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

[Oracle Spockanort]

Lol if it makes anybody feel better, KH’s Shibuya (the one Neku references, not Quadratum lol) is just one of millions of versions of Shibuya that are connected to each other based on TWEWY’s theory of alternate realities.

I will admit back when the Ultimania interview released, I was absolutely one of those people, but I mellowed out after realizing Nomura isn’t building a direct multiverse between his series (TWEWY, WoFF) but just a shared concept, especially after ReMind released.

I absolutely think we’re going to get a KH reference but it’ll be a tongue-in-cheek quote or a vaguely vague piece of graffiti. References are easy and commitment-free.

Also TWEWY deserves to be seen on its own, but I also don’t think TWEWY fans should be so dismissive of KH fans when they just want to enjoy the game as well. It’s like FF or Disney fans gatekeeping KH fans because they learned about these characters from KH instead of letting them enjoy these things in their own way.

I’ve been a TWEWY fan since the first time it appeared in Weekly Shounen Jump so many years ago as a blurry scan and my Japanese copy of the game sits proudly on my shelf completed because I was worried it would never get localized. I know what it is like to be a TWEWY fan left out to dry for years. I get that this is our moment, finally, but I don’t mind sharing it with KH fans if it means bringing in new fans. If that means dealing with the endless theories and speculation, I’m cool with it. Just makes it more fun to discuss.

I just want KH fans to not get their hopes up for something. KH is the nexus point for things to crossover, not the other way around.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Double post but lol this news has had the opposite effect on fans hahaha

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

KH3 Shibuya being a different Shibuya is believable, but both boxarts having the same sky colors just by coincidence isn't.

Verum Rex was also supposed to be a different thing from FF Versus13 and then we got that secret ending...

 

[Idreamaboutcats]

Guys, guys, don’t get all fussy about it and relax. It’s still technically Shibuya. It’s A Shibuya, just not THE Shibuya. Nomura says the name in the ultimania, albeit in kana characters, and there’s a billboard in the Verum Rex ad that spells out Shibuya in the Latin alphabet. It’s probably what the locals call a district/ward of Quadratum, kinda like how the Emperor calls the Land of Dragons “China.”

With that said, fan culture is gross if you jump into the rabbit hole. Just look into it, don’t actually go in it.

Verum Rex was also supposed to be a different thing from FF Versus13 and then we got that secret ending...

But…it is a different thing. Nomura’s just rehashing scrapped concepts he never got to explore because of that fiasco with Tabata. It’s his artistic license to do so…and maybe a little bit of spite.

Someone remind me again, wasn’t the kana writing of Shibuya also used in TWEWY itself though? I’m not saying they’re definitely the same, just that I heard somewhere that the writing was used to refer to the underground, so I need a confirmation. I’ve never played TWEWY myself because there were a lot of other DS games back then that distracted me.

 

[Liodin]

Come on guys, you know how it goes with Nomura, we can't believe anything he says.
He has too long a track record of lies to continue to believe what he tells us

Knowing him, it is possible that what he means is that they are not DIRECTLY connected, so what he is telling us is true, but that in (un)reality TWEWY is connected to Verum Rex and this one to KH, acting as a link between the two.

But the truth is that we will not know until the game comes out.

 

[AegisXIII]

There might be no connection from TWEWY towards Kingdom hearts, but there might be a connection from Kingdom Hearts towards TWEWY. See, this is a classic grammatical japanese subtext. In the original interview we can see he uses the letters こんにちは which can be translated as "not yet but maybe in the near distant future if anyone buys our game" and...
No I am complately making things up at this point.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Honestly I don't really get what the fuss is about.

The Final Fantasy characters featured in KH are not the actual Final Fantasy characters you see in the original FF games or Dissidia entries but just similar individuals having the same name and similar appearances.
They're native and "unique" to the KH universe and have nothing to do with the actual characters from the original/true FF universe even if there are some similarities in back stories or personalities.

The same goes for the TWEWY characters first featured in Dream Drop Distance, they aren't the exact same people featured in the original TWEWY game.

 

[Launchpad]

I don't think there will come a point in NeoTWEWY where it's like... "here is an explicit reference to KINGDOM HEARTS, we are in a shared universe with KINGDOM HEARTS". I think it'll play it very much like its own game, referential only to itself, as it should. People have been wanting this for a long time.

But every single part of me believes the same sky on the box art is indicative that the next Kingdom Hearts game will be, in some way, referential toward NeoTWEWY. Considering Quadratum seems more and more to be 'the land of Nomura's video game concepts', I think imagery and ideas from NeoTWEWY will make it into that world.

 

[Idreamaboutcats]

Honestly I don't really get what the fuss is about.

The Final Fantasy characters featured in KH are not the actual Final Fantasy characters you see in the original FF games or Dissidia entries but just similar individuals having the same name and similar appearances.
They're native and "unique" to the KH universe and have nothing to do with the actual characters from the original/true FF universe even if there are some similarities in back stories or personalities.

