If you haven't already, please check out our archive of Kingdom Hearts II cutscenes (updated today). Anyway, onto the news-- KH3D will have a playable demo at TGS 2011, and will be released early 2012. More below.
As announced earlier, Kingdom Hearts 3D to be featured in upcoming Dengeki PlayStation. FF-Reunion have posted some small details from the Tetsuya Nomura interview in the magazine, and thanks to sqexgal, we have these tidbits translated. More details are sure to come soon, so keep checking back.
- About the new gameplay system: From the collected [...] made to do [...] will be able to [...]. Moreover, you'll be able to [...] and [...]. /Can't tell if this is another case of censored content in the magazine or a poor blogger's summary, sorry!
- The elements of surprise in KH3D are finishing up just right.
- As it stands, the quality we're producing with this title is right about how we wanted.
- The schedule has been fairly severe, so the manufacting is continuing at a quick pace.
- The trailer's contents are implemented without problems.
- An example of the actions we've achieved, Sora can even run up walls.
- The movement [as in the literal running around, fighting, etc.] of the characters in this one is the flashiest so far. Because of that, I think the impact of just running around leaves a strong impression.
- Though we can't announce when the release date will be yet, but we want to put it out as soon as we can after the new year.
- Since it seems that right now in the KH series it's difficult for new players to enter into it, with the 10 anniversary coming up we've been thinking of a way to catch their attention by reneweing the older games. Part of that is looking at the HD capabilities of the older KH series.
- There will be a KH3D demo at Tokyo Game Show 2011 (TGS 2011 runs from September 15-18).
As you might know, we announced earlier that we are recording all cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts II. All scenes can be viewed and downloaded from our video archive, please check this out here, we are very proud of the quality. Here is what we've added today:
Scenes added today
- Twilight Town: Sora's Awakening
- Hollow Bastion: Gathering Shadows
- Beast's Castle 1: The Trouble with Beast
- The Land of Dragons 1: A Strong Heart
Most recent scene
More past articles from Dengeki PlayStation magazine have been added to our gallery. These articles are from around the Japanese release of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Check them out below.
Dengeki PlayStation → January 15, 2010
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance is said to be featured in an upcoming issue of Dengeki PlayStation magazine, according to FF-Reunion. This issue, the 500th issue, will be released on August 11, 2011, and will contain cover art by Tetsuya Nomura, known as "Nomura All-Stars". It will also contain an interview with Nomura where he discusses, among other Square Enix titles, Dream Drop Distance.
Hey, exciting news today. We've finally started our video archive for cutscenes from the English version of Kingdom Hearts II. Please check this out here, we are very proud of the quality. Here's some brief information about the new archive.
- So far, we have uploaded the first 97 cutscenes.
- These are linked to below (in groups), and we will be adding more each day.
- Each cutscene is available on YouTube, and to download, in HD 720p WMV-format.
- The cutscenes have no subtitles, meaning they are perfect for AMVs and viewing.
- The black bars around the video are removed, so more of the scene is revealed.
Scenes added so far
- Menu Trailer
- Roxas Day 1 (includes the Opening)
- Roxas Day 2
- Roxas Day 3
- Roxas Day 4
- Roxas Day 5
- Roxas Day 6
Most recent scene
You might have noticed that a few videos from our video archive were removed on YouTube (particular scenes involving Utada Hikaru songs, or the Secret Ending of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, leading to a difficulty in watching them. However, this should no longer happen, as we have added support for Vimeo in our archive for the troublesome videos. You can see an example of this here, or see this below. If you notice problems with the archive, please let us know.
Continuing on from yesterday's update, we have even more past article covers added to our gallery. These can be seen below, enjoy.
Dengeki PlayStation → January 13, 2006
Hi, just a small update today. Our gallery has been updated with the covers of three past articles. While quite old, these articles are from the times around when Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix were released, respectively. Check them out.
