I'm hyped. I think this means KH3 is in full force now.

I'm happy. I didn't even know about FF XV being announced back then. Now KHIII can get the focus that it deserves.

XV was his baby. I can't imagine he'd ever leave the project voluntarily. If he was forced off the project for one reason or another, the impact can't be good for him.

This puts KH3 in a questionable position.

I'm so torn about this. On one hand, it might mean that we'll get KH sooner and that it's getting Nomura's focus that it needs. XV also seems to be moving more swiftly now, but...

I feel so bad for Nomura. So bad, in fact. Poor man. I don't pity him his predicament at all. I wonder if this will end up effecting the mood of the game at all... Wow.

I also wonder if this is why they've been recruiting more people for KHIII lately, because they are moving along with III faster now that Nomura's more at the helm again.

im takin this as a good sign

This is REALLY surprising, yet...idk. I don't see it as a bad thing. FFXV has been a thing for almost ten years now and with a playable demo coming out early next year I think this just might mean that there isn't much else for Nomura to "do". The story must've been finished forever ago as well as all the ground work, voice acting, music, etc. At this point it's just a matter of putting everything together. Unless Nomura hasn't actually been involved with FFXV for a long time and just recently chose to announce it, then he was already involved with most of the heavy lifting and Tabata will be putting the final touches. Unless Tabata does an enormous overhaul, it's still "Nomura's game".

I don't take it as a bad sign, I think it just means that Square is confident enough with XV's progress that Nomura doesn't have to be there because all the fundamentals are ready and Nomura can now focus on his one true love-Kingdom Hearts.

Or I'm being overly optimistic, lol.

Personally I think they removed him since he already seemed to have his hands full with the other projects. They're putting a lot of demand on Nomura it seems lately, so I hope that helps makes things less stressful for him.

I really wonder what the specific circumstances behind this are. To be in charge of a project for 8 years, and then have it taken away from you sounds horrible... but, considering it's really bumpy development cycle, it could also be sort of a relief? It's possible he stepped down; got what he felt was a good foundation started, and then went on to KH3 which requires his involvement. But it's also possible that he was forced out. Depending on what happened, this could put KH3 in either a really bad or really good place.

Hopefully in an interview Nomura will address this. If he left voluntarily, I can't see a reason for him to not talk about it. If he was forced out, then he probably won't be allowed to talk about it. This is concerning, but I wanna stay hopeful and believe that this will be a good thing.

I am truly shocked. For me XV = Nomura. To be working on a game for so many years (yes, doing a shitty job - that's true) and being removed from it. What a terrible blow...

Wow, I did not see this coming. I'm not quite sure how to feel. This was going to be Nomura's first FF title.


Though this does lead me to wonder what's going to happen with KH3, since this could mean he has more time to work on it. Maybe it might be released sooner than we thought.

Knowing Nomura, he probably quit. I think he ran away back to the safety of Kingdom Hearts, where he has total creative freedom and far less pressure. Tabata joining must have ruffled feathers.

I'm honestly quite sad about the entire situation. Tabata is fantastic, but this was Nomura's baby and he spent a long time working on it only to not finish it.

Honestly, I think this can only be good for the guy. I've always felt that Nomura likes to manage too many projects at once and ultimately that means he spends less time with his family so even if it is disheartening that he won't be able to oversee the project anymore, it probably is best for his health and it also means he can focus his full attention on KH3.

In terms of FFXV though, what does this say about its development cycle?

While im glad he'll be able to put more time into KH3 it's a little bittersweet with XV. I hope he thought his work was done with XV meaning it's close to being done, and not something that was taken from him.

He had enough on his plate, man has gotta take things one at a time.

I'm wondering what the whole atmosphere of their development team is going to be like after these two titles are finally released. I'm serious. When I think of the teams for FFXV and KH3, I imagine Atlas holding up the world for each person.

If Nomura is out of the FFXV picture, then he sure must be feeling lighter right now.

Well I long since stopped worrying about Versus or rather FFXV, but I can't say it isn't slightly worrisome that Nomura no longer has an input on its development cycle. FFXV meant so much to Nomura. It was his pet project, a dream that he wanted to pursue and make true. To say Kingdom Hearts was simply his calling all along isn't so clear. Nomura took precious time away from wrapping up the current series of KH due to him spending most of his energies toward FFXV. Nomura didn't even think KH would be a success, when it was, he felt he had to make a sequel. Nomura was torn with furthering the KH series right away, or starting and finishing what he wanted to be see done differently out of Final Fantasy, i.e., the Versus moniker. Nomura has received pressure from all sides, Disney, the fans, his bosses, etc, to work on KH3, but he adamantly said in the past that Versus (now FFXV) took precedent (obviously that isn't so much case now). I'm wondering how this is going to affect morale, knowing that he couldn't finish what he started.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened, and all the past directors removed from their projects ended up quitting within a year or two.

