Tetsuya Nomura Considers Retirement, and How to End Kingdom Hearts

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone

by · Push Square
Game Profile

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Title:
Kingdom Hearts IV
System:
PlayStation 5
Publisher:
Square Enix
Developer:
Square Enix
Genre:
Action, Adventure
Release Date:
PlayStation 5
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https://static.pushsquare.com/themes/base/images/flags/eu.gif TBA
Series:
Kingdom Hearts
Where to buy:
Pre Order on Amazon

Famous for his love of belts and buckles, legendary video game director Tetsuya Nomura says he's considering retirement after an influential career spanning decades. Nomura started as a debugger on Final Fantasy IV in 1991 and, most recently, was the creative director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Love it or leave it, he is also the man most responsible for Kingdom Hearts, directing most of the 15 games the series comprises, and the prime culprit behind its wildly convoluted story.

Nomura, who will turn 54 next month, spoke to Japanese outlet YoungJump (thanks, VGC) about the future of the Kingdom Hearts series. He said: "I only have a few years left until I retire. I have to decide whether to retire first or finish the series first. I’m making Kingdom Hearts IV now with the intention of it being a story that I will complete."

As VGC points out, this is interesting for a few reasons. Publisher Square Enix says that Kingdom Hearts IV begins an "epic new storyline" called the "Lost Master Arc", and it kind of sounds like Nomura wants to see it through. On top of that, he is presumably on the hook to helm the as-yet-unnamed sequel to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which seems to contradict his desire to retire.

Nomura, later in the interview, commented on the setting in which Sora and company will find themselves next: "I like worlds that are slightly different from “possible” reality, rather than ones that are too false. It’s the same with movies, but if the world is too fantasy based I can’t really get into it. So, I like settings that are based in Shibuya but not the real Shibuya. Rather than complete fantasy, I think 'unrealistic within reality' fits the fantasy view well."

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Will you be sad to see Nomura pass the torch, whenever he does actually retire? Or will Square Enix keep him coming up with new, gravity-defying hair designs forever? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source youngjump.jp, via videogameschronicle.com]

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About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Comments 31

Please end it in 4. Some things have to end at one time

nomura is a legend. i think the storytelling in the kh games is incomprehensible and pedestrian at the same time, but nomura's character designs are among the best and most influential in gaming history. his work peaked with ff 10, but what a cereer. his definition of "a few years" in referring to retirement could mean another decade in the trenches, so i wouldn't read too much into that. whatever the case may be, giving cloud and sora closure would be a good sendoff to nomura's career.

God I still wish we got the Final Fantasy 13 Versus game he was working on :/

I can understand Nomura's reason wants to retired, especially with his age at 54 years old and making big games took 4-5 years. The time he's completed KH 4 and FFVIIR part 3, he probably closed to 60.

I would miss Nomura when he decided to retired though. He made plenty of memorable characters including some of my favorites since Squaresoft era. Nowadays, i think SE lacks new or young artist as talented as Nomura who makes character that looks pop up and very recognizeable. Heck, i think SE still relies a lot on veteran artist like Nomura, Akihiko Yoshida (Nier Automata / Vagrant Story / Bravely series), Hiroshi Minagawa (FF XIV & VI), Isamu Kamikokuryo (Diofield, Harvestella), and Naoki Ikushima (Octopath, Triangle Strat, Live a Live).

And yes i think Kingdom Hearts needs to end with KH 4. I thought KH 3 was the final game in the series but then the ending and DLC showed Nomura is still not finish on torturing Sora lol.

Pure nonsense and failed sales expectations is how kingdom hearts is going to end,

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  • Yesterday, 4:45am

He still has some years. I think he still has KH5 in him.

Nomura should have retired a long time ago.

I'll miss the "Nomura stink" as Dustin would say

@Coolmusic I'm glad he didn't

There's light at the end of the tunnel guys. It's nearly over.

