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Here's their official announcement:
"Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX official soundtrack recorded by Video Game Orchestra, Força & SoundtRec Boston!" Dear VGO fans,
Some of you may have wondered when the Kingdom Hearts series co-director, Tai Yasue, mentioned about recordings in Boston during his E3 interview...
And yes, we can finally reveal this VGO - Video Game Orchestra & SoundtRec Boston (our recording division) worked on the official Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX soundtrack!!! The music is sounding better than ever - you will be blown away by its gorgeous sound.
The beautiful music of Yoko Shimomura was orchestrated by our creator/producer Shota Nakama and is being mixed by our incredible engineer, Falk Au Yeong.
Congratulations to all our VGO & SoundtRec team members and musicians who tirelessly worked on this huge project. We cannot wait for you all to hear the music very soon!
The VGO also revealed in a comment on the post that a soundtrack CD is going to be released, implying that we may see the soundtrack outside of Japan as well.
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- The decision to make both HD 1.5 ReMIX and HD 2.5 ReMIX was made at the same time, in anticipation for Kingdom Hearts III.
- In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, a lot of UI and VFX are improved, in addition to the textures.
- Soundwise, over 90 songs were re-recorded with live instruments, from a hired orchestra.
- In Birth by Sleep Final Mix, a lot is changed with polygons and textures. The graphics now use over 4x as much memory as on the PSP.
-- A question some people have been asking me is why not release a PS4 version and take advantage of next-generation architecture? Yasue: When we were first coming up with the idea for 1.5, 2.5 and 3, PS3 was the main console for us. We sort of wanted to have it gathered in one console, the PS3. But, we haven't really-- we might-- there's a consideration of going to the next-gen as well, we haven't really decided, there's no announcements yet, but I guess we're open to ideas for now.
- Nothing has been decided yet regarding a HD 2.5 ReMIX collector's edition for North America or Europe.
- There will be more trophies in HD 2.5 ReMIX than HD 1.5 ReMIX, some hard, some easy, due to the sheer amount of content in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Birth by Sleep Final Mix.
- "Will the collection give us any previews for Kingdom Hearts III?" For the Re:coded cinematics theatre, there will be some secret events that will give a fuller understanding to the backstory of Kingdom Hearts.
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Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX is already confirmed to appear with a playable demo at the event, new trailer, and much more information. Stay tuned and we will update you with everything that appears.
Upcoming events & livestreams
June 9, 12:30pm (USA EST): Microsoft's press conference (very small chance of KH appearing)
June 9, 9:00pm (USA EST): Sony's press conference (small chance of KH appearing)
June 10, 12:00pm (USA EST): Nintendo's press conference
June 10, 6:30pm (USA EST): SQUARE ENIX PRESENTS Interview: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX
June 11, 2:30pm (USA EST): SQUARE ENIX MUSIC PRESENTS -Yoko Shimomura-
June 11, 5:00pm (USA EST): All Eyes On Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX
All events have a countdown clock available to the right, allowing you to work out when the event will occur in your timezone. The remaining events will be livestreamed on SquareEnixPresents. We will include an a SquareEnixPresents livestream embed below.
Information revealed
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX
Release dates
Japan: October 2, 2014
North America: December 2, 2014
Australia: December 4, 2014
Europe: December 5, 2014
Miscellaneous
- The Mirage Arena will be single player only. No multiplayer will be included in Birth by Sleep.
- The game mechanics are mostly kept true to the original, save for the camera in BBS which now uses the right analog stick.
- 90 songs have been re-done for KH2. The sound of BBS is heavily improved.
- Re:coded will be about 3 hours long, with 2 hours of that being new cutscenes.
- HD 2.5 ReMIX is 95% complete.
- Around 70 people worked on the development team for HD 2.5 ReMIX, but this team was also simultaneously developing Kingdom Hearts III.
- Kingdom Hearts III development is in full throttle.
Japan bonuses & merchandise
- Various 1.5+2.5 packs to be released
- Kingdom Hearts Series Memorial Ultimania to release on October 2
- HD 1.5 ReMIX and HD 2.5 ReMIX soundtracks will be released
Videos
Photos
Thanks go to Oishii (@OishiiPaopu), @churroz and other sources (including Mognet Central) for the photos.
