That being said, Kingdom Hearts 3’s announcement came with a lot of questions. Since only a brief CG trailer accompanied the reveal, many were wondering how far along into development the sequel might be, and more importantly when they might see it on store shelves.

Then, at last month’s D23 Expo, Square Enix subtly revealed that Kingdom Hearts 3 is about two years into development, along with confirming that Big Hero 6 would feature into the game’s story. Now, the game’s director, Tetsuya Nomura, has chimed in (via Games Radar) with his own development update, once again echoing sentiments that Kingdom Hearts 3 might be further away than we think

According to Nomura, the “ground foundations” of Kingdom Hearts 3 have been established and now it’s time for the “mass production of the different elements.” So, things like mini-games, character models, designing the Disney-inspired worlds like Tangled, and figuring out some of the more bombastic Summons are still left on the to-do list.

Given that Nomura’s quotes tend to be quite cryptic, it’s hard to truly glean how much of Kingdom Hearts 3 is finished. It sounds as though the game has most of its core concepts hammered down, but whether or not something is playable is unclear. We’ve seen some gameplay videos of Kingdom Hearts 3 in the past, but again it’s unclear whether those are proof of concept or live gameplay.

The good news, though, is that the Kingdom Hearts 3 is up to the task when it comes to developing such a highly anticipated sequel. According to Nomura, the remasters, handheld titles, and various other Kingdom Hearts side projects have all helped the team better understand the property. There’s obviously a lot of pressure surrounding Kingdom Hearts 3, and rather than throw those developers into the water, Nomura wanted to ease them in with smaller projects first.

It’s a tactic that inevitably left the fan base waiting, but could prove beneficial to the quality of Kingdom Hearts 3 overall. However, even if Nomura hadn’t put his team through the KH gauntlet, we’re sure that the project would have taken some time to come together. Square Enix loves making its fans wait; just look at how long Final Fantasy 15 (formerly Final Fantasy Versus 13) has been in development.

Source: Games Radar