Like Taochan said, we can only hope that he may find some solace or relief in returning to KH full-time. It was his baby before XV even existed.

Directors who left a mainline FF game while it was still in development have usually left the company within a year. - https://twitter.com/APZonerunner/status/512426108109991937

This is incredibly sad. On one hand, it could be good to help speed along projects, but I'm sure Nomura must be crushed, unless he left voluntarily. I actually feel pretty disheartened myself, because if I was booted off a project that was essentially my baby, I'd just be thrown asunder.

I'm also fully convinced this now means that KH3 may be our final Nomura title. Nowhere is this hinted at, but I just feel like after KH3 he's going to take a hiatus/leave all together. I can't blame him if he does.

I imagine this'll be good for KH3, but I'm curious about FFXV. Surely the development will hasten, but I'm more curious about how the story will be affected. Not to mention how XIII had so many staff changes/staff rearranging, that I can't help but fear FFXV may not be up to par with people's expectations even more than it already isn't going to be.

Poor Nomura. Even if it was taking forever for the project, I'm sure it didn't ever actually enter full development until around 2011/whenever it got switched to the PS4.

That's not a good thing for the future of the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

I will take it as a sign that XV has reached it's final development point. I don't think he would ever leave this project for any reason. Good news for KHIII <3 :D

There's a chance that if he quit Square he could join another company and continue the games there, right? Right?! Or... though I hate to think it, Square could continue it without Nomura?

Ugh. I pray it doesn't come to that! I need KH in my life and I need Nomura to write for it! KH's been a part of my life for so long, that I can't imagine a time without it. I'm like panicking now.

If there's a silver lining here the article did emphasize that Nomura is working on several other projects, note worthy projects, besides KH3 so perhaps things aren't all that bad for him at Square at the moment. He does like to work on several projects at once and I get dropping one, but depending on what else he's working on (TWEWY 2?

To be fair, I'm not against the idea of Nomura's involvement in KH being reduced/cut back after KH3. (In fact, I think the next series could benefit from some new talent). I do, however, feel like his role with SE may simply be reduced to only the KH series, which isn't bad, but I gotta imagine he doesn't only want to be known for one series/work on one series only.

But perhaps I should look at this in a more positive light. Perhaps he did leave because XV is near completion, and he wanted to be full throttle for KH3.

But probably not.

Mystery Osaka console game with online multiplayer please

When you consider that he would have been returning to KH full-time after completing XV, it's even worse.

I'm just going to remain hopeful that Nomura will stay with the company (at least for a while), Osaka's working on TWEWY2 secretly and that's the mysterious multiplayer thing, and that Nomura left XV of his own free will. That's the future of SE and no one tell me any differently, please, I beg you. -enters state of denial, which sounds like a good idea right now, until I inevitably get my dreams crushed in a vicious way in the future-

Although, I am kind of curious about what KH would be like from another creator's PoV. Blasphemy, I know, and I'm not even going to think about it anymore. -blissfully goes back to denial land- I really don't want Nomura to lose KH of all things after this, though. Ouch.

I guess since we don't know what the details are behind this, it's hard to know who to be mad at if we should even be mad or upset at all. Did the suits remove him or did he remove himself? Can't really tell. Not sure why a guy who's been working on a game for like 8 years suddenly leave.

Jesus, one tweet about what other people have done and you guys are already clearing out Nomura's desk.

This good for KHIII and probably for Nomura's health but I'm sad that he put so much work in the game to get removed from the direction in the last part of the development. The trailer is awesome.

Now I may be off-base here, but I think Square just wasn't going to deal with his "process". From what I can see with the way he handles KH, Nomura likes to go every which way with his ideas, takes his time on projects, and can get lost along the way. Not to say that he isn't great, but if after 8 years you haven't finished the game, they're gonna have to bring someone else to set him straight.

Maybe that didn't sit well with him and he just quit

Sounds okay to me i just want to play them

Well this is quite a shock. Hope this doesn't affect Kh3 in a negative way. (if he was indeed forced to leave the FFV project)

This is actually very disheartening considering square wanted to turn FFXV into a mobile game. Nomura fought for this game because he wanted Final Fantasy XV to be a "true Final Fantasy" and the game only looks as good as it is because of him. Hopefully Square does a good job without him, but I have very little faith in them at this point. At least Nomura will be able to see his family and focus on KH3 now that he's in a less stressful situation.

Nomura could of had the choice of being forced off of FFXV with his job reputation ruined, making him less desirable to hire in other gaming industries, or to step away from it with good graces. Which would suck big time, if that were the case. I really don't like the way the article was written up. It almost implies something had gone down in order for Nomura to leave it.

