Full Interview Translated

 

Again from sqexgal:

 

- From the survey, most fans like Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix the most.

Tetsuya Nomura: Since I often hear that fans usually like one title in particular, it was a little unexpected to see that Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix was the top and that Kingdom Hearts II ranked second. Birth by Sleep is a subtitle, but since it’s a part of the main series, I’m happy to see that it ranked highly.

- The results of the survey show that the part people like most about the series is the story. You are write out the plot for all the titles of the series, so when writing up the story what do you focus on above all else?

Nomura: Making it “surprising.” While I’m writing out the plot, if things seem that you can predict the outcome on your own, then I think of a different, unexpected development.

- You really can’t predict the ending of every title. Do you discuss and make decisions on the final outcome of the story with the staff?

Nomura: I don’t. I ask the staff to flesh out things for the scenarios, even with that I make the final supervisions. Since I’m the only one who knows the whole story and the developments that take place afterward, I have a hard time figuring out how much to tell the staff about. (Smiling wryly)

- Are there modifications to the story to suit overseas fans?

Nomura: I believe that if the story is interesting, it will be well received; so it isn’t regulated only for specific regions. Though those at Disney said it has a very Japanese sense about it, I guess you could call it ‘Eastern thinking.’ (Laughs) Still, I had been thinking that I would make the story more clear and simpler. But while I was developing the first Kingdom Hearts, I received a single piece of advice from Sakaguchi-san*. That was, “If you don’t make it more complex like with Final Fantasy, you won’t be able to compete.” So accordingly, I decided to develop the story in a way that fans could imagine on their own the remaining story how they like.

*Hironobu Sakaguchi is a former developer who had worked on the Final Fantasy series for Square.

- Is the story of Kingdom Hearts 3D mysterious too?

Nomura: It’s fairly complicated. Right now I’m telling Disney about the scenarios, but it’s hard for them to understand it all at once. I’m explaining the reason and the established connections for each mystery one by one. It’s difficult since their approval is necessary to move forward with localization, but there are many people in Disney who love the Kingdom Hearts series as well. They want to create the game accurately too, so somehow they’re following along with me.

– Along those lines, looking at the age group of those who responded to the survey including the overseas fans, it seems the series appeals the most to a young generation.

Nomura: There’s a sense that Kingdom Hearts appeals to wider age range of fans compared to Final Fantasy. Also that ratio wise, it seems more fans are female. I’m especially happy to see that there is strong support for the series from fans in foreign countries too.

 

- Sora was the top ranked favorite character.

Nomura: It must be because he’s an uncomplicated guy. (Laughs) For the promotional trailers, we look for scenes with particularly good lines to highlight. But he gives us trouble finding lines that are suitable for the trailers; since Sora is a simple guy who doesn’t think too deeply about things, he doesn’t really say lines we can use. (Smiles wryly)

– Roxas ranked second, his heartrending destiny seemed to influence the top rated favorite scene.

Nomura: Roxas is someone the fans think a lot about, they say he’s like a Final Fantasy type character. Along with his friendship with Axel, they’re an impressive set, huh?

- What scenes left an impression on you?

Nomura: The most impressionable scenes for me were the endings of KH1 and KH2, after that the scene in KH2 when Roxas’ summer vacation ends left a deep impression on me.

- Next are the results concerning the favorite abilities. Glide and Dodge Roll were popular.

Nomura: I’m not surprised those two abilities were the most popular. They have a reinvigorating feel to them, I like them too. Even in Final Fantasy Versus XIII we’re including a one-handed rotation ability similar to Dodge Roll too.

- Continuing, what about your favorite Keyblade?

Nomura: Oathkeeper carries a deep meaning with the story and the design of it is clean, so it’s the one that I’m most pleased with.

- About the worlds, Twilight Town was the most popular. A lot of people said they liked the music.

Nomura: We really fussed over embodying the image of coming from school as the sunsets; it’s a world that left a deep impression on me too. As for the song, I gave Shimomura-san* a lot of trouble and pushed her to improve it. We had an image derived around another artist’s song, but it really worked out well, the result was a song with a completely different sort of anguish.

