A new interview with Kingdom Hearts series director, Tetsuya Nomura, has surfaced from Everyeye.it. The interview spoke about the tone of Kingdom Hearts III, Nomura's character design process and how outfits will affect the gameplay.

 

You can read the interview below:

Everyeye.it: KH3 will be, according to your statements, the darkest chapter of the saga, which will put Sora and the other protagonists in several dramatic moments. The series, however, is not completely new to large doses of pathos, so how are these statements reflected in the script? And, compared to the past, how difficult was the writing between the darkest introspection of the heroes and a plot that must draw the sums of a ten years old franchise?

 

Nomura: The battle against Xehanort, which came to life in the first game of the series, will finally come to an end; moreover, since the journey Sora is traveling serves to alleviate the pain of having lost his friends in the past, the general atmosphere will be truly dramatic, at least in some phases, compared to the previous chapters. In actuality, I think the Kingdom Hearts 3 plot will not really be that grim after all. Neither the relationships between the characters, whether between the main ones or between the protagonists of the various worlds, nor the journey of Sora alongside Donald Duck and Goofy will be particularly dark. In fact, I will tell you: it could even tear out more laughter [in the audience] than in the past! In this sense, therefore, we could say that it will be a truly wide-ranging story, well balanced between the dramaturgical aspect and the comic one.

 

Everyeye.it: One of the predominant elements of the aesthetics of Kingdom Hearts are the clothes, real kingpins in the character design of each character and capable of amalgamating the cartoon style with that of Final Fantasy. How did you conceive the new character designs? What were the inspirations towards their realization?

 

Nomura: Actually, I almost never get much from the character design process. Most of the time I find myself buying so many clothes that I like, I try them on and they inspire me. And indeed, there have been occasions, in the past, when I used some clothes I had bought for myself as character designs for some characters. A rather exhaustive example will be found in Kingdom Hearts 3 and concerns the look that Sora will have in the world of Pirates of the Caribbean: the design of his buccaneer jacket, in fact, is inspired by one of my coats!

 

Everyeye.it: Even in previous games, clothes became a playful excuse to give life to the Drive Forms which, in terms of gameplay, gave enormous variety to the combat system and to the playful experience. Will we find the same manic attention to the use of clothing in Kingdom Hearts 3?

 

Nomura: No, this time the clothes of the protagonists will have no effect on the gameplay or on the combat phases, but the type of battle that you can manage will depend exclusively on the use of the Keyblades. The form they will take is the very representation of this novelty and will have no direct effect on the characters.

You can find the full interview here.

 

Thank you to KH13's Aquaberry for the translations!

 

Click here to view the article

I wasn't excepting that much. I thought it was going to be more grimming..

But at the same time, from the scenes I saw from the demos and such, I noticed there were some kind of funny moments. They are handling it even better now,

 

It's very satisfying to hear that Nomura is trying to give us those extreme sad moments and "extreme" (he said it would be better off from the others games, right?) funny moments in a balanced way. Makes me all the more excited to play it!

 

And btw, that "will not be that grim at all" makes me remember completely how troll Nomura actually is lol

good to know, wouldnt seem right if it was to grim

Yeah no wonder that Goofy is always pissed when he sees an organization member.

They need to ask how many Disney worlds there are left to be revealed.

Edited August 27, 20187 yr by KH4Real

Yeah no wonder that Goofy is always pissed when he sees an organization member.

They need to ask how many Disney worlds there are left to be revealed.

I don't think they would receive a clear answer to that question. Anything in that regard has been shot down either with comments such as that they can't tell and we should look forward to their reveal or were really vague.

 

At this point I'm rather happy when they ask things that have a potential of being answered rather than the big questions all of us have but simply won't receive a satisfying reply to.

 

I also thought that some fans were overly dramatizing KH3. Yes, it will be darker but that doesn't mean it has to become a tragedy where everyone dies and isn't brought back to live this time. That was to be expected since you can't really have a climax without at least keeping a level of drama and intensifying it.

 

But it's still Kingdom Hearts and it's a relief that there will be plenty to laugh about again. Because that's also an important aspect of the franchise that shouldn't get lost by implementing dark and edgy themes which seem forced rather than fitting or profound.

 

Either way, I'm happy that it will apparently retain what made the franchise what it is. I've heard many pleas to make it darker but I agree with Nomura that the games all had plenty of dark moments. Of course not to the degree of other games but it doesn't need to contain that to make it a great game.

Edited September 2, 20187 yr by Merilly

I'm wondering how Nomura generally goes shopping, how else has he been especially hardcore KH fanatics tracked down and captured to question the spoilers KH3?

(As for the latter, I'm sarcastic if that)

I'm wondering how Nomura generally goes shopping, how else has he been especially hardcore KH fanatics tracked down and captured to question the spoilers KH3?

(As for the latter, I'm sarcastic if that)

 

I just want to know WHERE he shops

I wasn't excepting that much. I thought it was going to be more grimming..

But at the same time, from the scenes I saw from the demos and such, I noticed there were some kind of funny moments. They are handling it even better now,

 

It's very satisfying to hear that Nomura is trying to give us those extreme sad moments and "extreme" (he said it would be better off from the others games, right?) funny moments in a balanced way. Makes me all the more excited to play it!

 

And btw, that "will not be that grim at all" makes me remember completely how troll Nomura actually is lol

That Troll remark really hit the nail on the head for me...He was misled the fans in the past before and by the way he stated that their will be some events in KH3 that will cause strong reactions... I'm sure he's saying that by the time the game ends the overall feeling of the conclusion will not be grim..but happier.

Thanks for sharing this with us, NoHeartVersed!

 

I think it's more than enough for the game to have a balance between lighthearted and dark. Sure, I'm down for some dark moments, but Kingdom Hearts is also comprised of tender, lighthearted and funny moments! A balance of everything is key!

 

Dang, and if the design for the KH characters is based on Nomura's fashion sense, then he's got stylish taste for sure!

 

Aw man, and about the clothes, does this mean we won't see Sora with his Forms in cutscenes like in KHII? D:

Edited August 28, 20187 yr by The Transcendent Key