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KH 10th Anniversary soundtrack's website updated with KH3D

Square Enix have updated their official website for the Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- soundtrack. This update is an update to the track listing page, which now includes tracks from Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. These tracks can be seen below.

Official Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- website

Kingdom Hearts 3D
1. Dearly Beloved
2. TWISTER -KINGDOM MIX-
3. L'Oscurità dell'Ignoto
4. L'Impeto Oscuro
5. Link to All

Each track on the track listing page contains a comment from the composer of the song. Our translator goldpanner has translated each of these comments, and they (the Birth by Sleep one) can be read below.
Dearly Beloved: And here it is again... (I'll skip the rest of that sentence!)
Every time I think, what should I do for 'Dearly Beloved'~? For this title I hit upon it plain and simple, deciding to go with triple metre for 3D! When I said this in a magazine interview, Ms Shiraishi, who was in charge of producing the soundtrack, said "Huh... is that it? That's really why you thought to do it...," and I got dejected ; (I could hear a voice in my heart saying... I wish I hadn't heard that... ; ;) Actually, it's natural that this melody would suit triple metre. 'Always on My Mind', from the ending of the first title, was triple metre, you see. So, I'm sure that my simple idea for triple metre wasn't really an idea, but something that was going to happen due to the circumstances. --Yoko Shimomura TWISTER -KINGDOM MIX-: I was rather astonished when I heard that ‘Twister -Kingdom Mix-’ was to be put in KH3D. I did not see it coming that Neku was going to make an appearance in KH3D. I first heard the news when our good old sound man Kawamori rang me up. Haha, then I was surprised all over again about putting in an arrangement of Twister. “Whoa~ I did not see that coming, wow!” Twister is the track I have made the most arrangements for so far, being a popular track from ‘The World Ends With You’. So, to make yet again another new arrangement for use in KH3D, I changed the vocalist and also re-recorded some acoustic guitar that would serve as the key to this song. I am simply over the moon to record it for this KH 10th Anniversary Best CD, and so I hope you enjoy my songs too, united with the World of Shimomura that Ends with You, the fans, who chose for this Best CD! --Takeharu Ishimoto
L'Oscurità dell'Ignoto: This song was one of four songs for the series of final bosses (along with ‘Rinzler Recompiled’, ‘Deep Drop’, and ‘The Dread of Night’, not recorded for this CD,) that were churned out during the final stages of production. I think perhaps that time was the most I’d had sounds overflowing inside my head out of the past few years? (Being boss music, there are a lot of sounds to the music in a practical sense, haha.) They specifically wanted me to use a phrase from Xemnas’ theme from KHII for this song. I wanted to use the melody of the second part of ‘Darkness of the Unknown’ there for sure! And, the speedy pipe organ part from the beginning. With only that decided, I let the rest to momentum and wrote it in one go. A song written in one go will definitely have momentum to it! Even after listening to it over and over I still think it does. --Yoko Shimomura
L'Impeto Oscuro: Just re-listening to this song makes my heart start pounding, haha. Basically, I had the whole shape of the song playing inside my head, but, the data wasn’t matching up (or I should say, it sounded good but I physically didn’t have enough time, a situation that disqualifies me as a professional ;), and I was still writing the song on the day of recording. I rushed into recording with what I’d submitted as a demo without having time to wait for word back on it first. “If it gets shot down we’ll work something out. I’m responsible,” I said, recording violin and cello. In the end, the OK came during recording... (I found out after recording). I couldn’t believe it. I just kept repeating, “You’re kidding? Really? Really?? Seriously??” Mr Kawamori says I skipped my way out of the studio, haha. --Yoko Shimomura
Link to All: During development, I created this song as ‘the theme for connected hearts’. There’s a lot going on, but we’ll all do our best together! The future will clear up for sure! Those are the sorts of feelings I had in mind making this.I was conscious to give the song an atmosphere of being positive, not worked up, and not overly forceful. Me wanting to go and put the phrase from ‘Dearly Beloved’ in a song like this is, well, habit isn’t it, haha. --Yoko Shimomura
DChiuch

Today is the 10th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts in North America