On the other hand, wasn't it stated years back that Nomura doesn't get to be with his family all that much? It's probably an unlikely scenario. I guess as long as it doesn't affect future KH titles, then I'm okay with him being off the FFXV project. KHIII can be completed that much more quicker, and we'll see other side projects that haven't come to light yet. If Nomura goes on hiatus, I won't freak out over it. The man has been working for years on both of these games, so he deserves a break.

It's still shocking to my system to think about though.

This is good news for me.

I'm surprised he didn't leave sooner. I wouldn't surprised if the executives him leave. I assume he was costing them a lot of money. He probably finshed a lot of the game anyway, and I wouldn't be surprised if the higher up's wanted him to get a move on with Kh3.

I'm sure at this point, while it doesn't completely feel like it, good can come of this for both projects. having a director on each that has a main focus on the title will help the team out greatly, especially for three since they have been working without his full attention for a solid year now.

Son of a gun.

Without XV to worry about, more focus on III. XV's planned to be released in March 2015. Maybe we can expect a release for III in either late 2015 or early 2016? 2015 will be the first year without a KH game in seven years if it doesn't come next year, which admittedly is unlikely.

This is promising news. Very promising.

I think people are overreacting on this. Just because Nomura hasn't released a statement yet doesn't mean that he was booted off XV.

Like everyone has said-XV was HIS project, and they aren't gonna just forcibly boot him out. It's possible they may have suggested for him to leave, they maybe could have said "XV is in good hands with Tabata so maybe you should take a load off and just focus on KH3" but I just don't see SE aggressively kicking Nomura off. For what purpose? If the game still had a very long ways to go in development wouldn't that make keeping Nomura on the project especially crucial?

i honestly think this is positive news. I think it means that Nomura feels like XV is in good enough development to where he can count on Tabata to finish it, and therefore he can help speed things along on KH3 and other projects so that they won't be in development purgatory the next 4-5 years. SE and Nomura are aware of how much KH3 is anticipated, it's not a stretch to think that they are really wanting to do their best to satisfy fans of both games.

my opinion: we could be seeing XV by Q2/Q3 2015. And a KH3 release soon after may not really be a stretch now.

I can't say I'm happy about this. Versus was Nomura's baby, yes there were problems with it (obviously), but stepping down as the director seems to be a pretty harsh step to me.

Especially giving how the only alternative seems to be just more Kingdom Hearts. There will be the point when Nomura becomes fed up with the series if he's only allowed to focus on this one as this happened before with other games and other directors as well.

Probably wouldn't have thought of it that way in that way in this hype... Thanks for that

If the DEMO for FFXV isn't even coming out until March 2015, there is officially Zero chance of KH3 coming out late 2015. But it's fine I suppose. If it looks anything like the new FFXV only KH style, it's worth the wait. Actually, if KH3 started development in late 2012 and had a little something to show at 2013's E3 about 6 or so months later, I think it actually needs all of 2015 and some of 2016 to be all it can be.

I think Nomura will leave SE after KHIII is released. Tabata and Yusue are in the wings and are listed as co-directors. I think they are his successors.

Nomura stepping down from Final Fantasy XV as the director to focus on Kingdom Hearts III.


I ain't mad at him!

Final Fantasy XV + Type-0 HD incoming next week

I have a bad feeling about this..

If there has been some kind of fallout I hope SE can fix things with Nomura and the future if KH won't be compromised..

Fingers crossed that Nomura left willingly 'cause the development of FFXV is approaching the finish line and the project didn't need Nomuras attention anymore. I hope he left other people just to finish the job, but I have a feeling this is going to be bad

On first glance it certainly seems like a weird decision on Square's part to change the director this late in production process (and it's also a novum that they seem to prioritize a KH title over a FF title as FF is clearly the bigger money maker of the two), but considering the other stuff we know as i.e. KH III being announced on E3 last year where Nomura admitted in an interview that it was unveiled too early for his tastes and FF XV being really off the reasonable time-table for development with more than 8 years, maybe the new upper echelons at Square simply chose to give more emphasis to business (and thus money) even if that means cutting corners and impede the creativity and visions of people like Nomura.
As Guard pointed out, sometimes Nomura likes to get carried away and "try out things", and maybe he just did that one time too much for the tastes of the higher ups who likely want FF XV out asap because it's already quite the PR-disaster no matter how you look at it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Disney figuratively "stepped" into the door with a tapping foot telling Square to "get their shit together".
Disney doesn't care about FF as they have nothing to do with it, but regarding KH they could make some demands regarding it getting more attention or at least no more delays because of other projects.
KH III being unveiled too early for Nomura's tastes could also be because of Disney knocking at Square's door to get movin'.

