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News ► Nomura: "There is no connection between" Kingdom Hearts III and NEO: TWEWY



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Chaser

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Ever since Sora landed in a version of Shibuya in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts III, fans have wondered if it'll lead to a bigger cross-over between the Kingdom Hearts series and The World Ends With You.

The two series have previously met, with Sora and Riku interacting with the main characters from The World Ends With You in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. With the announcement of a sequel to The World Ends With You and the introduction to Quadratum in Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind and Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory it looked like the two series might become companion series after all. That is, until Tetsuya Nomura shot the idea down.

Speaking with gamekult in a paywalled article, the question was posed if a multiverse between the two series was emerging:

The hidden ending of Kingdom Hearts III seems to open the door to a multiverse between the two franchises. Will NEO The World Ends with You continue in this direction?

Tetsuya Nomura: There is no connection between the two. The area seen in Kingdom Hearts III and the Shibuya in NEO The World Ends with You are two completely different places.

The question was also posed by Gamepro, to which Nomura gave the same response:

When asked if NEO: TWEWY will include elements from Kingdom Hearts 3, Nomura, after a brief pause for thought, tersely and firmly replies, "No, no. Absolutely not." At the same time, his colleagues laugh. According to him, both Shibuyas are independent worlds.

NEO: The World Ends With You releases July 27 2021 on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. The Kingdom Hearts series is currently on a new game hiatus and it is unknown when the next game in the series will be announced. The entire series is currently playable on PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5, Xbox One / Series S / Series X, and on PC via the Epic Games Store.

Follow Kingdom Hearts Insider on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates on all things Kingdom Hearts and The World Ends With You!

 

Form Oblivion

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AH thank goodness. But now I'm getting more curious about this 'Kingdom Hearts Shibuya' lol
 

Chie

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I think anyone who views this kind of thing in a completely linear way is missing the point. And sadly, even artist statements like this are usually used by people to back up that kind of linear viewpoint. (Not that I'm blaming Nomura, since you pretty much have to put it like this in interviews.) So people will continue being weird about it in new ways.

Like if I'm understanding the topic right, the real question here is "is Shin Twewy secretly going to end up being a continuation of Kingdom Hearts", and I already didn't think that was going to be the case. But then there are some elements of Quadratum that are definitely references to the TWEWY conception of Tokyo, and I'd be really annoyed if people began saying "those are complete coincidence because Nomura said so" (which they already do due to people not understanding how japanese works).

The thing is that Square has always done this kind of cross-series idea sharing, like Biggs and Wedge showing up in Chrono Trigger, or the numerous shared plot points between Chrono Cross and Xenogears (Xenogears also has alt versions of FFVI characters in it), or even putting a "Cid" in a Dragon Quest spin-off after the merger. But I guess the word "connection" can only mean a linear story continuation to fandoms.

Of course, I think most people bizarrely think Nomura directs the TWEWY games (as well as numerous FF games he only did characters for), so that might be the real problem here.
 

Cumguardian69

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But le wild ride demands it so!

Oh well. Glad to finally get some closure on that topic but why would he highlight 109 in the secret ending?
 

GreyouTT

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Didn't he already say it wasn't the same Shibuya just after 3 was out? Why did people think they'd be connected?
 
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I would say "Well he's only speaking in reference to NEO's Shibuya and not the OG game" but I'd prolly sound nuts.

If he did mean TWEWY as a whole, then why have Sora wake up the same way as Neku?

Why have 104 with the same font as TWEWY's instead of a different number?

Didn't he already say it wasn't the same Shibuya just after 3 was out? Why did people think they'd be connected?
He said a cryptic thing about how it's spelled not in kanji but in katakana just like TWEWY's Shibuya then. He didn't say "they're not the same" in that interview.
 

Sign

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The thing is that Square has always done this kind of cross-series idea sharing, like Biggs and Wedge showing up in Chrono Trigger,
This is a Star Wars reference.
 

Chaser

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Didn't he already say it wasn't the same Shibuya just after 3 was out? Why did people think they'd be connected?
The quickly put together box art for Neo TWEWY using several recycled art assets had people thinking it was all connected due to the sky from the KH3 box art being reused. People were tweeting shit like “one sky, one destiny” because of it.

This pissed TWEWY fans off because it looked like people only cared for TWEWY because it was connected to KH rather than it being a game and series in its own right.

But now Nomura has rested the idea so I hope both KH and TWEWY fans all calm down.
 

GreyouTT

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He said a cryptic thing about how it's spelled not in kanji but in katakana just like TWEWY's Shibuya then. He didn't say "they're not the same" in that interview.
Nomura: It does look like it. But there's more meaning in the fact that it is not Shibuya (written with kanji), but Shibuya (written with katakana).
I feel like that's saying they aren't the same.
 
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I feel like that's saying they aren't the same.
I honestly have no idea what to take away from that quote because of how vague it is.

Plus he brought up that friggin promise to Neku from DDD while specifying the katakana thing again while at the same time saying it's not directly connected to the secret ending.

At this point I'm kinda wishing TWEWY wasn't in DDD at all.
 

