June 20th Famitsu interview with Nomura

Krowley · Jul 2, 2013

Goldplanner has translated last week's famitsu interview with Nomura to reveal a little more on the development process. Read about new bits of possibilities, such as enemies and battle styles. Kingdom Hearts 3 will be showcased further at Disney's D23 Expo as well as the Tokyo Game Show.

E23 EXPO: July 4th - July 7th 2013

~Visuals with a soft feel, and even bolder action

—We were surprised that you would release a KHIII trailer so soon, what with KH 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (hereon KH3D) and KH -1.5 HD ReMIX- still so recent.

Nomura: I know there are many fans who are restless because we have only released spin off titles since KHII, so I decided to announce it along with FFXV. Considering the stage of development, though, I do think perhaps it is a bit early to be announcing it.

—However, it does seem like the visuals already have a solid direction.

Nomura: Among the developers we are calling the visuals the ‘Kingdom Shader’. On original worlds, the characters will go around with that feel to them. Then, to match the style of each Disney World, the Shader will adjust the visuals depending on the world.*

---We weren't expecting the soft, illustrated feel as seen in the KH3D movie, rather than a more realistic look.

Nomura: Perhaps the ordinary course of things would be to go with the realism close to the visuals in the movies so far, but then there wouldn't be any surprises, would there? I think the same thing about existing things like cel shading, too.

---How did you come up with these visuals?

Nomura: How should next-gen Kingdom Hearts be... should I go with the realism from recent works, or go with something different? I thought long and hard about several answers. From that, I knew we had to go back to our original goal for the graphics of the Kingdom Hearts characters: evoking the feel of the brush paintings in Disney works. So, I called on (Mr Takeshi) Nozue and we did test after test, and the result of all our investigating is the 'Kingdom Shader'. Because we are skipping a generation of hardware with our numbered titles, Kingdom Hearts II having been released on PS2, perhaps it will seem like we are changing things too radically. However, we are doing our utmost best to take everything you have seen so far and evolve it to be even richer.

—Like FFXV, is KHIII being developed on Luminous Studios?

Nomura: We are currently verifying going with Luminous as our main. Working on an over-spec and porting to both PS4 and Xbox One is also going to be the same. In the trailer we showed, for the battle section we didn't have time to prepare a clip of it working on the actual hardware because of tool issues, so instead we made a concept FMV that depicts what is possible in realtime. That said, the actual thing working in realtime it doesn't look much different at all.*

---And development is being handled by the Osaka team responsible for KH Birth by Sleep, KH3D and KH -1.5 HD ReMIX-?

Nomura: The base is the Osaka team. With (Mr Tai) Yasue as Co. Director, they are working in conjunction with the Tokyo Kingdom Hearts staff.

---We're interested in how the action in KHIII will have evolved.

Nomura: Right now there’s a demo version that runs on the hardware… and it’s an absolute storm (laughs). It goes even beyond ‘bold action’. In KHIII you will have a three person party, but depending on the world NPCs will also join in fighting. Basically, some very flashy action will unfold. You’ll be flying through the sky flowing through air battles without landing.

---Just with Sora (laughs).

Nomura: I suppose so (laughs). The enemy AI is becoming rather elaborate, and we’d like for coordinated action to flow from enemies and allies alike. For example, there’s a vehicle-type enemy, and we’ve already got Sora being able to ride that enemy all around during battle.

---Even just from watching the Shadows in the trailer moving we certainly can tell that the enemies have evolved. And, on the other side, Sora has gained powers befitting a 'Keyblade Master', hasn't he? Will he be able to transform his Keyblade?

Nomura: In this stage of testing he can transform it. By the way, in the trailer, Sora picks up the Keyblade belonging to Master Eraqus that Aqua had. We put that together in order to remind you of the story of KHIII, as this time we weren't able to prepare a scene that would show you a portion of the drama.

---That means the story begins after the end of KH3D, doesn't it.

Nomura: Yes. We are currently working through the selection of new worlds. As this is the last chapter of the Dark Seeker Chronicles that has been going since KH1, there will be a final showdown with Xehanort.

---If the story continues from KH3D, then is it possible that we will be able to control not only Sora but other characters such as Riku and Kairi?
Nomura: I can't say the possibility is zero.

