‘Kingdom Hearts 4’ director thinking about adding more ‘Final Fantasy’ characters

Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura has spoken about the lack of Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts 3, and how they’re “thinking about that balance” for its upcoming sequel.

Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced earlier this year, alongside a trailer. However, fans were concerned about the lack of Final Fantasy characters on display.

Speaking about those concerns in a new interview with Gameinformer, Nomura explained: “One thing I want to clear up is that a lot of fans are saying that Kingdom Hearts is this collaboration between Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters. But I really feel like that’s not the basic concept of the game; that’s not exactly what Kingdom Hearts is.”

“When we released the first title, we had only a few original Kingdom Hearts characters. When they were interacting with really well-known, beloved Disney characters, I felt nobody really knew these new characters, so it was harder for them to stand their ground just yet. And so, we had a lot of Final Fantasy characters involved to lend a hand for everyone to get to know these (original) characters better,” he continued.

“Now, there are so many original characters that are so well-loved, people want to see more of those characters. With Kingdom Hearts 3, since we did have so many original characters, it was hard to find room for including more Final Fantasy characters. We’re trying to find a good balance for that.”

“I know that some fans were concerned about that and weren’t too happy and wanted to see more Final Fantasy characters,” he added. “That’s something we definitely are thinking about. But just with the sheer number of original characters that we have now, it’s hard to say what the exact balance is going to be and how it will play out in Kingdom Hearts 4. We can’t really give you a firm reply on this just yet.”

In other news, it’s been announced that Lollipop Chainsaw will be making a return.

The zombie game, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, was originally released in 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3 and starred cheerleader-turned-zombie slayer Juliet Starling and the head of her former boyfriend Nick. It’s now been confirmed to be making a comeback in some capacity, though details are still scarce.