Square Enix 3DS Community Day event details & registration
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Square Enix 3DS Community Day event details & registration
Some highlights of the photos:
- Photo #5 shows KH3D being played on the Nintendo 3DS XL, with the E3 2012 trailer playing in the background.
- Photo #7 is official artwork by Tetsuya Nomura, the director of the series!
- Photo #10 shows Hashimoto and Shimomura at the event.
Update: And lastly, the complete Kingdom Hearts presentation, again recorded by KHDestiny. MisguidedBliss from KH13 has translated this talk from French into English, and this translation can be read below the video.
Hashimoto-san: First of all, I'd like to thank everyone here. It's nice to see that people like KH so much here too.
You should know that KH is a project born ten years ago between Square Enix and Disney and we were wondering how we could work together and make new games.
So, we don't have much time, unfortunately but we'll try to use that time efficiently since we're going to look back on the past ten years of KH's history and a surprise guest might join us. *KH appears on screen*
Hashimoto-san: So, here's the first game of the saga. I remember, at the time, I was working with Tetsuya Nomura, who was the game director, and together we spent a very, very long time what kind of game it could be and we thought a lot about how the game was going to unfold and how we would make it.
*CoM appears on screen*
Hashimoto-san: So, in May 2005, we released the second game of the KH saga, and back then, you might remember, the GBA ruled the world the handheld systems market so that's why we decided to develop KH:CoM on this system.
*KH2 appears on screen*
Hashimoto-san: I think you all know that game. It's KH2, released on PS2. I guess you heard about it?
Audience: YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Hashimoto-san: I guess you all went and bought it when it was released in August 2006.
Audience: YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
*Days appears on screen*
Hashimoto-san: Then comes the first game on Nintendo DS, with a rather difficult name to say: KH 358/2 Days, that we simply call KH D Days. It ws released in October 2009, I think you remember.
*BbS appears, people are cheering*
Hashimoto-san: So, here is KH:BbS that you seem to know. I even see a young lady in the front row who knows it very well (she was cosplaying Aqua). KH:BbS is the first game of the saga released on PSP and chronogically, it's also the first game of the saga. It was released in September 2010. Not so long ago.
*re:Coded appears on screen*
Hashimoto-san: Finally, the second game released on Nintendo DS, KH:recoded, in January 2011.
So, here are the 10 years of KH quickly summed up for you and now I'd like to share these 10 years with someone else I'm going to call on stage: KH music composer, Yoko Shimomura!
*Shimomura-san appears, beautiful as always, people are cheering, le me nearly crying in the audience because she radiates awesomeness*
Translator guy: Yoko Shimomura, bonjour!
Shimonura-san: Bonjour!
Translator guy: Maybe we could all say konnichiwa?
Audience: KONNICHIWAAAAAAAAA!!
Shimomura-san: Konnichiwa!
Translator guy: Shimomura-san I think you want to Streetpass with our friends?
Shimomura-san: So, I didn't really know how I could please you, give you back all that love that you're giving me, liking my compositions
I don't know if some of you brought their 3DS today...
*People raise their 3DS*
Shimomura-san: I hope there'll be a large amount of you who'll be able to StreetPass so I'll be able to visit your 3DS and we'll become friends via our 3DS.
Translator guy: Shimomura-san, I think the audience here is really happy to see you.
*People are cheering*
Translator guy: How could you describe your experience with KH during these past 10 years?
Shimomura-san: Working for 10 years on the same series gives a lot of memories and there's hard times too because the development is complicated.
We've been through nerve-racking times and this saga is really important in my life and in my career so they're really good memories for me.
Little funny anecdote, in this new KH game on 3D, released soon, you'll hear a music with a voice. When you hear that voice, you'd like that voice to be the voice of a pretty young lady but in the beginning, I wanted to use the voice of an old man and Tetsuya Nomura-san told me: "No, absolutely not! We need an elegant voice, a beautiful voice, etc." So I got a little chided an I had to change it because the one I chose wasn't fitting.
Translator guy: Now Shimomura-san, I'd like to ask you -you composed a lot of musics during these years- do you have one favourite music?