How common is it for a director to oversee several big projects at once anyways?
I do not in any way blame Nomura himself alone for the severely long development time of FF Versus/XV, as there where many factors playing into it, among them the stupid decision to split up the team several times to help out with other titles like the Lightning-saga (apparently Toriyama and his team weren't able to stem it alone) and several difficulties with the engine.
There is no denying though that due to the mess that is Versus/XV, the KH series has suffered somewhat in one way or another, a situation that either the new boss of Square or Disney (or even both) simply don't want to tolerate anymore.

Another reason I can think of may be that with the advent of the HD Remasters, Square expects a substantial revival of interest in the KH series and wants to put all avaialable resources towards KH III as fast as possible, possibly regarding FF XV as advanced enough that someone different can finish it as well as "freeing" Nomura for other tasks.
Nomura may not share that opinion especially with XV being his "brainchild" mainly, but in the end he's only an employee as well.
I do not know on what terms Nomura and Tabata stand, but if it's reasonably well I can imagine that Tabata will keep Nomura's initial vision in mind when finishing FF XV even if he has to cut some corners to satisfy the upper echelons.

The only other times a director has left a final fantasy game midway through development are XII, and XIV. With XII The director was ill so he had to leave, and the director XIV was kicked out after XIV's inital launch.

I think he left because KH was his firstborn and he need to make doubly sure that everything is perfect and FF XV is probably really close to being finished now.
I'm not worried about KH III at all (at least not because of these news), hopefully FF XV really is as far along in development as it should be though, otherwise that could be a problem.

From Square Enix Europe:

I feel a little sad about that even if it means that we might get KHIII sooner. :frown:

I just cant see any reason why he should have left on his own will to be able to focus on KH3. Yes Kingdom Hearts is also his baby but it looked like he was really happy to be able to create FF15. Why would you leave one of your biggest game? I mean I would have understood it if this was after 4 or 5 years of producing this game but it really looks like the game may be out 2015/2016 so why not stick with it till the end if you managed to handle all the pressure in these long years? Even more if leaving means that you wont be credited as the director anymore.

So I think that he really had to go thanks to a decision of the company. Maybe they were not happy with him anymore. I mean you just dont strip such a position from a person that you are happy with. Especially if this means that he wont be credited as the director anymore. Being a director for two big games is not that impossible, just let the co-director do the most things for FF15 and let Nomura focus on KH3. I mean I would be so angry if they did that to me. All these years that you put your hard work in it and suddenly they make you leave with means that another one will get all the credit instead of you...

Edit:
Woah somehow that message from Square Enix europe makes me feel even worse =( I dunno why but I got a strange vibe from it..why would they write that both games would come out sooner this way? This makes it sound like the new director will make the process much faster? If it means that Nomura has to much on his plates which hinders the process of FF15 then why did they do it now and not years before?

Thanks Chaser, this statement from Square's EU division really makes the issue much more clear.

The way they word it there make it really look like that all major work that Nomura had to do with FF XV is done and the rest is more concerned with day-to-day directing and overseeing which doesn't actually require Nomura to be the one to do it.
This could also explain why Tabata was installed as a co-director to Nomura first.
They planned to "free" Nomura to move full force to KH III and other projects, thus while working together on XV Nomura actually prepared Tabata to take over in full force for the last stretch of the way that XV has to go in development.

If everything wents well, I would be cautiously optimistic that a release of FF XV in the second half of 2015 is still possible.

Ah, I don't even care about what's going to happen with both XV and KH3, since these are Nomura's babies after all.

Tabata just steps in the developing scene as a co-director to set nomura 'free' from focusing on XV while Nomura still have his marks on it, to focus on his dear children that is Kingdom hearts and possibly The world ends with you. :P

Directing two games or more all at once can halt the development cycles of each game. :/

Honestly, it's too bad that he's off XV, but it only makes sense. He hasn't been delivering quality in a timely fashion. It's business. This is only for the best.

After that EU statement I'm able to stomach this a lot better. This seems like something that could've been planned a while back where once Nomura felt he was done he could hand it off to go to his other projects. And since the demo is coming out in March, I'm positive XV will be released in 2015.

Nomura is still getting, original character design, writing, story concept and scenario credits for XV so it's not like that side of things is much of an issue, or at least shouldn't be. He will probably still get a co-director credit as well maybe despite the change?

I honestly have no idea how to feel about this. I mean, I guess the fundamentals would have been completed (story, etc.) but I can't get this deep fear out of my stomach that the game isn't going to live up to expectations anymore.

On the other hand, now we get Nomura fully working on KH3 and he's not overwhelmed anymore. I the issue of whether he left voluntarily/on good terms has been brought up, and it just feels even worse knowing there could've easily been a possibility that he was forced out.

KH3 and FFXV are both my most anticipated titles of all time, so I'm so damn torn now.

