Kingdom Hearts III developers comment on Xehanort, Sora, Riku, and Kairi character models

During the Kingdom Hearts 15th Anniversary Commemorative Campaign Preview Night held at Square Enix Café Osaka on October 13th, 2017, staff in charge of the development of Kingdom Hearts III, such as series director Tetsuya Nomura, executive producer Shinji Hashimoto, and co-director Tai Yasue, met with fans and answered questions, providing snippets of information regarding the upcoming title.

During the event, Nomura introduced Mr. Yamasaki as the person in charge of character models for Kingdom Hearts III, jokingly saying, "If you’re not satisfied with a character, please remember Mr Yamasaki!"

Yamasaki reported the following:

Young Xehanort and Xemnas are still under development for Kingdom Hearts III, so their faces still need some adjustments. Since they're different from Kingdom Hearts II, the jaw is getting longer and the adjustments are laborious.

A model for Xemnas was previously shown in the Kingdom Hearts III Orchestra trailer, and a model for Young Xehanort was show in the Toy Story trailer at D23 Expo 2017. From the statement above, it can be inferred that they may not have been the final models.

Sora's height was also reported to be 160 cm - 3 cm shorter than Yamasaki himself. It is unclear whether this is Sora's original or current height; however, as Yamasaki had been commenting on models for Kingdom Hearts III, it is possible this is referring to the height of Sora in Kingdom Hearts III.

Regarding other characters' heights, Yamasaki said:

I have a proper idea of them. It is undecided whether to announce it or not though. But based on it, we can create models. For Xehanort…I cannot say it but, who knows, maybe he’s over 180cm?

Furthermore, when asked a question about whether he has been planning to create models for hooded characters such as the Master of Masters, Yamasaki responded:

Yes! I’ll make sure to do it! But [whether or not] to make them public depends on Mr Nomura. I’ve colored* in black the one I did.

*He might have been referring to the black cloak that the Master of Masters is seen wearing in Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover.

It was also reported that Riku's and Kairi's Kingdom Hearts III outfits are not quite done yet as they’re evolving everyday, and that they will have a hood. This statement may have been referring to the in-game models rather than the design, as Nomura had previously stated that Riku's outfit design had been completed. He had also commented that Riku's Kingdom Hearts III outfit was based on the one he's shown in in the Kingdom Hearts χ 3rd anniversary Key Art. In the illustration, Kairi is also seen wearing an outfit with a hood.

Translations have been provided by KH13 translator Mio-chan.

You can read more about the Kingdom Hearts 15th Anniversary Commemorative Campaign Preview Night and view pictures of it here.

The Kingdom Hearts 15th Anniversary Commemorative Campaign Preview Night at Square Enix Café Osaka is a campaign that precedes the joint campaign between Square Enix Café Osaka, Square Enix Café Tokyo, and ARTNIA, which is held to celebrate the Kingdom Hearts 15th Anniversary as well. You can read more about this joint campaign and view pictures of it here. This collective campaign will run at ARTNIA until December 14th, 2017, and at both Square Enix Café Osaka and Square Enix Café Tokyo until November 10th, 2017.

You can also keep in touch with the ongoing updates on our Twitter here.