Today, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has released a brand-new interview with Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue. The interview focuses on a lot of things, from the size of Kingdom Hearts IV's script to some of the things that were shown in the trailer.
Together with KH13 translator corfidbizna, we've translated some of the more important points of the interview. We plan to update this article as we dive deeper into the interview itself.
[UPDATE - 27/08/2026 - We have updated the translation with some new details, and rearranged some of the points.]
1. Japanese voice-overs have already been recorded, with English recordings still ongoing. Tai Yasue mentions they're about 60 to 70% done. According to Nomura, Kingdom Hearts IV’s script is nearly double the size of Kingdom Hearts III.
Interviewer: [During the D23 panel], we saw pictures of [David Gallagher and Haley Joel Osment] recording the voiceover for the original Kingdom Hearts. I could feel the history from that picture alone. (laughs). How has been the process of recording the voice-over for Kingdom Hearts IV? [...]
Tai Yasue: The English voices are currently being recorded. There are a lot of lines to go through, and due to the time difference between overseas and Japan, it's been quite hectic. (laughs). However, I would say about 60 to 70% of the overseas recordings are done.
Nomura: Incidentally, all the Japanese voice over has been recorded.
Interviewer: Ohhh! Sounds like you’re making great progress!
Nomura: However, the volume of the script for Kingdom Hearts IV is nearly double* that of Kingdom Hearts III, so recording has been quite grueling. I keep wanting to put in more and more, but we’ve perhaps already exceeded our limits.
*Translator's note: Nomura uses the word 2倍弱, which is an expression commonly used for when something is nearly double.
2. Development of Kingdom Hearts IV is progressing smoothly, with no risk of a delay
Interviewer: Could we get your thoughts on the Showcase? The trailer there started with a scene of Miguel playing music, then the Heartless appeared, and that's when it was first revealed to be a Kingdom Hearts IV trailer… that was how it flowed.
Nomura: That played out exactly as I intended. I wanted to create a setup right from the start where people would think: "Wait, is this just a game adaptation of Coco?" only to realize it was actually Kingdom Hearts IV.
Interviewer: The crowd went absolutely wild.
Nomura: I was thrilled that they were so excited—it even made me tear up a bit... But to tell you the truth, editing this trailer was harder than it's ever been. We were working on it right down to the wire.
Yasue: It really was incredibly tough.
Interviewer: Really? What made it so difficult?
Nomura: The overall impression changes drastically based on the combination of facial animations and lighting, so adjusting that was our main hurdle. When a previously revealed character model is shown later and people say, "The modeling changed," it's usually not the model itself that changed, but the lightning.
Yasue: The model itself might look fine on its own, but if the angle changes slightly, or the lighting and camera angles shift, the impression can be completely different. Whenever that happened, Nomura would step in… pointing out that it looks good as a still image, but looks weird in motion.
Nomura: I'd be saying things like, "Right here… ah, pause it. Don't the wrinkles at the edge of this eyelid look weird?"
Interviewer: So you're doing extremely meticulous checks.
Yasue: It's thanks to those checks that I feel our quality has been skyrocketing, which I think you can feel when watching this trailer. Even the Pixar animators complimented us, saying, "There isn't any other game out there that looks this close to a feature film."
Interviewer: It sounds like the fine-tuning is quite a task. Given that, is there any possibility that the late 2027 release window could be delayed…?
Nomura: The staff has kept up with my strict standards, and in some areas, they are even more particular than I am… However, as I mentioned at the panel, the release timing will not be delayed.
Yasue: Development is progressing more smoothly than ever before in the history of the Kingdom Hearts series, so please rest assured on that front.
Nomura: Setting the release window aside, our internal deadlines are quite early. So much so, that it goes way beyond just having a standard development buffer. That's also why this trip was basically a quick one.
3. Kingdom Hearts IV’s worlds are some of the biggest we’ve ever seen in the series yet, but Nomura also seems to imply that they're shorter in length.
Interviewer: The reason you chose to include Coco as a world in Kingdom Hearts IV is because the theme of the world of the dead links up with KH4, right?
Nomura: That's right. I absolutely wanted to include it in Kingdom Hearts IV. This was actually something I had decided very early into development, so I believe development started on this world earlier than any other.
