Kingdom Hearts III
"Kingdom Hearts III" was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on January 25, 2019 in Japan and other Asian countries, and is scheduled to be released on January 29, 2019 elsewhere. In July 2017, at D23, it was announced that the game would release in 2018. Almost a year later, at an additional performance of the "Kingdom Hearts" Orchestra World Tour in Los Angeles, the game's North American release date was revealed to be January 29, 2019. Nomura spoke to moving the game's release date outside of 2018, stating the development team had been told the original release date they had considered was not "good timing in the year" to release the game, especially considering "differences in holiday lengths and how stores behave in different regions". In addition, Square Enix requested the game be released as simultaneously as possibly between Japan and the rest of the world, and not wanting to move up the release at the expense of development, resulted in the January 2019 date being chosen. The game's epilogue is planned to be added to the game on January 26 for Japan and January 30 elsewhere, while the secret film content is planned to be added worldwide on January 31, 2019. This was done in order to help prevent them from leaking beforehand, since Nomura called them "the biggest spoilers" in the game.
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Following the first "Kingdom Hearts", Nomura was worried that players would be unhappy that Sora would start "Kingdom Hearts II" as a weak character with few powers who once again had to be leveled up like the first title. Therefore, Nomura developed the plot of "Chain of Memories" to explain how Sora loses his abilities in Castle Oblivion and then starts anew. Additionally, with "Chain of Memories" a new mystery regarding Sora's memories of Twilight Town was added, which would be explained in "Kingdom Hearts II". The team in charge of "Kingdom Hearts II" expressed difficulties in animating Sora's "Valor" Drive Form for having a completely different motion except in Sora's walking animation, which is shared with his regular motion. After finishing "Kingdom Hearts II", Nomura wanted to give Sora a rest from the series in order to focus the following games on other characters from the series. Moreover, the events from the endings of "Coded" and "Birth by Sleep" hinted a new mystery regarding Sora's character, which will be revealed in "Kingdom Hearts III". Although Nomura stated in March 2010 that Sora would once again be the focus of the next "Kingdom Hearts", he will share it with another character with great importance. In response to rumors saying that Sora's story would end in "Kingdom Hearts III", Nomura answered that Sora is the protagonist of the series and that his role will end once the series ends. For this game, Nomura was interested in giving Sora a new costume, but was worried about doing so because of the popularity of the character's "Kingdom Hearts II" outfit. In the end, he decided to create a new one as "Kingdom Hearts III" was a new numbered title.