Shimomura-san: It's really hard for me to choose one because my compositions are like my children but I think the most emblematic is the first one, it best represents the series. Now we're going to listen to it.
*Dearly Beloved is playing, people are cheering, le me nearly crying in the audience*
Translator guy: Do you agree with Shimomura-san's choice?
Audience: YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAH!!!
Translator guy: In any case, thank you for sharing your music and anecdotes Shimomura-san.
Shimomura-san: Thank you!
Translator guy: Shimomura-san, you're going to stay with us a little bit longer because we're going to talk about KH3D.
Hashimoto-san, there's a question I'm dying to ask. When will the game be released in France? (useless question imo)
Hashimoto-san: Sorry to have kept you waiting but the game we'll be released very soon on 07/20 and I hope you'll be present.Just two weeks to go!
Translator guy: Now,Hashimoto-san is going to talk about KH3D a little, in details so that you'll want to discover it.
Hashimoto-san: Raise your hand if you know Sora and Riku and if you're happy they're back!
*people raise their hands*
Hashimoto-san: Who likes Riku?
*people raise their hands*
Hashimoto-san: You'll be able to discover the game on the Nintendo booth and Square Enix booth because there are demo versions but
we're going to talk about the game's specificities. First of all the new characters : the Dream Eaters who are enemies and allies as well; there's two kinds of Dream Eaters: the Spirits and the Nightmares. You can see them on the right of the screen. How do you think they look? Do you think they're kawaii or nice?
Audience: Yeah!
Hashimoto-san: Thank you very much! Now we're going to discover some of the new worlds you're going to see in KH3D. The first one I'm going to show you -I hope you, French people, are going to enjoy it- is Notre-Dâme's world (La Cité des Cloches).
Now is the world you're very familiar with! Do you know these characters?
Audience: YEEEEEEEAAAAAH!!!
Hashimoto-san: Well, I'm pleased to sat that TWEWY characters are going to be in KH3D.
Another very popular world that I'm sure you know is Pinocchio's world where you'll be able to see Gepetto, and the annoying Jiminy Cricket. I hope you enjoy it.
Here's a bunch of extremely famous characters in the Country of the Musketeers where Mickey, Donald and Goofy will have to save Princess Minnie. Now, we're going to talk about the battle system, if you want to.
Audience: Yeeeees!
Hashimoto-san: So, as I said earlier, Sora and Riku are coming back and you'll be able to play with them both, alternatively.
For that game, there's a new battle system, it's called Flow-motion. You'll be able to interact with your surrondings. You can bounce on the wall, slide on the rails and do all kind of incredible actions.
depending on where you are. So, different actions depending on the world. So, the Dream-Eaters we were talking about earlier can be enemies but they can join you and be your allies too to help you while you're fighting.
Moreover, you'll be able to raise them and pet them, a little bit like in Nintendogs, right?
Tetsuya Nomura-san would've love to come here but unfortunately, it wasn't possible because he's working on different projects. We can't say anything about them, of course. But you should know he's really sorry he's not here today to celebrate with us KH's 10th anniversary and he knows how much you love that game. He can't wait for you to try it.
However, he has a little something to cheer you up.He drew an original artwork just for you here at Japan Expo. He gave it to me and I brought it here myself and we're going to show it to you right now.
*artwork appears on screen, people are cheering*
Hashimoto-san: Nomura-san is not someone who usually draws original artworks and such so, it's really for you and I hope you enjoy it.
Hashimoto-san: Can you see it?
*walks through the audience with the artwork so everyone can see it for real*
Translator guy thanks them, then thanks us.
Shimomura-san: I'm really happy I met you all, thank you very much!
Translator guy says all the OSTs are on sale on Squeenix booth and that they'll be at the Nintendo booth at 4:30 PM to sign stuff.
Hashimoto-san: We're waiting for you on KH3D!
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The video confirms two new English names of Dream Eaters-- Halbird and Hebby Repp.
Kingdom Hearts 3D brings an array of dazzling new features to the Kingdom Hearts series. Whether soaring to new worlds in Dive Mode, encountering mini-game mayhem with the Reality Shift or training your Dream Eater allies with Flick Rush, Kingdom Hearts 3D has a new experience waiting for you at every turn!
