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duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

In the big interview with Nomura, Dengeki talks to him about various developments in the current games he's involved in. They also talk about the Kingdom Hearts series. There are some interesting tidbits there. Nomura talks about how development on KH3D is progressing rapidly, but their schedule is pretty tight. He wants the game to have the quality of a console title, without compromising just because it is on a portable. He also mentions that the game is mostly up and running now, and it looks great. The motion and animation is supposed to be particularly impressive because of the various flashy moves you can do, such as Sora's wall jumping. He says the game is supposed to have the most impressive character movement in gameplay in the series so far, and honestly since it's from the BbS team, I believe him completely.

He also talks about the 10th Anniversary of Kingdom Hearts, and how their priority right now is to finish KH3D, but he is also thinking about other things. One element he is concerned about is how hard it is for new gamers to enter into the KH series. This inaccessibility for the series is something they are currently investigating, to see how they can introduce new gamers into the series in a better way. Another thing they are looking into is HD technology for the series. They are evaluating the options they have carefully.

As for when KH3D will be out, he says there is nothing to announce at the current moment, but he is definitely aiming to release the game not too far in the future. It sounds like he wants to release it by early 2012 if possible. KH3D will be playable on the TGS show floor.

DarkChronic · Aug 9, 2011

Nice to hear, but the lack of KH3 talk is still kind of upsetting. I guess we won't know anything about that game until after Versus comes out, and who knows when that's going to be.

Aeana · Aug 9, 2011

If he combines those two thoughts, some sort of KH1 HD remake would be appropriate both for introducing people to the series and demonstrating HD stuff.

Takao · Aug 9, 2011

I think they should reboot KH with a Disney writer.

Seven Force · Aug 9, 2011

In team Osaka we trust.

Seriously though, I can't wait to see how the game turns out. Glad to hear development's been progressing at a good pace too.

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

Takao said:
I think they should reboot KH with a Disney writer.

That doesn't sound like a very good idea.

fernoca · Aug 9, 2011

Awesome news about 3D. Can't wait to see/hear for impressions during TGS.

Fantastical · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
He also talks about the 10th Anniversary of Kingdom Hearts, and how their priority right now is to finish KH3D, but he is also thinking about other things. One element he is concerned about is how hard it is for new gamers to enter into the KH series. This inaccessibility for the series is something they are currently investigating, to see how they can introduce new gamers into the series in a better way.

Right, because the combat is so hard to figure out. Or is he talking about the story? I've played every KH game except Chain of Memories, and I have no idea what the fuck is going on in the story but I don't care.

EDIT: Also, very much looking forward to KH3D. Birth By Sleep was amazing.

lupinko · Aug 9, 2011

KH needs Dr. Facilier stat.

ShockingAlberto · Aug 9, 2011

Aeana said:
If he combines those two thoughts, some sort of KH1 HD remake would be appropriate both for introducing people to the series and demonstrating HD stuff.

Even just getting the gameplay up to BbS levels would make it worth replaying.

Nix · Aug 9, 2011

Early 2012? Man, this guy is just stretching himself way too thin. Why doesn't someone else handle some projects, such as, I dunno, Versus, KH3. I mean, there has to be some kind of guidline at least to get started right?

Just seems like, Nomura basically has his hand in every single interesting project going on at SE. Oh, what's going on with Matsuno? He left the company right? Or no? If not, they could give some to him.

Takao · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
That doesn't sound like a very good idea.

Appeal to the west!

Okay, KH sells more in the west, shh!

Entice new people to enter the series!

Drop extensively terrible stories from Nomura's diaries for well thought out simple ones!

cw_sasuke · Aug 9, 2011

KH 3D playable at TGS ? Awesome news...cant wait for hands-on impression.

Fantastical · Aug 9, 2011

Woah, didn't see early 2012. No way it will make that date, right? How long was Birth By Sleep in development?

ShockingAlberto said:
Even just getting the gameplay up to BbS levels would make it worth replaying.

Yes please.

Aeana · Aug 9, 2011

ShockingAlberto said:
Even just getting the gameplay up to BbS levels would make it worth replaying.

Yes. I put in KH1 a night or two ago to test it with the 480p-forcing homebrew app, and I was really irritated after only a few minutes. Especially little things like having to navigate through the menu to open doors or chests.

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

Fantastical said:
Right, because the combat is so hard to figure out. Or is he talking about the story? I've played every KH game except Chain of Memories, and I have no idea what the fuck is going on in the story but I don't care.

EDIT: Also, very much looking forward to KH3D. Birth By Sleep was amazing.

It's not detailed in the transcribe I read, but imo he is definitely talking about the story. KH has become a very inaccessible series in terms of a long running RPG series with an actual timeline. It's really convoluted. That makes it less likely that someone who has never played any of the games will want to "jump in" with a new release, because it's confusing.

