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Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy maestro Tetsuya Nomura has a "huge number of game proposals" and probably countless zipper-infested protags "lying dormant"

News
By Kaan Serin published 18 July 2024

Nomura still has plenty of new ideas that have yet to see the light of day

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(Image credit: Square Enix)
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Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts steward Tetsuya Nomura has many gestating game ideas in the vault, so there might still be plenty of new characters tied up in belts and zippers in our future. 

Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura - often credited as the creator of Kingdom Hearts' Disney multiverse mash-up and a frequent character designer and creative lead on the Final Fantasy series - recently sat down to do a three-way interview with Famitsu and Takumi Isobe, the director behind upcoming action RPG Reynatis, which is actually getting a crossover with cult classic The World Ends With You, a game that Nomura produced.

During the talk, based on translations from Automaton, the RPG veteran mentioned a "labyrinth" of projects that he's simply come up with and stored on his computer. Nomura apparently approaches new ideas by writing a story draft so he "doesn't forget what the proposal is about" before locking it away on his PC in a folder aptly called "NEW" and refining it over time.  

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Nomura says he has a "huge number of game proposals lying dormant" in the abovesaid folder, with complete story concepts included, though the folder is getting so unwieldy and labyrinthine, he jokes that he's not even sure if some of the projects "will ever see the light of day." Maybe that's why Kingdom Hearts has gone in such wild, time-travelling, body-hopping directions.

From what we know for sure, Nomura's next projects are whatever the Final Fantasy 7 remake finale ends up being called and the still-mysterious Kingdom Hearts 4, which he's also directing. 

Tetsuya Nomura says he can’t claim full responsibility for Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts’ wildest twists, but he’s “happy if people enjoy the game.”

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CATEGORIES
PC Gaming Xbox Series X PS5 Platforms Xbox PlayStation
Kaan Serin
Kaan Serin
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Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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