Yasue: And because of that, it's the world furthest along in development. Mexico as a setting, along with its music, gives it a completely different vibe compared to previous Kingdom Hearts worlds, making it feel very fresh, doesn't it?
Interviewer: Definitely. The town's atmosphere is colorful and vibrant.
Yasue: Exactly. It's flashy, and since the characters in that world are skeletons, they move in a slightly peculiar way. And we are building the town with a lot of things you can use to traverse the environment. You can spin around, climb aggressively… the town is ridiculously huge with tons of exploration elements. The level of detail in the environments is greater than ever before.
Interviewer: Oh ho…
Yasue: I can't give specifics yet, but just moving around is incredibly fun.
Interviewer: The combat also features a team-up attack with Héctor, which feels very Kingdom Hearts.
Yasue: Yes. You aren't just swinging a Keyblade; you use a guitar, and we've incorporated musical elements into the battles. There are also many other mysteries… but well, I can't say any more about the elements we have in store (laughs).
Nomura: The level of detail poured into each world in Kingdom Hearts IV is the highest in the series. Because of that, the total number of worlds isn't large. Since we revealed the Coco world at the Showcase the day before the panel, I saw some people speculating on whether we would announce another world. But if we announce things at such a rapid pace, we'll run out of information long before the release date (laughs). However, what we showed this time is truly just a small fraction of the game. Since D23 was such a great opportunity, we decided to give a sneak peek of the Coco world a bit earlier than we originally planned. We will have opportunities to showcase it in detail later, so please look forward to future updates.
4. The Dandelions and their involvement in Kingdom Hearts IV
Interviewer: Besides that, the trailer included a section that implied Sora belonged to the Dandelions, and we also have a Xigbar-ish black coated figure showing up with Young Xehanort... To borrow King Mickey's phrasing [from the trailer], this is a lot of new information! (laughs). What exactly are the Dandelions in this game? Is Sora trying to return to his original world as a member of the Dandelions?
*Interviewer's Note: In Kingdom Hearts Union X[Cross], the Dandelions were a secret group of Keyblade Wielders chosen by Master Ava to carry the torch after the Keyblade War. They were very prominent in the mobile game.
Nomura: This will obviously be new to players starting with this game, and probably to those who only follow the numbered titles, but the Dandelions are an organization of elite Keyblade wielders from the χ series. In this game, the Dandelions exist in a form where they cooperate with the Quadratum government, and basically, all Keyblade wielders who have come to this world, including Sora, have joined them. We'll reveal more details about them at a later date.
5. Sigurd is becoming quite popular with the development team
Interviewer: The scenes in Quadratum also had several intriguing new additions. First, the masked Keyblade wielder's name is Vali. The other was called Sigurd. Vali appeared in the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union χ Dark Road, and Sigurd briefly appeared in Kingdom Hearts Union χ, but...
Nomura: Kingdom Hearts IV is, in a way, a story that exists within the flow of the "χ (chi) series" (refers to the mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Unchained X, which got later rebranded to Union X Dark Road). Those who played the mobile games to the end might recognize Vali and Sigurd, but please don't worry—even if you haven't played them, the game will depict exactly what kind of people they are.
Interviewer: To begin with, their appearances in the mobile games were so sparse, that we didn't really know what kind of characters they were (laughs). They feel almost like brand-new characters. However, Sigurd's name also appeared in your hidden 20th-anniversary message, so he certainly seems suspicious (laughs).
Nomura: I'm actually quite fond of Sigurd.
Yasue: Sigurd is definitely great (laughs). He adds a lot of flavor. I like him too.
Interviewer: Wait, why are both of you praising him all of a sudden!?
Nomura: It's kind of an "Oh, is that what you meant by 'keep an eye on him'?" situation (laughs).
Interviewer: Huh!? I thought he was going to be a character with some hidden agenda. Is he more of an endearing, hard-to-hate type of character…?
Yasue: He's probably a character type we haven't seen in Kingdom Hearts before. His fanbase is rapidly growing internally among the staff, too (laughs).
Nomura: We haven't announced it yet, but the voice actor's performance plays a huge role. He has fantastic intuition and delivered acting that exceeded our expectations*.
*Translator's note: I’m not sure whether he’s talking about the Japanese or the English voiceover.