Dengeki PlayStation → April 12, 2002
Hello all. Everyone seems to be reporting about this Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance demo impression as if it was new, so I just thought I'd link you to where we reported about it over 2 weeks ago, just in case you missed it. Enjoy! Again, thanks to sqexgal who translated it.
The latest issue of Famitsu Weekly have included a survey asking which PSP titles readers are interested in seeing remastered in the PSP Remaster program. This is where past PSP titles are re-released in HD for the PlayStation 3. Thanks to andriasang.com, we know that the fans have decided that Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep is the PSP game most wanted to be remastered. Although this is just a general public survey, it is significant as Square Enix have strong ties with the magazine, and they may take this view into account. Would you buy Birth by Sleep again if it was remastered for PS3? Let us know at our forum.
Rather than showing you snippets and summaries of the recent interview, we now have the whole thing completely translated! This translation again comes from our staff member sqexgal, so again give her a big thanks. The interview, of course, deals with the series in general and also focuses on Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Enjoy!
- From the survey, most fans like Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix the most.
Tetsuya Nomura: Since I often hear that fans usually like one title in particular, it was a little unexpected to see that Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix was the top and that Kingdom Hearts II ranked second. Birth by Sleep is a subtitle, but since it’s a part of the main series, I’m happy to see that it ranked highly.
- The results of the survey show that the part people like most about the series is the story. You are write out the plot for all the titles of the series, so when writing up the story what do you focus on above all else?
Nomura: Making it “surprising.” While I’m writing out the plot, if things seem that you can predict the outcome on your own, then I think of a different, unexpected development.
- You really can’t predict the ending of every title. Do you discuss and make decisions on the final outcome of the story with the staff?
Nomura: I don’t. I ask the staff to flesh out things for the scenarios, even with that I make the final supervisions. Since I’m the only one who knows the whole story and the developments that take place afterward, I have a hard time figuring out how much to tell the staff about. (Smiling wryly)
- Are there modifications to the story to suit overseas fans?
Nomura: I believe that if the story is interesting, it will be well received; so it isn’t regulated only for specific regions. Though those at Disney said it has a very Japanese sense about it, I guess you could call it ‘Eastern thinking.’ (Laughs) Still, I had been thinking that I would make the story more clear and simpler. But while I was developing the first Kingdom Hearts, I received a single piece of advice from Sakaguchi-san*. That was, “If you don’t make it more complex like with Final Fantasy, you won’t be able to compete.” So accordingly, I decided to develop the story in a way that fans could imagine on their own the remaining story how they like.
*Hironobu Sakaguchi is a former developer who had worked on the Final Fantasy series for Square.
- Is the story of Kingdom Hearts 3D mysterious too?
Nomura: It’s fairly complicated. Right now I’m telling Disney about the scenarios, but it’s hard for them to understand it all at once. I’m explaining the reason and the established connections for each mystery one by one. It’s difficult since their approval is necessary to move forward with localization, but there are many people in Disney who love the Kingdom Hearts series as well. They want to create the game accurately too, so somehow they’re following along with me.
– Along those lines, looking at the age group of those who responded to the survey including the overseas fans, it seems the series appeals the most to a young generation.
Nomura: There’s a sense that Kingdom Hearts appeals to wider age range of fans compared to Final Fantasy. Also that ratio wise, it seems more fans are female. I’m especially happy to see that there is strong support for the series from fans in foreign countries too.
- Sora was the top ranked favorite character.
Nomura: It must be because he’s an uncomplicated guy. (Laughs) For the promotional trailers, we look for scenes with particularly good lines to highlight. But he gives us trouble finding lines that are suitable for the trailers; since Sora is a simple guy who doesn’t think too deeply about things, he doesn’t really say lines we can use. (Smiles wryly)
– Roxas ranked second, his heartrending destiny seemed to influence the top rated favorite scene.
Nomura: Roxas is someone the fans think a lot about, they say he’s like a Final Fantasy type character. Along with his friendship with Axel, they’re an impressive set, huh?
- What scenes left an impression on you?