Articles
- The Kingdom Hearts III teaser video is the game's starting scene-- Yasue talks KH3 with Kotaku
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX interview on Square Enix Presents-- survey questions answered
- Square Enix reveals their Square Enix Presents schedule
- Direct feed of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX gameplay released
- Kingdom Hearts III won't have more info at E3 2014
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX to release in Japan on October 2
- New Kingdom Hearts III teaser trailer shown
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX to release on December 2 in North America, December 5 in Europe
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX trailer for E3 2014 released
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX confirmed to be (playable?) at PlayStation's E3 2014 booth
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX's E3 2014 banner revealed
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX to be featured in Square Enix Presents
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Talking about the Kingdom Hearts III E3 2014 teaser video: Yasue: That's the starting scene for Kingdom Hearts III, actually. [Co-director Tetsuya] Nomura has a real clear picture of the starting sequence. He wrote that up actually, the drawings, and we voice-recorded that. That's gonna be a real integral part of the story of Kingdom Hearts III. It's gonna be the starting point of Kingdom Hearts III.
Kotaku: Is there anything you can hint at or tease to fans who might be desperate for any information on Kingdom Hearts III?
Yasue: As a developer I'm really excited, the technology is totally different, and creatively it's moving at leaps and bounds.
Talking about the Kingdom Hearts III trailer at D23 Expo Japan:
Yasue: We'll have, I think, a lot of that. You could I guess imagine a theme park sort of ride-based action. I think that might be an important part of the game, and so I think people can really look forward to that. It will be moving in leaps and bounds, I think. It's very exciting.
An interesting quote from the article: "I told Yasue, who is bi-lingual and speaks both Japanese and English, that the first thing everyone thought when Disney bought Lucasfilm was that now Kingdom Hearts could have Star Wars. He laughed and said he couldn't comment."
Final words:
Yasue: Kingdom Hearts 2.5 is gorgeous, I think. But Kingdom Hearts III is pure magic.
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@sqexgal has translated the entire interview on her SQEX.INFO website, and thanks to her, it can be read below.
--From programmers to designers, everyone is involved.
- You’ve officially announced the release date for Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix, how is the development status? Yasue: It’s practically complete. We are making detailed, final adjustments and setting the trophy conditions now. We are adding in the final cutscenes as well, that’s about all that’s left as far as work goes.
- I heard that work on Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix pretty much started from scratch, how was 2.5 in comparison?
Yasue: It pretty troubling starting KH 1.5 in a stage where we making the game’s composition and system base. But as far as producing went, thankfully we struck a balance between programmers building the foundation for the game on PS3 and replacing graphics, so we were able to progress relatively smoothly.
We had content from the previous titles to use when remastering KH 2.5 which was good, but instead we had trouble figuring out how much we wanted to up the graphic quality, it was a matter of design that was tough. If we did this, then we have to do that and that, kind of problem. (Laughs) Once the schedule was decided, all possible adjustments were made and we’re finishing it up.
- Was the difference in screen ratio difficult to deal with?
Yasue: Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep was originally at a 16:9 ratio so it didn’t really change, but the original Kingdom Hearts 2 was 4:3, so it changed a lot. Having a greater screen width is nice, but things you couldn’t see before became visible, so we had to take a second look and adjust the backgrounds and textures as a whole.
The menu screen in particular was difficult. We had to add in new imagery to the parts of the gummi ship camp menu etc. that were lacking. As for BBS, the character models and imagery look nicer and the 3D presence of the finer details have been improved upon as well.
- Pretty much everything got some sort of treatment.
Yasue: That’s right, to say it lightly. (Laughs) To HD-ify something, you might imagine it’s as easy as putting data into a transformer, pressing a button, and then, ”Ta-da, it’s done!” But it’s not that simple. Our entire staff is involved and they work really hard at a steady pace. Everything you see has been treated in some way, from the backgrounds and character models to the menus.
Besides that, the designers had a lot to work on with BBS. They had to add in a lot more detail, and even though the textures for each character are now about 4 times nicer than before, the designers found themselves being strangled by their work. Especially when it came to Aqua and the other playable characters.
