Japan Expo 2011, an event occuring in Paris, France, is currently underway. At this event, awards were given out to various game titles. According to Kingdom Hearts Destiny, the award for "best game on a portable console" went to Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. You can see this award below.
You've probably all seen this before, but, it came to my attention that the Nintendo World 2011 trailer was missing from our video archive of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance trailers. This video, which is an 8 second clip showing the game, can be seen below, or viewed and downloaded from our video archive. All past Dream Drop Distance trailers can be seen here. Enjoy.
The July 2011 issue of Nintendo Power magazine has included an interview with the composer for the Kingdom Hearts series, Yoko Shimomura. Shimomura is responsible for most of the music in the series, as the interview deals with her involvement in this. It can be read below, thanks to Ventus Air-Man from Kingdom Hearts Insider. Also, scans of the article can be seen below, in our gallery.
Musician Yoko Shimomura began her career at Capcom, submitting tracks for everything from Final Fight to a racy mahjong game. Her soundtracks for the company's Street Fighter series raised her profile considerably, but her heart was elsewhere; with few opportunities to write the classically flavored music that interested her most, she joined Squaresoft in the early '90s. There she defined the sound of such RPG franchises as Front Mission, Parasite Eve, and, most famously, Kingdom hearts. But the long hours and a desire to work with a wider variety of creators led her to go freelance in 2002. Contrary to the experience of many composers who take that leap into the unknown, Shimomura's career has only flourished; she continues to compose for major Square Enix franchises such as Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, while also finding rewarding work with Nintendo's Mario and Luigi series and, most recently, Atlus's well-received DS RPG Radiant Historia.
--How did you feel when you were approached to work on the Kingdom Hearts series?
Shimomura: I was like, "Whaaaaaat?! I get to compose music for a Disney project?! Really?! Me?!" Yes, as you can see, I don't really have much self-confidence. [Laughs] I was struck by a great sense of insecurity by this request. But I tried my best to create the score with the image of Disney's worlds in my mind.
--"Dearly Beloved" from Kingdom hearts has become quite an iconic tune. How did you come up with this particular piece of music?
Shimomura: Actually, this tune was originally written for a certain event in the game, and I created it instantly, intuitively...and there were no thoughts running through my mind while I was at it. But eventually, the tune was [cut from the game]. And when I was asked to compose something for the title music (they said it could be a temporary song; just give us anything), I proposed "Dearly Beloved." The next thing you know, this tune was chosen to be the title music! Quite a reversal of fortune! (laughs)
--Was it intimidating to work with Disney franchises that already had such recognizable music?
Shimomura: In the beginning I struggled a lot; all I could do was grope around. But one day, suddenly everything came together, like, "Oh! I see it now!" Luckily, I had never received any 'no-good' remarks from Disney. I was very happy.
Nintendo Power → July 2011
We have created an official Tumblr account for KH13.com, to go along with our existing Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. Here, will we repost any Kingdom Hearts news, and often update with interesting Kingdom Hearts-related images-- whether it be fan-art, screens from the game, or something completely different. We hope you enjoy this.
Also, as always we'll give you a sneak peak of what's coming soon-- Kingdom Hearts II cutscenes, a re-release of our gallery on the forum as "Member Images", and a new "Member Videos" feature. Look forward to it!
A fake interview from Famitsu Weekly magazine has has been circulating around the web, concerning Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. This is a fake, so please do not believe what you read. For those that still want to see it, here.
Square Enix have updated their official North American website for Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. This update is an addition to the "gameplay" section of the website, and includes 8 new promotional videos about the game, which released in January 2011. A couple of these videos can be seen below, and all 8 can be viewed and downloaded in our video archive for English Re:coded trailers. Enjoy!
Today, as planned, we have some updates to our video archive. We have started archives for the cutscenes from all three versions of the original Kingdom Hearts. That is, we have Japanese cutscenes, English cutscenes, and Final Mix cutscenes. At the moment, only the openings, endings and secret endings are included, however we are going to keep adding more over the next few weeks. Please look forward to it. Here are some examples of what we have added, and remember, check it out in our video archive.
Small update today; you can now post comments on all pages in our gallery section. This completes our creation of the "comment system", which allows you to comment on all pages in the website. We'd like to see people enjoy this! Next, we plan to upload scenes from Kingdom Hearts to our video archive. Please look forward to it.
Famitsu.com have posted an article that discusses an upcoming feature of Weekly Famitsu magazine. This issue, the July 28 issue which releases on July 14, is said to contain a series of articles for the 25th anniversary of Famitsu. The Famitsu.com article linked to before contains a survey concerning Kingdom Hearts, and the results of this survey will be published in the Weekly Famitsu. Do you think anything else will be revealed here? Let us know by leaving a comment at our forum.
