Tetsuya Nomura explains why Kingdom Hearts III has taken so long; also says they'll likely reveal all worlds before release

[Elfdemon_ 695]

In an interview with GameSpot, Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura explains why Kingdom Hearts III is taking as long as it has to develop and create. Check out the full quote below:

 

"A lot of people have been mentioning and making it sound like ‘Oh, Nomura’s taking too much time,’ and it hurts.

 

There was a decision made to change to an external [engine]...Unreal Engine 4. So we switched over to that. Unfortunately there was a bit of time that needed to be rewinded and started over. So there was a bit of a setback there, but it was a decision that the company had to make, so it was inevitable.

 

We had a plan of the period that it’s going to take for us to create the content at the start of the project, and we laid out, after such and such years, we would need to add more personnel resources. We had submitted it to our headquarters and had it approved, but internal personnel is very limited, and there are various different projects that happen within our company, so unfortunately timing did not work out. So we had to make due with the timing that was appropriate for the company...the company makes the decisions, so unfortunately sometimes it is out of my control.

 

I wanted to emphasize that it wasn’t a problem on our development teams. It just happened that way, and there were some decisions that the company had to make, and it just didn’t work out for certain timings that we were hoping to hit.

 

It’s kind of out of my hands.I mean, yes, time has passed. But it’s out of my hands."

They also talked with Nomura about the various Disney-themed worlds in Kingdom Hearts III. Check out what he had to say on the subject in the full quote below:

 

"I don’t think we’ll be keeping any worlds secret until the game is released. I think we will be introducing them leading up to launch. Nowadays games can add content on after the fact through DLC content, so there’s no need to hide any worlds."

He was then asked if they were already planning downloadable content for the game. View his response below:

 

"Nothing is set in stone, and I’m afraid we can’t go into details, but I have told the team: Just be prepared to be able to accommodate for something like that. We can’t suddenly develop a system where we’re accommodating for downloadable content. So it’s not confirming or denying either way, but just so that the development team will be prepared, I have informed them of making the preparations."

And further speaking about the worlds, Nomura stated:

 

"I feel like I’ve packed in much more fun than I had in my previous Kingdom Hearts titles.

 

Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to be our first full HD game in our current console generation. It does involve a lot of bandwidth and resources in order to create in full HD, so our directive was to have as many elements [as possible] of gameplay included in one single world, rather than having multiple different little worlds with few elements. We wanted to pack in as many gameplay elements and fun into a single world.

 

If we are able to accomplish everything that we did plan out for, I’m pretty confident that people will enjoy and be fully satisfied with the end product."

What do you think about this interview with Nomura? We'd love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to share them in the comments below!

 

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[Yuya Sakaki 5,212]

Ugh... it makes me feel so bad for Nomura. The part of the community I hate the most is the part that gives Nomura unnecessary crap for "taking too long" or "delaying" KH3. Honestly, the man is no doubt working hard day and night and is reaching his limits. He's human just like any of us.

 

And on the topic of DLC... that might be a result of all this rushing from fans and investors. 

 

Peace!

[MythrilMagician 6,963]

The change in engine should be obvious. Seriously, it's a big change. What we didn't know is that there were other factors contributing to the delay. So if it weren't for those factors, KH3 would probably be out by now. Or close to releasing.

[RoyalXIII 18]

Ugh... it makes me feel so bad for Nomura. The part of the community I hate the most is the part that gives Nomura unnecessary crap for "taking too long" or "delaying" KH3. Honestly, the man is no doubt working hard day and night and is reaching his limits. He's human just like any of us.

 

And on the topic of DLC... that might be a result of all this rushing from fans and investors. 

 

Peace!

I feel the same. I think a lot of people think it's been in development since KH2 ended, but that's not the case at all. And games (especially now n' days) take a long time to make. It's by no means a simple process. 

[TheKingdomkid 1,194]

The fact that it hurt Nomura that people where saying that stuff about him hurts.  Like are people really firetrucking serious don't be a baby and think you deserve everything you don't deserve anything especially if you say stuff about people like that.  Seriously that hurt hearing that.  I mean I wouldn't mind if they did keep some of the worlds a secret for people who want to be surprised when they play the game.

[NoWay 63]

Noooo I don't want all worlds to be revealed.

Like really why do you have to reveal everything before the game releases?

