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RPG Site's Interview with Yoko Shimomura & Shinji Hashimoto

Posted by Misty : Sep 29, 2013 at 7:46 PM ( 1 , 1,155 )

Hey everybody. No big news to be found here, but it's a nice read all the same. RPG Site got the opportunity to sit down with Yoko Shimomura and Shinji Hashimoto and talk about music, production, and some fan-related questions. You can read the full text below.

When Square Enix called us and offered sit-down time with two of the most important people behind the Kindgom Hearts series, the answer was only ever going to be yes. Nintendo Insider's Alex Seedhouse dropped in to a UK event to celebrate the launch of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX, and while there took some time out to sit down with Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series Producer Shinji Hashimoto and legendary gaming composer Yoko Shimomura to talk about all things KH-related.

Consider this a companion piece to our previous interview with series boss Tetsuya Nomura and our FF-focused chat with Hashimoto from earlier in the year. More retrospective, this chat focuses on the pair's involvement with the genesis of the series - only fitting, given that we were there to celebrate the launch of the impressive HD remake of that game.

RPG Site: Time has really flown - it's been quite a long while since Kingdom Hearts originally released. Has revisiting the first title with 1.5 HD brought many memories for the two of you?
Shinji Hashimoto: It's of course been 11 years since we've released the first Kingdom Hearts, but the actual development was going on from a couple of years before. So it's actually been an even longer time!

The Kingdom Hearts project was started with Tetsuya Nomura, myself and a couple of people at Disney, so whilst it started as a really small project, it has become such a large franchise. I've been very honoured and very happy to have been a part of that.

Yoko Shimomura: In terms of the music, when the HD 1.5 ReMIX project started I revisited my archive, which holds all of my old [Kingdom Hearts] tracks, for the first time in ten years. Just listening to those made me feel really nostalgic, but it also felt fresh to hear them again. With the graphics being improved so much, I did my best to make the music sound much better too.

RPG Site: Are many of that original core team still working on the series as it is today?
Hashimoto: The key members of the development team have actually stayed the same from the original. But it has still been 11 years, and so there have been changes to the rest of the staff during that time. We have new, younger development talent as well, and the Osaka studio now doing the main development for the Kingdom Hearts series. So, the same core members, but it has obviously expanded a lot.

RPG Site: How challenging has it been to take the PlayStation 2 assets and remaster them in high definition? Has it been a long process?

Hashimoto: It was a really difficult challenge thanks to the fact that the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 have completely different resolutions, as you know. Updating the visuals has been the most challenging part, with development taking a couple of years. With HD 1.5 ReMIX we've got one disc, but it has two different games and also the cinematic videos. As you can imagine the volume of the work involved was huge.

With the original game having released such a long time ago, some of the data actually didn't exist any more, so we had to dig around the archives to put everything together. Some of them we even had to start entirely from scratch, so that's been the most difficult part.

Shimomura: Compared to the actual in-game data, we actually had all the music archived so that was ok. With the game having been improved so much, we still needed to make the music sound better. Obviously we can't just make one track sound better, so ended up having to re-record everything and that's been the most difficult challenge for me.

RPGSite: Having played the Japanese version already, I feel that it's really raised the bar for what can be expected from HD remakes. With Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster now also on the way, has it allowed Square Enix to streamline the process to consider revisiting more of their PlayStation 2 output?
Hashimoto: To be able to make all those different Kingdom Hearts games within the series in HD we need your support and we need everyone's support worldwide. If everyone played HD 1.5 ReMIX and they loved it, then we could then move on to the next one...? At the moment, we'd just like everyone to enjoy HD 1.5 ReMIX.

As you know we've done HD 1.5 ReMIX, Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster, and Final Fantasy VII on PC, so the art team is currently working non-stop at the moment. It's very difficult to catch up with all the latest technology alongside that.
RPGSite: If Kingdom Hearts II HD was ever considered down the line, it would obviously help bridge the gap ahead of Kingdom Hearts III on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 1.5 has only seen release on PlayStation 3 - but could Xbox owners ever see a HD version to help prepare them for the next title hitting their platform of choice?
Hashimoto: I've been asked so many times about this! I need to ask one in return -- would you like to see the games on Xbox?
RPGSite: I'm personally already familiar with the games on PlayStation, but obviously there are a lot of Xbox owners in the West, especially the UK and North America, who won't be. It may seem like something of a dodging answer, but I just see it as an area of the market that might currently be missed - even if it wouldn't effect me personally.
Hashimoto: [chuckles and nods] Thank you for explaining. We'll continue to consider this prospect.