Famitsu.com > June 17, 2011
New evidence has appeared to support the idea that the 2011 Trailer and all existing screenshots for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance was rendered using the engine from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, rather than a new engine. These two videos below, thanks to YouTube user Keytotruth, demonstrate this.
As you can see, these are hacked videos of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix. They reveal extra models which are hidden in the game, and as shown, they are the same as the models that appear in the Dream Drop Distance trailer. Interesting stuff.
Yoshinori Kitase, a producer from Square Enix, has commented on the PSP Remaster program that was recently announced. Yitase had this to say about the program, which takes popular PSP games and re-releases them for the PlayStation 3. This paraphrasing comes from andriasang.com.
Kitase commented briefly on Sony's new PSP Remaster program which takes PSP titles and remasters them in HD on PlayStation 3. He said that he's interested in this program, but because they're placing their full effort on Final Fantasy Type-0 and XIII-2, they currently don't have anything decided.
As you can see, Kitase's comment suggests that titles such as Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep may eventually be remade for PS3, however nothing for this has been done yet. What do you think? Leave a comment at our forum.
Previously, we announced that Square Enix are going to produce novels for Kingdom Hearts Re:coded. A page at Amazon.co.jp has been created for this novel, which is as of yet unnamed. However, it announces that the release date of the novel will be 28 July 2011, at a price of ￥800 (approximately US$9.95).
It's likely given Re:coded's content and the lack of subtitle that the story will be told within the span of one novel. Let's look forward to it and see!
Hello! Another feature addition today. Yesterday we announced a new comments feature on KH13.com, and today, we have been building on this idea. You are now able to comment on all pages in both our music and videos archives. Also, you are able to click "like" on comments, which integrates nicely with Facebook. We hope you enjoy this feature and comment on lots of videos and songs!
What we added today
- The ability to "like" comments
- Comments for the music and videos sections
What's coming soon
- Comments for the gallery
- We have started working on the video archive again, and you will see updates soon!
As E3 2011 is now over, we are going back to our usual schedule of bringing you new features and content. Today we're unveiling our new "comments" feature on KH13.com. This will allow you to comment on every page of the website, similar to how things are done on YouTube. It integrates with your existing forum account on KH13, meaning all comments you make will have your avatar and be linked to your account. Currently, we have only enabled this for the games and information sections. The other sections will come in the new few days. So, to sum up:
What we've done
You can now comment on all pages in games and information. Example: https://www.kh13.com/games/3d/
What's coming next in the next couple days
This feature will be enabled for videos, music and gallery.
A Facebook "like" system for comments.
Welcome to our E3 2011 coverage! Unfortunately, Kingdom Hearts did not make an appearance at the event. However, sqexgal is attending the event and thankfully has been able to cover it for us! You can read about all of the exciting announcements at E3 below, thanks to her, or follow her Twitter for live updates and exclusive photos. We'll keep you posted!
Kingdom Hearts news
When the PlayStation Vita was announced (more below), Sony provided a list of developers that will be developing for this platform, and Square Enix appears on the list. Kingdom Hearts maybe? Always the possibility.
Other news
Information
The PlayStation Vita, the successor to the PlayStation portable, was officially announced with more details surrounding it. It was revealed that they are aiming for a release "this holiday season", at a price of US$250 for the WiFi only version, and $300 for the WiFi+3G version.
The successor to the Wii, previously known as "Project Café", is now official known as Wii U which stands for "Wii Universal". It features controllers with screens on it that allow the console to be played without the television. The new device is meant to be a component to the Wii rather than an all new device.
Various games including Final Fantasy XIII-2 were shown, with new trailers for many. These can all be seen below under "videos".
Impressions
Prepping for E3 2011
FFXIII-2 Trailers Short & Extended
E3 2011 FFXIII-2 Demo Report
E3 2011 Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword
E3 2011 Other 3DS Demos
E3 2011 Zelda HD
E3 2011 Disney Universe
E3 2011 Disneyland Interactive
Images
You can see photos of the event at sqexgal's yfrog account.
Videos
Final Fantasy XIII-2 trailer
Mass Effect 3 trailer
Star Wars: Old Republic trailer
Halo trailer
Assassin's Creed Revelations trailer
Mario Kart 3D trailer
Final Fantasy XIII-2 gameplay
Super Mario Bros 3DS trailer
Kid Icarus 2011 trailer
Paper Mario 3DS trailer
New Sonic Generations trailer
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time trailer
Luigi's Mansion 2 trailer
Tomb Raider trailer
Wii U demo gameplay