If we don't hear anything from Nomura himself about this matter any time soon it means they forced him to leave and keep the mouth shut about it. And this might be very bad not just for FFXV but for KHIII as well. I've very mixed feelings about this. Officials would say anything to defend the product, I don't trust them. Only Nomura can clear things up and I hope he'll do it.

No idea where I heard it, but I remember a year or so back something saying that when XV is far enough in development, Nomura will leave it and focus solely on KHIII. So this news doesn't surprise me, but things certainly felt...off. But the thing from Square Enix Europe clears things up, and yeah, Nomura did all he was going to do so there's no reason for him to hang around XV anymore.

It's entirely possible that Kingdom Hearts III is his very last commitment for the company and that he's going to leave when it's done. In a way, it also makes sense to end things on that note. It will be the last game in the original series saga. He will also have played a great role in the Final Fantasy series. I think he's ready to move on, the way Uematsu was.

Most people seem to be happy with this decision as well. As someone on NeoGAF pointed out, Tabata and Yoshi-P have the most respect among fans now because they have a reputation of getting things done and doing a good job.

It also seems that people have already forgotten that this game used to be co-directed by Kitase, too.

I think this is a great business move. If Nomura willingly left FFXV, the game must be in good enough shape that Nomura was comfortable leaving. But if he was forced out FFXV may be in worse shape than we have been led to believe. Either way, it means both XV and KH3 will be released sooner, which is a good thing for Square.

If SE Europe is saying that in Chaser's post then odds are Nomura's split from XV is more applicable than people may think. Like I said just because Nomura hasn't said anything himself yet is hardly a clear indicator that he was forced out. He may just not be ready to make an official announcement yet, or he's busy. Nothing is certain one way or the other and until it is everything is just speculation at this point.

but here's something to consider: if Nomura was unfairly forced out, wouldn't he just leave Square altogether and abandon kH3, especially with XV being "his baby"? Nomura doesn't have to stay for KH3. He could easily walk altogether and tell SE to GTH and they'd just put someone else on the director's seat for KH3.

either way even if it's bad for Nomura it's unfortunate but it does also mean that both games will move faster in development evidently. I'd be willing to bet money that we see XV release by summer or fall next year and KH3 will release by Spring/summer 2016 at the latest now. Which I won't lie that would be awesome since everyone agreed that we wouldn't see KH3 until likely 2017.

Dunno what to think about this news. Did he willingly leave? Did they put Tabata alongside him for a lot of time so that one day Nomura could go off to work on KH3 and Tabata would continue the work on FFXV leading to the release? Did S-E just kicked Nomura out because the development was taking too long?

I'm reading so much hate towards Nomura on other boards around the internet, like he's the worst thing that could happen to S-E.
I feel like people don't know anything about how XV's development worked, caring only about the huge delay, then they see this piece of news and go crazy on Nomura because he obviously was the bad guy and now all it's better.

Yeah I don't buy what Square Enix Europe is saying. It (and Square Enix Japan's statement) just scream damage control to me. To me it seems the higher ups at SE were getting impatient with how things we're going and moved him to KH3. Of course I could be totally wrong.

Everything about this is just too fishy. Final Fantasy XV has been Nomura's baby. Heck, he even thought of Noctis (and Sora) as his own son. With that said, he couldn't just quietly abandon the project because he got busy with other projects "more suitable for him".

This is such utter PR bullshit, when it's quite clear that SE didn't agree with Nomura's decisions, which might've delayed the game somewhat, sure, but it's still not right.

Now the FF15 we will be getting just won't be the same game we were told to expect. It's still early to tell how the final game will be, but it just feels wrong to not give Nomura his deserved credits for this game. It's his after all.

I don't blame them though. Nomura is a talented illustrator, but he is not a talented project manager. He obviously didn't do a good job with the XV project. Just to be clear, I'm not talking about his contributions to the actual game, but his ability to be in charge of and oversee the entire project. It was too big of a responsibility for him to handle, which is why he originally had Kitase to help him out and then Tabata. He continued to take on other commitments after the game had originally been announced as Versus XIII. And now he was also going to direct KH3. Working on both projects at the same time was doomed to fail. KH is a bigger priority to him than FF, yet FF is the company's main priority now, not KH.

I also think that Nomura is the kind of person who gets carried away too easily. That he's a bit of a dreamer. His ambitions for XV seemed unrealistically big and he was probably never satisfied with the prototypes they worked on. Everything had to get bigger and better and if they didn't have enough people ready to work on the game it wasn't worth working on. Just speculation of course, but I do think there's some truth to it. Tabata seems to be more business oriented. He is willing to work hard to put out a game on time, even if it means something will be sacrificed. You can't work on a project forever.

Anyway, I can definitely see Nomura leaving the company on friendly terms after KH3.