As a result, they’re not done tweaking and they’re really choking themselves now! (Laughs) Having an HD remake is something really great for players, but for the staff it’s kind of a nightmare.
The Mirage Arena has been improved for single player mode.
- In KH 1.5 new abilities like “EXP Zero” and “Combo Master” were added, will there be new ones in KH 2.5 too?
Yasue: There isn’t anything new. However, we fine tuned the degree of difficulty when you equip EXP Zero in BBS. We took a survey regarding BBS’s degree of difficulty, and overall it had reputation of being well balanced. Since we didn’t want to ruin a good thing, we didn’t make any big changes.
Also, the Mirage Arena won’t have multiplayer elements this time, so we adjusted the enemies strength that way the battles are still high tensioned but enjoyable playing alone. There is a tough boss in the final stages, but we made it faster and changed the AI a little, so it’s a more of a challenge than before. It’s not the type of boss you’ll be able to suppress simply with strength, you’ll have to think about how to fight.
- KH2 had a lot of formidable enemies too, have they been adjusted as well?
Yasue: KH2 was already a complete package, so thinking that messing with it too much would break the balance, we decided not to readjust things. Therefore the Organization XIII data reappearances and armored warrior fights are just as strong as before.
- Do you have a favorite battle?
Yasue: My favorite is the data reappearance battle with Roxas. As an opponent he puts up a fairly hard fight, but isn’t that where you snatch Roxas’ Keyblade? I like in that scene when you slide past the attacks and counter attack.
Mere physical strength isn’t enough, you need to use our head and technique, watch the boss’ movements to know when to guard, modify your abilities and Keyblade so you have an advantage. I like fights that have that kind of balance to them.
If you fight this boss the way you do the regular storyline bosses, you’ll lose, so I like that this boss takes some finesse to defeat.
- Did you make changes to the audio portions?
Yasue: About 80% of KH2’s audio work was remixing. adding in stringed instruments to songs has a wonderful result. Same as before, the audio is in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.
Yoko Shimomura’s music is an undeniable trait of the Kingdom Hearts series, I feel like without the atmosphere she creates, it isn’t Kingdom Hearts, so the mix of the final audio was carefully controlled but also provides a new depth to the familiar sound.
As for BBS, we’ve added more atmospheric sounds than the original, for instance you can hear water trickling if you are near a fountain, which improves the presence.
- Did you rerecord any of the voice sequences?
Yasue: We added about 2 hours of new cutscenes for the Re:coded portion, so we had to record for that. We ported data from the overseas editions of KH2 and BBS, so we had to switch back the voices from English to Japanese, but we didn’t change anything else besides that.
Working as one KH team in Osaka and Tokyo.
- What kind of work are you involved in regarding development on the newest title, Kingdom Hearts 3?
Yasue: As the development overseer, I work in the office keeping programmers, designers, and planners in order.
Mostly I work as a planner, figuring out how the game plays as a whole. I discuss the systems and gameplay with Tetsuya Nomura, as well as write the business proposals. I’m in the middle between the office staff and Nomura, so I get nudged from both sides. (Laughs)
- What kind of process does development go through?
Yasue: First Nomura decides the concept, while that’s being drawn up, the development team puts together the proposal and art, and we make a trial version. While research and development progresses, a consensus is reached with Nomura, and bit by bit the game reaches completion. When it gets to the final stage, all the elements including the story and battles are put together, and they are adjusted from there until they mesh together nicely.
- I hear that the Kingdom Hearts series is developed by the Osaka team, is that the case for KH3 as well?
Yasue: Speaking of number of people, about 80% are in Osaka, the other 20% are combined with people in Tokyo. This setup was used with KH 2.5 as well.
Programmers for KH3 and KH 2.5 are separated into two teams, but designers and planners work on both. There’s not really a wall between the Osaka and Tokyo teams, they work together like one KH team.
- Speaking of Osaka, they’re the guys that did Brave Fencer Musashi way back in the day.
