Tetsuya Nomura steps down as Final Fantasy XV director to focus on Kingdom Hearts III

[Sora96 17,256]

Tetsuya Nomura, director of the Kingdom Hearts series has stepped down as director of Final Fantasy XV, the title that has been in development since 2006 by the team who developed both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda has released a statement that confirms Nomura will be focusing his efforts on Kingdom Hearts III. You can read this below thanks to Square Enix.

“As the director of FINAL FANTASY XV, Tetsuya Nomura has mainly worked on the original concept for the story and universe in addition to creating the characters. Hereafter, he will be focusing his efforts on the production of titles that can only be made possible by Nomura, himself, and delivering products that exceed the quality of past titles, starting with another one of his representative projects, Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix will continue to work on these titles with the best staff formation in an effort to deliver them to everyone as soon as possible and appreciates your continued support.”

Update 2: Tetsuya Nomura has answered why he stepped down as director of Final Fantasy XV in the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly. Thanks to sqexgal for the translation, you can read it below.

"It was the company's decision, I can't say more than that."

Update: Square Enix Europe have provided some extra insight about Nomura's change within these two projects, and this can be read below.

 

Spoiler

If that wasn’t enough news, I’ve got a little something else to share with you. Now I know you guys want us at Square Enix to be more open with you and to keep you updated with all the goings on with our games so I’m going to talk to you a little more about Final Fantasy XV since I’m sure you guys are just as excited about it as I am (which is VERY excited).

 

The development of Final Fantasy XV is coming along really well and as a result Hajime Tabata (the director of the original Final Fantasy Type-0 and Type-0 HD) has taken over from Tetsuya Nomura as the director of Final Fantasy XV.

 

Now before you start to freak out, let me explain how this is a good thing. There’s no denying that Tetsuya Nomura has been instrumental to the development of Final Fantasy XV and he’s done an incredible job. His main role as director was working on the original concept for the story and universe and also creating the characters. Now that development of Final Fantasy XV has come so far, Nomura’s work is pretty much all in place so instead of having him keep an eye on the more day to day stuff, we thought it’d be a better idea to pass the reigns over to Hajime Tabata and let Nomura move onto other projects and make games that only he could do, you know, like Kingdom Hearts III.

 

So now we have Hajime Tabata and the rest of his team working as hard as they can on Final Fantasy XV and making sure it’s the best game it can possibly be and we have Tetsuya Nomura and the Kingdom Hearts III team working as hard as they can to make that the best game that can be. It also means that both games will come out much sooner this way. Instead of waiting until Final Fantasy XV comes out before starting on Kingdom Hearts III, Tetsuya Nomura can now properly begin work on Kingdom Hearts III right now and with Tabata in the director’s chair, Final Fantasy XV won’t suffer either.

 

Hajime Tabata and his team are a bunch of really talented people and Final Fantasy XV is in good hands for the rest of its development but even if you don’t want to believe me, you can find out for yourself on 20th March 2015 when you can play Final Fantasy XV for yourself along with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD.

 

If you’ve got any other questions or comments then feel free to drop me a line in the comments below. I’m out and about at TGS 2014 and with the time zone difference I probably won’t be able to respond right away or until I’m back in the UK but I promise I will get back to you!

 

I hope you’ll agree though, it’s a very exciting time to be a Final Fantasy (and Kingdom Hearts) fan right now!

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[Josuke Higashikata 2,141]

So what does this mean for KH3 production? Because, if this means what I think it means... *Is excited* but it probably doesn't.

[KHLegendIII 709]

Woah... This is interesting...

[Deadpool 1,200]

Oh my God.

 

I'm bursting with excitement.

[Sora96 17,256]

So what does this mean for KH3 production? Because, if this means what I think it means... *Is excited* but it probably doesn't.

 

It means he's focusing on Kingdom Hearts III.

[Cucco 1,907]

That's good news. He's been way too long on it. Glad it's coming out in 2015 though.

