Just when we thought Nomura had forgotten about Kingdom Hearts, he reveals to us all that Versus 13 will be his last…

Recently speaking with Gemaga, Nomura revealed that Final Fantasy Versus 13 would be his last Final Fantasy as director – this coming from the man who’s only directed Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus beforehand. He says the position holds way too much pressure, because of the huge stature of the series.

So what’s a man to do when he says ‘no’ to more Final Fantasy? Return to his series, that’s what! After finishing with Versus 13, Nomura will be returning to the next entrance in the Kingdom Hearts series (which will most likely be the full blown Kingdom Hearts III, not a siide-story ala CoM). The next Kingdom Hearts title, which will be revealed just after this Summer, will also include aspects of Versus 13 that were successful.

Still no news on whether it would be 2009 or 2010 though… or for what console…

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Today’s the day – an official trailer for Final Mix+ has hit the public! New lines, new battles and a new tale. Gotta love that Mirage Book!

March 29, the story will continue. Bare witness to the new scenes and areas in the trailer for Kingdom Hearts 2 – Final Mix+. Seven minutes long, opening with RE:CoM footage with Hikari playing in the background, with all new Japanese-spoken lines for the Org. XIII members.

Following that, Sanctuary kicks in and the KH2 Final Mix footage begins, with all new English-spoken lines (Paul St. Peter and Jesse McCartney are back).

Last, but not least, a certain mystery weapon has been revealed… and it’s not what we were expecting: the Mirage Book.

Don’t forget that last scene in the trailer! “Friend”.

A very special thanks to KH-Vids!

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Old Kingdom, New Hearts! Kingdom Hearts 2 – Final Mix+ is closer than ever, and now we’ve got a new Keyblade to show!

A few new pieces of info have been revealed in a new magazine scan, most notably the new difficulty level – Critical Mode. Critical Mode is reportedly the ‘fatest way to get to see the secret ending’ – in other words, you’ll probably only have to complete the game on Critical to see the new ending, which would mean you’ll have to collect something in Proud Mode now as well.

As for new weapons, most notable is Sora’s new Keyblade (as pictured). Apparently, you’ll have to beat one of the new Organization Mushroom Heartless to get it (most probably the Superior). No word yet on what ability it will include. As for Donald and Goofy, they’ll be getting Lexaeus’ axe and Vexen’s shield respectively… after beating them of course!

Kingdom Hearts 2 – Final Mix+ is releasing in Japan on March 27th. More news as we have it.

UPDATE: New scan from V-Jump added featuring Roxas and Axel eating Seasalt Icecream on top of the Twilight Town Clock Tower… nice!

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Still no word on whether the US is getting the game, but to tide you over until the (hopefully) happy news, we have the excellent looking Japanese cover of Final Mix+!

Sporting a design similar to previous covers, this incarnation is centred particularly around a nice sky during the day – parallel almost to the pitch black sky in the background of the original release.

Look out for further announcements soon!

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A slightly unexpected announcement, Nomura’s spoken out about some more features of Final Mix+, revealing some more story snippets…

Strangely enough, talking about the knights and the new cutscenes with them, he hinted that their is probably a connection with Xigbar. Whether this means the knights are literally connected, as in they know Xigbar and he’s part of their plan, is still unknown. I have a strange feeling though that Nomura may be saying that the knights and Xigbar are connected by similarities, rather than acquitance. In other words, perhaps Xigbar and the knights use similar weapons, or have similar attitudes, or have sniping abilities, etc.

As for the rest of the story, Nomura says the cutscene with Xemnas and the knight is a large surprise, and that the secret movie won’t clear anything up – rather it will confuse everyone more.

An regarding the new installments in the Kingdom Hearts series, he believes it will be revealed in the form of visuals (images) by the end of this year. Meaning it will likely be talked about around May/June/July, and then we’ll see our first screens of it in Jump Festa this year.

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New wallpapers!! New music!! New pictures! Final Mix+ is closer than ever, and the official website shows it!

You can check out the official (Japanese) homepage in all its glory right here!

As for the new content, it’s not exactly massive – three new wallpapers, all based off the classic FM/RE:CoM two-part poster we saw way back at TGS last year, and a new track from a certain Miss Yoko Shimomura. Where this track will fit in, no one knows, but it is expected that a Final Mix+ soundtrack will be released, just as with the original Final Mix (although the original Final Mix’s soundtrack only had five tracks more).

We’ll keep you updated on any new happenings!

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Courtesy of Jeux-France and V-Jump, new high-def scans have appeared online, featuring content new and old – the new Organization have been revealed!

Or not… unless the Mushroom-Heartless version of the Organization XIII are your kind of thing. Then again, the scans show it more as an ‘Organization XII’ of sorts – although we’ve been assured there are thirteen members to this party, only twelve have been shown together. I doubt the last one will look any different, I expect he’ll just be a massive screen-filler style secret boss – see Kurt Zisa, then add some size.

As for other new content, we’ve finally been shown some more of the Sora vs. Marluxia battle from Final Mix – note Sora stealing Marluxia’s scythe in the scan using the reaction command ‘rob scythe’.

Not much else to mention – Namine and Sora on Destiny Islands, new areas in Hollow Bastion and some more Organization battles. Well, it’s better than nothing…

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