Yasue: That’s right. The Brave Fencer Musashi and Parasite Eve series. There are a lot of game development companies and creators in Osaka, the people intermingle and since putting out Kindom Hearts, we’ve assembled a lot of new staff. The atmosphere and organization since the time of Musashi and Parasite Eve has changed greatly.
- Each new entry into the Kingdom Hearts series improves upon the speed and action and amazing effects, how will it be from hereafter?
Yasue: It’s important to continue the path of dynamic action, amazing effects, and gameplay with strategic elements, but adjusting the speed elements is actually quite difficult.
If you’re too fast than the player can’t keep up. A sort of speed inflation occurs if the players are fast, then the enemies have to be sped up and so on. We want it to fundamentally be as enjoyable as possible for as many people as possible, so I think we have to find a perfect balance.
However, there are also situations planned like when you ride the jet coaster where expressing that kind of high speed course is important, so there’s a good variety prepared.
- How will the configuration of the gameplay field etc. evolve hereafter?
Yasue: It’ll vary by world, but I can’t talk about the concrete details yet. But if you compared it to Kingdom Hearts so far, the scale is drastic and open, running through the gameplay fields feels surreally huge. You can get a thrill just by moving around the field.
- It’s common for treasure boxes to be put in clever places in the Kingdom Hearts series. For instance, I spot you can see but can’t immediately reach. Will KH3 inherit that kind of play spirit?
Yasue: I like that technique of teasing at a glance a lot. (Laughs) Where you can see something is nearby, but you don’t know how to get to it. Those kind of play sensations are the kind of points we tend to fuss over.
I also like things where you won’t see them if you progress ahead, but you will if you turn around. But just doing those kind of gimmicks gets old, so I think just a hint of these kind of aspects will be fun.
- Being in charge of a numbering title, do you feel pressured?
Yasue: I’m really not the type to be afflicted by pressure. The reason is, I’m looking forward to what I do while I do it. Various dreams are broadened, and new things and content are rapidly made in a numbering title, plus as expected Nomura will prepare something amazing story wise, so all in all I’d say it’s a fun experience.
There’s also the technology. Compared to previous titles, how games are made is fundamentally different, it’s stimulating to try out the leading edge of technology. Also, until now, you felt the evolution of technology with the making of each game, but now we are crossing the biggest turning point, challenging an entirely new field of research.
- You were born in Canada, about how long did you live there?
Yasue: From the time I was born until I was 16, I lived in Canada. I didn’t really speak Japanese and couldn’t write kanji, so I didn’t have plans on going to Japan but when I was in high school, we moved and I enrolled in a Japanese high school. Not only was my vocab different, but my spirit was different than everyone else and it was rough.
However, thanks to growing up in Canada, I have a more carefree spirit and don’t sweat the details and I’ve been able to come this far.
- Thanks to that characteristic you seem to handle the current hard work quite well.
Yasue: I guess you could say that. It’s important to pay attention to the details when you develop games, but you also won’t make progress if you don’t have a flexible mindset.
Also to borrow from the theme of KH, when times get hard your friends are there to help you out, you really feel connected through your troubles. (Laughs) I like those thing that are true in real life as in the world of gaming.
- The game operation of KH 1.5 was changed to resemble KH2, but this time the game operation hasn’t changed?
Yasue: When we did KH 1.5, KH2’s operation style was considered the standard so we changed it to match, but this time we haven’t made any major changes. BBS was on PSP, so now the right analog stick controls the camera.
- At the ending of KH 1.5 there was a secret movie at the end of the credits that hinted at the next installment, will that be the case for KH 2.5 as well?
Yasue: It’s hard to answer that, so I’ll leave it to your imagination. It’s possible there will be something, but it’s possible there won’t be. (Laughs) Apart from that, I can say that in the Re:Coded theater mode there will be cutscenes added to flesh out the backstories of other Kingdom Hearts titles, so please look forward to that.
- Besides the Kingdom Hearts series, is there something that you’d personally like to try and make? A certain game genre?
Yasue: I want to do a lot of things. Kingdom Hearts is rich in content so it’s fun. There’s Disney content that hasn’t been utilized yet, and there is a lot of room to expand, so with that in mind I find the series very stimulating.
