Topic: The Kingdom Hearts Thread

[Mirby]

It's been teased about being similar to Pokemon since September.

[Archer]

Lenzo

His name is Ienzo

As in Zexion is an anagram of Ienzo with an X

How can people still make that mistake? [tornado fang]ing NeoGAF

[Gaia]

I..Um.. WAT?! 

Apparently the folks at TSR was digging through KHII's files.. and look what they found!

[Mirby]

That's from digging through KH2 Final Mix's data, actually. Also old, but it gives more hope for an eventual Toy Story world.

Similarly, Pinocchio was originally slated to appear in 358/2 Days, and the story would've been like this: "Set in a circus and playing off the story of Pinocchio, a puppet with a heart, and the Nobodies who possess no heart, we planned for a sad episode with Roxas and Xion looking for hope for themselves." From Nomura himself. And now Pinocchio's in 3D, so that's cool.

The last big part of removed content would be the Jungle Book world in BBS, of which there are still a few unfinished rooms one can access via cheat codes.

[Waifu]

I had been meaning to say this for awhile but Riku looks out of place with those human looking characters.

That's from digging through KH2 Final Mix's data, actually. Also old, but it gives more hope for an eventual Toy Story world.

Similarly, Pinocchio was originally slated to appear in 358/2 Days, and the story would've been like this: "Set in a circus and playing off the story of Pinocchio, a puppet with a heart, and the Nobodies who possess no heart, we planned for a sad episode with Roxas and Xion looking for hope for themselves." From Nomura himself. And now Pinocchio's in 3D, so that's cool.

The last big part of removed content would be the Jungle Book world in BBS, of which there are still a few unfinished rooms one can access via cheat codes.

Inresting, I gotta try it.

[Phi]

That's from digging through KH2 Final Mix's data, actually. Also old, but it gives more hope for an eventual Toy Story world.

That's news to me. Stop with that "old" bullshit, it's way past overdone. If some people haven't seen it, so what?

[Mirby]

Here, have a Nomura interview from Famitsu.

The meaning behind the main illustration!
— The package illustration has been publically revealed.

Nomura:To be honest, at first I had drawn a different picture. Sora, Riku, and King Mickey were the same as the current illustration, but I drew Mickey bigger and Sora and Riku were much smaller. However, design-wise it was difficult to use for the packaging, and when we tried it on the title screen you couldn’t really recognize Sora or Riku (wry laughter), so I redrew it.

— There is another version of the illustration with different colors and the directions switched, can you tell us about that?

Nomura:When you look at this illustration inside the game package. I wanted it’s composition and look to remind you of the title’s catch copy, “Darkness becomes light, light falls into darkness.” The two images make a pair; I think it’s nice to consider the contrasts between them and how they reflect the storyline.

— Will we see this image within the game itself?

Nomura: Yes, if you play the game on the advance degree of difficulty you’ll be able to see it.

— In the illustration, Sora has his eyes closed while Riku’s are open.

Nomura:That’s right. There’s meaning behind that, but I think you’ll understand it through playing the game. By the way, the 2 types of illustrations are not just merely reversed, but the change in color degree and overall balance has been reworked.

— We look forward to understanding that. Anyways, for the first time fans will obtain an enclosed AR card with the game. Can you tell us about the friendly Dream Eaters on those cards?

Nomura:The game package will contain one card that unlocks one of the following partner Dream Eaters at random: King Wondernyan, Circus Panda, and Nekuish. These 3 Dream Eaters are rare; however unlocking them through an AR card is not the only way to obtain them, you can partner with them in the game too. Still, if you do a Link Portal exchange through StreetPass, you can obtain the recipes for them. If you try to StreetPass regularly, you can probably obtain all three pretty early on.

Key people of the story!

— In the opener, we see a flurry of memorable scenes from the series while an orchestra version of “Hikari” plays, it’s very moving!

