A new interview with Tetsuya Nomura in Famitsu this week sees further explanation on Kingdom Hearts III and its on-going development.

Speaking with the magazine, Nomura notes they’ve wanted to use a Toy Story world since around the time of Kingdom Hearts II. In order to make sure that world got into KHIII, plenty of repeated negotiations were necessary.

The Toy Story world itself is set following the events of the Toy Story 2 movie as a canon part of the Toy Story universe. Although it wasn’t shown off in the trailer, Sora is initially mistaken for a video game character recently released in that world.

Early on, Nomura told the development team he wanted to give Sora the ability to ride on and fight in mechs. A different gimmick is being prepared for the other floors in the Galaxy Toys store. The Toy Story staff were very surprised at the quality of the character models in the game.

As for the rest of the game, Nomura says the Big Hero 6 world is progressing well but news on that end is still far off. The number of Disney worlds in general have been lessened from Kingdom Hearts II, however, the amount of content and density of each world is now greater.

As for when exactly Kingdom Hearts III will see its release in 2018? Well, “Please wait for the proper followup report,” says Nomura. We’re likely in for the long haul.

Via: Hachima Kikou.