I’m also interested in the Final Fantasy series, but I can’t work on both at the same time. (Laughs) As for genres, I don’t like the dark moods of horror games. But I would like the challenge of trying something on smartphones and tablets. So far I’ve done big projects with big teams, but I’d like to try something with a small group that takes a couple months to make.
In the past I experienced making Tetra Master (card game from Final Fantasy IX) with a small group of people and developing it was a lot of fun. It was a simple card game, but I enjoyed the arguing process while fussing with the game’s aspect in a small group.
Enjoy KH 2.5 while waiting for KH3 to come together!
- KH 2.5 is the compilation of 3 titles, is there a specific highlight about each of them you’d like to point out?
Yasue: KH2 was originally a very beautiful game, but when you compare the PS2 version to the HD version, the grade is clearly different. I think as a whole the graphic quality has elevated and it’s a quality upgrade that you can really feel.
Not complaining about the graphics of BBS, the simple prettiness of it was one of it’s attributes, so we’ve made it more visibly clear.
Re:Coded was a game originally for DS so it’s completely different recollected as a theater compilation now. Battle scenes from the original are now cutscenes, and when you watch the compilation, it’s contents will deepen your understanding of the story even more.
The battle scenes are made with dynamic animation and include additional effects, so I’d like to highlight that point. It’s also about 3 hours worth which is even longer that the compilation of 358/2 Days in KH 1.5, which is quite impressive.
- Lastly, a message for the readers who are looking forward to KH 2.5 please.
Yasue: From designers to planners, each section has taken part and fussed over every little thing to finish up in a good spot. Of course I think when you play it for yourself you’ll be able to see just how much the HD quality has improved upon the original.
Development is continuing alongside KH3, and while you await the release for KH3, I hope that everyone plays KH 2.5 so that you can thoroughly enjoy KH3 when it comes.
- I want to ask a little but about KH3, what was the purpose behind the lines revealed in the most recent trailer?
Yasue: The trailer is obviously different than the final product, but those lines will be in the starting point of KH3. The people who are speaking are secret, but players who understand the story will probably guess who they are immediately.
- Has the story been concretely decided already?
Yasue: I can’t say if it’s concrete, but that part is. It’s always this way when we make KH titles, before the story is completely decided, the gameplay and systems are developed side by side. Since we plan on announcing new information as content is settled, please look forward to future announcements!
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Some major points
- The Mirage Arena will be single player only. No multiplayer will be included in Birth by Sleep.
- The game mechanics are mostly kept true to the original, save for the camera in BBS which now uses the right analog stick.
- 90 songs have been re-done for KH2. The sound of BBS is heavily improved.
- HD 2.5 ReMIX is 95% complete.
- Around 70 people worked on the development team for HD 2.5 ReMIX, but this team was also simultaneously developing Kingdom Hearts III.
- Kingdom Hearts III development is in full throttle.
We have uploaded the interview, and typed up a full transcript of it. All of this can be seen below.
-- "Firstly, I would like to congratulate the entire staff and active members a part of the Kingdom Hearts saga, and say a big thankyou for your time and dedication for all of the games you bring to us, and all the amazing, unforgettable moments each title brings. Birth by Sleep Final Mix was probably the greatest thing I was able to import, to be able to play for my PSP. Aside from new optional bosses and a secret episode featuring Aqua, I really enjoyed fighting in the Mirage Arena with my friends against No Heart and the Armor of Master. SO PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION: Will the multiplayer option in 2.5 be present for Birth by Sleep?" Yasue: The multiplayer, we took into consideration our schedule, and right now we are actually simultaneously making 2.5 and 3. Due to our schedule considerations, we sort of wanted to let the player play on single player mode instead of multiplayer. Multiplayer takes a lot of time, and we wanted to sort of concentrate more on Kingdom Hearts III, so that we could speed that up.
Although, we actually changed-- we wanted players to actually play in the Mirage Arena, so we actually tweaked it so that a lot of the bosses would be enjoyable. We also tweaked the AIs so they were more quick, and overall we also added some new rules, for example the challenge bonus, which-- there's a challenge for each battle, and if you clear them, you get some bonus medals. So, you can still enjoy it in single mode.