I can understand why they did this but yeah, couldn't have been fun for Nomura all after so many years of dedication (obviously, this isn't his choice to begin with). Let's hope it turns out for the best.

This is honestly shocking. This took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting this. Damn. I'm literally writing my reactions to this announcement. I was happy with SEEU's statement, but as others have noted, it's PR damage control bull. I'm back to being honestly shocked and surprised. And as others have stated, there is something fishy behind this decision. It could be that Nomura got too ambitious with the project and the management was giving him limitations and he felt repressed, or the management wanted the game as soon as possible and he still felt repressed. I wanted to post an optimistic scenario, but I can't... I wanted to believe that he left in order to focus on other projects, mainly Kingdom Hearts III. I was even thinking that, possibly, SE was getting the people behind TWEWY ready for another full entry. But with this piece of news, I think the man will leave and will forever leave the fans with whatever he wanted to do with Birth by Sleep Volume 2 and a saga after Xehanort...

And I think his ambition is a problem. He sees no limits, even though they exist. I'm sure he could have worked on this game for 10 more years before he would be satisfied. As a perfectionist myself, I can relate to that, but I also admit it's a problem because it's easy to get so lost in your ambitions that you get nothing done, because it wouldn't be perfect.

Also, I don't buy that this is going to have any impact on the game. Nomura is still responsible for its content. Just not the framework.

[QUOTE="Sign, post: 6217200, member: 89972"]Same. To be honest, I don't understand why SEEU bothered saying anything at all. It's even clearer in their statement how much fluff they threw in to try to sugar-coat the situation.

They can mention KH3 as many times as they want. It's not going to make a difference, especially considering they're at the point in development when Nomura isn't very involved. KH3 isn't going to come any faster whether he switched focus or not.[/QUOTE]

Nomura has been saying that he couldn't put KH3 in full force until he was done working on XV though. If he's no longer working on it and is focusing solely on KH3 with his team then I think it's only logical to say that KH3 will release sooner than anticipated. I'm not talking early next year or whatever, but early 2016 certainly isn't out of the question. November or December of next year may not even be impossible.


I think Nomura's whole goal was that he would put his undivided attention into XV, so that he could release it probably around May or so while the Osaka team continued to do preliminary work on KH3 with Nomura giving some direction every once in awhile. And when everything was done with XV, by next February or March or so, THEN he planned on giving his undivided attention to KH3, which is why late 2016/early 2017 was the projected release date for it. But if he's Giving 100% focus into the game now, then the Osaka team will move from preliminary development into full development earlier than expected. And preliminary development was supposedly in effect for about at least 5-6 months before KH3 was announced, so it's not like it was literally started from scratch right when it was announced.

It must not have been easy to be on Mr. Nomura's position for these past years. He was given a project where he could be "young, wild and free" in terms of creativity, but then is repressed by the constant shift of staff towards other projects. Then more repression comes when he has to balance his work as Kingdom Hearts' Director and the fact that his side-project was no relabeled as a new entry to the Final Fantasy franchise flagship main series. That possible shortage of staff suddenly reverted, but at the cost of more pressure because it's a main entry and the management want it released ASAP and creativity was given less priority.

I think Mr. Nomura feels repressed and saddened that, after all these years of sacrificing time and effort, he now has to leave behind his other baby and focus on his other son. I think KH3 will be filled with Nomura's sentiment and ideas he might have not entirely implemented on XV.

I'm not sure how to feel about this anymore. Nomura is a rather ambitious dawdler. He has a huge imagination and passion for his work but wastes so much time and gets carried away easily (I can relate.)
And like Ballad mentioned, since XV, back when it was Verses XIII, was originally a project were Nomura had the freedom to make what he pleased.
With it changed to XV, the hit of limitations a lots of pressure may have finally been to much.

Still weird we haven't been given a reason. I'll take pretty much anything as long as it's true.

Wow this was unexpected news but hopefully this means only good things for the KH series.

Here's a recap of the timeline:

Viewing Single Post - NeoGAF

Kind of puts things into perspective.

This news makes me happy (selfishly), since KH3 can finally progress--and the sooner, the better. Of course, I hope Nomura isn't upset; hopefully, he wasn't forced off, which would make anyone harbor some resentment.

Can we stop using repressed? Oppressed is the word you're looking for in this scenario lol.

This image is incredibly sad.. Like they have locked him in the nut-house. :(

btw there are 2 new tweets from the KH account

https://twitter.com/_KINGDOMHEARTS/status/512802124984377344
https://twitter.com/_KINGDOMHEARTS/status/512798480444567552

Nothing related to the departure of course, probably marketing/promo material - just in case anyone is interested.

