Kingdom Hearts fans were overjoyed to the teaser announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3 at E3 on Monday. Tired of the wait? Ready to party? Well, don't too hyped up – the wait isn't over just yet.
In an interview with Famitsu.com, director Tetsuya Nomura noted that the announcement for the first official numbered sequel in nearly 8 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 may have been somewhat premature. "There have been a lot of spin-off games since Kingdom Hearts 2 and a lot of fans were probably getting anxious, so we made the announcement together with Final Fantasy XV." Nomura stated, adding, "Considering where we are in development, it may have been a little early."
According to Nomura, the visual direction of the game has been mostly solidified into what we saw in the teaser. Like FFXV, the development team is currently using the Luminous Studio engine to make an over-spec version of the game that can subsequently be ported to the PS4 and Xbox One.
Due to technical difficulties, a realtime rendering of the battle sequence at the end of the teaser could not be shown at E3 and had to be pre-rendered, but Nomura assures that, "When you actually see the game running in realtime, it'll look almost exactly the same."
In regards to the plot, in a separate interview with Dengeki Online, Nomura confirmed that Kingom Hearts 3 would be a continuation of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and the final chapter of the Dark Seeker Saga.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is still early in the development stage, so while we probably won't be seeing it out this year, hopefully we won't have that much longer to wait. Nomura also promised to have more detailed information to offer at this year's TGS, so we do have that to look forward to.
野村哲也氏を直撃！『ファイナルファンタジーXV』＆『キングダムハーツIII』最速インタビュー【E3 2013】 [ファミ通.com]
野村哲也氏に聞く『ファイナルファンタジーXV』＆『キングダムハーツIII』！【E3 2013】 [電撃オンライン]
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