Interviewer: It sounds like we really need to keep an eye on Sigurd in more ways than one (laughs). I'm also very curious about who his voice actor is. Also, Riku appeared in the extended version of the trailer, and the crowd went completely wild.
Nomura: They got so hyped that Kairi's subsequent line was completely drowned out (laughs).
Famitsu: Ah, so that line was Kairi! I’ll be honest, I couldn't hear it over the cheering of the audience (laughs).
Nomura: During the trailer premiere at the panel, it seemed like the video was cut off before the title appeared at the very end. We actually recorded the English voice lines specifically for this trailer in advance (laughs). I hope the people who were at the venue watch it again on YouTube to hear it.
6. A “real-life Jiminy’s Journal”
Interviewer: I see…
Nomura: As you know, as the Kingdom Hearts series has continued, the cast of characters has inevitably grown, and the story has become incredibly complex. For example, with the newly announced animated series, there are more external partners involved in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and explaining the lore and scenario to them every time has become quite a heavy burden.
Interviewer: To be honest, even having played the games myself, there are parts I forget sometimes (laughs).
Nomura: Fortunately, there is a staff member from the "χ series" team who has been meticulously organizing and summarizing the past lore of the Kingdom Hearts series into an easy-to-understand format. They were also in charge of explaining the scenario and lore to Disney. Actually, early in the development of Kingdom Hearts IV, Disney specifically requested them to compile reference documents, so I officially had them join the Kingdom Hearts IV team as our designated proofreader.
Interviewer: Oh, is that the person you mentioned during the panel?
Nomura: Correct. They used to come to me to confirm extremely minor details every time they had to explain something to Disney. They incorporate diagrams and such to explain things as clearly as possible, which Disney has received very well. Their internal role is scenario proofing. In other words, their job is to check and ensure there are no discrepancies between the past lore and the current scenario. They were an especially perfect fit this time since the "χ series" is heavily involved. Some people might mistakenly hear their title and think they're in charge of the story composition, but his role is proofreading.*
*Nomura makes a pun here because story composition and proofreading in Japanese are both read as “kousei”, but have different kanji associated with them: 構成 and 校正.
Yasue: The development team is very grateful for them, too (laughs). We actually joined the company at the same time.
Famitsu: So basically, the team is compiling something like a real-life Jiminy's Journal that organizes the Kingdom Hearts universe so that third parties can easily understand it. I would love it if you published that as a book. Incidentally, since the topic of the anime adaptation came up, there isn’t anything to go on outside of the announcement post on X. Is the character shown in the image from Dark Road?
Nomura: A lot of people are speculating Dark Road because of the Keyblade, but… my lips are sealed. (laughs)
7. When can we expect more information about Kingdom Hearts IV
Interviewer: First the trailer at the June Nintendo Direct, and now another trailer at D23...does that mean we will see more information about the game at Tokyo Game Show?
Nomura: Because the release date is still set to be later next year, the development team will now be focusing on that. Therefore, it might be a while before we can reveal any further information.
Interviewer: I see. To end things off, anything you wish to say to all fans who are eagerly awaiting Kingdom Hearts IV?
Yasue: The fans and their cheers were amazing. It really renewed my motivation to push hard through this final stretch of development!
Nomura: Initially, I had planned to leave this D23 to Yasue and wasn't going to come, but I was moved by the voices of those around me to attend. To be able to directly feel everyone's wild excitement during the trailer, and how I had some valuable experiences and nostalgic reunions... it makes me feel glad I came. Regarding Kingdom Hearts IV news, we will continue to release details gradually, so please wait for further updates. Also, there will be something for the 25th anniversary next year*, so please look forward to those announcements as well.
8. Nomura is the one who decides the voice cast in Japanese and overseas
Interviewer: Haley Joel Osment, who plays Sora, and David Gallagher, who plays Riku, also appeared at the panel and talked about the behind-the-scenes production of the series. How did those two end up being cast in the first place?
Nomura: For titles I'm involved with, so not just for the original characters created for the Kingdom Hearts series, but also for games like Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy VII Remake, I do all the voice casting myself, for both local and international versions.
Interviewer: Oh, so you handle the casting for the international releases as well?