-- "Will HD 2.5 ReMIX have a Theatre Mode?"
Yasue: Yeah. That's something we really wanted to do. When we first wanted to create Kingdom Hearts III, we made a decision to make 1.5 and 2.5 as well, and the reason for doing that was we wanted the players to actually understand the story, and so Re:coded is really an integral part of the story of Kingdom Hearts, so we added a 3 hour cutscene as theatre. And, 2 hours of that is original and totally new, so I guess you get a lot of new content.
-- When you say original and totally new, is it correct to say that nobody in the whole entire world has seen those 2 hours of cutscenes?
Yasue: Yeah, that's right. It's 2 hours. And also, players that actually played and know the Re:coded story, there's actually totally new story as well. A little bit added story for some of the backstories of other Kingdom Hearts titles in it. That's sort of a secret, but yeah. Backstories-- a "secret episode" sort of thing.
-- "Will the game mechanics of Kingdom Hearts II or Birth by Sleep be different from their original versions in 2.5 ReMIX?"
Yasue: Well, for Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Birth by Sleep Final Mix, we got really positive reviews. We really didn't want to change too much. We really wanted to concentrate on upgrading it to the PS3, and we didn't want to anger our fans, obviously, by changing it too much. So we really concentrated on the graphics, and the sound. We put a lot of man hours in that, so that you could get a really premiere experience on the PS3, on a big TV. That's what we did.
-- "What was the biggest challenge in developing this ReMIX in comparison to last year's 1.5 ReMIX?"
Yasue: For 1.5, we'd never made a HD ReMIX before, right. So we didn't know how to make the system for the PS3. So, for 2.5 we didn't have a lot of difficulty programming the system, and the way to make the workflow, so that was pretty easy, that was pretty smooth. What was difficult was we actually wanted to do more to grade up the quality of the graphics, and the sound. We totally changed the polygons and the textures for Birth by Sleep, we used a lot more memory for that, and also for Kingdom Hearts II, the textures have been all remade, so it's a lot prettier, the colors are more vivid, and it's really beautiful to watch-- and also for sound, I guess, that's something we did, we put a lot of effort into as well.
-- "What was the most important part in making 2.5 ReMIX for you?"
Yasue: I mentioned this before, I think we really didn't want to change what was good about Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Birth by Sleep, so we didn't really change the game balance, or the major game system. We tweaked a bit, but we really wanted it to focus on making it a PS3 experience. We wanted to really exceed our player's expectations from that, so, I think it's really gorgeous, drop-dead gorgeous, to play. So we really wanted to concentrate on that.
-- That's cool. And even some of the color palettes have been swapped with like the Unversed?
Yasue: That's right, they're totally different. For the PS3, the colors you can use are far richer I think, and you get a really deeper experience playing that. For Kingdom Hearts II, I think, it was actually really pretty at the beginning with our first PlayStation 2 version, but I think it really realised its full potential on the PS3.
-- "What was the most enjoyable part of creating 2.5?"
Yasue: The team from Kingdom Hearts 2.5, the programmers are really funny, I think. [laughs] I like working with them. One of the guys is called "Eggplant" in Japanese, and he has a purple house, and he also looks sort of-- he's shaped like an eggplant, right. [laughs] That's something I really enjoyed. I like talking with them. I like working with them, it's really fun. That's a fun point. One of the fun things is actually watching Kingdom Hearts 2.5 on a big screen. We check it, right, on a big screen with them, and I think it's sort of-- very emotional, it's-- because you learn that it has gotten a lot better.
-- "How do you go about bringing a PSP game and porting it onto PS3 into full hi-def?"
Yasue: There's several steps, I guess, to break it down easily-- first what we do is we sort of recompile the program for the PS3, and we sort of make it into a PS3 version, and after that-- recompiling-- fixing the code, so that you can add PS3 data, what we do is we-- [sorry, the recording skipped ahead]
-- "Which Disney world was the most fun for you to create, Mr. Yasue?"
Yasue: The Castle of Dreams, actually, it's from Cinderella. That's one of the first ones I actually planned in game design, right, so that's really special for me. I liked playing as a small mouse-sized character in the house, it's very three dimensional, it's very vast. I loved finding the different pieces for her dress, material for her dress, and that was actually very enjoyable for me.