* Yoko Shimomura is the series music composer.

- On the flip side, the most unpopular world was Atlantica.

Nomura: It’s difficult to move around there, huh? Sorry about that. When you are in the water, you are not just swimming, but fighting enemies, we had trouble adjusting the character’s movement to do both simultaneously.

- The top ranked favorite enemy was the very familiar Shadow Heartless. Out of those appearing in the ranking, which ones did you design?

Nomura: The Shadows, Neo Shadows, White Mushrooms, Dusks and so on; I drew them myself. The enemies dictate the overall design aspects of the series, so I work them out with the staff afterwards.

- Oppositely, the Dancer Nobody was the least popular.

Nomura: It was formidable enemy, so of course it wasn’t popular huh.

- Well, let’s move on to the topic of mysteries people are interested in. There is a lot of interest about Organization XIII’s past.

Nomura: Most of it isn’t related to the main story of the series, so I haven’t paid too much attention to it. (Wry laughter)

- Many fans brought up the “data concealed within Sora.”

Nomura: That’s what Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance deals with. The other mysteries will be something to deal with another time.

- Alright, last question on the topic. There are an overwhelming number of people who want Kingdom Hearts 3 to be released.

Nomura: The answer for them has been prepared in KH3D.

- Many fans want the series to keep continuing afterwards as well.

Nomura: The series that has developed so far as “the Xehanort saga” should end once and for all in KH3. However, I’ve outlined a tentative plot that takes place afterward, so we could continue onto a new chapter. Sora would remain the main character; that wouldn’t change.

- By the way, the 10th anniversary of the series is next year. The number of titles in the series has really increased since it started. Some have said they want to play HD remakes of the past titles…

Nomura: Whether we release one or not is a different story; we’re concerned with the HD technical limits of the past titles.

- As for the current developments, how is KH3D coming along?

Nomura: I’d say the development status of KH3D is about 40%-50%? We’ll start recording the voices soon. The theme this time was “bold action”, but we also wanted to stress the importance of the story’s tempo. Though the story is important to fans as shown by the results of the survey, it won’t be drawn-out.

- Does that mean you’ll be decreasing the number of cutscenes?

Nomura: Not meaning that we’ve decreased the number of cutscenes, but having each one explained one by one reduces the tempo of the game, so we’re introducing a new system to make up for it. It’s a directionally different system like what’s being introduced in Final Fantasy Versus XIII which won’t have cutscenes; it’ll be a sort of integration where you can play during the event scene. Along with that, Sora will fight alongside different friends. There’s also a secret movie being prepared, so please look forward to it.

- It’ll be a while until our next follow up report, huh. Well then, what’s the last message to all the fans.

Nomura: I’ve had your support for almost 10 years. Thanks to you guys, Kingdom Hearts has become a long series. To everyone who gave their opinions, I’ll read them very carefully. Thank you so much. Also, from this summer to next spring, we’ll continue releasing information and sales dates for KH among other titles from the first development department, so please look forward to it.

Scans

 

We finally have high quality scans of the Kingdom Hearts article in the July 28 issue of Famitsu Weekly. I'm sure you've already read about the Tetsuya Nomura interview, where he reveals Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance details (all of this is below, please check it out), so I'll get right onto the scans. These were uploaded by our staff member, sqexgal, and can be seen below in our gallery thanks to her. Enjoy!

 

src="http://kh13.com/zenphoto/zp-core/i.php?a=articles%2Ffamitsu-weekly%2Fjuly-14-2011&i=famitsu1175-009.png&w=210&cw=210&ch=60&t=true" />

Famitsu Weekly → July 14, 2011

 

 

As there is so much information showing up concerning the recent Famitsu Weekly article concerning Kingdom Hearts, I thought it was important that we have a list of these updates for you. So, here:

 

Even more article details translated by sqexgal from KH13

Partial interview translated by krexia from KHI & demo impressions translated by sqexgal from KH13

Interview summary translated by sqexgal from KH13

Survey results translated by andriasang.com

Various interview details translated by andriasang.com

Announcement of article

 

Third update:

 

 

 

Second update:

 

Even more details have appeared concerning the recent Tetsuya Nomura interview with Famitsu Weekly, concerning Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Firstly, krexia from target="_blank">Kingdom Hearts Insider has translated some of the actual interview, using various Japanese blogs as the source.

