Tetsuya Nomura, the co-writer, artist, director, and co-creator of Kingdom Hearts, says he’s looking to close the chapter on his involvement in the beloved franchise with the next entry in the series. And he’s been thinking about how that chapter will end since the last mainline game in the series was still in development.
Nomura reflected on what Kingdom Hearts IV will mean for both he and the series he helped create in an interview with Japanese publication Young Jump. In the interview, he also speaks about the complicated nature of the game’s story, which has expanded greatly since the first game’s release in 2002.
“I have only a few years until retirement, and it seems as if retirement age is already ahead of completion,” Nomura told Young Jump (according to a Google Translation of the interview). “However, the Kingdom Hearts IV that I am currently working on is intended to be a story that is moving toward its conclusion.”
Nomura said that Kingdom Hearts IV was being thought through as early as five years ago when the third game in the series still was in the works. And even then, he intended to set the stage for a reset of the franchise’s sprawling story.
“For those who know how Kingdom Hearts III ends, the reason why Sora ends up like that in the ending is because we wanted to reset the story in a way,” he explains. “This should make it even easier for newcomers to join the story with Kingdom Heart IV.
Despite its massive fanbase, the Kingdom Hearts games are known for having an impenetrable narrative. It’s a massive tale that features various protagonists across more than a dozen games, expansions, spinoffs, and over two decades of plot development. The daunting lore of Kingdom Hearts has made it nearly impossible for newer fans to jump in.
Nomura says that keeping track of it all is a challenge even for him and his team and admits to relying on YouTube explainers (along with his own diligent notes) to keep the story straight in his mind. Even though the next game is “actually Kingdom Hearts XIII” as he puts it, both Kingdom Hearts IV and the upcoming mobile spinoff Kingdom Hearts Missing Link will be easy starting points for the storied series.
Nomura’s comments are reassuring for players (like myself) who’ve always been interested in the series but have remained on the sidelines because of how intimidating its complex world has become. As both a Disney fan and a recent Final Fantasy convert, knowing Kingdom Hearts IV is actively courting me as a player now puts it on my radar.
Kingdom Hearts IV was first announced in 2022 alongside a trailer with a notably different, more realistic tone compared to the rest of the series. In addition to protagonist Sora’s new look, the game appears to be set in a world that closely emulates ours.