JCX · Aug 9, 2011

KH has the better level design of he main two. KH2 felt like a glorified dynasty warriors at times. A KH/KH2/BBs/CoM remake compilation sounds like easy money for SE.

duckroll said:
It's not detailed in the transcribe I read, but imo he is definitely talking about the story. KH has become a very inaccessible series in terms of a long running RPG series with an actual timeline. It's really convoluted. That makes it less likely that someone who has never played any of the games will want to "jump in" with a new release, because it's confusing.

It's simple!

Everyone is Sora, Ansem, or Kairi

mocolostrocolos · Aug 9, 2011

So, in Europe we can expect a late 2012 release.

Plywood · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
He also talks about the 10th Anniversary of Kingdom Hearts, and how their priority right now is to finish KH3D, but he is also thinking about other things. One element he is concerned about is how hard it is for new gamers to enter into the KH series. This inaccessibility for the series is something they are currently investigating, to see how they can introduce new gamers into the series in a better way. Another thing they are looking into is HD technology for the series. They are evaluating the options they have carefully.

Blame your convoluted as fuck story.

Takao · Aug 9, 2011

Fantastical said:
Woah, didn't see early 2012. No way it will make that date, right? How long was Birth By Sleep in development?

Since 2005 supposedly ...

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

Takao said:
Since 2005 supposedly ...

No. That's not true at all.

survivor · Aug 9, 2011

I really hope SE will release a KH HD collection of the first 2 games by next year. My old 80GB PS3 died and now that I have slim I can't ply KH1 and KH2 anymore.

Seven Force · Aug 9, 2011

Takao said:
Since 2005 supposedly ...

Yeah, although I think development halted for a bit early on because the same team worked on the Chain of Memories remake too.

Edit: Or not, I'm iffy on the details.

Fantastical · Aug 9, 2011

Plywood said:
Blame your convoluted as fuck story.

For real. Just explain to new players that even if you played through the rest of the games it really wouldn't make that much sense anyways and that they should just enjoy the Disney and Square players together in a fun action RPG!

mocolostrocolos · Aug 9, 2011

Takao said:
Since 2005 supposedly ...

Nope, I think its developement begun in 2007.

Takao · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
No. That's not true at all.

According to the Wiki (I know, I know) article citing Famitsu it was in planning back in 2005 for PS2. Active development obviously comes later on PSP.

Fantastical · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
No. That's not true at all.

What's a good time frame then? I mean this was announced at E3 2010, ~2 year dev cycle just doesn't sound right.

PigSpeakers · Aug 9, 2011

It's nice to hear a developer say that they shouldn't dumb the gameplay or anything like that down since it's on a handheld.

Jigsaw · Aug 9, 2011

Takao said:
Since 2005 supposedly ...

more like 2006 when the final mix was released (bbs team did the com remake before)

anyone thinks they still going for all new worlds?i can totally see them reusing some bbs worlds

Thoraxes · Aug 9, 2011

Interesting news indeed.
Looking forward to seeing some hand-on impression when people will be able to get it in their hands next month.

Lo_Fi · Aug 9, 2011

Man, Square Enix really screwed up. I was looking forward to KH3, but I don't care about all these stupid spin-offs.

Ravage · Aug 9, 2011

So I guess it's safe to say that we are only getting KH3D in (early?) 2013? That's fine with me as long as i get a KH HD Collection.

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

Birth by Sleep was never in any form of actual development until after Re:Chain of Memories was finished. Nomura approached the team considering the development of BbS on PS2, before KH2FM+ was made, but then he decided to do that instead, and after that they decided to make BbS a PSP game. At most BbS took 2.5 to 3 years to actually make. That's not bad considering the team was totally separate from S-E Tokyo at the time, and the production process for making a brand new KH game from ground up was kinda new to the team.

I'm pretty confident that KH3D will be released in 2012, since that would be about 2 years of development.

Fou-Lu · Aug 9, 2011

The story may be weird, but I've never had trouble understanding it. I think the convoltedness of it is just one of those things people exaggerate.

Fantastical · Aug 9, 2011

Lo_Fi said:
Man, Square Enix really screwed up. I was looking forward to KH3, but I don't care about all these stupid spin-offs.

There is nothing stupid about BbS! It's better than Kingdom Hearts 2, imo. Now 358/2 Days or whatever it was called... that is stupid.

Ichor said:
The story may be weird, but I've never had trouble understanding it. I think the convoltedness of it is just one of those things people exaggerate.

I guess I just never really wanted to put the effort into figuring it out, and I don't think the games explain it very well. I mean the main plot points for each game are relatively simple to understand, but once we start getting into more specific things it gets confusing to me and I just don't really care.