I know official pictures of Nomura are always of his back because he doesn't like to show his face, but this is so depressing to look at. He looks so lonely ;~;

I called it but-but I didn't want to be right! At least it's not as dark as I thought it'd be. ;_;

That image is about the campaign they just launched to send people in Japan to Disney World, and the other tweet was for a review for KH2.5. Nothing relevant to his departure.

Then why is it in this thread!!!!!1!11!!!one!!??

That has to be the most depressing thing I've ever seen.

Man...I don't know how to assess this. On one hand, it's possible that Nomura was simply done with everything important that only he could have done for XV, but on the other hand, I can't help but feel like they wanted to get rid of Nomura simply so that the game could be released.

So was that image actually recently taken after the announcement? If so that is very sad indeed... either way it is kinda sad but I think I see what he's getting at.

don't see why everyone thinks that pic is depressing. he's sitting down quietly drawing one of his most beloved characters, some people enjoy such alone-ness

Oh my god he's not wearing shoes that's so stinking cute.

I'm gonna admit, when I first saw that image, I thought it was some weird game where we play as Nomura or something because of the HUD being on the image from KH O___O Why is the HUD there?!?!? Is he attacking the page?

I don't think XV will suffer at all. Quite the opposite. I believe Nomura has already contributed with everything he possibly could. According to old interviews, he's had the basic story figured out for many, many years and everything design related seems to be finished too. The only task he had left was to direct the whole thing, but I suspect he wasn't satisfied and wanted to continue adding new pieces to the puzzle. We all know how detailed his descriptions of characters and events are in the Ultimania books and such. Yet we think the games they're for are fine without this information being fed to us within the actual games. They probably have more than enough to make things work just fine, while Nomura could probably spend a couple of more years tweaking the details.

He knows how to work on Kingdom Hearts. It's his baby. Final Fantasy is not. Even if XV was going to be "his take" on the franchise. Kingdom Hearts and its massive lore wasn't built up over a day or two. It's been expanded a little bit at a time. The first game is pretty basic, but it's also more than enough for one game. I think Nomura wanted XV to be as massive and detailed as the whole Kingdom Hearts plot but that's just not realistic. As much as the lack of plot in the latest trailer makes me worry, at the end of the day I do have faith in Tabata to do a good job putting all the ingredients to good use and bake the best cake possible with them, so to speak :P

And Kingdom Hearts 3 will obviously be exactly as good as we could hope for, so no worries there. I still believe that there's a big chance it's going to be his last project as a Square Enix employee.

I just hope Nomura releases a statement towards his removal in a near future. An interviewer will most definitely bring it up on an interview related to KH3.

In the upcoming famitsu nterview about XV if they don't mention specifically why Nomura left it'll confirm my suspicions . The Japanese gaming press are essentially given questions to ask. If Nomura left willingly he should be brought up.

I'm 100% certain there's more to this story then they are telling us. The lack of a Nomura comment, and Square Enix EU's press statement is telling. If it is brought up in the famitsu interview it will certainly be the same PR response we saw from SE Japan and SE EU.

All sentimental value of XV being Nomura's baby aside, I do think this will be beneficial to both XV and KH3. Nomura has already contributed plenty to the point where it probably wouldn't be changed too drastically from his vision and I trust Tabata to do his best.

After giving this a great deal of thought I think this can only be what's best for everyone involved.

Nomura now doesn't have to worry about FFXV, which seemed to be extremely exhausting and tiring for him. I understand it was his "baby", but I think he's in a "been there, done that" mentality at this point. And honestly, I feel like he's secretly relieved because now he has more time to devote to KH, his family and his life in general.

It'll be good for both games because they will now both release sooner due to 2 different teams/directors having involvement.

It will also be good for Square because they will obviously make more money sooner this way.

I see it as a win/win/win scenario.

You are probably right about it being the best for both games, but I'm just wondering why he was replaced? If this was decision Nomura agreed with why didn't he have a quote about this?

I agree. It probably was on bad terms. And I doubt we'll ever get a clear answering exactly why he left. Unless Nomura leaves the company and spills the beans.

I reckon there's a possibility that there's more to this than meets the eye. Someone higher up (not that there are necessarily too many more people higher up than Nomura) probably told him to switch over because let's face it, both games have made fairly glacial progress. FXV has been in development since 2006 (for the last generation of consoles) and still doesn't look very close to coming out, and whilst KH3 hasn't been in development anywhere near as long (does anyone know for sure how long KH3 has been in development?), it's been almost 9 years since KH2 came out and KH3 has somehow managed to skip an entire console generation.

I'm worried that KH3 didn't even make an appearance, even in video form, at Square's TGS conference. I possibly think rather than Nomura being removed from XV, it was more like he was moved over to III to get the game hurried along. Tabata has been co-directing since 2013, so perhaps there was a thought last year that Tabata would be brought on to eventually become the main director of the game? This then allows Nomura to finish work on his franchise without any distractions. Let's be honest, Nomura was trying to direct two huge games at the same time, and that is why both games are making glacial progress. By having him focus on KH, the game should get made a lot faster, and that's what we all want isn't it?

