Interview 1: Tetsuya Nomura with Square Enix Members
Earlier, Square Enix's YouTube channel livestreamed an interview by Square Enix Members with Tetsuya Nomura. I have full transcript of this interview, and it can be read below.
Tetsuya Nomura: Hi.
– We're going to start off with a little bit of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX chat. Can you explain how you came up with the idea of Kingdom Hearts and how the name originated?
Nomura: Originally, I wanted to find a title that fits Disney, because it's a Disney video game. When I thought of this game I thought of amusement parks and I wanted to make something kind of like through Disney Land. So, "Kingdom" was the first name that came to my mind. The development team was calling it as a kingdom. But I couldn't get the IP of "Kingdom". So, we thought about "Heart" as a core part of the story, and we combined them together.
-- How it’s meant to work with Disney?
Nomura: Originally our producer Hashimoto became friends with Disney (they shared the same office building), and chatted with people from Disney. We decided it would be great to make a game together. This is how the franchise was born. Our relationship with Disney has been good, working together for 10 years, and we still have the same counterpart at the Disney site. We have heated discussion (laughs). But the relationship has been good.
-- Can you let fans know what’s been involved in the process of remastering Kingdom Hearts for the HD 1.5 ReMIX?
Nomura: KH1 was created a long time ago, so actually the original data was missing. We had to research and dig out from the games and recreate everything. Then, we had to redo the graphics, and it was actually not that easy.
-- What makes this a definitive Kingdom Hearts experience? Especially because this version was never released in North America, it’s going to be the first time for people to experience this package.
Nomura: The Final Mix version of KH was available in Japan, just not NA and Europe. I had a vision that I eventually wanted to make them available everywhere-- all over the world. There are many additional elements in FM that were not seen by the other territories, so this became a big chance. We added two games and one movie as a package, as HD 1.5 ReMIX, and now everyone over the world can share the complete KH world.
-- What is your favourite character and enemy in the Kingdom Hearts universe?
Nomura: Master Xehanort is definitely one of my favorites. And in KH1, Ansem was my favorite.
-- Was there any characters or worlds that were cut at any time?
Nomura: The Jungle Book is one world that we always try to insert, but due to various circumstances it always ends up being cut.
-- What does HD 1.5 ReMIX remix mean in relation to Kingdom Hearts III?
Nomura: Because we decided to make Kingdom Hearts III, we decided to make HD 1.5 ReMIX. So basically, it shows my determination to Kingdom Hearts III. To the fans, I want to make sure that everyone plays HD 1.5 ReMIX in preparation for Kingdom Hearts III
-- Pre-order Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, and get a free 24-page art book which includes new sketches. Also, get a never before seen sketch by Nomura-san!
-- On to the Kingdom Hearts III questions, what new worlds can we expect in Kingdom Hearts III?
Nomura: (laughs) I’m not allowed to say what will be coming in Kingdom Hearts III, but each time when I select the worlds for the game I choose some stable choices that are accessible for the game and the story, and I try to insert surprising factors. I want everyone to be surprised to see that particular world. For Kingdom Hearts III I want to make sure that there will be a lot of surprises.
-- Can you speak of the new battle system at all?
Nomura: For the previous KH’s titles, especially for KH1 and KH2 (core games), I want to make sure that evolution is occurring. For the spin-off games, I wanted to experiment with new challenges and new skills. Because this is a core game, I feel like there are appropriate game styles. KH2 had a game system that was well received by the KH players, and Kingdom Hearts III will follow this system. However, due to the experiments in the spin-off titles, we would like to incorporate the well-received changes of these games.
-- Will we see any new FF characters? Will we get a chance to play as King Mickey?
Nomura: The appearance of FF characters is pending. For a while, the previous titles didn’t have any FF characters, and I think it’s time to include some. I know everyone wants to play as King Mickey, so I will take that into consideration. Of course Sora will be the main character to play; it would be nice if other characters are playable as well.
-- Any plans for multiplayer in Kingdom Hearts III?
Nomura: Multiplayer elements are also under consideration. We are also looking into online capabilities. We will announce more details regarding this at a later time.
-- Will summoning be returning to Kingdom Hearts III?
Nomura: Yes. Summon is going to be available, but in a very different form. In previous titles, Disney characters could be summoned. But in Kingdom Hearts III, it will be a completely different system.
-- Is this the end of Organization XIII and Nobodies as characters?
Nomura: Yes, the battle against Organization XIII will end in this title. I don’t know about Nobodies. But, Master Xehanort is the one that organised the Organization XIII and the battle against him will be the end.
-- Will we actually get to see Kingdom Hearts?
Nomura: I don’t want to say too much, but Kingdom Hearts has appeared occasionally in the last 10 years of the franchise and I think it will appear again...
(Nomura remembers something he wanted to say about the worlds in KH3.)
Nomura: For Kingdom Hearts III you may notice there is a technique called “shader”. Using this tool, restriction of characters have been definitely changed, and the texture which is to be put on the surface of the model has been used to describe the Disney characters and to make it similar to the Disney characters that people are familiar with. For Kingdom Hearts III, we will use a different “shader” for different worlds, so it would look natural to match these worlds.
