 The idea for an intermediary title was developed after director Tetsuya Nomura and his team had already begun to develop ideas for the second Kingdom Hearts game , which he had intended to be set a year after the original . Originally titled Kingdom Hearts : Lost Memories , Nomura changed the name to match the overall outline of the story , while still reflecting the theme of memories . Chain of Memories was developed to bridge the gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II . Like most sequels , Kingdom Hearts II was planned to have the character start from the beginning , ability @-@ wise . To explain the loss of abilities gained in the previous game , Nomura had the story revolve around Sora 's memories getting corrupted and implemented the card battle system to symbolize Sora 's various memories . 