[xVentusx 51]

Now people don't have an excuse saying that KH3 will come out in 2016/17

[Oishii 3,987]

I'm sure it's for the best.  FFXV is at the point where they probably have all his ideas in it and it's merely a matter of completion.  KHIII has so much anticipation built up for it that he needs to give it his full attention.

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Smart move. I'm glad this happened.

[Emrys 3,192]

so the plot of FF XV is confirmed to make sense now?

[King_Graham 135]

so the plot of FF XV is confirmed to make sense now?

I'm liking this because it's funny. I don't fully trust this. I'm gonna take it with a grain of salt. Still, I wager he'll still get credited as a co-director because he put too much work into it.

[Green Sparrow 795]

Dammit Square!You can't go silent for a year and a half and then throw up all of this information in one day. I am not emotionally stable enough to handle all this at once!!!On the plus side: yahoo!

[Caity 3,946]

Doesn't seem all that surprising to me.  XV has been in the works so long that a fair amount of people don't care anymore, whereas KH3 is highly anticipated by those who've followed the whole series and those who boycotted handhelds.  

[Elrandir 783]

Somehow I can imagine Nomura saying..."This game will have a new leader, but please wait a little longer."

Still! The new trailer is good and the music is great.

[Ven983 490]

Sad to hear, but probably for the best. I think Nomura truly wants KH3 to live up to its hype. I also think that FFXV is probably too the point where he cannot do much else with it.

[Rob 5,571]

Holy Mother of Pearl!

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Doesn't seem all that surprising to me.  XV has been in the works so long that a fair amount of people don't care anymore, whereas KH3 is highly anticipated by those who've followed the whole series and those who boycotted handhelds.  

You know, we waited nearly the same amount of time for KHIII.

[Caity 3,946]

You know, we waited nearly the same amount of time for KHIII.

 

But KH3 wasn't announced or known to be in development in 2006.  If we were told in 2006 KH3 is in development and it still wasn't out by now the hype would have died down as well.  

[Green Sparrow 795]

You know, we waited nearly the same amount of time for KHIII.

You're completely right......but to be fair, "technically" KH3 was just announced last year. BS reason reason yes

[flametheskull 21]

*screams* FInally. Hopefully we don't have to wait 6 more years for Kingdom Hearts 3.

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Ah, well.

I'm glad Nomura was shifted over. I think Final Fantasy games should be made by those with FF"Xperience" *Ba dum tss*

 

It feels a lot more like a Final Fantasy now. The monsters. The caves. The crystal (Astral shard, same crap)

[Shana09 5,769]

I'm mixed about this. Yeah its better if he can't really finish it, but I'm hoping he did a good amount of work with it.

 

You know, we waited nearly the same amount of time for KHIII.

 

Final Fantasy XV, like every other title in the series, is like a stand alone title.

Kingdom Hearts is a huge series with countless games actually connecting to each other and it kept on getting games yearly during and after 2009.

 

I think its unfair to compare them because of those reasons.

Besides, KH3 was announced last year.

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

So he's pretty much done with FFXV, meaning the game's coming soon enough! I mean there was a big hint that it's coming soon in the TGS trailer, maybe early 2016 or late 2015!! SO EXCITED!!!!

[Neptune Vasilias 340]

YALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS RIGHT?!?!?!? KH3 COMING SOON!!!!!!!!! IT'S ABOUT TO GO DOWN

[J. Severe 1,137]

lol even Nomura got tired of waiting for the game to come out

 

Bit sad at this news since Nomura's involvement and the KH relation was the reason I became interested in FFXV in the first place, but his influence is still all over the game if the new trailer is any indication and the fact that SE is more dedicated than ever to getting it out leaves no doubt in my mind that it'll turn out excellent.

 

Plus Nomura focusing full-time on KH3 means it should get along faster, which is fantastic.

Edited September 18, 2014 by J. Severe