Re: Kingdom Hearts III

Tetsuya Nomura Talks Kingdom Hearts III, But Is Quiet on FFXV

Square Enix recently revealed that Tetsuya Nomura is no longer helming Final Fantasy XV. Now he can work on getting Kingdom Hearts III out quickly.

"We're regularly meeting schedule deadlines." Nomura said in an interview with Weekly Famitsu. "Unfortunately, due to the engine, there are areas on the visual side where we're struggling."

Talking about the Kingdom Hearts III intro teaser that is included with Kingdom Hearts II.5 HD ReMIX, Nomura said, "When we showed the gameplay demo, we received the fan feedback and I felt a lot of anticipation was directed at Kingdom Hearts III. At present we can't really show more, but I wanted to send out some sort of message [to the fans]." Nomura also added, "I also wanted to show people that [Kingdom Hearts III] is going to start from a place they won't expect."

Nomura couldn't specify exactly how far along development Kingdom Hearts III is, but he did note: "I'm currently writing the scenario and selecting worlds. I'm also designing new outfits for Sora and Riku." That kind of gives you a general idea.

In regards to the change in directors for Final Fantasy XV, Nomura stated, "It was a company decision. That's all I can say about it right now."

Source: Kotaku

Nomura talks Kingdom Hearts III, new outfits for Sora & Riku, link with KHχ, KH3D being considered & more

The latest issue of Famitsu Weekly, releasing on Thursday, September 25, 2014, is to include an article about Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, containing an interview with the director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura.

A summary of this interview has appeared online, and it covers Kingdom Hearts III, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts χ. Some of the major points from this interview include that Kingdom Hearts III's development is on schedule, new outfits for Sora and Riku have been designed, that Kingdom Hearts III will link closely with Kingdom Hearts χ, among many other things.

This is a pre-release special feature including a review of all currently known info, play impressions, and an interview with director Tetsuya Nomura.

KH2.5 parts aside:
•when asked if reports that KH3 co-director Yasue spoke about Frozen overseas were incorrect, apparently not giving a clear yes or no meant that overseas some took it as fact
•choosing what to say you want to do as a new world for KH3 or at some other point in the future is difficult, they are highly passionate
•the conversation between the mystery pair is even longer, over 2 minutes
•Between KH2.5 and KH3 they want to leave the least possible time for fans who understand the developments of KHχ to get separated
•The scenarios of KHχ and KH3 are closely related, and are currently being written simultaneously
•They don't want to leave KH3D out all by itself, so they are considering key things
•KH3 is moving along steadily and according to plan
•They are having issues creating the images because of the engine, but they are writing the scenario and selecting worlds
•Sora and Riku etc's new clothes have been drawn up
•The Osaka team said Sora's mobility was too high and he felt invincible (in his final stages of growth)
•Keyblade transformation/shape variations are turning out amazing
•They have various other projects outside of KH3, but thanks to all the offers coming currently they are going to respond to it first
•They plan to publish Nomura comments in the next issue too

Source: KH13

They really need to work on localizing KHx and releasing it internationally. It's going to be super frustrating if it's as integral to KH3 as they're talking about and no one outside of Japan (or who reads Japanese) can understand what's going on. That aside, glad to hear that at least Sora & Riku will be getting updated looks in KH3, makes me wonder if there will be a small timeskip... I'm definitely excited to start hearing about selected worlds, here's hoping for E3 2015!!

^Also the same for Kairi on new clothes for her. She's still a main part with Sora and Riku alongside Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Kingdom Hearts III will be the best one yet! Trust in Tetsuya Nomura.

I do trust in Nomura, lol, I think the new look I'm looking forward to the most is Lea! We'll hopefully finally get to see adult Lea/Axel in something other than the black robe, at least I hope so.

^Oh yeah, we should trust. It will be cool to see how they will look like in KH III. Also of course, new worlds to explore and stop the Heartless.

Coverage: Nomura interview with Famitsu completely translated-- the director talks Kingdom Hearts III, KH2.5 & KHχ

—Is that so. That’s rather deep. Can you please recommend any Disney works, or talk about any you’ve seen recently?

Nomura: I think I’ve spoken about this before, but I like The Lion King, that hasn’t changed. Recently, I was invited to the preview of Frozen, and I thought it was really good. Now that Pixar’s Mr Lasseter has also become the chief creative officer at Disney, I expect that from now on there will be even more works that are even more challenging. As a fan I am really looking forward to Big Hero 6 which premieres in December.

—Speaking of Frozen, there were reports that co-director Mr Tai Yasue made a statement regarding content with a point about ‘if Frozen were to appear in KH’.

Nomura: That surprised me too. I checked with Yasue, because we haven’t touched upon it at all, and there’s been no talk about what we’d do ‘if we put it in for now’. I do understand, though, because interviewers overseas do talk about their wishes for what they’d like to happen. In response, we Japanese don’t give clear yes or no answers. Then sometimes they take it as as ‘fact’. It was misinformation that came from a difference in culture.

