Kingdom Hearts III finally has a release date. It’s a little later than people may have wanted, but the fact is that it is coming, and it won’t be an enormously long wait anymore. But, as more and more glimpses at the game come out, something has become strangely obvious. Mainly, that in nowhere in the trailers is there the presence of Final Fantasy characters. The Kingdom Hearts franchise was built upon fusing Disney and Final Fantasy together, yet no characters are present in the new title.
Characters like Squall (Leon), Yuffie, Aeris (Aerith), Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, Cid, and more have appeared over the series, with all of them appearing in the main two titles. So, where are they in Kingdom Hearts III? In an interview, director Tetsuya Nomura explained why they aren’t in the game…per se:
“When you look back on the first Kingdom Hearts, Sora was still a new character, so we kind of had the Final Fantasy characters as supporting characters,” Nomura told US Gamer. “But now that it’s been 15 years, the original characters are more polished than they were before, so I don’t think think they need the Final Fantasy characters’ help as much as they did before.”
That being said, he’s NOT saying they won’t be in the game at all, he’s just revealing why they weren’t in the trailers:
“I can’t disclose too much about the Final Fantasy characters or whether or not they’ll be in Kingdom Hearts III, because I can only speak to what’s been shown. That doesn’t mean that I’m saying that there won’t be any Final Fantasy characters. Please look forward to future information.”
We’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out as we get closer to the game’s release. More than likely, the Final Fantasy characters will appear. But in what capacity? That’s hard to say.