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A short sentence at the end of the interview spoils the game, so we have blacked this out for you. Feel free to read it below without risk of spoilers (and highlight this part if you want to read it).
IGN: You’ve been working on the Kingdom Hearts series for quite a while now. Could you tell our readers a little about your history with the franchise? TY: My first Kingdom Hearts I started with was Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, that was maybe seven years ago. After that, we worked on Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, and then our current title, Kingdom Hearts 3D. So this is my third title working on the series. I also did a lot of the planning for Re:coded as well.
IGN: Broadly speaking, what was the overall vision for Kingdom Hearts 3D? What kind of journey did you want to take players on?
TY: Well, when Nomura came up with the original design document, I think he wanted to have the story revolve around Riku a bit, and the Mark of Mastery. I think he really wanted to connect the story, working on 3D, to the next Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2. So I think there was a lot of secrets revealed in the story of 3D.
For me as a game designer, a real time game designer, I really wanted to do something that would sort of give the players a glimpse of the future, with action-based functionality, kicking walls, sliding down ramps, you could spin around poles and stuff. I really wanted to do something that was more aggressive and more speedy. I think we were able to do that with 3D.
IGN: And what was it like developing a Kingdom Hearts game specifically for the 3DS hardware? Are there any specific features or capabilities you were excited to use?
TY: I was really excited about using the bottom view, the touch screen. And so we implemented the reality shift system. Nomura-san wanted us to make something that really integrated the bottom view with the top view, so it wasn't really just a reference map. He wanted you to actually play with it. And so we came up with the reality shift system, which you could use for each world. There's a unique system for each world. For example, in the Musketeer world, there's a comic book, and you can touch the comic book to actually deal blows to your enemies. For Tron Legacy, you could decode your enemies and control them. So I think that aspect really gave each world of 3D a unique gaming experience, a unique feel.
IGN: How did the idea for the drop system come about? And what do you think the idea of forcing players to switch between characters adds to the experience?
TY: Well, on our previous Kingdom Hearts, Birth by Sleep, it centered around Aqua, Ventus, and Terra. You had to actually finish the story before starting a new one. It sort of felt like they were separate stories, in a way. This time, Nomura I think wanted us to make it into a sort of united story. There are two characters, but it's a united experience. We wanted to add a particular thrill, I think, the thrill of… uIf you drop during a boss battle, for example, you have to switch characters. So there's a little bit of a time limit. I think it was a little bit more thrilling. Another thing we wanted to add was the bonus relay system, we wanted Sora and Riku to cooperate. For example, by playing Sora and gaining points, you could give bonuses to your next character, Riku. There was a strategic depth to it, I think. I thought that made it interesting as well.
IGN: Were there any difficulties that the drop system caused during development, particularly in regards to the game’s flow and pacing?
SE: The pacing was really difficult. I think the drop system's one of the things that was most difficult about making the game. The first time we made it, a lot of our development team really didn't like it, so we actually changed it. We made it so that you could actually drop whenever you wanted via the camp menu system. When you press start you can choose when to drop. That made it a bit more user-friendly. But then after that, the quality assurance people and the development team really liked it. So in a way, yeah, it was changed and we tweaked it a lot to make it the way it is now, to make it work.
IGN: How did you go about selecting which Disney and game worlds to include in the game? And once you decided, how did you make sure they all meshed together?
TY: Actually, I think each world has its own reason for being. We proposed, for example, the Musketeer one because we wanted something for Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. They weren't wearing costumes, it was a different sort of aspect of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. We thought that might be interesting. Or the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I think we had a lot of user input, a lot of our users wanted that world to be made. I think it was a really popular Disney movie, so we did that. Also, for Tron Legacy, I think we wanted something that was a bit more futuristic. When you list all the worlds off, each has its own characteristics. Tron added to that, I think. It was more futuristic, it was a bit more real than the other worlds. I thought that might be interesting as well.
IGN: Was it hard to make them feel like they all belonged together?