 

--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. 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.

 

Secondly, sqexgal from KH13.com has translated a play impression of the Dream Drop Distance demo, which we have thanks to target="_blank">Sokuho@Hokanko. The names of the two party members were edited out by the magazine, so hopefully they'll be revealed later. Enjoy!

 

I was able to play a little of the demo version. You can play in the familiar Traverse Town world. Two characters whose names aren’t revealed yet are there. The bright bursts from the battles are even more illuminating than before. You’ll be able to climb up buildings. The battle system is large scale and has a flashy action style, it has a fun feeling. I’m surprised that the party members will be characters who haven’t appeared before. I think it seems the [main] battle opponent won’t be Heartless or Nobody.

 

Update: Interview summary thanks to sqexgal

 

As you've probably read, the recently released issue of Famitsu Weekly has included information on Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and the future of the Kingdom Hearts series. This includes the results to a survey, as well as an interview with Tetsuya Nomura. Thanks to FF-Reunion and Sokuho@Hokanko, as well as our very own sqexgal, we now have an extensive summary of the interview. Read below.

 

- The story of 3D is quite mysterious and difficult to understand, the data within Sora is what you will be dealing with in 3D. 3D is being prepared in response to all those fans looking forward to KH3.

- 3D will provide answers about KH3.

- The current Xehanort saga will end in KH3. There are tentative plot ideas for after that too. The main character won’t change, it’ll be Sora.

- Whether we’ll release an HD remake or not is another story, however we are considering doing an HD upgraded version of one of the past titles.

- The development of 3D is currently around 40% to 50%. There will be a secret movie.

- Traverse Town with “????” and “????” are shown, showing a character raising steadily from the top of a building.

- The story will touch upon the hidden data in Sora.

- Gameplay will include jumping up to rooftops.

 

That's all for now! However, stay tuned, there's more to come. Thanks to sqexgal again, in the next week we'll be able to provide high quality scans of the interview, and a full translation. Hope you look forward to it.

 

First post:

 

Today's issue of Famitsu Weekly has included an article about the Kingdom Hearts series. This article contains an interview with the director of the series, Tetsuya Nomura. He discusses Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts III. Although a full translation has not yet been found or posted, these details about the interview are known thanks to target="_blank">andriasang.com.

 

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.

 

 

Sora will be around in future Kingdom Hearts, so why does he look so cross?

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.)

 

Keep checking back for more!

i hope we will get some great news

NEEEWWWWSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -hugs it- Sweet sweet news. =w= <33

 

 

Oh yea, and what the balls does Nomura mean by, "XXX and XXX in Traverse Town!".......when I read that my brain filled it in with Sora and Riku.....but....if it's supossed to be "surprising"....um... e.o;;

Really? The future of the series will still focus on Sora?

 

Good-bye, Keyblade War...

Really? The future of the series will still focus on Sora?

 

Good-bye, Keyblade War...

 

 

Well, the importance of Sora and the fact he's staying a character of focus was already a given, so it shouldn't be that big a surprise he ain't going anywhere.

Ok so... does that mean we will play DDD by this time next year? That means last year when they shown the trailer it was like 1% or 2%. That's lame. Dang they better finish that Final Fantasy game soon so production can speed up.

awesome

HD remakes would be great and im sure they would sella ton

So this might not be the only info so far, but probably mostly is. It will probably be out in August of next year. Its good to be reassured that Kingdom Hearts will continue after KH3

Really? The future of the series will still focus on Sora?

 

Good-bye, Keyblade War...

