Nomura discusses Kingdom Hearts 4, Missing-Link, and Dark Road in extended Famitsu interview

[Face My Fears]

I don't think Disney actually pays this much attention.

Disney got picky with some KH3 stuff, because it was an extremely expensive and high-profile game known to the mainstream and used a bunch of more recent brands that Disney considers Very Important. But for the most part they just let Nomura do whatever he wants with his own stuff, which is just one product of thousands they're releasing at a time. Do you think they had to approve the content of X Back Cover?

They probably reviewed Back Cover to make sure that it was "on brand" for DISNEY, but nothing else really.

 

[MATGSY]

Oh that's cool. Maybe Sora goes to a movie theater and he enters the posters of the films. That would allow Quadratum to be its own world and then just one nexus location where Sora can access all the other worlds.

The only problem is incorporating the Gummi Ship into that.

Time to retire it. With PS5 they can do near-instant world hopping like with the dimensions in the newest Ratchet and Clank.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

But wouldn't that just make it owned by Disney if its under the KH IP? Is Yozora considered a Disney Character like Sora is?

Yes, it would. I don't think Nomura cares about the legal technicality of ownership because he still has the executive decision making power for Kingdom Hearts from a creative standpoint.

 

[Face My Fears]

Time to retire it. With PS5 they can do near-instant world hopping like with the dimensions in the newest Ratchet and Clank.

No way! They should NOT retire the Gummi Ship. KH3 showed how much fun it can be and the potential there is to further develop it. The Gummi Ship isn't about actually travelling to other worlds because they could easily do that a la CoM where you walk up to a door and go in. The Gummi Ship is another gameplay feature to add to the game. It would be lame if Sora just hopped directly to another world. It would actually feel less like "another world" and just another level you warped to. I know that's essentially what the Gummi Ship/world map does anyway, but the feeling of going through all of that adds to the experience that you're really going to another world.

 

[LoneFox]

Gummispace (or lanes between, or whatever you want to call it) is a KH universe thing, and KH4 doesn't take place in KH universe, but Quadratum one. Therefore, it seems obvious that KH4 will not have any gummispace in it. It also seems almost equally obvious that it will return in future games, once Sora is back home.

 

[SuperNova]

That is assuming KH4 doesn't take place at least partially in the KH-verse and not just exclusively in Unreality.

 

[HakaishinChampa]

Maybe we could get a hybrid between Gummi Traveling and normal gameplay

Sora, Donald and Goofy could get Gummisuits (basically Keyblade Armor) created by Chip & Dale and fly through space and fight normally. In Gummisuits you would get a Gummisuit exclusive Form Change where you shoot lasers

I'm imagining Donald & Goofy with basically Keyblade Armor and it sounds sick

 

[The_Echo]

Time to retire it. With PS5 they can do near-instant world hopping like with the dimensions in the newest Ratchet and Clank.

The Gummi Ship was never there to hide a loading screen, so that's not really a reason to remove it.
We have plenty of KH games already that don't use Gummi Ships or any sort of travel minigame, it's clearly something they keep bringing back because they want that part of the game in there.

 

[Chie]

I reiterate it would be cool to fly a Gigas from place to place...

Remember those?? The things that nominally exist in Quadratum?

 

[Face My Fears]

Gummispace (or lanes between, or whatever you want to call it) is a KH universe thing, and KH4 doesn't take place in KH universe, but Quadratum one. Therefore, it seems obvious that KH4 will not have any gummispace in it. It also seems almost equally obvious that it will return in future games, once Sora is back home.

Why is everyone talking like it's a fact that KH4 will take place in only Quadratum? We don't know much of ANYTHING about the game.

That's like watching the first KH3 trailer and thinking the whole game will take place in Twilight Town.

 

[Chie]

We don't know for sure, but Nomura did say that the Endor forest place is part of Quadratum. If that really is a "Star Wars world" or this game's equivalent of such a thing, then it would seem that at least some of the "worlds" in this game will be in Quadratum and thus it wouldn't just be a 2-hour prologue.

Unless it isn't actually Endor.

I would agree that we don't really know anything yet!

 

[Face My Fears]

We don't know for sure, but Nomura did say that the Endor forest place is part of Quadratum. If that really is a "Star Wars world" or this game's equivalent of such a thing, then it would seem that at least some of the "worlds" in this game will be in Quadratum and thus it wouldn't just be a 2-hour prologue.

Unless it isn't actually Endor.

I would agree that we don't really know anything yet!

Honestly, I have this strong feeling that it's just elements of Star Wars used in Quadratum and not actually a full Star Wars "world". Which I think might be an interesting approach for KH. We're used to a "world" with all those DISNEY elements contained within that world - that ultimately causes this huge separation and no actual "crossover". Imagine if Quadratum had elements of Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland (live action), and The Jungle Book (live action) all actually interacting somehow.

Not only that, but it would be an approach using the DISNEY properties for storytelling versus being an obligatory full-scale world. I definitely do NOT want to get rid of full-blown DISNEY worlds (especially traditionally animated ones), but I just can't help feeling like Nomura is revisiting KH's core concept of "crossover" which was basically abandoned by KH2. Also, if Nomura only pulled what he needed from each DISNEY property, he could focus on telling HIS story instead of having to do what DISNEY needed him to fulfill (like Arendelle in KH3).

 

[Sign]

Why is everyone talking like it's a fact that KH4 will take place in only Quadratum? We don't know much of ANYTHING about the game.

That's like watching the first KH3 trailer and thinking the whole game will take place in Twilight Town.

Honestly, there are people even on this site who have been running rampant with making blatant assumptions and treating them as fact, not just with KH4 but also ML. It's never happened before and I really don't get why it's starting now.

 

[Face My Fears]

Honestly, there are people even on this site who have been running rampant with making blatant assumptions and treating them as fact, not just with KH4 but also ML. It's never happened before and I really don't get why it's starting now.

Well they can say whatever they want about Missing-Link because I don't care about that except for cutscenes.

I do wonder if this is an actual marketing strategy by Square Enix? I mean, it definitely did a good job making people think KH is going in a completely different (and "more mature") direction and is "starting fresh" - which might get some nay-sayers/haters to hop on it.

 

[Chie]

I think if Nomura explained the themes he's working with to Square Enix they would immediately tell him he's not allowed to do them

 

[Sign]

Well they can say whatever they want about Missing-Link because I don't care about that except for cutscenes.

I do wonder if this is an actual marketing strategy by Square Enix? I mean, it definitely did a good job making people think KH is going in a completely different (and "more mature") direction and is "starting fresh" - which might get some nay-sayers/haters to hop on it.

No one at SE said anything to encourage anyone to make these assumptions, so it's definitely not intentional.

 

[Gandalf-the-Wise]

I for one at least am pleased to hear about the prospect of finally having a more "mature" Sora. We've already had silly, doofus Sora for multiple games, time for some actual development for him. I don't want Sora to regress in maturity like Goku did in Dragon Ball Super.

It would also be interesting how other characters would react to this change in him.

 

[SuperNova]

The fandom made the same assumption about Sora in KH3 and look how that turned out.

 

[Gandalf-the-Wise]

Yeah in some ways he was worse than his KH2 self. Maybe it will be different this time...maybe. Us fans have always made the same assumptions like when people viewed Deep Dive and thought no more Disney worlds for KH2. History is repeating itself once more here.

 

[2 quid is good]

Honestly, there are people even on this site who have been running rampant with making blatant assumptions and treating them as fact, not just with KH4 but also ML. It's never happened before and I really don't get why it's starting now.

I think collectively we've all just become stupider