In a message written to commemorate the game's release, series creator Tetsuya Nomura revealed that he had wanted to make a game exploring Xehanort's past for many years by that point, but the idea had been shelved because it "never fitted what our team wanted." He was eventually able to revisit the idea after the team behind Kingdom Hearts Union χ expressed interest in making a parallel game with a new protagonist, partially helped by the unexpected popularity of the character. Nomura even went as far as to claim that "it all came together like it was destined to be. I do tend to believe in destiny."