News

Xion and Roxas Reappeared in Kingdom Hearts 3 Because of the Fans

Kingdom Hearts 3 Roxas Xion

A special Q&A segment was held during the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary event. In it, Director Tetsuya Nomura answered several questions concerning changes made throughout the series and addressed several ongoing mysteries in Kingdom Hearts. However, he also revealed that fan input impacted the decision for characters like Roxas and Xion to reappear in Kingdom Hearts 3. Additionally, Nomura states that fan reception impacted some character designs. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

Recommended Videos

Regarding character designs, Nomura mentions that Riku received a new hairstyle after Kingdom Hearts 2 because of fan reception. This was due to the sheer number of fans talking about his hair. However, shortly after, Nomura states that this wasn’t the only thing that changed because of the fans. He goes on to talk about the fate of Roxas and Xion in Kingdom Hearts, and why they reappeared in the story. This is what Nomura had to say:

“Regarding Roxas and Xion reappearing Kingdom Hearts 3, I was hesitant up until the very end about bringing them back, and even had a story route where they would not return. However, since I knew that the fans would want to see these characters again, I went with the route where they would return.”

Alongside the Q&A segment, trailers for Kingdom Hearts 4 and Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link were revealed at the 20th anniversary event. Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link will be an all-new mobile title set within the Kingdom Hearts universe. And while an announcement trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 was shown, a release date was not revealed.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Kazuma Hashimoto
About The Author
Senior staff writer, translator and streamer, Kazuma spends his time playing a variety of games ranging from farming simulators to classic CRPGs. Having spent upwards of 6 years in the industry, he has written reviews, features, guides, with work extending within the industry itself. In his spare time he speedruns games from the Resident Evil series, and raids in Final Fantasy XIV. His work, which has included in-depth features focusing on cultural analysis, has been seen on other websites such as Polygon and IGN.

Kingdom Hearts 4 and Missing Link Websites Now Open

Previous article

Tetsuya Nomura Shares Why Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMIND Has Two Endings

Next article