Nomura: The most impressionable scenes for me were the endings of KH1 and KH2, after that the scene in KH2 when Roxas’ summer vacation ends left a deep impression on me.
- Next are the results concerning the favorite abilities. Glide and Dodge Roll were popular.
Nomura: I’m not surprised those two abilities were the most popular. They have a reinvigorating feel to them, I like them too. Even in Final Fantasy Versus XIII we’re including a one-handed rotation ability similar to Dodge Roll too.
- Continuing, what about your favorite Keyblade?
Nomura: Oathkeeper carries a deep meaning with the story and the design of it is clean, so it’s the one that I’m most pleased with.
- About the worlds, Twilight Town was the most popular. A lot of people said they liked the music.
Nomura: We really fussed over embodying the image of coming from school as the sunsets; it’s a world that left a deep impression on me too. As for the song, I gave Shimomura-san* a lot of trouble and pushed her to improve it. We had an image derived around another artist’s song, but it really worked out well, the result was a song with a completely different sort of anguish.
* Yoko Shimomura is the series music composer.
- On the flip side, the most unpopular world was Atlantica.
Nomura: It’s difficult to move around there, huh? Sorry about that. When you are in the water, you are not just swimming, but fighting enemies, we had trouble adjusting the character’s movement to do both simultaneously.
- The top ranked favorite enemy was the very familiar Shadow Heartless. Out of those appearing in the ranking, which ones did you design?
Nomura: The Shadows, Neo Shadows, White Mushrooms, Dusks and so on; I drew them myself. The enemies dictate the overall design aspects of the series, so I work them out with the staff afterwards.
- Oppositely, the Dancer Nobody was the least popular.
Nomura: It was formidable enemy, so of course it wasn’t popular huh.
- Well, let’s move on to the topic of mysteries people are interested in. There is a lot of interest about Organization XIII’s past.
Nomura: Most of it isn’t related to the main story of the series, so I haven’t paid too much attention to it. (Wry laughter)
- Many fans brought up the “data concealed within Sora.”
Nomura: That’s what Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance deals with. The other mysteries will be something to deal with another time.
- Alright, last question on the topic. There are an overwhelming number of people who want Kingdom Hearts 3 to be released.
Nomura: The answer for them has been prepared in KH3D.
- Many fans want the series to keep continuing afterwards as well.
Nomura: The series that has developed so far as “the Xehanort saga” should end once and for all in KH3. However, I’ve outlined a tentative plot that takes place afterward, so we could continue onto a new chapter. Sora would remain the main character; that wouldn’t change.
- By the way, the 10th anniversary of the series is next year. The number of titles in the series has really increased since it started. Some have said they want to play HD remakes of the past titles…
Nomura: Whether we release one or not is a different story; we’re concerned with the HD technical limits of the past titles.
- As for the current developments, how is KH3D coming along?
Nomura: I’d say the development status of KH3D is about 40%-50%? We’ll start recording the voices soon. The theme this time was “bold action”, but we also wanted to stress the importance of the story’s tempo. Though the story is important to fans as shown by the results of the survey, it won’t be drawn-out.
- Does that mean you’ll be decreasing the number of cutscenes?
Nomura: Not meaning that we’ve decreased the number of cutscenes, but having each one explained one by one reduces the tempo of the game, so we’re introducing a new system to make up for it. It’s a directionally different system like what’s being introduced in Final Fantasy Versus XIII which won’t have cutscenes; it’ll be a sort of integration where you can play during the event scene. Along with that, Sora will fight alongside different friends. There’s also a secret movie being prepared, so please look forward to it.
- It’ll be a while until our next follow up report, huh. Well then, what’s the last message to all the fans.
Nomura: I’ve had your support for almost 10 years. Thanks to you guys, Kingdom Hearts has become a long series. To everyone who gave their opinions, I’ll read them very carefully. Thank you so much. Also, from this summer to next spring, we’ll continue releasing information and sales dates for KH among other titles from the first development department, so please look forward to it.