Idreamaboutcats

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Yeah, no shit. The ultimania (was it the ultimania, or something else? I forgot) pitch wasn't talking about the TWEWY and KH canon intersecting, it just talks about Neku and Sora's sorta promise to see each other again. It was a given there'd be no direct intersection; Disney would never allow it, cameos maybe, but a true crossover, I don't think so. What the premise meant then and now is, will KH's version of Neku (who most likely lived in that version of Shibuya(Quadratum?)) ever meet with Sora again, not will TWEWY Neku ever meet Sora?
THANK GOD. Now everyone can calm their tits, KH fans chill with the crazy and TWEWY fans stop being so hostile.

Twewy fans are upset? Wow...so much for gratitude and credit. They realize without CoM in GBA, Twewy would've had no foundation, right, just like without FF and Bouncer, KH wouldn't be, or at least be very different? Honestly, some people. The KH fans going crazy is also weird, though. How hard is it to appreciate games for what they are without going all tinfoil insane? There isn't, and never will be, some sort of "Nomura-verse."

For the fans out there who really want to know it like it is, look, there is A Shibuya in KH, KH!Neku said as much, and it's possibly the one in Quadratum going by the Ultimania interview, but it's not THE Shibuya of TWEWY.
 

Sign

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Twewy fans are upset? Wow...so much for gratitude and credit. They realize without CoM in GBA, Twewy would've had no foundation, right, just like without FF and Bouncer, KH wouldn't be, or at least be very different? Honestly, some people. The KH fans going crazy is also weird, though. How hard is it to appreciate games for what they are without going all tinfoil insane? There isn't, and never will be, some sort of "Nomura-verse."
Yeah, they're not happy that a lot of the discussion around this game is dominated by KH fans who are mostly interested in how it ties into the series. And like, I get it, it sucks to see that your favorite, underrated game isn't being respected for what it is, but it's not like this is being done maliciously. People are just excited and over-eager (and ignorant). Take the time to inform them of what's what and it'll be good.

There are also some who are... not really welcoming to people who learned about TWEWY through KH. Like they view them as illegitimate or lesser fans compared to those who were introduced to the game via the original or one of its many ports. It's very toxic.
 

Chie

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Someone brought up the Ultimania quote and I'm still not sure why this is so easily misinterpreted except that people just don't know Japanese and it's tripping them up.

He says that Neku promised to meet Sora in Kana!Shibuya. He then says that the Shibuya in KH3 is not Kanji!Shibuya, but Kana!Shibuya. KH-Neku's Shibuya and Quadratum's Shibuya are written the same, not differently. For some reason, I have seen numerous people state that he's saying that Neku's and Quadratum's are spelled differently. That is objectively the opposite of what is written there. (FTR, it was spelled in kana in DDD as well.)

That doesn't necessarily make them literally the same, it could just be a way to denote a "KH version of Shibuya" in general or other similar idea, plus we don't know much about how Quadratum even works at all yet.

The thing is, even going down that line of thought, Shibuya is spelled with kanji in TWEWY itself (at least in the sources I'm looking at). So as easy as it was to interpret DDD this way, I don't think that the KH versions of the TWEWY cast were ever the "canon" versions, as this spelling difference was established from the beginning. And so, none of this was ever going to have too much bearing on Shin Twewy (aside from more shared ideas, i.e. Shinjuku being important to both Twewy and Quadratum).

This is a Star Wars reference.
There has been a miscommunication if I suggested that I didn't know that. When you do the same reference twice in a row, it is now a double reference, I would say.
 

Alpha Baymax

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The quickly put together box art for Neo TWEWY using several recycled art assets had people thinking it was all connected due to the sky from the KH3 box art being reused. People were tweeting shit like “one sky, one destiny” because of it.

This pissed TWEWY fans off because it looked like people only cared for TWEWY because it was connected to KH rather than it being a game and series in its own right.

But now Nomura has rested the idea so I hope both KH and TWEWY fans all calm down.
To be fair, Kingdom Hearts 3D was the first introduction for TWEWY for a lot of fans and the cast from that game have been more connected to the original plot of Kingdom Hearts than the Final Fantasy characters were so I could see why some people were adamant about a deeper connection between the two properties.
 

Idreamaboutcats

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Well, TWEWY multiverse is a thing, so some fans can make-believe if they want a crossover.
 

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Haha, well looks like we can finally put this to rest. TBH, I'm not too surprised, as I kinda figured this was the case from the beginning. Especially after the world ended up being named something far different from Shibuya. Admittedly, I wouldn't have minded seeing the TWEWY crew again, but oh well.
 
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Crazy how like the one Square character in all of KH that's hinted at to be the actual original version of themselves from their respective game is Auron.
 

Chie

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Haha, well looks like we can finally put this to rest. TBH, I'm not too surprised, as I kinda figured this was the case from the beginning. Especially after the world ended up being named something far different from Shibuya. Admittedly, I wouldn't have minded seeing the TWEWY crew again, but oh well.
I wouldn't say seeing the cast again is deconfirmed at all, it just will be on KH's own terms instead of having to do with the new TWEWY game.
Also, Quadratum seems to be at least two cities within Tokyo (Shibuya and Shinjuku), so I'd bet the Shibuya part is still named Shibuya.
 
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