Kingdom Hearts 4 director Tetsuya Nomura has addressed concerns about the lack of Final Fantasy characters in recent Kingdom Hearts games, explaining that as the series grew over the years, it became less necessary to feature cameos from the long-running RPG series.
Speaking to Game Informer, Nomura added that the "basic concept" of Kingdom Hearts wasn't a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy, but rather the story that was told through original characters.
"When we released the first title, we had only a few original Kingdom Hearts characters," Nomura said. "When they were interacting with really well-known, beloved Disney characters, I felt nobody really knew these new characters, so it was harder for them to stand their ground just yet. And so, we had a lot of Final Fantasy characters involved to lend a hand for everyone to get to know these [original Kingdom Hearts] characters better."
With the Kingdom Hearts cast having expanded over the years, Nomura explained that it was hard to find room to include more Final Fantasy characters, but Square Enix is carefully considering which characters could make the cut. "That's something we definitely are thinking about. But just with the sheer number of original characters that we have now, it's hard to say what the exact balance is going to be and how it will play out in Kingdom Hearts 4," Nomura said.
Kingdom Hearts 4 also features a more realistic design for Sora and the world of Quadratum, and on the Disney side of potential crossovers, a team-up with Star Wars has been teased. If you're looking to hop into the series and you're wondering where to start, you can also check out GameSpot's feature on the best way to play Kingdom Hearts.