RPGSite: We're here at a fan event, so it makes sense to ask some more fan-oriented questions - who are your favourite characters within the series?
Hashimoto: Of course, Sora. I've been with him for such a long time now. If you buy the Limited Edition we have some exclusive artwork included, and in there we have a first draft of Sora that Nomura actually drew, which is completely different! I remember seeing that sketch when Nomura was struggling to create and finalise Sora, so if I had to choose one it would be him.

Shimomura: As with my music tracks, it's really hard to choose just one character out of so many. If I had to choose one, it would have to be Riku. It's always like Riku is very miserable, despite whatever effort he puts in. So, I feel sad and want to support him all the time!

RPGSite: What are your favourite worlds or moments, within the Kingdom Hearts series?
Hashimoto: I loved the scene of the sunset in Twilight Town from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, with all three main characters eating ice cream on top of the building. So that's definitely my most favourite scene.

Shimomura: I love Traverse Town! As well as Twilight Town... There are a load of amazing worlds and levels that I love, so it's very difficult to choose one. If I had to choose, it would be Hollow Bastion actually. I really love the atmosphere, but I really don't like playing Hollow Bastion... (laughs)

RPGSite: Kingdom Hearts has had strong ties to Nintendo on the DS and 3DS. With Kingdom Hearts III skipping Nintendo machines, is that relationship going to continue, or is it on hold for now?
Hashimoto: Unfortunately we don't have any update on our plans beyond what is announced at this time.
RPGSite: How do you feel about fan events like the one being held today, and would Square Enix welcome fan interaction in helping consider the future of the series?
Hashimoto: At this time in the world social media has become very strong and has provided more opportunities for us to meet fans in person. We would obviously want to talk to those people, and listen to what they want us to do. So we're trying to have more opportunity for engagement as often as we can.

RPGSite: How are the development teams finding working on next-generation consoles? Are they finding that it gives them a far greater degree of flexibility in what they can achieve?
Hashimoto: With the next-gen, their capabilities and features, we can do everything. It's kind of like there are tons of opportunities and possibilities we can do with the future of Kingdom Hearts, but we don't want to lose our focus. We want to remain focused on the main themes of Kingdom Hearts itself, rather than concentrating too much on the technology.

RPGSite: Shimomura-san, we're mostly familiar with you working on projects such as the Kingdom Hearts series, but there have been so many games that you have composed for that I played whilst I was growing up that I was probably too young to even realise. How have you approached each different game, and how did you draw inspiration for them individually?
Shimomura: I have composed for many different genres of games, but when I concentrate on one thing I can't see anything else. It's a benefit and also a good side to my personality anyway. When I was working on Kingdom Hearts, I was just composing for that and only once that was done would move on to my next project. It's difficult doing so many at the same time, but I just focus on them separately.

RPGSite: How did you find composing music for the Kingdom Hearts series, especially with many of the Disney characters already being associated with such well-known themes?
Shimomura: It's a really, really challenging task to do, to create music for Disney characters and worlds that already exist. It was difficult, it is still difficult, and it will be difficult for the future (laughs). They're already so wonderful, and what I try to do is not ruin any of their reputation and do my best to create some great tracks for the series.

RPGSite: How much creative freedom do you have? Do Disney ever ask you to compose in certain ways?
Shimomura: Disney actually haven't ever said anything about any restrictions or guidelines, it's usually more Nomura-san who asks me to compose music in a specific way.

RPGSite: How many tracks have you composed for the series in total?
Shimomura: Actually, I've never actually counted them before (laughs). But I knew this question was going to come up so I checked my iPod, because I've got all my tracks on there.

There is a playlist called "Kingdom Hearts All" and it's more than 300 tracks, though there must be some re-arranged versions in there.

RPGSite: Do you have any particular favourites from that playlist?
Shimomura: I've been asked this question so many times, and it's so difficult to answer. All of my tracks are my children, and so I can't choose just one as a mother. It's one big family, so it's difficult and my answer would be all of them.

RPGSite: How do you get the inspiration to write the main themes for the characters? Roxas' theme, for instance, strikes me as really perfect for that character.
Shimomura: When I composed Roxas' theme, it didn't actually take much time. It was quite quick to compose that track, as I didn't think to write something really sad. I just looked at the illustration and understood about the background of his character and personality, and it just came straight to my head. Fortunately Nomura-san really liked it, and approved it straight away. All the feedback I get is that 'the theme is really sad,' 'it made me cry,' but I didn't actually intend for it to be something sad.

