Kingdom Hearts 3 will have fewer worlds than Kingdom Hearts 2, but will have richer gameplay

Kingdom Hearts 3’s game director Tetsuya Nomura has been talking about the highly anticipated addition to the Kingdom Hearts franchise quite a bit this month.

In one of the interviews, Nomura detailed to the Weekly Famitsu (Esuteru via Gematsu) that Kingdom Hearts III would feature fewer worlds than Kingdom Hearts II, but each world in KH3 would be much denser. In addition to that, Nomura detailed other aspects of the game, like how Toy Story fits in and Big Hero Six.

• (In response to the question of around when in 2018 Kingdom Hearts III will be released) “Please wait for the proper follow-up report. (Smiles.)”
• Nomura wanted a Toy Story world in Kingdom Hearts since around Kingdom Hearts II. For Kingdom Hearts III, there have been repeated negotiations as its inclusion was of absolute necessity.
• The Toy Story world is set after Toy Story 2. It isn’t a parallel world. Rather, the events of Kindgom Hearts III are part of the Toy Story time axis. (In other words, it is canon.)
• While it is not shown in the trailer, at the start Sora is mistaken for a character in the latest game to be released in this world.
• The Toy Story staff were considerably surprised at the reproduction quality of the Toy Story characters in-game.
• Nomura told the development team he wanted riding and fighting in a mech early in development. A different mechanism is being prepared for when you go to another floor in Galaxy Toys.
• The Big Hero Six world is progressing well, but news on that is still down the line.
• While the number of Disney worlds are less than the amount included in Kingdom Hearts II, the density of each world is greater, including gameplay.

Nomura’s statement on the amount of worlds falls in line with other interviews, where he detailed that the team was looking to “provide rich gameplay” in each world.

“Rather than having multiple different little worlds, we wanted to make sure we’re providing rich gameplay in an individual world, so we put in a lot of effort and allocated a lot of resources to create these worlds, and it would be sad for players not to enjoy the world and breeze right through it. Therefore, we made sure that each of the worlds is designed so players can take their time and enjoy the gameplay that’s available.” (GameInformer)

For comparison, Kingdom Hearts 1 features 9 Disney worlds and Kingdom Hearts 2 features 12 Disney worlds. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no official release date, however, most believe it’s coming in 2018.