Kingdom Hearts 3 is almost upon us, and as its release date approaches, we’re beginning to see more stuff that will be featured in the game. One of the things we’ve seen is the Gummi Ship, which is returning to the franchise after some time, and according to Tetsuya Nomura, there is a very specific and good reason for its inclusion in the game.
Nomura was asked about the Gummi Ship and why it’s being featured in the game in an interview with US Gamer, and he said that he feels like it’s a core part of the very basics of the Kingdom Hearts series. To be more specific, he’s talking about the mainline, numbered games.
“In Kingdom Hearts numbered titles, the Gummi Ship has always been there to travel between the worlds,” Nomura said. “Gummi Ships are part of the basics of Kingdom Hearts, and as a numbered title in the series, I thought it was necessary to have it in there to complete the package.”
He then went on to talk about how he likes to have as much variety of gameplay styles in Kingdom Hearts games as possible, from RPG mechanics, to shooting, to adventure elements. The Gummi Ship, Nomura says, plays into that element of gameplay variety. “This is something that [Hironobu Sakaguchi] told me once, which is that Final Fantasy is a title that just has everything in it,” he said. “I wanted to bring that to Kingdom Hearts. In Kingdom Hearts there’s the shooting game, there’s the RPG, there’s the adventure game. It has action, command battles, and everything. There’s customization with Gummi Ships, and they bring with them the shooter aspect and the travel aspect. It’s just a part of Kingdom Hearts. That’s why I thought it was necessary to have it in the title.”
Kingdom Hearts 3 is not far away now. It launches – at long last – on January 29 for the PS4 and Xbox One.