After over ten years since the last numbered installment in the Kingdom Hearts series, Square Enix is finally working on finishing up the series’ Xehanort saga. For those of you itching to see the story of that game begin, however, series creator and director Tetsuya Nomura says you already have. According to him, the tale of that finale has already started, with the Kingdom Hearts 3D and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 0.2 serving as “the prologue to KH3.”

That said, don’t expect KH3 to be any shorter as a result; according to Nomura, the main reason they took care of the prologue in those two titles is because of how “overwhelmingly big” Kingdom Hearts III is.

Nomura: Story-wise, [Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep–A Fragmentary Passage] is situated at rather an important point. The scenarios of KH 3D Dream Drop Distance (hereon KH3D) and KH0.2 can essentially be thought of as the prologue to KH3, you see. […] The story connects from KH3D to KH0.2 to KH3. In my own head, KH3 begins at KH3D. That’s why I put that subtitle on KH2.8. Famitsu: Does spreading the story from not only KH3D but also KH0.2 mean that KH3 will be smaller in size? Nomura: It’s not that I’ve spread the story out, perhaps it’s more that I’ve separated the parts that would have ruined KH3’s tempo if they were told then. In fact, KH3 is overwhelmingly big, so it’s not that content has been shaved off, and it’s something I’ve worried over how to handle.

Nomura goes on to say that the intro section of Kingdom Hearts III “is short, and it begins straight away,” which is sure to ease the minds of any who were concerned about it following the same hours-long path of KH2‘s Roxas section. He also assures gamers that he has been “thinking very precisely about how to make sure both those who have been with the series for a long time and those for whom this will be the first KH title will be able to follow along.” You’ll still want to play all Kingdom Hearts titles up to now to fully grasp every last aspect of the plot (and, perhaps, take a few hours to read some online synopses for clarity’s sake), but you can follow along with the game itself even if it’s your first time playing this series.

Are you looking forward to Kingdom Hearts III? Does hearing that it’s an “overwhelmingly big” title make you more excited from all the story and reveals we might get, or are you fearful that the plot may just become that much harder to follow? What sort of information would you like to hear about the game next? Let us know your thoughts on all these in the comments below!

Source: Design & Trend (via KHInsider)

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