Nomura:It was Nomatsu (Takeshi Nomatsu, the title’s cinematic movie director) who managed it, he said himself “there isn’t a next one”, so he crammed it full of content.

— Parts of the opener were used in the Special Trailer that was released publically, where the keywords “those who are asleep within sadness” appeared. Does helping those people become the goal of this game?

Nomura:How will that go… (Laughs.) Well, first off Sora and company will have to make preparations for that.

— In the last part of the trailer, one of the points that stands out is when Aqua and Terra appear with the black coated character with the “nightmare” eyes.

Nomura:That black coated person is important to the storyline, but isn’t necessarily a new character. The details of it are something to look forward to when you play.

— As for new worlds, the image of the world from Tron Legacy is very closely adapted. The people in it are drawn quite realistically.

Nomura:Since we adapted realistic portrayals in the past with The Pirates of the Caribbean in Kingdom Hearts II, we had a bit of know-how this time around. I was a bit apprehensive at attempting to do it on a portable device, but I think the end result has a high quality to it. I supervised over the production side of the movie parts and the scenarios of the storyline reflected well into it.

— Did you plan from the beginning to use Tron Legacy as a world?

Nomura:It was decided around the time the project was beginning. We had planned for Sora to visit the original Tron world and for Riku to go to the Tron Legacy world.

— Ansem and Xemnas, as well as Master Xehanort’s forms appear, but are they the real thing?

Nomura:Well, about that… Ansem and Xemnas appear often, harassing Sora and Riku.

— Are Ansem and Xemnas key persons?

Nomura:If I had to say who the key persons were, I’d say they are the silver haired boy and Axel. This time at the end of the story, there will be the longest cutscene of the whole series where the true form of Ansem and Xemnas, as well as their goals and many other truths will be revealed all at once.

Raising Dream Eaters!

— How come this time instead of being joined by Donald and Goofy, our heroes team up with Dream Eaters?

Nomura:This time the story is about Sora and Riku taking the Mark of Mastery Exam. If Donald and Goofy participated in the exam without being Keyblade wielders, then it would be sort of weird. (Laughs.) Besides, those two are active characters in the numbering titles of the series, so I thought that it would be an interesting challenge to have an adventure outside of that.

— I see. So the Dream Eaters, you can create them by gathering materials to “breed” them. What lead you to develop this kind of system?

Nomura:The Dream Eater’s growth is directly connected to the abilities of Sora and Riku, which serves as an axis of this title. To that extent, I wanted players to feel affection for their Dream Eaters, thus you start with them from their initial creation and watch as they grow alongside you.

— Unlocking the abilities of the Dream Eaters and doing the Ability Link to make Sora and Riku stronger is sort of like parts of the system in Re:Coded.

Nomura:That’s right. At first, I initially wanted to develop another form of the command board from Birth by Sleep. Then I mixed the growth systems of Re:Coded and 358/2 Days and came up with a new idea that became the Ability Link feature.

— The Dream Eater’s growth is one of the charms of this title, but it seems with the interacting on the touch screen, the Dream Eater’s characteristics change rapidly.

Nomura:Their attitudes are different depending on their characteristics, for instance some prefer to attack aggressively while other prefer to support your character. One type of Dream Eater has 4 characteristics; even if they are same types of Dream Eaters, they each have their own personalities. So choose among the characteristics you like and have fun.

— How many types of Dream Eaters are there in total?

Nomura:There are a little over 50 types of Dream Eaters you can partner with. You can’t partner with the boss ones, but outside of that you can breed all the Dream Eaters.

— With the similar Dream Eaters like Wondernyan and King Wondernyan, are they evolutions of the same form or are they from separate recipes?

Nomura:They aren’t evolutions of one another, that is not how this system works. If you have the materials, you can produce two or more of the same Dream Eaters.

— As far as activities with the Dream Eaters go, there is the Flick Crash feature. What was the concept behind this feature?