RPGSite: How have you found working with Nomura-san throughout the series?
Hashimoto: From my point of view as a producer, Nomura has got a lot of ambitions and dreams about how he wants to create the Disney worlds within the Kingdom Hearts games. Of course, Disney have their own creators over there as well, and so maintaining the balance between Nomura's ambitions and Disney's is one of the most difficult things for me to do!

Shimomura: From the music point of view, it's very difficult because he asks me so many impossible requests! I can't even remember how many kind of requests I receive from Nomura-san. So many times I say 'No, no, no, that's not possible' but he never listens to that! (laughs) I always have to deliver!

For example, there is a track called Xion's Theme in 358/2 Days, and the battle theme which is based on this. Nomura-san's request was 'Please make it more like a piano concerto,' but obviously because the game was originally released on [Nintendo] DS the audio compression and restrictions were completely different.

Now, we can make music and stream it into the game with no problem, but the DS limitations were obviously different.

That was a really difficult challenge, but we had to do because Nomura-san wanted me to, so we did.

RPGSite: Were there any big disagreements between Square Enix and Disney, in relation to characters or worlds?
Hashimoto: In truth, Disney have been great with us. They're always very co-operative and supportive, and no matter what, if we wanted to use a certain world they always listen. Obviously all the Disney animations have different creators behind them, so the balance and negotiations can often get heated and difficult. But still they've been very supportive.

RPGSite: Shimomura-san, one quick question about your other big project - You composed "Somnus" when Final Fantasy XV was originally Versus XIII. Obviously the change to being a 'main' FF title is quite a big one - they often have pop-style theme songs, for instance. Has much changed musically with the name change?
Shimomura: Well... regarding Somnus, I really want Nomura-san and the Final Fantasy XV team to continue to use it... otherwise I'll cry! (laughs)
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Source: RPG Site

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IGN Interview with Shinji Hashimoto (News on KH3 and the possibility of 2.5 HD ReMix)

Posted by Krowley : Sep 25, 2013 at 3:17 PM ( 5 , 3,765 )

Do you recall an earlier interview with executive producer; Shinji Hashimoto by IGN? No? Well it's not really related here anyhow as Luke Karmali of IGN interviewed Hashimoto on the recently released; 1.5 HD collection and the currently in development; Kingdom Hearts 3. Reading the full interview below, you will find Hashimoto's views on tending to the needs to make Kingdom Hearts 3 great, as well as the possibility of a 2.5 HD ReMix. Hashimoto's comments are in quotations.

"It’s been 11 years since the original game was out and now we’ll have Kingdom Hearts III at some stage in the future," he said. "The people who played the original game, at the time they were probably around 12 or 13…but now they’re in their twenties.

"While fans of Disney are usually quite young and Final Fantasy players are much older, they come together to create a Kingdom Hearts audience that’s very unique. The feelings people have towards the series are so deep these days because they spent many of their teenage years, which is a very sensitive period of your personal life, with Kingdom Hearts."

With considerable pressure not to screw up millions of gamers’ treasured memories then, the team at Square Enix could probably have done without any additional stress…which is why it’s so unfortunate that many of the original assets for the game were lost. Tetsuya Nomura revealed at E3 this year that the character models from Dream Drop Distance were modified and reincorporated into the game, and Hashimoto acknowledged that this was just one of several issues they faced. He explained, "As the game was originally released more than ten years ago, it was quite difficult even to get all the data! Also, updating the screen size to look its best in the HD format was a challenge, as the ratio is completely different. That kind of detail was hard to do."

But alongside all the complications and worry, Hashimoto and the team also enjoyed an intense feeling of nostalgia. Though most of them have now worked on multiple entries in the series, going back to where it all started was a poignant experience, which is of course the same sentiment he wants to invoke in players. His partner-in-crime on this front is series composer Yoko Shimomura, whose sweeping scores have carried numerous gamers along on tides of emotion for over two decades.

Meeting her, I asked her whether or not she was tempted to rework aspects of the original soundtrack she perhaps wasn’t completely satisfied with. She quickly told me that this never entered her head. From the moment she revisited the tunes she knew they’d stood the test of time; they still had the ability to affect her.

"I felt really nostalgic revisiting my old project, but at the same time I found lots of new things too, things that I’d forgotten doing," she said. "So it somehow felt strangely new, too. It was fun.
"Of course the basic music across the series is all the same in terms of themes and the like, although it does vary slightly depending on which Kingdom Hearts game it is. But I always want to bring something new to the games."

