{"id":13447,"date":"2026-08-27T21:25:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=13447"},"modified":"2026-08-28T02:46:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:16:25","slug":"kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/08\/27\/kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive\/","title":{"rendered":"Kingdom Hearts&#8217; Story Has Gotten So Complex That Tetsuya Nomura Says Square Enix Hired a Loremaster to Keep the Plot Cohesive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The lore of Kingdom Hearts is so expansive that Tetsuya Nomura says Square Enix hired a loremaster to keep its story cohesive.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Kingdom Hearts IV is officially set for a late 2027 release. In the lead-up to its highly anticipated launch, fans have been returning to previous games in the series, to the point where a collection of Kingdom Hearts titles became one of the highest-selling games on Steam following an extended gameplay trailer shown at D23 in July.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">In total, there are 13 games in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, which have been released on a bevy of different platforms over the years. That\u2019s a lot to play through, not to mention a lot of story beats to keep track of as you go.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Kingdom Hearts 4 &#8211; Official Announcement Images<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2896921488 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive.gif\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3027214138 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\"><\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">This isn\u2019t a player-specific problem; even the developers find themselves getting lost from time to time, as revealed by series creator Tetsuya Nomura during an August 2026 interview with Famitsu. In fact, the storyline is so convoluted that Square Enix hired a loremaster to keep everything cohesive and explain the plot to Disney.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cAs the Kingdom Hearts series has continued, the number of characters has inevitably increased, and the story has become more complex,\u201d Nomura said. \u201cFor example, with the newly announced anime series, the number of external people involved in the Kingdom Hearts series has increased, and explaining the settings and scenarios each time has become quite difficult.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cFortunately, the staff working on the \u2018\u03c7 series\u2019 had someone who meticulously compiled and organized the settings of past Kingdom Hearts series in an easy-to-understand way, and he was also in charge of explaining the scenarios and settings to Disney. In fact, at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts IV&#8217;s development, Disney requested that he compile the materials, so he officially joined the Kingdom Hearts IV team as a proofreader.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Nomura says this &#8220;proofreader&#8221; was in charge of communicating the overarching story to Disney. He&#8217;s a popular staff member due to how thorough his is, as he breaks down story beats, characters, and lore using visual diagrams.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;He is well-liked because he explains things to Disney as clearly as possible, using diagrams and such. His role internally is to proofread the script,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;He checks to make sure there are no inconsistencies between the current script and past settings. He was especially suitable for this project because the \u03c7 series is deeply involved. Some people might mistakenly think he&#8217;s in charge of composition, but it&#8217;s actually \u2018proofreading.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Nomura\u2019s answer also revealed an integral connection between Kingdom Hearts IV and the \u03c7 titles, a series of prequel games set during the Age of Fairy Tales. These games were primarily available on web browsers and mobile devices, but Nomura says that \u201ceven if you haven&#8217;t played the smartphone version, don&#8217;t worry, their personalities are depicted within [Kingdom Hearts IV].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The fact that even Disney themselves needed a loremaster to help explain the Kingdom Hearts story is a hilarious anecdote; the plot is famously convoluted and overwhelming, to the point where we at IGN felt the need to make a video explaining the lore in just five minutes.<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Virginia (she\/her) is IGN\u2019s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she\u2019s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at <\/em>@TheeMissGlaze<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kingdom-hearts-story-has-gotten-so-complex-that-tetsuya-nomura-says-square-enix-hired-a-loremaster-to-keep-the-plot-cohesive.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-13447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-49","tag-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13449,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13447\/revisions\/13449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}