The same goes for the TWEWY characters first featured in Dream Drop Distance, they aren't the exact same people featured in the original TWEWY game.

This.

We’re not going to see Subaseka!Neku running around in KH. We’re going to see the “localized” reinterpreted version of him from 3D and the Neo cast under a KH title in the future, IF we’re lucky anyway…

 

[Chie]

I’m not saying they’re definitely the same, just that I heard somewhere that the writing was used to refer to the underground, so I need a confirmation.

Oh shit I actually forgot about that when I made my post, so I guess I'll say here "my post is non-definitive on the kana issue", because I'm not sure myself.

Though I feel like the way KH uses it could be different*, since idk if people who left Shibuya to go somewhere else would keep referring to it specifically as the UG. But I don't know how the characters talk in general in the JP TWEWY, so idk.

*I would guess the reason for it is that "Japan" itself does not exist in KH, and thus all permutations of Shibuya are divorced from the context that would create cities with kanji names. Hence Shibuya in Quadratum (and wherever Neku + co are from if it's not that) is just a series of sounds.

 

[Launchpad]

Hot(?) take, on the subject of TWEWY/Kingdom Hearts.

DDD was horrible. Square Enix characters showing up strictly in cutscenes and having absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay is worse than them not showing up at all. Sure, Neku, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and Joshua all showed up in DDD... But did they really? I never had to do anything in the game that had anything to do with them. If they ever show up again, I hope Nomura realizes this half assed approach to including characters isn't going to cut it.

 

[Squood!]

So that kanji/katakana quote meant "Not the original game's Shibuya but DDD's Shibuya".

And here I thought it meant "Not our Shibuya but TWEWY Shibuya"


...of course Spocknoot brought up how TWEWY has like a multiverse of Shibuyas so technically IS TWEWY Shibuya buuuuuuuuuuuut

 

[Idreamaboutcats]

I don’t even know anymore.

I’m still getting the game though. It’s probably gonna be the first SE game for my PS5. Reviews shot Balan Wonderworld to hell, the Nier remaster has a really weird trophy and is WAAAAAAAAY too depressing to play in a world gone mad and stupid, and LiS:TC comes out in September so this’ll come out first.

Gotta remember to buy the original one for switch…or I can just watch the anime.

 

[Zettaflare]

Not really surprised since I figured KH's Shibuya would be its own separate entity after MoM. Though I'm disappointed since I was looking forward to Sora playing the Reaper's game and getting to have Noises, lol

Still hope we get to see TWEWY characters again in the future

 

[Xoirma]

Sure, Neku, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and Joshua all showed up in DDD... But did they really?

Joshua was the only one who “canonically” met Sora. The rest of them were dream projections of the characters.

 

[Perkilator]

Even if KH Shibuya is different, I wouldn't put it past Nomura to put KH versions of NEO characters in future games.

 

[Launchpad]

Joshua was the only one who “canonically” met Sora. The rest of them were dream projections of the characters.

I'm not talking about the story of Kingdom Hearts, when I question if the characters were in the game, I'm referring to the fact that their appearance is entirely relegated to non-gameplay segments.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Joshua was the only one who “canonically” met Sora. The rest of them were dream projections of the characters.

Eeeh, not really. This is different from the other dream worlds where the inhabitants were projections from the dreams of those worlds.

The TWEWY characters Sora and Riku meet were reformed by Joshua after "something" destroyed Shibuya in the KH universe. Joshua essentially was recreating Shibuya and his friends in Traverse Town from the fragments that remained and Rhyme's dream.

They are very real, but not the originals that died when the Shibuya in KH's universe was destroyed. I would imagine if Sora were to ever visit the Shibuya Neku mentions in a future KH game, they would absolutely remember him while others like say Quasimodo wouldn't.

 

[redcrown]

All the criticisms of TWEWY's characters implementation in DDD is completely valid, but it's hard for me to dislike their inclusion completely since the interactions between Riku and Joshua were glorious. I just wished most of their dialogue wasn't mostly about explaining the lore mechanics.

Also I'm wondering if the TWEWY cast ever show up in KH again, how will their designs be changed to match the updated models of the KH characters? Neku and Shiki will look even more emaciated if they're not remodeled.

 

[Hirokey123]

I do not believe this man, he's double speaking or carefully choosing his words. Neo:TWEWY might not have KH in it and I'm skeptical of that being the case because it's perfect another day style content, but you won't convince me that Neo:TWEWY isn't going to bleed in KH. This also the man who says Verum Rex isn't connected/related to the FF VSXIII that was never made, and anyone with eyes and ears can tell you that's a lie.

Why did he have get terse and pause? Because that's what Nomura always does when he needs to tell a half truth, when he's carefully deciding how to word things. You're going to tell me that artwork background is a coincidence, that you bothered to use TWEWY's iconic 104 version of shibuya, and also just coincidentally showed Shinjuku being destroyed in BOTH universes? Not. on. your. life. Even he is telling the truth I will feel no remorse to doubting him.