Kingdom Hearts III director Tetsuya Nomura has shed some more light on the upcoming Kingdom Hearts game while speaking with Famitsu (via Polygon).

He begins with talking about where this games will take place in the Kingdom Hearts continuity.

“We’re proceeding along with which worlds we’ll be selecting for the game. It’s the final episode in the ‘Dark Seeker’ saga that began with the original Kingdom Hearts, and it’ll depict the final battle with Xehanort.”

He then responded to the questions that many people had on the altered visual style of the game.

“Should we go for a more realistic look like in recent projects, or try something else? Along the way, we remembered that these Kingdom Hearts characters were originally paintbrush art from Disney productions, a texture that was one of our original aims, and that it was time to return to that. So [chief creative director Takeshi] Nozue went through a series of tests, and the results are the visuals that we refer to in the team as the Kingdom Shader. It may look like a pretty drastic change, but I see it as a rich evolution of everything we’ve shown you up to now.”

Nomura also gave us an update on what we can expect from the actual gameplay this time around.

“The action’s pretty frantic. The really bold action we’ve always had is getting even crazier. Kingdom Hearts III has three-person parties, but NPCs and other characters join the fight in each individual world, and the resulting action is really flashy and exciting. The enemy AI is a lot more intricate, too, and I think the gameplay will reflect that new dynamic balance. For example, there’s a foe that’s shaped like a vehicle, and Sora may jump on it and fly around; that’s already implemented.”

Lastly, He mentioned that Kingdom Hearts III “is still pretty early in development”, so it will surely be a while before this one hits shelves. This is the absolute worst time in the gaming cycle, because you’ve been introduced to some awesome information about a long-awaited sequel, yet it is nowhere near completion. Still, with the upcoming Kingdom Hearts remastered bundles coming both this year and next year, there will certainly be plenty of Kingdom Hearts material to keep everyone tided over.

There freakin’ has to be because this wait is gonna suck. My love for this series is a bit… unhealthy.