On this day in 2002, ten years ago, Kingdom Hearts released in North America. A collaboration between Square Enix and Disney, Kingdom Hearts was the first game of a series that has sold over 18 million copies to date. Today, the series marks its 10th anniversary.
We are months past the release of the 7th game, Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], but we still have much to look forward to-- Kingdom Hearts III is all but confirmed to be the next game in the series, and the director, Tetsuya Nomura, has hinted at other developments soon to come.
We'd like to remind you that although there is no confirmation yet, there is a small chance that we might see a Kingdom Hearts announcement at Tokyo Game Show 2012, which starts in only a few days. You can see a countdown to the event on the right-hand side of our homepage.
What is your Kingdom Hearts story? Please leave a comment and let us know how the series has been a big part of your life.
DChiuch

KH3D AR card archive updated with latest European cards

As you would know, 5 individual AR cards were produced for each version (Japanese, North American and European) of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. The last 3 European cards were recently released through Club Nintendo, and the first scans of these cards have only just appeared online-- thanks to JayC from KH13. We've created an archive of AR cards, and have added the European cards to this archive. These 3 new cards can be seen below.
DChiuch

KH 10th Anniversary soundtrack's website updated with BBS

Square Enix have updated their official website for the Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- soundtrack. This update is an update to the track listing page, which now includes tracks from Birth by Sleep. This single track can be seen below.
Update: The website has updated with more Birth by Sleep tracks, for a new total of 7 tracks from the game. This updated list can be seen below. You can also translations of Shimomura's comments below.

Official Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- website

Birth by Sleep
1. Dearly Beloved
2. Terra
3. Ventus
4. Enter the Darkness
5. Aqua
6. Dismiss
7. Dark Impetus

Each track on the track listing page contains a comment from the composer of the song, in this case, Takeharu Ishimoto. Our translator goldpanner has translated each of these comments, and they (the Birth by Sleep one) can be read below.
Dearly Beloved: And here it is again, ‘Dearly Beloved’, haha. I’ve said this many times so I’m sure many of you already know this, but, in every ‘Dearly Beloved’ for titles after KHII, I incorporated the first part of the melody of the song played during the ending of the first title ‘Always on My Mind’, but not in the Birth by Sleep version. Yes, because that game was set further in the past than the first title. I was particular about that. This version has the most violent ups and downs and the biggest scope of all the arrangements so far. I really like the piano variation with the number of sounds gradually increasing, and the slightly lonely violin phrase that comes in the middle. --Yoko Shimomura Terra: It's a very short track, but, I think I was able to express the kind of person Terra is, haha, singing my own praises here. This song was born from the main melody of 'Fate of the Unknown'. The image in my head that corresponds to that musical phrase is 'power'. 'Power' is sometimes strong, sometimes gentle, sometimes fragile, and sometimes invites ruin and destruction. For that that 'power' to somehow advance you on the right path, and show you the right path. That's what I pray. --Yoko Shimomura
Ventus: This song is also a combo song. I had actually been writing a completely fresh song when direction came from Mr Tetsu to make "a song that is Roxas and Sora's themes added together, but not obviously, so it feels like a new song"... (needless to say, I thought, ughh, tell me that before I start! Haha). Seeing as I was dressing up the connected melodies of two themes as one new song (haha), I put my whole heart into making sure it didn't sound strained, but the Sora melody on piano that comes in at about 0:31 and the Sora melody on oboe from 0:58~on happened extremely naturally. As if any other way than having that play there was unthinkable. That sort of feeling. And then, I also went with a variation of the 'Dearly Beloved' phrase played surreptitiously on piano in the background. --Yoko Shimomura
Enter the Darkness: Enter the Darkness is a song with many components, which I think makes it a song that fills you with strength especially for fighting the last boss. I contributed some of the songs from Birth by Sleep. My involvement began with a single phone call from Kawamori of the sound staff, saying "can you help?". My suprised reaction of "What, not me??" was met with a no, "we're going with you, Ishimoto". We began sort of like, "okay, but I want to choose which tracks I do". In the beginning I was quite anxious, but with the way it turned out, I am now filled with gladness that we did it that way. It's always great to have a chance to try new things, and I've learned that it's important to take that first step without complaint.
More importantly, it even made it safely through this poll onto the CD, chosen by the fans, and that makes me happier than anything. --Takeharu Ishimoto
Aqua: Just like 'Terra', this song was born from 'Fate of the Unknown'. I absolutely wanted to use a particular piano phrase from around the middle of 'Fate of the Unknown'. When I first made the demo I used piano for the main, and it was a relatively uninspiring, easy song. They requested that they wanted me to "have it make you feel more determination"... I listened to the tune play for a while, and then I thought of using cello for the melody. The timbre of the cello conveyed for me that degree of power and heartbreak. For some mysterious reason, when I want this sort of timbre, the cello is absolutely irreplaceable with any other instrument. --Yoko Shimomura
Dismiss: Yes, another combo song. What's with this parade of combos, haha. This is the phrase from 'Destati' entwined with Terra's theme. This part was already there when I first began writing this song. It remained the same right to the present form. For me, when I am thinking of how to bring songs together to a certain degree, there are three patterns:
1. When the horizontal aspect (melodic line) is already finished,
2. when the vertical aspect (the way the sounds layer, the counterline etc) composition is already finished, and
3. when both the flow of the horizontal aspect and the composition of the vertical aspect are already finished.
Among these, which do you think is the hardest? The answer is number three. You might be thinking, but if it's all been thought out already then wouldn't it be easy! But, it aaall has to play at the same time. Vertical aspect, horizontal aspect, everything. I can't explain it very well but, disregarding the time axis, there's the horizontal aspect as the horizontal aspect and the vertical aspect as the vertical aspect and then the shape they complete (the shape of vertical and horizontal properly meshing), everything!! In practice, it means that I gather the melody for the first part inside my head and start writing, but then, inside my head, at the same time as the melody I am currently writing, the portion for the second part is playing all together, haha. I am so slow and bad at gathering it up...... --Yoko Shimomura
Dark Impetus: I have very strong memories to do with this song. I'm very sorry to trouble you with my personal matters, but, at the time, I was confronting a certain problem. I felt like I was caught in this deep deep bottomless darkness, and I couldn't break out. But, when I began writing this song, for some reason it filled me with incredible strength. I don't know why, but it pushed me forwards and forwards. Write this song, it said. I thought I was caught in that darkness, but the song pushed me to the front of that darkness, and I got my footing back. It's a strange story, isn't it. Is that what 'drastic treatment' is? (I don't think so... haha) Of course, it goes without saying that this song was also first written under the conditions of "It's for a mystery man so it's a mystery!" haha. --Yoko Shimomura
DChiuch