Based on new interviews with Tabata, I'm certain Nomura was used as a scapegoat. And while he himself isn't blameless in making Versus XIII development hell, the Management was just as bad.

Nomura made a single comment in Famitsu about this issue, confirming that it was a decision made by the company and not himself.

Doesn't look like he's allowed to, unfortunately.

I'm expecting he'll leave the company altogether in the not-too-distant future.

See: Matsuno, Tanaka, etc.

It's only been week and we're already planning Nomura's retirement.

*crying*

Well, I like that we know something about it now, but this just sucks. I hope it was simply a "hey, we noticed there isn't really anything for you on this game anymore so we want your full attention on KHIII now." But everyday we don't know what really went down I keep thinking major crap happened.

maybe because KH3 have alot of work they still gone add new soundtracks new story new opening new heartless new worlds new keyblades new magics and many more maybe thats why he left FFXV because KH3 still have many things not finish and nomura need time to think of xehanort saga plot since the story already confusing lol and FFxv look like gone be done before KH3 since we saw many trailers and cutscenes

There's so much pessimism in this thread, let's not kiss Nomura goodbye before any confirmation ...

Assuming Nomura leaves and SE/Disney decide to continue with Kingdom Hearts, I hope the franchise is given to good hands.

Whoa, one statement and we're already thinking Nomura is leaving? o_0 (though I wouldn't put it past him)

don't know if you've noticed already but these beliefs are based after much more than just "one statement".

who knows what will happen? nomura's doesn't share the same mindset of most devs

This has nothing to do with the topic but since Lnds posted one of the earlier images a few pages ago, we might as well continue with it here and brighten up the doom and gloom.



HE SLACKED OFF THIS IS TOO CUTE


(note: the activated command in the action menu is "slack off" lol)

Aw Tetsu, I want to give you a giant hug.

NOMURA STOP BEING PERFECT. Somebody should have put his cats in the photo.

;~; <3

Oh man. Nomura looks so happy. :) I would like to see more pictures when Nomura is drawing, his art is good! Just wondering, but do you guys think he is drawing the KH1 style Sora? I wish he would make more pictures of the KH2 version too.

If Nomura does decide to leave SE in the future, maybe he should go over to Konami and team up with Hideo Kojima. I'd love to see how he'd handle Metal Gear Solid's already convoluted but awesome storyline lol.

Oh I hadn't even thought of konami. To be honest I could definitely see Kojima being one, if not the first to offer him a job if he ever left square. They are good friends after all.

I'm a bit disappointed but it's good to see Nomura back on the KH wagon :)

He does seem to be upset about it. I don't blame him for being upset about it. But, holy shit did a lot of anti Nomira statements come out of the woodwork.

I guess Final Fantasy XV is...

*puts on sunglasses*

Tetsuya No-more-a.

I heard KH3 might not be out till 2019...scary thought

Mmmm...I'm thinking you trust the words of youtubers too much. Square Enix hasn't even given out a release date

May 2015 is just when the latest financial report or w/e ends. That document was released and there was nothing about KH3 or FFXV on it so everyone jumped the gun and yelled that KH3 won't be out until after that, which was very obvious.

I'm going to have faith in the YouTubers for now despite them obviously knowing nothing because... well... 2019 is more horribly depressing than scary ×_×*

release date out you trust those ansewrs two but don't worry it's not on 2019

I still have faith that it'll be 2016, Exactly 10 years....10 YEARS! After Kingdom Hearts 2.

I should point out that I don't actually believe it'll be here in 2015 or 2019. 2015 is more of an 'I'll be pleasantly surprised but not bloody likely' and 2019 is like a 'Seriously guys get your shit together!'

Personally expecting mid 2016 and thinking 2017 is pushing it.

Trusting YouTubers is definitely faith-based :p Evidence be damned when it comes to wishful thinking.

do you guys remember the "expect a long wait between FFXV and KH3" news last year? do you think that gap is now smaller since KH3 is now using a different engine and got its director back?

I'm excited to hear this. Means they are putting some serious time into KH3. But, being a fan of Final Fantasy as well. I really hope Hajime can fill his shoes. though he was previously co directing i hope he sticks with whatever they were doing. I have not played type O. so i have nothing to compare by.

Either way I hope both games come soon. Clips i've seen of both are driving me mad.

as for when it comes out. I have a feeling it will probably be mid to late 2016 even though it was being said that it was going to come out late this year. I don't think thats likely. 2016 or 17 seem likely but who knows how much is developed on Kingdom hearts three.

I think Final Fantasy 15 will be out before KH 3