TY: Well, not really. One of the great things about Kingdom Hearts is that each world has its own unique characteristics. There is one story that unites it all, but in the same way, I think the different characteristics really shine through. So there's a lot of variety.
IGN: How did it come about that characters from The World Ends With You were included in Kingdom Hearts 3D?
TY: Well, that was because of Nomura, to be honest. But by adding it, I think Traverse Town was really... we altered it a bit, made it really interesting. A lot of graffiti, and some of the buildings sort of resemble Shibuya now. I think it made Traverse a little bit different from previous games. That added to the newness and freshness of the game.
IGN: Now that the game is complete, what aspect of the finished product are you most proud of?
TY: Well, there's a lot. I really like the flow motion. By kicking walls, sliding down ramps, you could really make dynamic actions. And all of the actions are really connected to your attacks and everything else. I think that gives the game a new feel. And we adjusted our enemies and our maps accordingly for that. For Kingdom Hearts 3D I think you'll see a lot more maps that are wider, higher, there's a lot more hidden treasures along the way. I think that was really popular with the Japanese audience.
IGN: Speaking of the free-flowing combat, how did that come about?
TY: Nomura wanted us to make something where you felt very free, that was free of restrictions. I planned it out over maybe two or three days, and we actually built it on the Birth By Sleep system first. It only took about two or three weeks. I think we did that maybe in November of 2010, it was really quick. By developing that, I think our team really understood what we wanted to make. Our direction. I think that really sped things up.
IGN: What's your recommendation for gamers who've never played a Kingdom Hearts game before? Are there other games in the series you think are important to play before Dream Drop Distance? Or can they jump right in and figure it out?
TY: I guess if you played Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and one and two, it might add a lot. But for Kingdom Hearts 3D, we added the memento system. When you earn a memento after an event or a cutscene, you can open it up in the camp menu and it actually tells you the story of Kingdom Hearts one and two and Birth By Sleep, for example. So you could just jump in if you want. But if you really want to understand everything, all the detail, I think you should play Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep and the first two games.
IGN: What's next for Sora and Riku?
TY: We get that a lot. [laughs] We're still thinking about it. I think 3D is really a hint to the future in a way. We developed it as if it were a console game. We made it for the handheld, but for us it was meant to feel like a console game in a way. I think it really took the Kingdom Hearts series to the next level, it feels like Kingdom Hearts II and Birth By Sleep on steroids. It's really insane what you can do. So I'm not really in a position to say what we could next, but... 3D, for us, was the future.
IGN: I have one final question. I know you can't say too much about it, but what can you tell us about Kingdom Hearts 3D tying in to Kingdom Hearts 3?
TY: In a way, the action and the story are directly linked to Kingdom Hearts 3. I guess that's about all I can say, really.
IGN: So definitely play this if you're interested in Kingdom Hearts 3?
TY: If you play it all, it's really connected to Kingdom Hearts 3. The Mark of Mastery exam and how Riku becomes a Keyblade Master, it connects to the next story.
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--Did you always settle on the Kingdom Hearts Mobile art style or did you test other designs for the Final Fantasy characters before choosing the cutesy art style? From the beginning, we were discussing how to present characters from the entire Final Fantasy franchise. When we saw the designs of the Final Fantasy guest characters in Kingdom Hearts Mobile we thought this is going to work.
--Do you view Theatrhythm as a series now? What series would you want to work with… Manarhythm? Theatrhythm… Hitman?
[Laughs.] Personally, I hope this will be come a series, but Theatrhythm Hitman will probably be really far off. There are many series that I would want to work on for Theatrhythm. Dragon Quest has a lot of music and Kingdom Hearts would be wonderful to do if it’s possible. I’m not to familiar with the Eidos collection, but Tomb Raider has a long history so it must have a great collection of songs. That might be fun.
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Kingdom Hearts® 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (SQUARE ENIX): Celebrating the franchise’s 10th anniversary, Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] features a spectacular story that promises to be a fun backdrop to the colorful cast of Disney characters making their 3D debut on a handheld title. Pulling in 13 nominations including a Game Critics Award (Best Role Playing Game) and winning four awards including Nintendo Power’s Most Valuable Game Award.
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