More Kingdom Hearts on the way

Though Kingdom Hearts II has just about wrapped up its journey onto North American shelves, it won't be the end of the action role-playing series. A day after Square Enix held its Kingdom Hearts II launch party in Los Angeles, producer Tetsuya Nomura took some time to talk about the future of the franchise with Famitsu.com. There, he revealed that he already has some new ideas for the series.

Nomura is thinking of a new installation that won't be a numbered sequel or something that takes place between two games the way that Chain of Memories (Game Boy Advance) did. If fans of the series find that a bit confusing, they have nothing to worry about, because they're not alone.

"It's difficult to explain it. I'm thinking about how to talk about it [without giving things away], which means that there will be some twists to it. Up until now, the series followed along a [straight] time line, going from Kingdom Hearts to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. But the idea I have right now doesn't follow that flow," Nomura told Famitsu.com. "However, as long as it inherits the Kingdom Hearts title, it needs to have some connection [to previous installments] in terms of storyline, so it won't be too distant from the other titles. In any case, this is still at a conceptual phase, where I'm thinking about what I want to do."

Famitsu.com also asked Nomura whether the next installment's story will take place after the ending in Kingdom Hearts II. However, Nomura only smiled, neither confirming nor denying it.

Nomura is currently at work on multiple titles, and he revealed that there will be more announcements at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo and Tokyo Game Show. Square Enix is planning a big event for the E3 announcement in particular, and the company will be holding a surprise ceremony during the expo.

Kingdom Hearts, rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older, is scheduled to be available in stores tomorrow for $49.99 on the PlayStation 2. For more information on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage or come back later this week for a full review.