-- Yeah I like that level a lot, just because of the verticality, and how you can go in the kind of mouse holes.
Yasue: Yeah, I really love environments that are very vertical. They're not just flat. You go up, up, up and up and up. That's something I really enjoy.
-- "What is the most favorite thing that the development team enjoys about being able to bring Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX to old and brand new fans, and how does it allow for added possibilities?"
Yasue: What we really enjoyed-- you know, for Birth by Sleep, we made the first version, so it was really close to us, and we really didn't want to make any mistakes. That was really special for us. For me, Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep, I think they're one of my favorite titles for the Kingdom Hearts series, and I think that a lot of players feel the same way. So I think that was really enjoyable as well.
-- "Are there any game mechanics that you have wanted to include in the series that have never made it in due to time or hardware limitations?"
Yasue: For Birth by Sleep, we did a lot of experimentations with the Shotlock system, and the command style system, and I think we really did a lot. Obviously we'll be changing a lot in Kingdom Hearts III, but in Kingdom Hearts 2.5 we really didn't change a lot of the mechanics. However, for Birth by Sleep, the controls were for the PSP, so we changed that into a PS3 version. It's easier to control using the right stick for the camera, for example, so we tweaked that. It'll be really pretty natural to actually control for the PS3 version of Birth by Sleep.
-- "Were there any FINAL FANTASY or Disney characters or worlds that you wish to add to the previous Kingdom Hearts games, but could not?"
Yasue: For Birth by Sleep, I wanted Vincent. I like Vincent from FINAL FANTASY VII, but there wasn't really a place-- there's no setting for Vincent that would fit Vincent. He should come out of a coffin for example, but there's no real coffin in Birth by Sleep. That's one of the characters I would like to incorporate, maybe, but it wasn't possible. The gameplay would be really exciting too, he has the guns right, so it'd be fun maybe as an enemy character.
-- At least you guys got to get Zack Fair in there from the VII universe..
Yasue: Yeah, Zack Fair was fun.
-- Were there-- sorry, this is a random question, but were there any challenges with bringing Zack into the game?
Yasue: With Zack-- of the FINAL FANTASY characters, I think he is more real and when we brought him to Kingdom Hearts, he's a little bit more cuter, I think. His shape is a little bit more round, so we sort of rearranged that for the Kingdom Hearts series.
-- "Will Birth by Sleep feature the command menu in the original version, or have a combat version similar to Kingdom Hearts II?"
Yasue: For Birth by Sleep, I really like the deck command system, so we incorporated that, we haven't changed that. We understand that a lot of players actually like the Birth by Sleep system as well and the Kingdom Hearts II system, but I think that they belong to each other, so, they seperate it. You can enjoy both systems I think.
-- I agree, I think both have their own charm, and both are awesome in their own right.
Yasue: That's right, there's different strategy that work for the other games, so you can enjoy both.
-- "What was your favorite game to remaster and bring back to life, and what is your favorite Disney world?"
Yasue: There are a lot of Disney worlds I like. I like Timeless River, the black and white Mickey characters. I think I watched the classics a lot. There's something special about them. They're really creative, there's a lot of imagination involved and I have a lot of respect for that. That's one of my favorite worlds I guess. And of the my favorite worlds I enjoyed making was, as I said earlier, Castle of Dreams, Cinderella stage. I like the mouse view, that was awesome. I also like Lilo & Stitch, Deep Space stage too. We played with this gravity gimmick, you can jump higher and stuff, that was kinda fun too.
-- "How many people in the development team did it take to complete the full remaster of 2.5 ReMIX?"
Yasue: 2.5, umm-- there's this image, making HD remasters easily, but it's actually very difficult and time-consuming. We had over 70 people, about 35 cutscene guys and a lot of artists taking part in Kingdom Hearts 2.5, a lot of time, and a lot of man power I guess.
-- That's a pretty big team.
Yasue: Yeah, it is a pretty big team. I guess Kingdom Hearts III is also running simultaneously, so it's-- a lot of guys overlap.
-- We're glad to hear that Kingdom Hearts III doesn't slow down because of this remaster, so that's really awesome.
