Square Enix has recently released some details about their two upcoming Kingdom Heart sequels. Kingdom Hearts II will be similar to it's predecessor, keeping the same battle system. Among the changes are new characters; original creations and a higher number of Final Fantasy characters. A darker-dressing Sora will once again take the lead role. There will also be an increased number of available commands one can enter during battle and a selectable difficulty level. On the development front, some returning Kingdom Hearts veterans include director Tetsuya Nomura, scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, battle planner Yuuichi Kanemori, and Shinji Hashimoto and Yoshinori Kitase as producers.

Chains Of Memories, the GameBoy Advance title, will be developed by a company named Jupiter in cooperation with Square Enix. The development team includes those involved with Kingdom Hearts II, with the exception of Kazushige Nojima, whose job of scenario writer will be done by Daisuke Watanabe.

Both of these titles are expected to be available some time in 2004, with Chain of Memories hitting shelves first.