Nomura:As the main mini-game of this title, I wanted to produce something that has the speed aspect of a card game fused with an action game. I said it had to be something frenzied with a “restless feel” to it, but it was hard to actually materialize. After repeated trials, I think it finally became something fun.

— By the way, it seems the Dream Eater’s appearance and abilities can be customized and you can name them. It’s a fairly different taste for the series compared to the past titles.

Nomura:Every time I try to make the taste of the game relate to its title, but in this game since the player can name their Dream Eater to their liking its quite straightforward. I put a lot of consideration into naming the titles interestingly, it’s fun.

Big developments packed into a short time period!

— About how long does it take to clear the game?

Nomura:Probably about 35 hours? Upgrading and playing Flick Crash take time, so I think you could keep on playing it.

— The story and the system of this game are both packed with developments. Did you think the development period was going to be this long?

Nomura:It’s really like one year since Birth by Sleep Final Mix. All the staff has worked very hard to make it here. The Osaka team took over development and even though they had only once worked with the Nintendo DS when they did Re:Coded, this is the first time they created a fully interactive 2-screened title. Even though this time the unreasonable demands were raised even more, I think their high level of creative consciousness really shines in this title.

— A lot of effort went into this title huh. By the way, we previously asked you about an announcement regarding Final Fantasy Versus XIII, is there any information you can share about when that would be?

Nomura: We hear from everyone that there is a high demand to release more information. We are almost finished preparing so we can respond to that. Even though we are in agreement, it’s really not related to current developments so we aren’t in a situation to release information about it. But since I’m not allowed to speak about it, I have no choice but to continue discussion in this way about it.

Have some Famitsu scans too.

And some more images too!


Source

[Phi]

There's also a few clean images.

Posted on: March 16, 2012, 01:33:16 PM[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1uLLmszrlE&list=UUqbTxvupSHpeSQV0VWusrnA&index=2&feature=plcp[/youtube]
^ love this one

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd2PBuaI11g&list=UUqbTxvupSHpeSQV0VWusrnA&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]

[Mirby]

If anyone's curious, you can see the opening video with some embellishments they added since it was at the Premiere Event at the beginning of the month. I recommend full-screen viewing, or you could make your way to the Premiere Video #2 which enlarges the top half but has background noise since it was recorded during the actual event and not beforehand.

[Archer]

If anyone's curious, you can see the opening video with some embellishments they added since it was at the Premiere Event at the beginning of the month. I recommend full-screen viewing, or you could make your way to the Premiere Video #2 which enlarges the top half but has background noise since it was recorded during the actual event and not beforehand.

Wow, 5 seconds of it I hadn't seen like a million times before!

It's [tornado fang]ing nothing.

[Phi]

Wow, 5 seconds of it I hadn't seen like a million times before!

It's [tornado fang]ing nothing.

... You lost me there. Showing un-comatose Ventus, Terra and Aqua at the end for a huge showdown wouldn't be considered "nothing". Sure, we knew they would return eventually, but it still gave me a bit of a jump/wtf moment. It's pretty cool.

[Archer]

Really? It just didn't seem like a big deal to me. It's in CG so I doubt it's anything really important, symbolic more than anything.

Honestly though, the problems I have with this game are all me and not the game itself. I'm sick of the Orginization, I wish Nomura just killed them off in KH2 (yeah I know, that wasn't going to happen) and I'm sick of everyone and their mother wearing organization cloaks.

...these things actually have little to do with the issue at hand but I must say that it really irritates me and all these things build up.

Another thing is deaging Sora. Sure it's not really a big deal really but I know its going to suck in English, just like Re:CoM how HJO's current voice does not fit the younger Sora at all.

Also they cut Riku's hair, I mean come on. That's unforgivable.

[VirusChris]

I don't want to sound mean or rude, but are you ever happy with ANYTHING both non and KH-related Matou Sakura?

