It’s still hard to believe that Kingdom Hearts IV was announced just a few months ago, but now we have some additional details thanks to new interviews with Nomura.
In a recent interview from Game Informer, Nomura revealed several interesting things about the series and Kingdom Hearts IV in particular, including that Sora will always be the lead for numbered titles.
The part of the interview that stands out to me the most is what Nomura had to say about Quadratum. Nomura described Quadratum as “the initial base” and said “you spend time there and then go to different worlds and then go back there.” So it sounds like Quadratum will function as a hub world.
I love hub areas in games, so I like the sound of that. He also said we’ll get to see Sora’s “day-to-day routines” due to this approach in Quadratum, which is interesting.
(I still want a remake of 358/2 Days with the castle as a proper hub.)
Some other highlights are that the new enemy “has a lot to do with” the Foretellers, and that Nomura is trying to find a balance when it comes to including Final Fantasy characters. As someone who never thought the Final Fantasy characters were that important to the story, I don’t mind that, although I know a lot of people were displeased by their initial exclusion from Kingdom Hearts III.
Meanwhile, an extended interview with Nomura was also published by Famitsu, and translated by KH Insider.
One interesting thing to come from this interview is that when asked about the woman from the end of Melody of Memory, Nomura said it’s a secret as to whether she’ll appear in the game or not, but “there was a time when I wasn’t sure whether I would choose KHIV or VERUM REX as my next project. However, she is a central VERUM REX character.”
That sounds to me like we’ll probably get Verum Rex as its own game someday.
Nomura also talked about how Akiko Ishibashi, who worked on NEO: The World Ends With You, has joined the writing team for Kingdom Hearts IV. Meanwhile, Ruiko Fukazawa, who previously worked on FFXIV: Heavensward, is writing the scenario for the new mobile game Missing Link.
I can’t wait to see where they go with Kingdom Hearts IV, especially now that we know a little more about it. What do you think about the latest Kingdom Hearts IV interviews?