 

That can still be, just because the story focuses on Sora doesn't mean we can't get games that show other stuff, right?

<div class="quote">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.

Makes me wonder how far in development bbs was in some of its early trailers.

Sora will be around in future Kingdom Hearts, so why does he look so cross? 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.

Just throwing some things out there... Lea and Isa, Data Sora and Riku, some final fantasy characters, Ansem sod and Xemnas, Maleficent and Xehanort, some disney characters such as scrooge, some pixar cameos...

 

Sora looking cross?

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

Enigmatic, puzzling... perfect

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

Weren't you able to do that in kh1 to some extent?

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.

I really hope this shuts up those kh3 whiners for a while.

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.)</div>

Interesting.

*cry* News i almost forgot what kh news look like ready for TGS and a new trailer

So essentially, except for the HD updates part, he's told us a bunch of stuff that we already know.

 

Sounds like a Nomura interview, alright.

So essentially, except for the HD updates part, he's told us a bunch of stuff that we already know.

 

Sounds like a Nomura interview, alright.

 

haha yeah definately a Nomura interview

Can't wait for more news

Makes me wonder how far in development bbs was in some of its early trailers.

 

BBS had a very strange development cycle. There probably wasn't any percent given to its completion until quite a while into the development.

But I can give a comparison, Nomura once said Re:Coded was 80% (Something like that, might have been 90, or 70, but you get the point) done, and that came out about half a year after said interview. So DDD is probably a year or so away, given this VERY rough estimate

50% !!!!????

that is great news!!!!!

after six month WAITING

but still... :D:D:D:D:D i am so freaked out about this!!!!!!!

Interesting. It's not a lot of news, but at least it's some news.

50% complete? So, we're basically going to be waiting a year, like the majority of us thought.

XXX and XXX in Traverse Town! For some reason, even though he said its supposed to be surprising, I'm thinking Xemnas and Ansem SoD. Otherwise, it's probably going to be a couple of characters that only appear in pairs.

yeah its better than nothing but he couldve left the stuff he already said out

I wanted a keyblade war. Totally agree with Xehanort, I want to see what will happen as a result of that war and see all the different keyblade wielders flock to the keyblade graveyard. Not to mention, it would be a battle royale with multiple endings. That aside, awesome news.

I don't know if I want a KH4 . I think it'd be pretty epic if the games ended like that after a full cycle ~! Well I'm happy enough that kh won't be over but just thinking of how it'll be ... I mean up until now , everything had to do with Xehanort , I don't know how a new story will pop up and be awesome ... especially with Sora (plus he still pisses me off so yeah >_>) but then again I wouldn't want it like FF that is a series with totally dif plots just with similar elements (this case the keyblade) . Oh well , I guess we'll learn more abt kh4 in like 5 years from now so it's all good ~

OK so the full interview will be translated later correct? Becasue this one is just to short.

OMG OMG OMG NEWSSSS!!!!!!!!! -hugs News to dead- damn it

thank god,after 6 months it does really paid off

......

 

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!

 

40% or 50% completed?! Great news!That means we'll have it by next year! Also, it looks like it has a lot of ties to KH3!!! YAYZ~! A secret movie? Of course, all games except Days and the original coded had some sort of secret ending, but the one for 3D will probably be for KH3! WHOO! Also, an HD remake of one of the past installments?! O________O AH I BET IT'S GONNA BE KH1! IS IT GONNA BE ON PS3?! OR WILL IT BE ON ALL THREE HD CONSOLES?! OH, IT'S TOO EXCITING!

 

Sorry for all the noise, but this news just got me so excited, seeing as we hardly get news around here. :D

- Whether we’ll release an HD remake or not is another story, however we are considering doing an HD upgraded version of one of the past titles.

 

That's gotta be BbS. With the new line of PSP HD remasterings, it's gotta be.

 

That can still be, just because the story focuses on Sora doesn't mean we can't get games that show other stuff, right?

 

I was hoping for an entire series set back then. You know, new characters and everything.