Yasue: Yeah, we're going full throttle right now.
-- "For Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, how was the development process. I heard that you're in the final stages of development, and I was wondering if this was as tedious a process as developing 1.5?
Yasue: Actually, we're in the final stage of development. If we were having difficulty, I wouldn't be here, right. So I guess it must be moving smoothly. Right now what we're doing is we're doing our finishing touches on cutscenes, and we're also tweaking a bit, for example the trophies, and also we're debugging, so we're almost done. I mean like 95% done. So I think it's going very smoothly. It's not that tedious, I'm here, I'm talking to you guys. [laughs] I'm enjoying myself.
-- Will Kingdom Hearts 2.5 include extras that were not in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix before, and are there going to be new additions to the ReMIX games, not just Final Mix features?
Yasue: For Kingdom Hearts II, there's nothing that is really added. But I think everything, the graphical assets have been totally rechanged and retuned, and so that is the big change. For the Final Mix versions for II and Birth by Sleep, it was only sold in Japan, so I think we really wanted to get that to the US and European market.
-- One of the things you mentioned earlier was about the sound quality. Can you speak a little bit as to what changed from II to Final Mix?
Yasue: For Kingdom Hearts II, we re-recorded about 90 of our songs, 90 of our BGMs. We had a full 40 member string orchestra recording in Boston, so there was a lot of effort put in to that. You could really identify the live instruments now on the HD version. For the former Kingdom Hearts II, we used data that wasn't really live-- so there weren't real instruments-- but in 2.5, you can identify the instruments, and there's a really deeper sound, a richer sound for that. For Birth by Sleep, we actually had a lot of constraints because it was done on the PSP. We added a lot of environmental sound. For example, if you come close to a fountain, you see a rich gurgling sound from the fountain. So I guess that overall gives you a richer experience, I think sound is very important, especially for Kingdom Hearts.
-- This is about Re:coded-- is there going to be a whole movie, or can you select different HD clips?
Yasue: For Re:coded, what you can do is actually select, and you can also play the whole thing at once. So you can see it like a movie, I guess, that you actually rent, sort of. If you want to see some particular movie, you just select that from your menu, so that's also easy as well.
-- What Disney movie do you wish made it into the previous games?
Yasue: I can't really answer for sure, but-- well, I don't-- on a personal note, I went to see Frozen with my daughter a few months back, and I thought that was very special. I liked it. I'm not saying that it's going to be added to any of our Kingdom Hearts, but on a personal level, I really liked the film. The magic, the blizzard, the ice, the snow-- I think they were really beautiful, and the story as well, I loved that.
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Now, we know when Kingdom Hearts information, and specifically Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX information, will be aired on the Square Enix Presents channel. We've outlined the most important details below.
SQUARE ENIX PRESENTS Interview: Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX
Special Guest: Co-Director Tai Yasue
June 10 - 6:30pm (USA EST)
All Eyes On Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX
June 11 - 5pm (USA EST)
SquareEnixPresents is available on YouTube here. We will add countdown clocks to the homepage closer to the date.
Update: Yoko Shimomura, composer of the Kingdom Hearts series will be performing Kingdom Hearts songs live on Square Enix Presents, June 11 at 2:30pm (USA EST).
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Thanks go to KHDestiny for the find.
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A lot of news has appeared leading up to E3 2014, so here's a quick summary:
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX to be featured in Square Enix Presents
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX's E3 2014 banner revealed
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX confirmed to be (playable?) at PlayStation's E3 2014 booth
- Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX trailer for E3 2014 released
Release dates for HD 2.5 ReMIX
Japan: October 2, 2014
North America: December 2, 2014
Australia: December 4, 2014
Europe: December 5, 2014
- Japan will also have a 1.5+2.5 Collectors Pack, and a Kingdom Hearts Series Memorial Ultimania released on the same date. Details are here.
- New Kingdom Hearts III teaser trailer shown
E3 2014 begins in only a few days time, and KH13.com's Oishii will be there to help us cover the event in detail. Please look forward to more information, demo impressions and more concerning HD 2.5 ReMIX, and everything Kingdom Hearts.
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