Tetsuya Nomura’s writing process for Kingdom Hearts might explain both its cohesion and convolution
In addition to revealing a ton of insights about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and the original Final Fantasy VII (such as why the characters are so good-looking), Square Enix artist, designer, producer, and director Tetsuya Nomura shed a bit of light on his work on the Kingdom Hearts franchise in an interview with Young Jump. Aside from the news that the much-anticipated Kingdom Hearts IV is shaping up to be both a reset and a complete story that is accessible to newcomers, Nomura detailed how he goes about crafting the encompassing narrative.
Nomura seems to have decided upon the overall direction that the franchise would take when he was still working on the original Kingdom Hearts (first released in 2002). He would make notes about future developments as the story progressed, and if something didn’t fit later on, he would “improvise on the spot.” Nomura admits that he didn’t have the more intricate details planned out from the start, but referred to the story’s general direction and worked from there. While working on Kingdom Hearts III (released in 2019), Nomura says he was already thinking about Kingdom Hearts IV and beyond. In addition, the creator revealed that he intends to move the story towards its conclusion with Kingdom Hearts IV.
What’s interesting is how Nomura says he is the only one who understands Kingdom Heart’s underlying settings (that aren’t explicitly depicted in the games), with staff members often misunderstanding aspects when giving explanations to voice actors, for example. The creator has a secret wealth of notes and materials about future developments, important characters, and eras not depicted in the games. He uses this secret trove as a guide and selectively adds explanations to game scenarios and conveys things to staff as necessary. Yet, at the same time, Nomura says he sometimes looks to other staff members, gameplay, and lore videos for explanations and references to past events to refresh his memory.
While being the sole creative mind of a narrative allows Nomura’s vision to remain pure, it also limits the amount of feedback he receives. That said, Nomura does encourage his fellow Kingdom Hearts developers to ask questions and to point out things he might have overlooked. Kingdom Hearts IV has yet to get a release date, but hopefully this one has a story that others aside from Nomura will be able to understand.
