Tetsuya Nomura Hopes to Have New Kingdom Hearts This Year

The Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania hits retail later today. Some fans have apparently gotten the guide in advance and summarized the major points from a Tetsuya Nomura interview contained within. Square Enix fan site FF Reunion passed along the details.

In the interview, Nomura reveals that production on the next Kingdom Hearts game has already started. This isn't Kingdom Hearts 3, though. KH3's production is dependent on how things go with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, he says.

So what Kingdom Hearts game has gone into production? Nomura says that in addition to KH3, there are two other Kingdom Hearts games in the current framework. He believes they'll be able to release one of these titles this year. Next year or beyond, he hopes to release the other game, which he says will have multiple main characters.

Nomura also speaks about the overseas version of Birth By Sleep. Changes for the overseas version include additional Keyblades and enemies, adjustments to battle balance, additional songs for the rhythmic ice cream mini game, and adjustments to event scenes. He's spoken about the overseas version in past interviews

While Nomura wouldn't comment on a possible "Final Mix" style international version for Japan, he does seem sure that it will not be possible to do a huge project like the RE.COM component that was added for KHII's Final Mix release. This bonus content was a 3D remake of Game Boy Advance's Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.

The FF Reunion summary is extremely compact, so it's possible that there are some missing details. I'll update if I see the interview for myself.