But what of the future of the series? By its very existence, HD 1.5 ReMix creates an expectation that the second cycle of Kingdom Hearts games will be getting the HD treatment. The fact that a series of high-definition clips from Kingdom Hearts II, Birth by Sleep, and Re:coded make an appearance in the closing credits of HD 1.5 ReMix seems to all but confirm Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMix is on the way, but Hashimoto isn’t prepared to make it official just yet. "If everyone plays 1.5 HD ReMix, if everyone likes it and everyone supports us, then 2.5 HD ReMix could happen," he says. "So at this stage, we just have to encourage people to play 1.5 HD ReMix!"

The question on everyone’s lips, however, is when we’ll see Kingdom Hearts III. Though the title was confirmed at long last at E3 this year, Hashimoto reiterated this was more an attempt to reassure fans that the final instalment in Sora’s story is on the way, rather than suggest its arrival is imminent. As we previously reported, the fact that Tetsuya Nomura needs to split his time between Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV means the climax of the saga may still be some way off.

One thing Hashimoto point blank refuses to do is rush the game out the door. Picking up the thread of our earlier conversation, he argues that the franchise remains so important to people not just because they played through it during a formative stage of their lives, but also because Sora’s growth and development now mirrors their own. It’s this powerful feature of the series that Square Enix hopes to focus on in Kingdom Hearts III in order to provoke a reaction that is in equal parts nostalgic and reflective.

"The fact is that the main focus of the series is Sora and Riku; how their friendship develops, but also how they grow up," he says. "After so many years, the players’ personal growth is closely tied to the game’s story at this point, so that’s the most important thing about the series and what we want to put into the game. For Kingdom Hearts III, players will be able to resurrect the happy memories they have from being teenagers when playing Kingdom Hearts III. So it’s very contemplative, and will match the personal experiences of much of the audience very closely."

And as long as the series remains this emotionally potent (not to mention lucrative), there’s no sign of it stopping. Kingdom Hearts III may be the end of the trilogy that began over a decade ago, but the franchise is set to continue with other instalments in future. Something I wanted to clear up, though, was Sora’s role in all of this; seeing as most of us have a rapport with that specific character, honed over 11 years, could it be replicated? Or, given that this isn’t Final Fantasy, why not just let him stay on as the series’ protagonist?

"I can’t really say anything about the future beyond Kingdom Hearts III," Hashimoto asserts. "I’m the producer, not the director, so it’s totally out of my hands. It’s up to Tetsuya Nomura whether or not we’ll see Sora in future Kingdom Hearts.

"As I said earlier though, the Kingdom Hearts storyline is designed to mirror the player’s personal experiences. If people play HD 1.5 ReMix they remember what it’s like to be a teenager again, access those memories and experience some enjoyable nostalgia from their past. That theme is something we want to keep with future titles as well. About the characters, we can’t say anything…but that’s the theme we want to continue."
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Here's some ridiculously hi-res Kingdom Hearts III art for you

Posted by Misty : Sep 13, 2013 at 1:04 PM ( 36 , 12,183 )

Sadly the image is nothing we haven't seen before, but for all you graphic designers out there, I'm sure this is useful! As a bonus, there's also an equally hi-res Final Fantasy XV party shot in there.

You can download/view the larger versions by just clicking the thumbnails. The KH3 image measures 10400x8000, the FFXV image 5660x8000. Feel free to show us what you create with them in our Graphic Art section!

Big thanks to @Obsqura for posting these up on Twitter.

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Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix Dynamic theme added to the PSN Store

Posted by Krowley : Sep 11, 2013 at 3:16 PM ( 11 , 9,465 )

For those who didn't pre-order, you won't have missed out on the Dynamic theme available in the bundle! The PlayStation stare has updated with the ability to purchase the theme for $1.99 US. Available to purchase through your computer or Playstation 3 console.

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Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix released!

Posted by Misty : Sep 10, 2013 at 3:09 PM ( 24 , 4,550 )

It's the day we've been waiting for! Though some people reported receiving their copies a few days early, and some were able to snag it from Square's launch events, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix is now available on store shelves throughout North America!

Fans who preordered the game early should receive the limited edition artbook, with several pages of concept art and doodles from the Kingdom Hearts series. You can view the special letter from Nomura below.

(click to enlarge)

If you're planning to Platinum the games, you should check out libregkd's extensive Trophy Guide. Krowley has posted up a new page for Kingdom Hearts III, as well as an interview with executive producer Shinji Hashimoto, so you can enjoy your HD remix with full knowledge that new adventures are on their way!

In terms of videos, Mixt is working hard to get the Japanese HD cutscenes up. I, however, will be taking over the recording duties for the English scenes, so expect an update soon!

Most importantly, we want to hear your impressions of the HD remix! Are you smitten with nostalgia? Impressed by the visuals? Loving the music? Tell us what you think!

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