Nomura to Talk Future of KH in Famitsu [INTERVIEW UP]

Ty · Jul 13, 2011

(Yes, this time it's real.)

Hey, guys and gals!

Today marks the beginning of the for the recent news drought for Kingdom Hearts... or so we hope. Andriasang and FF-Reunion are both reporting that in the next issue of Famitsu, Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura will talk about the future of both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts! This includes talks about HD remakes, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, and more importantly, Kingdom Hearts III and beyond!

[FULL ARTICLE UP]

Original Post by Andriasang

This week's Famitsu has a lengthy feature on Square Enix, containing retrospective interviews, and bits and pieces about about the company's upcoming titles. While waiting for our usual full writeup from Sokuho@Hokanko, here's what has surfaced regarding Kingdom Hearts 3D, the Kingdom Hearts series, the Dissidia series, and Final Fantasy XI (yes, that's XI as in not XIV).

Kingdom Hearts 3D
In case you've forgotten in the six months of silence, the three Ds in the 3DS Kingdom Hearts name stand for Dream Drop Distance. Development is currently 40 to 50% complete, Nomura told Famitsu this week. He also confirmed the inclusion of a secret movie.

Nomura dropped a bunch of vague hints about the game. Here's the vaguest: "XXX and XXX in Traverse Town!" This is apparently supposed to be surprising, so see if you can fill in the XXXs with surprising elements.

The game's story is enigmatic and quite puzzling, said Nomura The story will touch upon the hidden data in Sora.

Just one little gameplay bit: you'll apparently be able to work your way up to the rooftops.

Future of Kingdom Hearts
Regarding the future of the Kingdom Hearts series, Nomura said that those who are anticipating Kingdom Hearts III will find some answers in KH3D.

The Xehanort part of the Kingdom Hearts saga will end with KHIII, he said. He currently has a framework of some form in place for the continuation of the series after that, and Sora will remain as main character.

Regarding possible HD remakes of past titles, Nomura would only say that, separate from whether or not they will release remakes, they're looking into HD techology tests for past titles. (I'm not sure if this question and response is about Kingdom Hearts or just in general.)
Click to expand...

[INTERVIEW UP]

Were there any adjustments to the story for international players?

Nomura: I believe that if something's interesting enough people will accept it, so we didn't pay conscious attention to specific regions. But Disney did tell us it had a "Japanese feeling", which I guess you could call an "Oriental way of thinking" (laughs). Also, in terms of storyline, I was thinking of making it simpler and clearer, but Sakaguchi-san (Hironobu Sakaguchi) gave me a single piece of advice for the KH series. That was, "If you don't make it a little more complex, like FF, you won't be able to compete." I prefer to leave the players scope for imagination and guessing, so I decided to develop the game in that way.

Will 3D also have an enigmatic storyline?

Nomura: It's quite difficult to understand. Right now we're putting the story into the Disney scenarios, and it seems like once through won't be enough to understand it. As for the individual mysteries, they'll explain some of the reasons and connections with the game's scenario. We also need approval from overseas, so we're putting in localisation along the way, which is hard work. But there are those on the Disney side who love KH too, and they have a detailed understanding of the scenario, and have been following closely.

---

At the moment, how far along is development of 3D?

Nomura: About 40~50%. Soon we'll start recording voices. The theme this time is "bold action", but I also want to seriously consider the pacing of the story. From this survey I can see that the storyline is a highly anticipated part of the game, but I don't want it to be too drawn-out.

So will you be reducing the number of game events?

Nomura: It's not like that. Just that when something happens, if you explain everything from square one you weaken the pacing. So we're introducing a new system to avoid that. In FF Versus XIII we've removed the cutscenes, letting players continue playing through game events, and here we're going in a different direction again. Also, in 3D Sora fights alongside some strange companions. We're planning to put together a secret movie, so look forward to that.
Click to expand...

Source: Andriasang
Original Source: FF-Reunion

Also, as I was on my way to post this, P sent me a private message with this news, so I thought it'd be fair to give him a little bit of credit as well.

Mr. Van Whippy ♥ · Jul 16, 2011

Plums Vi Britannia said: ↑

I think he means Sora may be fighting along with Maleficent, Pete or some other bad guy. xD
Click to expand...

Sora teaming up with the bad guys? Now, that would be brilliant! Nomura, make it happen now! A Maleficent/Sora party would be epic!

Log in or Sign up

Nomura to Talk Future of KH in Famitsu [INTERVIEW UP]

Ty Traverse Town Homebody

Comments