In an interview with Japanese publication Dorimaga Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura talked about his current projects. With Square Enix opening the official Japanese website for the highly anticipated sequel of its 2002 action RPG Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2, Nomura explained that his team was currently putting the finishing touches on the game's main story. The scenario and voice acting were also pretty much done by now. He also commented on the length of the sequel, saying the volume of the story was 2.5 times as long as in the original game. Nomura however also acknowledged that Square Enix might have announced the game too early in its development cycle, leaving fans wondering whether development had been hit by any delays. In fact, there had been no delays and slowly but surely the release date was coming into sight.

In addition to Kingdom Hearts II, Nomura also talked about the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. As for the highly popular cellphone-based network action RPG Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix plans to increase the number of playable characters by two, while the game's story (which is seperated into chapters players have to download onto their cellphones) is approaching its climax.

Nomura also said his hopes were very high for the PlayStation Portable title Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. While the company has only opened a teaser page featuring a list of key development team members so far, the game's character designer was very upbeat about this action RPG. According to Nomura, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII will not just be an action RPG, but a title featuring an interesting, previously unseen gameplay system, making it a title that exceeds everyone's expectations. On a personal note, he said he himself would really like to play it as soon as possible.

Last but not least, he commented on Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation 2 and the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The former is heavily influenced by the ideas of Yoshinori Kitase, its producer and head of Square Enix's first production team (which handles the development of all Compilation of Final Fantasy VII titles and the Kingdom Hearts series). While he would not mention a specific release date, Nomura stated it would be released ealier than most people expect. He was less elaborate on Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, saying only Square Enix would make some new announcements regarding the CG movie for DVD and UMD soon.

RPGFan will bring you complete coverage of all Square Enix exhibited at this month's Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 in Los Angeles.

• IGN