Kingdom Hearts III Director Tetsuya Nomura isn’t at the best place of his career over the past few weeks. While we don’t exactly know the specifics of how it all went down, it sounds as if he left his position as Director of Final Fantasy XV on a sour note after being replaced by the recently appointed Hajime Tabata.

Japan has a long history of game developers letting their high position get to their heads, causing reputable figures to lash out when things don’t go their way. I can still remember the rant from when the first Kingdom Hearts outsold the Resident Evil remake on the GameCube. Good times for everyone except creator Shinji Mikami.

Nomura has the swag to be in a position to do this after helming many of Square Enix’s artistic choices for nearly twenty years. Unlike his replacement, who is a relatively unknown and humble figure at Square Enix, he hasn’t always been able to keep his emotions in check, and if a new message for his fans of the Kingdom Hearts series found in the Kingdom Hearts Memorial Ultimania guide book is any hint, we can tell that Nomura is just teething with frustration.

If I had to pick, I am a person more on the dark side like Xehanort and co., I harness the burning anger in my heart into what I create. Kingdom Hearts III’s current development explodes very much in this sense. Each time, it’s a battle with Sora and co. who are the exact opposite of myself, it’s been over 10 years and yet we haven’t reached a conclusion. This battle will surely last longer. In Kingdom Hearts III as well, I am scheming many challenges that Sora and his friends must overcome, because I myself cannot lose either. And in preparation for the great battle that lies ahead, we have this one book that looks back on their entire journey. When I think about it, I had an explosive mindset when I made the first Kingdom Hearts as well. Thus when I look back at all the material, I feel that fever again. Fans who will continue the journey so far alongside Sora and his friends will also recall their own feverish enthusiasm. With that passion, we will not lose to darkness, and Sora’s journey will continue onwards. The journey still continues, but I would be overjoyed if you stuck with us until the very end.

Maybe he just has a burning passion for Kingdom Hearts III that we can’t even begin to fathom, but when he starts talking about his “dark side” and “burning anger,” I can just picture him in one of Kingdom Hearts‘ dark zipper robes listening to Eminem and Linkin Park on full blast, arms folded in a dark room while he pouts about his situation and bangs out his emotions on a computer keyboard.

Remember when Kingdom Hearts was supposed to be just a happy little crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney? Yeah, those days are long gone.

At least he plans to carry the series past Kingdom Hearts III now that the whole Final Fantasy thing hasn’t quite worked out, as he wanted. I really want to play it, but if Nomura is going to use it as an outlet to explore the dark side of his teenage angst, then I might not be that interested. Less darkness and more fan service please! That’s all Kingdom Hearts has ever really been good at.

Kingdom Hearts III will launch on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but no launch window has been provided yet.