[Lerine 4]

Ugh... it makes me feel so bad for Nomura. The part of the community I hate the most is the part that gives Nomura unnecessary crap for "taking too long" or "delaying" KH3. Honestly, the man is no doubt working hard day and night and is reaching his limits. He's human just like any of us.

 

And on the topic of DLC... that might be a result of all this rushing from fans and investors.

 

Peace!

I absolutely agree with you. I really hoped Nomura didn't feel the pressure of those who just like to complain, but alas, he wasn't so lucky. Plus, those who complain about how much time he's taking, are usually the ones that at the release go "This seems rushed! Wit all the time they had!" This type of people makes me so angry! I would like to see them in Nomura's place!

[sagman12PC 280]

Ugh... it makes me feel so bad for Nomura. The part of the community I hate the most is the part that gives Nomura unnecessary crap for "taking too long" or "delaying" KH3. Honestly, the man is no doubt working hard day and night and is reaching his limits. He's human just like any of us.

 

And on the topic of DLC... that might be a result of all this rushing from fans and investors. 

 

Peace!

Blame Square Enix management for forcing him to work on BOTH KH3 and FF7 Remake. The man is severely overworked and both the KH communities and FF communities expect alot out of him. There's no room to mess up either. Both games are highly anticipated and people have been waiting a long time for both to release. I'd say he has more breathing room for KH3 since FF7R is alot more massive in terms of size (they're splitting is up across 3 different games) but still its alot of work 

[Doco56 52]

I feel so bad for Nomura, he doesn't deserve this, and he's handled it really well. Good on him y'know. We now have a release window and one more year isn't that long people! There is no reason why it should have been complete by now. Leave Nomura alone!

 

I get the feeling that there won't be many worlds now though, which is a bit disappointing, but I'm probably overthinking it. Personally I would like the same number of worlds as were in KHII, but from the fact they're all big it seems like we won't get as many. Though as long as the game is longer in length, I'll be happy.

[RikuFangirl2008 1,368]

That's one of the things what I been trying to tell some folks even my brother in the past. Them switching engines. Although, I said to them "tech issue". I guess it isn't really the correct reason why they switch over, after reading all this?

 

It really upset the mess out of me, when fans complain and say they quit because it's taking too long.

Edited July 17, 2017 by RikuFangirl2008

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

We knew a long time ago about him changing assets from Luminous Studio to Unreal Engine 4. Porting assets, depending on how much they already had, takes a ton of work. You can't blame him for taking till now to begin the final stretch of that game because porting assets alone is as arduous as creating an entire other game.

 

KH3 was gonna come out eventually. And they made a smart decision to go with a complete engine and spend resources porting assets then having to deal with BD2 on an unfinished engine.

[Exiblade7 1,917]

Feel bad for Nomura because impatient people said that about the game. It's about time they learn how to be patient and everytime they say the game is delayed is invalid because they the recent trailer came out, we had no release date, not even a release window 

[Merilly 438]

Let's be real here, people asking for a release date /window did the same as those asking what is taking so long. It does include the question when it's finally going to get released after such a long time. It's not like only a small part of the fandom did this and demanded a release window.

 

And quite frankly, SE did not make the situation any easier. Of course it is wrong to blame Nomura for their decision and I do feel bad for him being the "face" of KH who receives all the blame.

But it's not like SE's decisions were necessarily good ones either. After 4 years, people are getting restless to at least know more on the status of development but the questions are either evaded or answered rather vaguely. (Coming from a person who never wanted a release window until they are close to finishing the game.)

Needless to say, there are entitled and demanding fans but a lot of people who ask for a release date or what is taking them so long do not ask that with an air of arrogance or ill will but simply because it's been 4 years and until recently, we knew next to nothing about the game. And the things we did know weren't exactly reassuring with the model issue, etc.

It's only natural people will get anxious, especially when small tidbits like their struggle with the engine are revealed but nothing more is said about the issue or it's down-played. We only received news that they haven't even started on some worlds recently, but only through interviews which casual fans won't come across easily unless they're part of dedicated fan-made websites.

 

As I said before, this is mainly SE's and probably also Disney's fault, not Nomura's, but the secrecy around the whole thing certainly did not help. Nomura once said that they announced it too early and they did. And that's not only due to the engine switch.

 

 

 

That's one of the things what I been trying to tell some folks even my brother in the past. Them switching engines. Although, I said to them "tech issue". I guess it isn't really the correct reason why they switch over, after reading all this?