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

Takao said:
According to the Wiki (I know, I know) article citing Famitsu it was in planning back in 2005 for PS2. Active development obviously comes later on PSP.

Nomura has the story concepts and overall story arcs for a TON of KH games mapped up either in his head, or even on paper. The story for BbS was something he came up with while working on KH2. That doesn't really mean that they did any or much work on it until they started actually making a real game.

Same with Versus. Nomura had the story and characters in pre-production well before it was announced at E3 2006. That doesn't mean they've been actually developing the game since 2006.

The Broken Ska Record · Aug 9, 2011

Aeana said:
If he combines those two thoughts, some sort of KH1 HD remake would be appropriate both for introducing people to the series and demonstrating HD stuff.

KH1/2 HD remake would be AWESOME! Although, I'm sure they'd have what's-her-face doing Aerith instead of Mandy Moore though. >:[

Thoraxes · Aug 9, 2011

People who don't like the "Spin-offs" I think haven't really played them.
They're just as good, if not better (in the case of BBS) then some of the "mainline" games.
All of the Kingdom Hearts entries add a substantial amount of story to the established universe, and none of them have ever been truly unrelated to the series. BBS added a HUGE amount of plot to the KH storyline, and the events of that game alone will affect and have affected the entire series' story. As long as the games keep up what they have been, and we get BBS quality titles, i'm fine with waiting however long it takes to get KH III.

It's like playing 999 and only getting the True ending without doing any of the other endings first: You don't get the full experience by any means.

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

Ichor said:
The story may be weird, but I've never had trouble understanding it. I think the convoltedness of it is just one of those things people exaggerate.

That's not really the main problem with the story. The biggest problem is that there are now 6 Kingdom Hearts games with a running storyline, referencing each other, teasing future events, paying homage to past events, having plot twists and revelations which tie-in with past and future games. This makes it hard for someone who has never played any KH game to really feel confident about picking up any random KH game they see in the store. MGS has this same problem.

Fou-Lu · Aug 9, 2011

More people need to read the reports in KH games.

Fantastical · Aug 9, 2011

Ichor said:
More people need to read the reports in KH games.

Again, maybe I just don't care, so I suppose that's my own problem.

WrenchNinja · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
One element he is concerned about is how hard it is for new gamers to enter into the KH series. This inaccessibility for the series is something they are currently investigating, to see how they can introduce new gamers into the series in a better way. Another thing they are looking into is HD technology for the series. They are evaluating the options they have carefully.

Oh god Nomura, stop beating around the bush and put out a freakin' HD collection.

The Broken Ska Record · Aug 9, 2011

Thoraxes said:
People who don't like the "Spin-offs" I think haven't really played them.
They're just as good, if not better (in the case of BBS) then some of the "mainline" games.
All of the Kingdom Hearts entries add a substantial amount of story to the established universe, and none of them have ever been truly unrelated to the series. BBS added a HUGE amount of plot to the KH storyline, and the events of that game alone will affect and have affected the entire series' story. As long as the games keep up what they have been, and we get BBS quality titles, i'm fine with waiting however long it takes to get KH III.

It's like playing 999 and only getting the True ending without doing any of the other endings first: You don't get the full experience by any means.

I agree, for the most part. Birth By Sleep was absolutely on a level of that of the console games. 358/2 less so, but was a good game. Re:Coded? Meh.

Raziel · Aug 9, 2011

this gen has been ongoing for nearly 6 full years, and they are now looking into "HD technology" for the series?

mocolostrocolos · Aug 9, 2011

Lo_Fi said:
Man, Square Enix really screwed up. I was looking forward to KH3, but I don't care about all these stupid spin-offs.

Spin-Off?

But if it continues with the series story xD

duckroll · Aug 9, 2011

raziel said:
this gen has been ongoing for nearly 6 full years, and they are now looking into "HD technology"?

Well gameplay is more important than graphics!

Aeana · Aug 9, 2011

duckroll said:
Well gameplay is more important than graphics!

lol

Good one.

PeakPointMatrix · Aug 9, 2011

Holy crap, I can't believe it's been 10 years already. I just had the startling realization there is a whole generation that has never heard of or played KH1. Whippersnappers.

Cheska · Aug 9, 2011

You know, if they need to make some money, what better way than making an HD collection? Its obvious they have a huge fan base and that it would sell.

Thoraxes · Aug 9, 2011

The Broken Ska Record said:
I agree, for the most part. Birth By Sleep was absolutely on a level of that of the console games. 358/2 less so, but was a good game. Re:Coded? Meh.

That's why I ignored talking about it

However, it will be the lead-in to KH3D because of some spoilers that I won't mention, so it's pretty important in that regard.

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