Fate of the Unknown to be included in The Greatest Video Game Music 2

IGN have announced the tracklisting for The Greatest Video Game Music 2, a 20 track album containing game songs played by The London Philharmonic Orchestra. Fate of the Unknown, the song appearing in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, will be included in the album as track #13.
Secondly, IGN have named their top 100 RPGs of all time, and both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II made the list. Kingdom Hearts is #84, while Kingdom Hearts II is #68.
DChiuch

KH 10th Anniversary soundtrack box artwork revealed

The Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- soundtrack is a 2-disc set containing the best music from the Kingdom Hearts series, chosen by fans, releasing on September 19, 2012. You may have seen the recent news about the cover art reveal, or maybe the article revealing some of the tracklist. Today, we have an image of the box it comes in! Yoko Shimomura Tweeted a photo of the box, and this photo can be seen below.

Update 1: Takeharu Ishimoto has uploaded another photo of the box to Instagram. This photo can be seen below.

Update 2: The Square Enix e-STORE's official Facebook have uploaded 7 photos of the soundtrack. These show, for the first time, the CDs inside the box. You can see these below.
DChiuch

Kingdom Hearts 10th anniversary Septepmber manga wallpaper

Square Enix Gangan, the creators of the Kingdom Hearts manga series, have uploaded a wallpaper celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Kingdom Hearts series. The wallpaper serves as a calendar for September 2012 and part of October 2012. It also mentions the September 22, 2012 release date of Volume 5 of the Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days manga. You can see the wallpaper, in various sizes, below.
DChiuch

KH 10th Anniversary soundtrack's website updated with 358/2 Days

Square Enix have updated their official website for the Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- soundtrack. This update is an update to the track listing page, which now includes tracks from 358/2 Days. These tracks, along with the others announced, can be seen below.

Official Kingdom Hearts 10th Anniversary Fan Selection -Melodies & Memories- website

358/2 Days
1. Dearly Beloved
2. Musique pour la tristesse de Xion
3. At Dusk, I Will Think of You ...
4. Vector to the Heavens
5. Another Side - Battle Ver. -

