More Kingdom Hearts on the way
Tetsuya Nomura confirms he already has new ideas for the next installment; more games from series producer to be unveiled at E3 and TGS.


Though Kingdom Hearts II has just about wrapped up its journey onto North American shelves, it won't be the end of the action role-playing series. A day after Square Enix held its Kingdom Hearts II launch party in Los Angeles, producer Tetsuya Nomura took some time to talk about the future of the franchise with Famitsu.com. There, he revealed that he already has some new ideas for the series.

Nomura is thinking of a new installation that won't be a numbered sequel or something that takes place between two games the way that Chain of Memories (Game Boy Advance) did. If fans of the series find that a bit confusing, they have nothing to worry about, because they're not alone.

"It's difficult to explain it. I'm thinking about how to talk about it [without giving things away], which means that there will be some twists to it. Up until now, the series followed along a [straight] time line, going from Kingdom Hearts to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. But the idea I have right now doesn't follow that flow," Nomura told Famitsu.com. "However, as long as it inherits the Kingdom Hearts title, it needs to have some connection [to previous installments] in terms of storyline, so it won't be too distant from the other titles. In any case, this is still at a conceptual phase, where I'm thinking about what I want to do."

Famitsu.com also asked Nomura whether the next installment's story will take place after the ending in Kingdom Hearts II. However, Nomura only smiled, neither confirming nor denying it.

Nomura is currently at work on multiple titles, and he revealed that there will be more announcements at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo and Tokyo Game Show. Square Enix is planning a big event for the E3 announcement in particular, and the company will be holding a surprise ceremony during the expo.

Q: Does that mean you already have a plot for KHIII?
A: Hmm... I have an idea but it can't be helped because my team are planning to work on our next different title. So we're not working on KHIII now and we're not planning to work on it for some time, too. I have a plot in my head but I'm not sure if it'll be released to the world or just stay in there.

Q: Well then, is there a possibility for a Final Mix version to be released like the previous game's?
A: Actually, I wasn't planning for KHII to have a Final Mix. In beginning of the project, I wanted to have the English voices inserted, too, but the disc space was almost full and the recording of the English voices got delayed so that plan couldn't be realized. Compared to FF, there's a high demand for the English version of "Kingdom Hearts". I assume it's because there are many fans who came in through KH:FM so it felt quite weird to play KHII in Japanese when they played the previous game in English. Thanks to KH:FM selling very well, many fans think the English voices are meant for "Kingdom Hearts" so right now I'm in the middle of wondering what to do about Final Mix.

Q: Seems like many gamers are hoping there will be many extras besides the English voices if Final Mix is ever released.
A: If I were to make it, I'll have to answer to that demand and I shouldn't put it at the same level as the previous game's. But more things have been done for KHII compared to the first KH so I'm troubled on how to make the 'tuning' for Final Mix. We still have to think how to solve the disc space problem, too.

Q: Since it's you after all, Nomura-san, you probably already started thinking of some plans for Final Mix, right?
A: In fact, I've prepared a very big trump card for it but I can't say what it is yet. It's something to look forward to if I'm able to make it. (laugh) Besides that, I regret not putting the mushroom Heartless in KHII. In the beginning of the project, I had new ideas that I wanted to use for the mushroom Heartless but it was too grand that it would take a lot of time to make so it got cut out. And the result is that not even one mushroom got inserted. A staff kept saying "Something's missing. Something's missing. Oh yeah, there's no mushroom!" (laugh) If we can make a Final Mix, I would like to add the mushrooms in.

I wonder if they'll add a new playable character in it. Like playing Riku's story or perhaps even Axel.