Well that’s confusing!
There’s a lot of pressure onKingdom HeartsIVgiven its drastically different setting and the fact that it’s a start of a new journey: something series boss Tetsuya Nomura is painfully aware of.Speaking to Game Informer, he tackled the subject ofFinal Fantasycharacters appearing in the series (or a lack thereof). Here’s what Nomura had to say on theKingdom Hearts Final Fantasycrossover situation.
Basically, the reason the first game had a chunk ofFinal Fantasycharacters in itis because Nomura and his team wanted to ease people into the world. He describes theFinal Fantasycast as “lending a hand” to get to know theKingdom Heartsoriginal creations. But once that whole universe got off the ground, they essentially served their purpose:
“Now, there are so many original characters fromKingdom Heartsthat are so well-loved, and people want to see more of those characters. WithKingdom Hearts III, since we did have so many originalKingdom Heartscharacters, it was hard to find room for including moreFinal Fantasycharacters.”
Okay, this is interesting as hell, and sort of serves as a microcosm for the confusing themes of the series in general.
Kingdom Hearts, by many counts, is a game built around fanservice of multiple properties. And out of the gate, it was very clearly a marriage of over a decade of Square Enix history, as well as decades of Disney history. But now, thoseKingdom Heartscharacters are actually older than someFinal Fantasycharacters were at the time, andthey’re the history-writers. The clashing of fandoms over which elements should be included makes a lot more sense juxtaposed to this internal plan of ushering out theFFcast.
It all boils down to this quote from Nomura, who may have given us a hint of whatKingdom Hearts IVhas in store for us:
“One thing I want to clear up is that a lot of fans are saying thatKingdom Heartsis this collaboration between Disney characters andFinal Fantasycharacters. But I really feel like that’s not the basic concept ofKingdom Hearts; that’s not exactly whatKingdom Heartsis.”
He says that they are “thinking about” the fan reactions of wanting moreFinal Fantasycharacters in the series in the future, but at this point, it sounds like he’s made up his mind. As long as they deliver an engrossing game, I’m OK if certain people and groups don’t make it in. But given that Nomura and his team set the expectation forFinal Fantasyto appear in the series, quietly writing them out probably wasn’t the best long-term gameplan.