It will probably come as no surprise but this is pretty devastating to me this man is my hero but good god he's earned it. I really hope if he retires he does end KH like Metal Gear it's one of those series that's been driven by the creator and I wouldn't want it in anyone else's hands as the old saying goes don't be sad because it's ending smile because it happened this series means the universe to me and I'm grateful for a every second of joy it has brought me. Thank you Nomura and also my other hero Yoko Shimomura because lord knows her sensational, legendary music contributed a lot well looks like our Summer Vacation's are finally over😭😭😭😭 time to sit on a rooftop with some sea salt ice cream and watch the sun set

I've been waiting for kingdoms hearts to end as long as I've been waiting for one piece to smh

I don't want it to end but if it does end with 4, I hope it's made to be as spectacular as possible! I have a lot of respect for Nomura and how much he's contributed to my favourite games ever.

FF7 Part 3 and Kingdom Hearts 4 will definitely be one hell of a swan song if he retires after that.

I kinda thought KH would have ended at 3 to be honest.
I wonder if KH4 will have any Marvel or Star Worlds, also wonder if they’ll FF characters straight away to it

End it? lol I still don’t know what’s going on in the story 🤔
KDH3 had good music and visiting different Disney and Pixar worlds was the best part about it. Especially that Toy Story world 🤩
I’m surprise they haven’t made a Toy Story game like that yet 👀

@Fartingale honestly might not be wrong. Same for rebirth part 3. As long as they’re actually getting an ending that’s all I care about

Ill never forgive him for his butchering of FF XV. That game was good despite his meddling.

@UntilRespawn It was Tabata who butchered FF XV, not Nomura.

Nomura isn't my favorite. He is good at starting stories but terrible at putting them together into a cohesive whole. Kingdom Hearts' story is a total mess, he meddled in Rebirth to make the story convoluted and impenetrable.

All his stories "jump the shark" and become ridiculous and so convoluted trying to figure out what is going on is like trying to find meaning in an abstract painting. It's always alternate universes with him. His stuff is pretty predictably chaotic at this point.

@UntilRespawn Do some research XV was the result of Nomura having a passion project called Final Fantasy Versus XIII stolen from him by the company. XV was a complete butchering of his vision

Is this because sales of FF7 remake part 1 and 2 didn't sell as they expected

@UnlimitedSevens As far as i know, Nomura didn't write FF VII Remake and Rebirth story but it was Kazushige Nojima, the original FF VII writer. Nomura himself wants VII Remake follows the original game but Yoshinori Kitase wants it different.

And while Nomura wrote the story for multiple KH games, but the series has multiple writers including Nojima who wrote KH 1 and 2 story while supervised Chains of Memories and KH 3 story. The convoluted story, although it became easier to understand with KH 3 tied up all the plots and missing dots, is pretty much the result of multiple ideas by different writers that spread into multiple games. If it's just 2 writers for 3-4 games, i think the story will be much easier to understand.

Good. Please do. After FF7 Rebirth, Nomura should stay in design where he belongs because not every story needs to be a ***** Kingdom Hearts.

He's not gonna be missed.

Today is not the day, but when the inevitable day comes, I'll miss him far too much. Love him or hate him, there is no one like Tetsuya Nomura in games, and losing that uniqueness definitely won't be sunshine and rainbows.

@Keyblade-Dan I can’t lie Nomura making retirement talk before kh4 even getting a release date is kinda devastating fosho 😭

@QiaraIris Nomura didn't write Remake or Rebirth Kashishige Nojima and Motumo Toriyama are responsible for the VII R series story take it up with them and stop blaming Nomura. He only directed part 1 because he was told to he didn't direct Rebirth

@Keyblade-Dan honestly yeah that comment seemed a little vitriolic given Nomura’s lack of perceived involvement with rebirth. Maybe a quick Wikipedia search is too hard or something LOL.

Please for the love of belt buckles, just retire Nomura

kingdom hearts ended after 2

@OthmaneAD what about final fantasy ?

I feel for people who don't like Nomura it might be a monkey's paw situation where the Kingdom Hearts series main thing keeping it together is him and him leaving might make it overly kidish or fall apart all together without his direction.

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