It really upset the mess out of me, when fans complain and say they quit because it's taking too long.

I don't know if "tech issues" is that wrong, though. We can't know for sure, but if a big company suddenly decides to switch engines in the middle of developing a game, there has to be something wrong. Especially if they switch from their own engine to an external one. Even if this decision was made without Nomura's consent. SE may make questionable decisions but an engine switch when development on a game has already started likely isn't because they "felt like it". There may be more reasons involved than tech issues, but a lot of people were saying that, as great as it looks, the Luminous engine isn't entirely unproblematic to work with. It may have resulted in a longer developmemt cycle or would have been too costly or simply because there are, indeed, tech issues.

It's weird that only FFXV uses that engine and while KH3 isn't comparable, it says a lot that even the FFVII Remake is made with UE4. As I said before, there has to be a good reason why a costly engine was discarded this easily for two of their major projects after only one game has been made with it.

Edited July 17, 2017 by Merilly

[Isaix 924]

Games like these take time to make and people put so much pressure on the team for the release date,people should learn to be patient there are so many other things to do while we wait for this game and so many other games to play

Edited July 17, 2017 by Isaix

[AwesomeKHfan 1,250]

Let's be real here, people asking for a release date /window did the same as those asking what is taking so long. It does include the question when it's finally going to get released after such a long time. It's not like only a small part of the fandom did this and demanded a release window.

 

And quite frankly, SE did not make the situation any easier. Of course it is wrong to blame Nomura for their decision and I do feel bad for him being the "face" of KH who receives all the blame.

But it's not like SE's decisions were necessarily good ones either. After 4 years, people are getting restless to at least know more on the status of development but the questions are either evaded or answered rather vaguely. (Coming from a person who never wanted a release window until they are close to finishing the game.)

Needless to say, there are entitled and demanding fans but a lot of people who ask for a release date or what is taking them so long do not ask that with an air of arrogance or ill will but simply because it's been 4 years and until recently, we knew next to nothing about the game. Andthe things we did know weren't exactly reassuring with the model issue, etc.

It's only natural people will get anxious, especially when small tidbits like their struggle with the engine are revealed but nothing more is said about the issue or it's down-played. We only received news that they haven't even started on some worlds recently, but only through interviews which casual fans won't come across easily unless they're part of dedicated fan-made websites.

 

As I said before, this is mainly SE's and probably also Disney's fault, not Nomura's, but the secrecy around the whole thing certainly did not help. Nomura once said that they announced it too early and they did. And that's not only due to the engine switch.

 

 

 

I don't know if "tech issues" is that wrong, though. We can't know for sure, but if a big company suddenly decides to switch engines in the middle of developing a game, there has to be something wrong. Especially if they switch from their own engine to an external one. Even if this decision was made without Nomura's consent. SE may make questionable decisions but an engine switch when development on a game has already started likely isn't because they "felt like it". There may be more reasons involved than tech issues, but a lot of people were saying that, aw great as it looks, the Luminous engine isn't entirely unproblematic to work with. It may have resulted in a longer developmemt cycle or would have been too costly or simply because there are, indeed, tech issues.

It's weird that only FFXV uses that engine and while KH3 isn't comparable, it says a lot that even the FFVII Remake is made with UE4. As I said before, there has to be a good reason why a costly engine was discarded this easily for two of their major projects after only one game has been made with it.

I do feel sorry now for Nomura but I personally always blamed SE a bit to Nomura isn't that young anymore and is working on:

-Kingdom Hearts 3: A game that people have been waiting for since 2005/2006 and has some issues.

-Final Fantasy Remake: One of the most important titles and game that SE has ever released

-Another game if I remember

 

I do feel sorry for the guy now.

[Guest]

The change in engine should be obvious. Seriously, it's a big change. What we didn't know is that there were other factors contributing to the delay. So if it weren't for those factors, KH3 would probably be out by now. Or close to releasing.

 

But if the Engine Switch didn't happen, then we wouldn't have had Big Hero 6 in the game. The delay meant that Big Hero 6 was able to be theatrically released, thus implemented into Kingdom Hearts.

[Headphone Jack 1,147]

hmm well if they're going to reveal every world i wonder if i should go on media blackout. i don't think i've ever gone into a KH game blind except for KH1 and 2 and that was only because i was too young to be aware of the internet and what sort of information i could get from it. 

