The Kingdom Hearts 3 director has spoken out about why the series’ final installment took so long to make and even apologized to fans for having to wait so long. It’s been almost 14 years since Kingdom Hearts 2 released outside of Japan, but we’ll finally see the release of Kingdom Hearts 3 for PS4 and Xbox One on January 29.
Speaking during an interview with Newsweek, director Tai Yasue explained why the third game took an extra six years of development since being announced in 2013. Yasue explained that when the original announcement was held, Square Enix still needed to rework its game engine in order to match up to the latest hardware available, saying that the “current engine is great in terms of developing a high end AAA title, but because there was a change in technology and work flows, it took some time for the team to adapt and adjust.” It was a decision that ultimately meant that a Kingdom Hearts title simply wasn’t ready to be released for current-generation consoles, which lends a little more credence as to why all the spin-off titles debuted on handheld systems before making their way on to consoles.
Yasue made it clear that the extra time was something of a necessity for the game, but he did apologize to fans for having to wait so long for Kingdom Hearts 3. He said that the game “took a while, but we really wanted to make sure the game met everyone’s expectations. I hope, more than I’ve hoped for anything else in my 20 years of making games, that you all enjoy it.” The anticipation for Kingdom Hearts 3 has well and truly reached boiling point, with fans being recently treated to a handful of new trailers before having to avoid spoilers after the game fell into a player’s hands almost a month before the game’s release. Yasue could only say that he was “truly sorry to have kept everyone waiting for so long” in his interview.