—So that’s what it was. Now, how do you actually choose new worlds?

Nomura: The shape it’s taking for KH3 is everyone sharing what sort of things we’d like to do on what sort of worlds, and then making decisions looking at that. A wide range of works fall within our targets so there are a lot of candidates, but we can’t make them all, and in the end we also need the OK from Disney. But, the staff working on KH3 are pushier than they’ve ever been (laughs). They get highly passionate on the spot, elaborating to me exactly why we ‘just have to do this!’, so it’s difficult to make choices.

>The reason that enigmatic trailer was put out

—You used the opening section of KH3 in a recently released trailer for KH2.5, didn’t you. The conversation between those strangers was rather enigmatic.

Nomura: I had received so many responses after releasing that play video previously, and I could feel that people were eagerly anticipating KH3. I really wanted to put out some sort of message, even though I couldn’t show any content at that time. And, I wanted to show everyone that KH3 begins somewhere nobody is expecting, with speaking from new voice actors that haven’t appeared in the series before. I really enjoyed seeing everyone try to guess who those two are.

—We definitely were surprised. We hadn’t expected it to begin like that at all.

Nomura: I wanted to go with an introduction that wouldn’t make fans be like ‘yeah, we knew that’ upon seeing the opening section, and that would have both fans who knew the series and fans who didn’t be like ‘what’s this? What’s going to happen next?’ and start feeling anticipation. I do this every time, but I want to try and make things even for both fans and newcomers. By the way, the conversation between those two is actually a lot longer, it goes for over two minutes. When you hear their conversation, you’ll understand the flow of everything so far.

[Interview Bits and Bobs: Likelihood of a PS4 version | With the shift to the next gen consoles underway, especially overseas, would you say you want to release KH1.5 and KH2.5 on the Playstation 4 or the Xbox One? "Since we've only just finished work on KH2.5, we would need a little more time to look into the technical aspects of HD remastering for next gen consoles." (Nomura)]

>Sora’s mobility is too high!?

—So, what is the current stage of development for KH3?

Nomura: It’s moving steadily along the estimated schedule. However, we are having a lot of trouble with the image creating part of things due to the engine. While that’s going on, we are carrying out the scenario writing and world selecting. I’ve also drawn new clothes for Sora and Riku and the others.

—Are Sora’s action sections also evolving nicely?

Nomura: When I went to Osaka the other day and saw how development was coming along, Sora’s mobility was too high. He’d reached a level where just moving around would probably make him invincible (laughs). Of course, he can’t move like that from the beginning, but it looks like by the end he will be incredible. I’m looking forward to the next check. In a previous trailer Sora fought by transforming his Keyblade. The variations of those are also turning out to be amazing. It’s close to the way the original Keyblade wielders fought in BbS.

Source: KH13

Nomura clarifies the status of "Frozen" in Kingdom Hearts III, discusses working with Disney

Within several interviews with co-director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tai Yasue, there have been strong hints that he would like to see a world in Kingdom Hearts III based around the successful Disney film, Frozen, leading to speculation that it was all but confirmed.

The recent interview with Tetsuya Nomura in Famitsu Weekly, however, debunks the notion that world selection is set in stone just yet.

Nomura: That surprised me too. I checked with Yasue, because we haven’t touched upon it at all, and there’s been no talk about what we’d do ‘if we put it in for now’. I do understand, though, because interviewers overseas do talk about their wishes for what they’d like to happen. In response, we Japanese don’t give clear yes or no answers. Then sometimes they take it as as ‘fact’. It was misinformation that came from a difference in culture.

It's worth noting that, when asked, Nomura admitted that he did enjoy Frozen and also looks forward to Disney's next feature film, Big Hero 6. In addition, the interview revealed that, in spite of no longer feeling truly limited to being "Disney-like" and moving the series into more original territory, there is still a deep appreciation for the Disney content of the games and the inspiration that they provide.

It is the extremely loving and careful way they show and handle their characters both inside and outside the works themselves. I think this is what makes Disney works top class worldwide. This is very important with games too, according to the type, and the whole thing can become good or bad depending on the way the characters are handled. I’ve learned a lot.

He also mentions that he is excited by the appointment of John Lasseter (director of Toy Story and Cars), has been appointed as chief creative officer at Disney.

Source: KH13

Kingdom Hearts III is now using Unreal Engine 4

In an interview with Famitsu Weekly the director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura has revealed Kingdom Hearts III is now being developed with Unreal Engine 4 rather than Square Enix's very own Luminous Engine. Nomura explains he changed the engine "for a variety of reasons".

---Once more, may we ask about the state of development on KH3?
Nomura: It’s moving steadily along the estimated schedule. As an effect of us changing the game engine to Unreal Engine 4, which we did for several reasons, we had a lot of problems with the image creation, but we have been able to progress without incident with the collaboration of Epic Games.

Source: KH13

I'm really really really hoping Big Hero 6 makes it into Kingdom Hearts 3. If it doesn't, I hope they dont add it on a handheld spin-off...