 

might be fun to go in blind to KH3 but if the worlds get spoiled it won't be a big deal. it'll probably just get me more excited. 

 

also i hope any DLC they add is something small. i would think it'd be too tricky to add in an entire extra world to the game when the worlds are usually tied into the plot in some way and adding new ones could impact the pacing of the game. cosmetic stuff seems to be the more likely option. 

[Rob 5,571]

A lot of ignorant folk like to play the blame game on Nomura. Same with Versus XIII. Rob hoped for no DLC in KH, but darkness finds a way somehow. Hope Nomura gets everything he wanted in KH3 so there won't be a need for that or Final Mix.

[Hallowseve 143]

Poor Nomura. He's pouring his heart and soul into this game and people have been giving him a hard time for years now. I knew KH3 was going to take a while to release, but it was unnecessary for people to "hate" on Nomura just because he wasn't done with a game. We all known KH3 will have a massively hefty story and new, exciting gameplay. The engine change also plays a factor. Looking back, I'm glad they did an engine change; the models look amazing. No more "fish faces"! Also it doesn't bother me that all the worlds will be revealed, because I'm sure they'll be hidden locations in those worlds and I doubt they've shown off every location in the worlds we've seen.

Edited July 17, 2017 by Hallowseve

[John Horton 111]

I don't want to take this the wrong way But i'm hoping we don't get DLC Worlds cause i have a Playstation 4 and my Playstation Store dosen't get connected to the Internet that much(Which means i can't always access it) on there and my mom dosen't allow me to buy stuff on there only if i Asked her.

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

I always thought it was unfair for people to blame Nomura for long development periods as if he was the only person working on the game. There's a whole company behind this and they've done Nomura wrong more than once when it comes to resources to develop a game.

[Dustin Lübbers 933]

Ugh... it makes me feel so bad for Nomura. The part of the community I hate the most is the part that gives Nomura unnecessary crap for "taking too long" or "delaying" KH3. Honestly, the man is no doubt working hard day and night and is reaching his limits. He's human just like any of us.

 

And on the topic of DLC... that might be a result of all this rushing from fans and investors. 

 

Peace!

it was simply a mistake by square to announce the game so early but it wasnt really their faul since it is clear that there was A LOT of unforeseeable stuff that made the delay so big.

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Sadly, this is something that we all knew what happen.

 

Thankfully, about an 85 to 90 percent of the fanbase is supportive and patient, but there's that 10 percent that often rages and hates on Nomura, and as a result, this ends up in bad vibes! The fact that Nomura himself said that said comments made him feel hurt really got at me, because this is coming from the man who never expresses anything regarding harsh comments from the fanbase, so for him to express himself like that means that at least some of the pressure has gotten to him, and that's sad! And the fact that Square kept piling him up with extra projects and the like didn't help either!

 

People, we need to understand that Nomura and his team are just normal men and women who are attempting to make something extraordinary which we can all enjoy! Games aren't an easy thing to do, and the more modern games get, the more difficult they are too make! With someone as Nomura, we should all know to trust the man to his workings, for I know that he's going to make Kingdom Hearts III the most amazing KH game to date! I can honestly say that I've supported the man from the get go, and you all know that I've always been a patient fan, and now that we finally have a release window for the game, I am more than content with that! Just by having 2018 there, it's a surefire way of keeping me content! 

 

The sad thing is that there are many immature fans who demand the release and basically don't acknowledge the games that aren't the first two.

 

But anyways, I hope that Nomura can push through the pressure and deliver an exhilarating conclusion to the Xehanort Saga! 

 

On the subject of all worlds being revealed, I find that exciting, but at the same time, a bit of a bummer, since I want to keep the element of surprise when stumbling upon new worlds in Kingdom Hearts III! But hey, I've been following the development of this game all the way, so I'm gonna see it through to the end, especially the world reveals!

 

As for DLC, I reaaaaally hope it isn't anything story related and it's just cosmetic things and extra bosses or something, because I really don't want a repeat of Final Fantasy XV! X_X

 

But anyways, this has been a raging time to be a Kingdom Hearts fan! I couldn't be happier! God bless Nomura and his team for the awesomeness they provide us!

[G-SANtos 105]

So that's what happened? Good, because for some time I was worried KHIII was taking long because the staff was prioritizing graphics over everything else, like they did with FFXV.