[Archer]

Sure I am! I was quite pleased with BBS and enjoyed it immensely - to the point that I even bought it twice!

I just can't look at DDD and see it has anything more than just Nomura stalling until he's finally able to make KH3 the way he wants (with the original team after Versus is finished).

I just have too many expectations for a proper continuation to KH2 that I know it won't deliver on; it has been seven years, they've become quite unfulfillable at this point.

We'll see if that's really the case when the game is actually out but I don't have my hopes up.

But hey, don't let me hamper your excitement. If you're really looking forward to this game then I'm happy for you.

And besides knowing me, the more I think less of the game before it's out the more I'll be pleasantly surprised and enjoy it when I do play it.

[Mirby]

Also they cut Riku's hair, I mean come on. That's unforgivable.

It's magically back at the end of the opening when they all assemble, if that means anything... D:

[Archer]

It's magically back at the end of the opening when they all assemble, if that means anything... D:

This being the same opening that has Sora and Riku fighting Master Xehanort.

It doesn't mean anything.

[Mirby]

You know that could be foreshadowing for 3, since this game does tie directly into that.

[Archer]

Or you know, it could be referencing BBS and nothing more.

[Phi]

The live streaming has already started.

For anyone that's interested, skip to 1:10:00 for the opening. The use of Mickey's silhouette is awesome, getting Disney nostalgia vibes everywhere. Also, Joshua is a god/guardian in this game too (he sprouts wings and flies away).

Posted on: March 28, 2012, 01:35:31 PMA few people have beaten the game already. You can see gameplay and spoilerific scenes here.

The main details of the ending, obviously big spoilers ahead
[spoiler=HUGE SPOILERS]- There MIGHT be 3 different endings according to one person, take it with a huge grain of salt

- It was revealed that Xemnas' plan all along was to make everyone in the Organization into Xehanort; Xigbar already has some of Xehanort inside of him

- Sora failed the exam, Riku passed

- Lea somehow became a [chameleon sting]ing KEYBLADE WIELDER

- Sora switches between his KH3D and KHII outfit during some cutscenes, but you can't [tornado fang]ing play as KHII Sora

- Sora leaves on a journey to become a keyblade master; second time's the charm?

- Riku stays with Yen Sid for now

Now I could be mistaken about this part, but from what I've seen in the secret ending, Kairi is trying her hand at becoming a keyblade master with Yen Sid. Now how is THAT going to work? Kairi doesn't strike me as a competent fighter, let alone a possible keyblade master.
[/spoiler]

[Mirby]

couldn't you have put that last part in the spoiler tag too? i mean, if it's from the secret ending, then i feel it should be a secret as well to those who haven't earned it or spoiled it. >_>

[Phi]

Yeah, you're right. I just felt that this secret ending was lacking compared to the others.

[Mirby]

Thanks. I'm just trying to avoid as many big spoilers now that the game is out until it is released here in the states. Yeah, I did look at all the Famitsu scans and stuff, and did enjoy checkin' the website, but now... Yeah, these spoilers are much more... spoilery than those.

[VirusChris]

Oh my! That was a close call! I almost read from the spoiler tag about the game's ending!

As interesting as I am with learning about what happens in the game, I'll wait for when the game comes out in the stats. It's coming out this Summer or Fall?

[Phi]

To be honest, I would have avoided the spoilers too if it came to the states sooner. I don't know the usual time span of release for KH games between the US and Japan, so I became impatient and curious, eventually watching all of the ending cutscenes.... and its only been out for a few days. Terrible willpower indeed...

KHIII is a different matter. I will not spoil any big details for myself until I get the game in my hands, no matter how hard I have to force myself.

[Mirby]

I'll hold you to that promise however i can.

Chris, we only know it's coming to the states this year. My guess is May-July, mainly because the majority of voice acting is done being recorded (David Gallagher confirmed he was done recording his lines as Riku, and also confirmed that Haley Joel Osment had finished his lines as Sora).