- 2 comments
- 985 views
Update: Matsuzuka has uploaded more keychain photos, and the post has been updated with these additions.
- 8 comments
- 2,048 views
Update 1: A blog post on Message from the KINGDOM has revealed that in addition to Shinji Hashimoto and various voice actors, director of the Kingdom Hearts series Tetsuya Nomura will also be attending D23 Expo.
Update 2: Disney Japan have announced that special Kingdom Hearts figurines will be auctioned off at the event. The figurine was used as a character modelling reference during the development of the first Kingdom Hearts. A photo of this figurine can be seen below.
Update 3: Miyu Irino (voice of Sora & Vanitas), Mamoru Miyano (voice of Riku) and Kouki Uchiyama (voice of Roxas & Ventus) will all be attending the event. Thanks to @aibo_ac7 for the tip.
- 17 comments
- 3,278 views
- 10 comments
- 1,246 views
Update: Hidemi Matsuzuka, the merchandise manager at Square Enix, has uploaded a new photo showing off the new Kingdom Hearts figurines, first revealed above. The figurines, Meow Wow, Meowjesty, a Flood Unversed, a Dusk Nobody, and a Shadow Heartless, are all shown below.
- 22 comments
- 5,436 views
You can now watch/download every cutscene from both the Japanese & English versions in HD 720p.
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Japanese cutscenes
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, English cutscenes
- 2 comments
- 1,472 views
Update 1: The pre-order page for the HD 1.5 ReMIX wall scroll on Amazon.co.jp has updated with the release date of the merchandise in Japan: August 23, 2013. Starting on this date, the wall scroll will be available for ¥2,292 (approximately US$23.30).
Update 2: Square Enix France have announced that the HD 1.5 ReMIX wall scroll will begin being sold on the Square Enix Boutique at the end of September 2013, for a price of €22.99 (approximately US$30.53). There has been no announcement for North America or other regions yet, but we will keep you updated if any information appears.
- 8 comments
- 2,239 views
- 26 comments
- 5,948 views
- 13 comments
- 3,180 views
You can also watch it in our trailer archive for the HD Collection along with other trailers and promotional videos.
- 23 comments
- 2,010 views
- 12 comments
- 2,807 views
Kingdom Hearts was your first title as a director. What do you think about this game today? Nomura: It is of course more than ten years since the game came out, but I still do not think it has aged. Instead, it always has a certain freshness. At the time, the game team, including myself, had worked passionately on it, and that's probably why it gives me that impression, even ten years later.
Have you been tempted to add more things to the HD remastering of Kingdom Hearts than just graphics and controls?
Nomura: Everything that was in the original game worked very well for its balance, and for the system we had imagined at the time. Although I designed many other gaming systems in the ten years that followed, I think that this balance would be upset if I was to integrate the first Kingdom Hearts. My only regret is Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, for which we could only release the cinematics in HD. I wished to include this episode as a playable in HD 1.5 ReMIX, but unfortunately we could not do it because we had to prioritize the development of Kingdom Hearts III, which fans have been waiting for. This is why we have not added other things to the HD version.
Will you do other HD remasters in the future?
Nomura: There is of course other episodes of Kingdom Hearts that we have not yet been published in HD, so if we had the chance, we would like to do so in the future.
With the announcement of Kingdom Hearts III, we can say that you have entrusted the future of the series in the Osaka team. Are they up to the challenge?
Nomura: The Osaka studio developed HD 1.5 ReMIX, so we can not say that they have never worked on the current console generation. But you're right, in the case of Kingdom Hearts III, it is actually the first time they have developed a completely new numbered episode, on next generation consoles at that. This is why we have made many preparations and extensive tests to date. As I feel that the preparations are complete, we were able to get in the development phase.
However, as your main team at Square Enix is situated in Tokyo, do you not have difficulty communicating with the Osaka team?
Nomura: In fact, the co-director and producer Tai Yasue and Rie Nishi are there. They are key members of the Kingdom Hearts project, so when they need to discuss a lot of different topics with me, they come to Tokyo. This is our usual method of working. But as technology is ever advancing, our new offices in Shinjuku are now equipped with a video conference system. Now, Yasue and Nishi can send me their materials or proposals in advance, which allows me to add my comments or my drawings and show them on camera in our video conferencing. In addition, there is no time difference, so even if we are far apart, it is easy to work.
So we can say that you supervise the team more than you do the head?
Nomura: Yes, especially this time with Kingdom Hearts III. Yasue and Nishi's teams offer me lots of ideas and we discuss together to know what we will keep or not.
Is it surprising?
Nomura: They offer me many interesting ideas, of course. After all, the more the merrier, the more the merrier. So it is always better to have a whole team to think, rather than myself. This is beneficial. The past ten years of existence, the Kingdom Hearts series has found its own identity even though many were initially surprised by the alliance between Square and Disney.
Do you think it is always helpful to include characters from Final Fantasy in KHIII?
Nomura: It is not because the Kingdom Hearts series is now well established that we do not need to add characters from Final Fantasy, it is actually that we have published a number of derivative episodes on portable consoles in recent years, and because of the technical limitations of these platforms, the volume of the story was rather limited. For KHIII, disk space is much larger, so we can actually deepen the story and are adding more characters. It really depends on the size of the game. It is quite possible that we will integrate many Final Fantasy characters.
- 22 comments
- 5,351 views
