in the recent interview nomura said that his original idea for the ending wasn't good enough and so he used this one. I always used to imagine that maybe he had the whole xehanort saga planned out and he had to whole story ready and he actually wanted to tell us it. but to be honest when i read that he changed the ending it makes me think that he is just making up as he goes along and that he doesn't really put much care into it. It's changed my whole perception of him, almost every game he made had such a great story that i figured it wasn't possible for him to just wing it, i mean come on, the final fantasy's that he was involved in all seemed to become instant fan favorites and at least 3 kingdom hearts are in my top 10 games as all times. Seeing that interview actually saddened me a little

Every good writer is subject to criticism. He must have passed the idea to many script doctors, all of which agreed that was not the way to go. So he humbly agreed.

I think it would not live to some expectations so the ending was changed.

Editors are an irritating but necessary part of the system. As a writer its tempting to get too attached to your project to change it significantly. They're the ones that make sure that writers are on the ground and stay there. Otherwise you get M. Night Shyamalan.

He thought of an ending and decided he wanted to change it (or was told to), what's the big deal? Anyone who has written a story has gone through many different ways to end it. And it might've been a small change or just adding more to it. It doesn't necessarily mean it changed how the next game will play out.

Considering he hasn't actually said whether or not if the change is plot relevant, I wouldn't be going so far yet.

And besides, it might have been an ending that would have messed up the KH series even more than it is right now!

And if you're going to be disappointed that he's made one change, then you obviously don't understand writers. Good writers make changes CONSTANTLY!! If they don't, then their piece is either brilliant or a load of ****!

How do you imagine a whole story? Just because he me made it up as he went along, doesn't make him bad. If he did not care, he would not have change the ending.

I doubt that he's making it up as he goes, even if he changed the ending of the game. The creative process isn't a static thing. Ideas change, old ideas are changed for better ones, and then those are improved. And Nomura isn't the sole writer, but really the visionary. There is a panel of people that create the KH story together. There are pros and cons to this, but it is a good system for such a vast project as a video game.

 

I don't think we should place judgement until we see it. I hope the Ultimania will tell us what his original idea was too.

Just because he thinks the ending isn't good doesn't mean he hasn't thought it through. Nomura is probably still thinking it though that's why he is unsure about the ending

i know it's probably not as drastic as i think, I'm sure if he hadn't changed the ending the series would be exactly the same, but i feel as if he doesn't care about HIS story as much, if he really did he'd have fought for it to keep it that way, and i don't know he might have but it didn't seem that way in the interview

The ending had to be changed because Disney didn't like it. Sometimes I really wish Kingdom Hearts had nothing to do with Disney, though obviously impossible. There are too many Disney Worlds and characters anymore.

Disney knows how to get what they want, even if Nomura fought for the ending he wanted it wouldn't have changed anything. It would have just wasted time.

By the way he adressed it in the interview it sounds like he's taking quite a big risk, changes are necessary a lot of the time and I'm sure it won't brutally effect the way he planned the Xehanort Arc to end in the KH3. If anything it adds tentions and makes me want to find out even more what the ending is like and why such a great director would be so worried about the reception of something he plans to put in the secret movie.

the final fantasy's that he was involved in all seemed to become instant fan favorites

In Final Fantasy, Nomura has yet to be more than a character designer (except for Versus XIII, which is still far away). He's hardly the reason those FF games are fan favourites, and in fact, his design style is often made fun of (due to the overuse of belts, zippers, and buckles, and the gravity-defying hairstyles).

 

And on the subject of writing, most writers will tell you that any story begins with only two things in mind: how it begins, and how it ends. Everything else is constantly changing and constantly evolving to reach its best possible form. Nomura probably knows how he wants the Xehanort saga to end, but he only had to change how we get to that conclusion.

You do realize that kh3d actually came into conception the couple months between bbs's release and E3 because of nintendo right? That ending in blank points where Sora said he was setting out was meant to lead directly into kh3. The Xehanort saga is still going to end the same way.

You do realize that kh3d actually came into conception the couple months between bbs's release and E3 because of nintendo right? That ending in blank points where Sora said he was setting out was meant to lead directly into kh3. The Xehanort saga is still going to end the same way.

 

not really, the coded secret ending said that they were going to do the mark of mastery

I don't think he makes his story up as he goes, at least not to the point of improvisation. If you think about it, the story of Kingdom Hearts is quite intricate (as well as the characters and worlds, primarily Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden), and I am simply amazed at how he's able to fit [most] of the pieces together so flawlessly as the series progresses. It's really hard for me to believe that he just made up 358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep as he went along, but if he did, I would be completely blown away. Sure, I might be a little disappointed that he didn't have it in his head the whole time (and that he's possibly just adding to the series to make money), but if I were to find out that indeed he was just winging it all along, my admiration for his intelligence and imagination would absolutely skyrocket. Because who just makes up the plots to Days and BBS and makes them work so well with the rest of the series? No, I know that most of the stuff he put in there didn't happen by coincidence--they would take a lot of thought for the writer. I really think he must have had a sort of outline, known what he was going to write about, then put in the details and changed some stuff later. But completely winging it? I don't see how that's possible.

 

As for changing the ending, like other people have said, good writers make changes all the time. In my experience making up stories, I will sometimes have a part that I wrote or planned out a long time ago--sometimes it's even one of the first things I thought of when I began writing the story. But then I will realize that it doesn't quite fit, or I want the events to occur in a different way, or from a different perspective. Whatever the case, I don't think it's humanly possible for anyone to come up with a 300-page novel in their head and just write it down--the story needs to evolve. A good number of movies have alternate endings, sometimes more than one--what's wrong with that?

but the thing is now that i think about it, at some times it does seem improvised, i mean i doubt he had xion, terrva, ven or aqua in mind when he first wrote it, its just like they conveniently leave no trace that they ever existed up until the game they star in and the fact that mickey never cares to mention xehanorts past even though he was there when it happened and probably knew what was going on

NO REVISION EVER

but the thing is now that i think about it, at some times it does seem improvised, i mean i doubt he had xion, terrva, ven or aqua in mind when he first wrote it, its just like they conveniently leave no trace that they ever existed up until the game they star in and the fact that mickey never cares to mention xehanorts past even though he was there when it happened and probably knew what was going on

 

Actually, Nomura had thought of terra ven, aqua and Xion while KH2 was still being developed. I remember after Days came out, there was some sort of Q&A at the Square-Enix website, and Nomura said that he while working on KH2, he always imagined a girl being the reason Roxas left the Organization. Same with Terra, Ven, and Aqua, just watch the secret ending in KH2.

Actually, Nomura had thought of terra ven, aqua and Xion while KH2 was still being developed. I remember after Days came out, there was some sort of Q&A at the Square-Enix website, and Nomura said that he while working on KH2, he always imagined a girl being the reason Roxas left the Organization. Same with Terra, Ven, and Aqua, just watch the secret ending in KH2.

 

i know he would have had TVA in mind because they were in the secret ending

Maybe he meant like reveal less or more so it's not necessarily a big edit in the storyline.