Tetsuya Nomura talks Kingdom Hearts III DLC, story details, and secret ending

Be advised this article contains spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III.

Kingdom Hearts III has been out for almost a month now, and some have been wondering if or when the game will receive and post-launch DLC. In an interview with Dengeki PlayStation, director Tetsuya Nomura was asked about possible future updates to the game as well as the enigmatic secret ending.

Nomura shares that in previous Kingdom Hearts titles, a Critical Mode was added to the ‘Final Mix’ version of the game and they plan on delivering it later; the process won’t be just adjusting numerical values. They plan on adjustments followed by debugging and making the mode more unique than just a higher difficulty setting.

There will be a plan for free DLC updates that may add a feature, but paid DLC will appear as more of a ‘package’ with several elements included. The paid DLC will take some time to come out, and Nomura says that he’d like for the team to start production on their next project sometime this year — preferably as soon as they can. As for the future of the Kingdom Hearts series, Nomura says you might hear them talk about it but right now it’s a blank sheet.

Onto some quickfire story matters, when asked if he had plans to elaborate on Xion’s resurrection and falling in with the True Organization XIII, Nomura feels that it’s something you can gather from the game but he may explain further in DLC. There are similarities between Scala ad Caelum and Daybreak Town [KHUχ] and the thirteen dark figures that Xehanort has with him in this world are replicas. He doesn’t have much of a desire to further delve into the lives of the Organization members but the identity of the unnamed girl Isa and Lea both reference from their past is within the Secret Report — it’s a character that has appeared in the series before.

Also, the “nameless star” that appears to Sora in The Final World? It seems only she knows what her future will be.

Regarding the secret movie “Yozora”, Nomura says that it is a prelude to a story — if that story has a future. There’s a lot of speculation, but it’s not as simple as you might think.

Development on a new world for Kingdom Hearts Union χ[Cross] is fast approaching, and the main scenario is increasing the pace — many mysterious elements included.

Kingdom Hearts III is now available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.


About the Author

Tony Garsow Tony joined Nova Crystallis in 2015, and has spent more than a decade writing in the Final Fantasy community. He also contributes to the Nova Crystallis Twitch and YouTube channels, where you can watch select gameplay highlights, previews, and streams.

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