Tetsuya Nomura was just being interviewed in the Square Enix Presents Live broadcast, about everything regarding about the KH series, including KINGDOM HEARTS III for the PS4 and Xbox One, along with other titles. We wrote a summary of what transpired:
First he was asked about the origins of the 'Kingdom Hearts' name and the series. Nomura explained (via translator) that the origins of the name lies in that they wanted to name it something close to the Animal 'Kingdom', but obviously that wasn't possible so they eventually decided to put in the name 'Heart' in the title and that's how they got the name 'KINGDOM HEARTS' for the whole series.
Then Nomura was asked about the HD remaster. He replied that the original data for the first KINGDOM HEARTS title was lost, so they had to resort to recreating a lot of its assets, based on scraps of information they could find. It was hard work, according to Nomura, but the final product turned out good enough in his mind.
Nomura continued about FINAL MIX and his intentions towards bringing it to the rest of the world. Eventually he could do so, but he didn't want to make too many titles on their own, so including at least two titles and a 'movie' in one package was, according to him, a good idea.
Then Nomura was asked about his favorite character in the series, and surprisingly he responded with Master Xehanort and his various incarnations, mentioning Ansem Seeker of Darkness from KH1 as his special favorite.
Asked about worlds in the KH series, Nomura mentioned Jungle Book and that they have numerous times tried to implement it in a number of games, but each time it gets cut, much to his dismay.
Regarding the worlds in KH3, Nomura wishes to have some "stable" worlds for story purposes, along with some surprising ones. He actually wants to implement a number of surprising worlds this time to KH3, so we should definitely anticipate them.
Next he's asked about the battle system in the game. He said that the KH1 and KH2 battle systems are "core" battle-systems, so he would like to evolve the KH3 battle system based on that. The battle systems in the "spin-off" titles might be lightly implemented as well, but we'll have to wait and see.
Nomura was then asked about potential FINAL FANTASY characters, and whether we might be able to play as King Mickey. He answered that KH3 will most likely include FF characters again, since they were absent in previous entries. Regarding Mickey, he will take it under consideration, though he wanted to clarify that Sora will of course be the main character.
Then he was asked about multiplayer in KH3, and Nomura said that next gen hardware had good online functions, so he will take that under consideration, but we will learn more at a later time.
Regarding summoning characters, Nomura said that in previous KH titles, we could summon Disney characters, but this will be different in KH3. He didn't say more on this subject though.
About the Organization and nobodies, we will definitely see more of the Organization, since Master Xehanort is behind it, but this will not necessarily be the end of nobodies. Meaning that we will see more of them in the future.
He was then asked if we would see the actual Kingdom Hearts in KH3, and he answered: "I think it will appear". Interesting.
Then suddenly Nomura said he remembered what he wanted to add, in regards to the worlds in KH3. For KINGDOM HEARTS III, if you noticed in the trailer, there are high quality shaders being used and the description of characters has changed. The textures for models have thus changed in order to make them better realized for the next generation hardware. In KINGDOM HEARTS III, they will change the shaders depending on the worlds.
The interview then continues about FINAL FANTASY XV, but as Nomura finished discussing XV, he said that when making both KH3 and XV, he's focusing on developing with DirectX 11 in mind, and not necessarily for a single platform.