---We apologize for what might be an overly-specific question, but, what happened to Meow Wow.......
Nomura: ......What indeed (laughs). The last part of KH3D was meant to be tentative foreshadowing.*

---So perhaps we can get our hopes up (laughs). Lastly, a message for your fans.

Nomura: FFXV and KHIII are projects that, like great rivals, polish each other up as they develop. At our private conference, despite KHIII being the lucky last and being at an early stage of development, I I already felt the response. For KHIII, developments unseen in the KH series so far involving online elements are under investigation, so please look forward to upcoming news. This year in Japan we will be exhibiting at Tokyo Game Show and at Disney’s D23 Expo Japan event, so I think there will be more information available around those times.
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DuelRoxas16 · Jul 2, 2013

this is going to be amazing, i cant wait to see more footage at D23 or at least get more info on it. I am curious though as to why sora would be on destiny island. if this takes place after 3D then why is he their if Kairi and Rku are at the Mysterious tower with Yensid

CloudStrife2k9 · Jul 2, 2013

In KHIII you will have a three person party, but depending on the world NPCs will also join in fighting
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Soo.. does this mean four person party during worlds such as Agrabah? I hope so. It will definitely make things more interesting. Not to mention it makes a lot more sense. It's not like when you go to Halloween Town, you're like "...hmm, okay well, Goofy, you... go over there and wait. I want Jack to fight." No, they all 'fight together' but I guess because of the hardware short comings, you could only have 3 characters fighting on screen.

Also very excited to the fact that we might(lol, no it's definite) be able to play as Riku and Kairi. And in another interview he also said there is a high possibility that we can play as Mickey. So, yay.

61 · Jul 2, 2013

So far the gameplay is what has me most interested. The way it's described here sounds amazing, and I can't wait to see some footage of it.

Baptista · Jul 2, 2013

--And development is being handled by the Osaka team responsible for KH Birth by Sleep, KH3D and KH -1.5 HD ReMIX-?

Nomura: The base is the Osaka team. With (Mr Tai) Yasue as Co. Director, they are working in conjunction with the Tokyo Kingdom Hearts staff.

YES !! The Kingdom Hearts team is working on it !!!!

Anixe · Jul 2, 2013

YES, please bring back the Digimon Dream Eaters!~

Well, as far as most of the information goes, they're pretty much repeating what has been said for the past several interviews since the E3 announcement. Can't blame them though, since everybody wants in on the scoop now.

As for the part where Sora picks up Eraqus' Keyblade, I did assume that that part wasn't going to specifically be set up in that point in time. I believe that setting and character will change, kind of like the beta Birth by Sleep trailer where they are in Hollow Bastion.

But regardless, couple more days until these events~ I hope more new things will come by.

RifleRiku · Jul 2, 2013

I'm sure that Nomura is going in the right direction in this. Though I'm not too erratic about the return of dream eaters (the colors are worse than bad Final Mix colors IMO), it also provides more diversity in enemies and allies. I'm sure we'll see heartless and nobodies return and there is a chance Unversed could too. The only thing is that I want more details xD

Miles · Jul 2, 2013

YEs the original team is working on it too! I cannot wait!!!

Crypt · Jul 2, 2013

Someone needs to ask him about a new Utada Hikaru song! Come on, it's the most important part!

AzzyFox · Jul 2, 2013

I'd like to fight the whole mixed bag in KH3--Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed and Nightmare Dream Eaters. ;)

Shift · Jul 2, 2013

I wonder how NPCs will join the fighting now that I think about it. I can see soldiers and whatnot on a setting like Land of Dragons, but I can't imagine anything other than random merchants on somewhere like Agrabah.

...I just realized after 3 interviews on the the subject that we'll have NPCs to talk to again.
Oh boy the hype.
Now they just gotta make Olympus Coloseum invisible crowd be there and there's nothing petty left for me to complain.

Anixe said: ↑

YES, please bring back the Digimon Dream Eaters!~
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Hells yeah, can't wait to go around riding a T-rex again <3

Meilin Lee · Jul 3, 2013

Dream Eaters... YES!! I want to see Meow Wow and Komory Bat with PS4 graphics. So much kawaii!

Menos Grande · Jul 4, 2013

They must do some cameo why would Sora return to them? I hope that they are not lost like the cards at Castle oblivion.

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June 20th Famitsu interview with Nomura

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