Interview with dengeki
- The clip was a teaser through and through, so they didn't give away much information. Unlike for FF15, the clips weren't realtime, as they were in a hurry to select from among what was undergoing testing on the hardware, but it looks basically the same running on the hardware anyway. Perhaps the camera controls are better in realtime. Outfits and battle gameplay will be introduced another time
- During the clip the visuals change showing the shape that next-gen KH will take
- Though this is the final chapter of the Dark Seeker Chronicles, they're working on ways to make it easy for newcomers to the series to join in. As with FF15 they are investigating online correspondence, and smartphone and tablet support
- They are hard at work on development, they have not yet finished choosing all the worlds
- As for the past few years they had continued with spin off titles, they announced the next numbered title with the aim to bring peace of mind to fans. There won't be follow-up information available right away, but Nomura is hoping to release more information at TGS and D23 Expo Japan. Don't forget that some popular voice actors from the series will be attending D23 Expo Japan. Nomura is hoping to be on the stage with the voice actors talking about the series and announcing the latest information.
Interview with edge online.
So, Kingdom Hearts 3: what took you so long?
Tetsuya Nomura: So we received great reviews for Kingdom Hearts 2 and so of course the expectation for 3 became much higher. And to make the game appropriate in terms of story, systems and the world – to reach the fans’ expectations – it just ended up taking some time.
What’s the relationship with Disney like? Disney’s attitude to games has changed in recent years to become focused on mobile and social games. Have you noticed their attitude change much?
The relationship with Disney has [remained] the same. Actually the contact person at Disney is still the same person from Kingdom Hearts 1, and Disney has given us lots of requests in terms of the Kingdom Hearts franchise and they did mention some smaller titles for other platforms, but our common, most important goal was to [complete] Kingdom Hearts 3. So it’s the same.
Fans of the series would be quite happy for the game to be the same as the last one, but as a designer and developer don’t you want to experiment and do new things? How do you balance those desires in Kingdom Hearts 3?
As you know, it took a while to actually announce Kingdom Hearts 3, but in the meantime we announced several spin-off titles in the series, and each time for the spin-off title we did experiment and challenge with new things. So we did definitely feel like we have reached enough experimentation and experiences and also I do the development of Final Fantasy, so I feel like for this Kingdom Hearts 3 we are putting everything – all of the experimentation and experiences – into this new title.
The combat in Final Fantasy XV looks real-time instead of turn-based, is that a complete change for the series? Are you making an action game now?
The Final Fantasy series – if you look at each title – each of them has a different system and a different story, so that’s the trend of the Final Fantasy [series] in the past. And when we decided to do action-based for Versus XIII, I personally thought: Is that Final Fantasy? So that was actually one reason why the title was called Versus XIII, not the main sequel, main title, for Final Fantasy. But if you look at the other titles in the franchise, XI and XIV are MMORPG so they do use battle systems which is a command-based, turn-style battle system. So it’s not quite the typical RPG… so that’s why we decided why [Final Fantasy XV] could be action-based battle. And in the future, if other teams decide to different styles of battle systems, then that’s what they decide to do.
So why were you at Sony’s conference and not Microsoft’s? Have you chosen your favourite already?
So, why not Microsoft? Until the last minute we actually didn’t know which conference we would be in, and there was a possibility not to be in the Sony conference either. So it was simply the arrangement between the companies and also originally Versus XIII was announced for PlayStation 3 several years ago. That’s why we thought it’s just probably proper to just go to them and discuss and if they decided to put it on then we would see.
What did you think of E3? Was there anything in particular that excited you?
So of course I was aware of the specifications of each new next-gen console because we are working on them, so there was no specific impact that I got from the announcements in that [respect]. But I was more curious about the software that would be announced. Some of the contents looked really interesting to me and I was preparing for my own presentation of my own games, so I was also very nervous of what other companies would present.
Do you feel comfortable now that you’ve seen everyone else’s games and put yours out there alongside them?
The more contents I saw, with each new trailer before mine, I was getting more worried [laughs]. So of course I’ve been seeing my own trailer so many times that I’m accustomed to watching it so I can’t tell if it’s great any more because I’m so used to watching it. I know my team is working so hard and they agree, but I’ve never done that comparison of looking at my title and trailer with others so that’s why I was nervous.
What does the next generation of consoles mean to you, the games you make, and to Square Enix in general?
So in terms of my own titles that I directed, for the current generation consoles, I have to admit that our company was a little bit behind in terms of development. Talking about my own titles, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD is not yet released in the UK, Europe and US even after the announcement of next-generation consoles, and 1.5 is for PlayStation 3. But in the meantime we were already in the development of Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV for next-generation consoles, so we definitely have to catch up with the rest of the gaming world with those titles and in the future Final Fantasy XV most likely will be released sooner than Kingdom Hearts 3. And I think for Square Enix Final Fantasy XV will be the flagship title for the next-generation consoles, and after that we will definitely make more titles for those platforms.