Nomura: Correct. International casting generally comes after the Japanese voice actors have been cast. I’d be provided a list of candidates and would listen to their audition tapes, selecting the one I thought most closely matched my impression of the Japanese actors.
Interviewer: The Kingdom Hearts series has a lot of big names, starting with Haley Joel Osment.
Nomura: That part is largely thanks to Disney's influence.
Interviewer: How do you handle the recording sessions for the international releases?
Nomura: Back in day, during the development of the first Kingdom Hearts, it was my first time directing, so I didn't really know how things worked. I had traveled to the US and attended the recording sessions as much as possible.
Interviewer: Ah, so you were that hands-on back then?
Nomura: Yes. I communicated with the voice director through an interpreter… but other than that, the process was exactly the same as in Japan. Nowadays, that is no longer necessary, because we can do this remotely, The sound director, who’s been on the team since the original Kingdom Hearts, is present during all recording sessions locally. They’re familiar with my direction and are able to convey that direction during the overseas recording session. Because of that, I don't think there are any discrepancies between the Japanese and overseas versions.
Interviewer: I see. So it has actually been a long time since you've met Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher in person?
Nomura: Yes, it was. To me, he's still Haley-"kun" (laughs). During our very first recording session, he held onto a Final Fantasy X strategy guide the entire time, and he just finished his first day of recording and went home without anything happening. After that happened, the voice director asked me, "I think he brought the strategy guide because he wanted your autograph. Did you sign it for him?" That cute but slightly bittersweet memory really sticks with me.
Interviewer: Ha ha ha. He just couldn't bring himself to ask for your autograph!
Nomura: I made sure to prepare a signed autograph board for him for the next day's session.
9. Hiding Nomura from the public had some challenges
Interviewer: Both the Disney Entertainment Showcase and where the Coco world was introduced, and the DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS PANEL were huge successes, weren't they?
Nomura: We actually ended up on standby at Haneda Airport due to aircraft maintenance, which delayed our arrival in Anaheim. Because of that, we had to cancel all of our post-arrival plans, including checking into our hotel. We barely made it to the Showcase venue in time.
Interviewer: That sounds rough. So you didn't have any time to check out the D23 show floor?
Nomura: Correct. To begin with, my appearance at the panel was meant to be a surprise, so Disney told me to stay completely out of sight. Wherever I went, I had to move through the back hallways (laughs). I've only just been freed from those restrictions. I stepped outside briefly just a moment ago and was immediately spotted, though.
Interviewer: Well, you are surrounded entirely by fans here… Were you able to feel the atmosphere of D23 at all? Have you ever attended D23 in the past?
Nomura: I attended once in 2017 for Kingdom Hearts III. I’ve also been to the D23 Expo in Japan once. This time, I had so little free time that I couldn't experience the atmosphere at all, and I'm honestly regretting making this such a lightning-fast trip.
Yasue: As for me, this is my first time. I'm usually cooped up in the office working, so I'm happy to be able to interact with the fans after such a long time (laughs).
Today, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has released a brand-new interview with Tetsuya Nomura and Tai Yasue. The interview focuses on a lot of things, from the size of Kingdom Hearts IV's script to some of the things that were shown in the trailer.
Together with KH13 translator corfidbizna, we've translated some of the more important points of the interview. We plan to update this article as we dive deeper into the interview itself.
[UPDATE - 27/08/2026 - We have updated the translation with some new details, and rearranged some of the points.]
1. Japanese voice-overs have already been recorded, with English recordings still ongoing. Tai Yasue mentions they're about 60 to 70% done. According to Nomura, Kingdom Hearts IV’s script is nearly double the size of Kingdom Hearts III.
2. Development of Kingdom Hearts IV is progressing smoothly, with no risk of a delay
3. Kingdom Hearts IV’s worlds are some of the biggest we’ve ever seen in the series yet, but Nomura also seems to imply that they're shorter in length.
4. The Dandelions and their involvement in Kingdom Hearts IV
5. Sigurd is becoming quite popular with the development team
6. A “real-life Jiminy’s Journal”
7. When can we expect more information about Kingdom Hearts IV
8. Nomura is the one who decides the voice cast in Japanese and overseas
9. Hiding Nomura from the public had some challenges
View full news article