We finally have high quality scans of the Kingdom Hearts article in the July 28 issue of Famitsu Weekly. I'm sure you've already read about the Tetsuya Nomura interview, where he reveals Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance details (all of this is below, please check it out), so I'll get right onto the scans. These were uploaded by our staff member, sqexgal, and can be seen below in our gallery thanks to her. Enjoy!
Famitsu Weekly → July 14, 2011
As there is so much information showing up concerning the recent Famitsu Weekly article concerning Kingdom Hearts, I thought it was important that we have a list of these updates for you. So, here:
Even more article details translated by sqexgal from KH13 Partial interview translated by krexia from KHI & demo impressions translated by sqexgal from KH13 Interview summary translated by sqexgal from KH13 Survey results translated by andriasang.com Various interview details translated by andriasang.com Announcement of article
On the Ranking Results
Since I hear a lot of opinions that fans really like one particularly, I’m surprised to see that KH2 Final Mix ranked number one and then KH2 ranked after it. I didn’t want Birth by Sleep to seem like a spin off, so I’m happy to see it ranked in the top five.
My favorite character Sora must be ranked number one since he’s an uncomplicated, good guy. He gives us trouble though; when we make the promotional trailers it’s hard to find lines of his we can use since he doesn’t really say much useful.
The second ranked character Roxas, fans think he’s the most Final Fantasy-esque. Along with his friendship with Axel, they make an impressive set.
The most impressionable scenes for me were the endings of KH1 and KH2, and the scene in KH2 when Roxas’ summer vacation ends.
My favorite abilities are the popular Glide and Dodge Roll as well. They have a reinvigorating feel and are comfortable to do, so I like them. Along the same line, we’re including a one-handed rotation ability similar to Dodge Roll in FF Versus 13 too.
My favorite Keyblade is the top ranked Oathkeeper. It carries a deep meaning with the story and the design of it is clean, it’s the one I’m most pleased with.
With the most popular world, Twilight Town, we really fussed over embodying the image of coming from school as the sun sets. That song gave Shimomura-san a lot of trouble and pushed her to improve. We had an image derived around another artist’s song, but it really worked out well, the result was a song with a completely different sort of anguish.
The worst world to deal with was Atlantica, sorry it was so difficult to move. We had trouble adjusting the character’s movement while swimming and simultaneously fighting.
The popular enemies like the Shadows, Neo Shadows, White Mushrooms, Dusks and so on; I drew them myself. The enemies dictate the overall design aspects of the series, so I work them out with the staff afterwards. The hardest enemy for me was the Dancer Nobody, it was formidable enemy.
On Story Development
The story is mixed with elements of surprise. I try to develop it so that the parts that you expect to go one way go another.
We don’t come together and decide on the story from beginning to end. The staff helps flesh things out and I supervise myself making the final decisions. Since I’m the only one who can see the big picture and knows what happens after each development, I have a hard time figuring out how to draw it up for the staff.
On Internationalization
Though it’s an international series, it isn’t regulated for specific regions since I believe it will be well received if it’s interesting enough. Those at Disney said it has a very Japanese sense about it, I guess you could call it ‘Eastern thinking’. I thought that we’d make the storyline simple and clear, but I received this single piece of advice from Hironobu Sakaguchi: “If you don’t make it more complex like with Final Fantasy, you won’t be able to compete.” So from there the development moved to make something that would engage the colorful imaginations of the fans.
The storyline for KH3D is considerable difficult to understand. I am discussing it with Disney now, but they couldn’t understand it all at once. I’m explaining the reason and the established connections for each mystery one by one. It’s troublesome for the interpretation and localization, but there are many people in Disney who love the Kingdom Hearts series, somehow they’re following along with it.
There’s a sense that Kingdom Hearts appeals to wider age range of fans compared to Final Fantasy. Ration wise, more fans are female. I’m especially happy to see that there is strong support for the series from fans in foreign countries too.
On Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Since there are so many mysteries to wonder about that are unrelated to the main volume, we aren’t trying to explain all of them. (Things like the personal information of the characters, the Room of Sleep, and the Room of Awakening.) KH3D deals with Sora’s concealed data, I’ll reveal more about the other mysteries another time.
The development status of KH3D is about 40%-50%. We’ll start recording the voices soon. The theme this time was “bold action”, but we also wanted to stress the importance of the story’s tempo. Though the story is important to fans as shown by the results of the survey, it won’t be drawn-out.
Not meaning that we’ve decreased the number of cutscenes, but having each one explained one by one reduces the tempo of the game, so we’re introducing a new system to make up for it. Again it’s directionally different from FF Versus 13. In KH3D, Sora will fight alongside various friends too. There’s also a secret movie being prepared.
On the Future of Kingdom Hearts
We’ve prepared a response in KH3D for the fans who are always saying, “We want KH3 to release!” The series that has developed so far as “the Xehanort saga” should end once and for all in KH3. I’ve outlined a tentative plot that takes place afterward, so we could continue onto a new chapter. Sora would remain the main character; that wouldn’t change. About an HD remastering, whether we release one or not is a different story, we have to think about the technical aspects of it.
I’ll read everyone who has given their opinions carefully.
From this summer to next spring, we’ll continue releasing information and sales dates for KH among other titles from the first development department, so please look forward to it.
Even more details have appeared concerning the recent Tetsuya Nomura interview with Famitsu Weekly, concerning Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Firstly, krexia from Kingdom Hearts Insider has translated some of the actual interview, using various Japanese blogs as the source.
--Were there any adjustments to the story for international players?
Nomura: I believe that if something's interesting enough people will accept it, so we didn't pay conscious attention to specific regions. But Disney did tell us it had a "Japanese feeling", which I guess you could call an "Oriental way of thinking" (laughs). Also, in terms of storyline, I was thinking of making it simpler and clearer, but Sakaguchi-san (Hironobu Sakaguchi) gave me a single piece of advice for the KH series. That was, "If you don't make it a little more complex, like FF, you won't be able to compete." I prefer to leave the players scope for imagination and guessing, so I decided to develop the game in that way.
--Will 3D also have an enigmatic storyline?
Nomura: It's quite difficult to understand. Right now we're putting the story into the Disney scenarios, and it seems like once through won't be enough to understand it. As for the individual mysteries, they'll explain some of the reasons and connections with the game's scenario. We also need approval from overseas, so we're putting in localisation along the way, which is hard work. But there are those on the Disney side who love KH too, and they have a detailed understanding of the scenario, and have been following closely.
--At the moment, how far along is development of 3D?
Nomura: About 40~50%. Soon we'll start recording voices. The theme this time is "bold action", but I also want to seriously consider the pacing of the story. From this survey I can see that the storyline is a highly anticipated part of the game, but I don't want it to be too drawn-out.
--So will you be reducing the number of game events?
Nomura: It's not like that. Just that when something happens, if you explain everything from square one you weaken the pacing. We're introducing a new system to avoid that. In FF Versus XIII we've removed the cutscenes, letting players continue playing through game events, and here we're going in a different direction again. Also, in 3D Sora fights alongside some strange companions. We're planning to put together a secret movie, so look forward to that.
Secondly, sqexgal from KH13.com has translated a play impression of the Dream Drop Distance demo, which we have thanks to Sokuho@Hokanko. The names of the two party members were edited out by the magazine, so hopefully they'll be revealed later. Enjoy!
I was able to play a little of the demo version. You can play in the familiar Traverse Town world. Two characters whose names aren’t revealed yet are there. The bright bursts from the battles are even more illuminating than before. You’ll be able to climb up buildings. The battle system is large scale and has a flashy action style, it has a fun feeling. I’m surprised that the party members will be characters who haven’t appeared before. I think it seems the [main] battle opponent won’t be Heartless or Nobody.