Each track on the track listing page contains a comment from the composer of the soundtrack, and the Kingdom Hearts series, Yoko Shimomura. Our translator goldpanner has translated each of these comments, and they can all be read below.
Dearly Beloved: I was told that they wanted "to jump in quick this time" because the intro to KH2 was so long, so this version begins comparatively quickly. Basically, I was conscious when composing to try for a slow, rich flow following in the footsteps of the one from KH2, and also, to have it feel a little heartbreaking. I always wanted to go with using the same tune but changing the impression a little each time, and I am very happy that I was able to pull it off. --Yoko Shimomura Musique pour la tristesse de Xion: I wanted to see if I could incorporate "the sadness of Xion, who shouldn't be able to feel sadness" into the tile. In English it would have been the word 'sad', but I thought nahh, that doesn't sound very Xion-like! So I used French, which I rarely do. It ended up kinda Ravel-like, haha. I also wrote this before in the comment for the soundtrack, but I made this with the concept of "something, like a faint illusion, that should surely be there but somehow feels as though it's not; it's nothing, but it somehow feels like there's something important there..." --Yoko Shimomura
At Dusk, I Will Think of You…: During development, I called this the "Ice-cream-Time Theme". That's what it is, isn't it, haha. In the dusk we think back to everyone's smiles then, the fun times, and to important memories. When you all eat ice cream at twilight, who do you think of? --Yoko Shimomura
Vector to the Heavens: When the name first appeared in "Piano Collections Kingdom Hearts Field & Battle", it was "Musique pour la tristesse de Xion", and that confused everyone to no end. I'm really sorry ;; The story is, the song in the Piano Collections is Xion's theme and battle theme joined together, and because of the overall impression of the song, I used her theme song's title. For the concept of the battle theme, I used "vectors", originally from mathematics. Because of that, I decided I absoutely had to use "vector" when I gave it a title. What is she facing? Where is she going? What is she carrying?? That became the title just as it was. --Yoko Shimomura
Another Side – Battle Ver. -: "Another Side" sure did well! Even the battle version made it into the ranking. I'm honestly surprised. I heard so many happy voices from you all for "Another Side" too, more than I could have thought for a track originally from "Kingdom Hearts Final Mix". I made the "– Battle Ver. -" because they wanted battling with that song as BGM just like in the secret movie. Upon that request I looped it and tweaked fine details. It's mostly the same, but it's a tiiiny bit different. Just a bit, haha. --Yoko Shimomura

Previous announcements:
- Box artwork revealed
- BBS track and Ishimoto comments
- KH2 tracks and Shimomura comments
- Official website & KH / CoM tracks and Shimomura comments
- Cover artwork revealed
- Announcement & September 19, 2012 release date
DChiuch

Meow Wow plush toy now available in North America

Square Enix have updated the Square Enix Official Goods Online Shop with a page for the Meow Wow plush toy that was featured in the instruction manual of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. The plush toy is available now, and can be bought from the store for a price of US$34.99.


Meow Wow Plush on the Square Enix Official Goods Online Shop

Update: Some related news for our fans outside North America! Two separate United Kingdom-based retailers have "confirmed" similar, but conflicting release dates of the plush toy. Forbidden Planet has confirmed a September 30, 2012 release, while ozgameshop.com has listed the date as September 28, 2012. While both of these stores are UK-based, they actually ship internationally, so check it out if you are not a NA resident!
DChiuch

KH13: KH3D video archive updated & video archive announcement

Hey everyone! We hope you've all been enjoying the last month and a half of Kingdom Hearts 3D! Today, KH13 is happy to announce that we have formed a partnership with Everglow8444 from YouTube. Everglow8444 will be helping out with our video archive, and recording cutscenes and playthroughs when needed.
So far, we have added Everglow's English playthrough of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] to the archive! This is a critical mode playthrough in great quality, so we recommend that you check it out. We will be updating very soon with an archive of English cutscenes from the game, and will continue to update with Everglow's great quality Kingdom Hearts videos. We hope you look forward to it!
Also, one last minor update: we have moved KH13.com to a newer server! This should result in a faster site (sorry for the slowness recently!). Now that the move is complete (sorry for the downtime!), you can continue to access KH13 like normal.
DChiuch

Kingdom Hearts 3D is August's 3rd top selling game in NA

NPD Group have released the sales chart for video games in North America sold in August 2012. GamesIndustry International uploaded this chart, which can be seen below. It reveals that Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] was the 3rd top-selling game of the month!
Nintendo Everything were able to get a response from Nintendo about the report, who revealed that Kingdom Hearts 3D sold over 180,000 copies in August 2012, in North America. Please note that this value does NOT include pre-orders, copies sold on July 31, or the Mark of Mastery Edition. (Which means the real will be higher!) Unlike the VGChartz estimates which we've seen before, this data is actually 100% accurate.

DChiuch

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