about Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link.

Read more