A Letter to Square Enix

I wrote a letter to Square Enix. More or less, I wrote a letter to Square USA first, got told they could not use my idea due to legal issues, and this is what I wrote in English to Square Enix USA, and in Japanese,(thank heavens for google translate...) to Square Enix in Japan. NOTE: I do not speak Japanese, Google translated it to Japanese.
Here is the letter. NOTE: To protect privacy, some parts have been cut out.

Here is the letter:
Dear Square Enix:

I am glad that you liked my idea, and appreciate your support. Due to legal complications, however you cannot accept ideas from the general public. That is why I am willing give a full explanation of my idea.

Title: Kingdom Hearts: Reverse
Opening Theme: Utada Hikaru- Time Will Tell (for a slower opening)
Or Utada Hikaru- Letters

3 weeks after Kingdom Hearts II, after Sora and Riku have left, Kairi has a dream of Sora and Riku being swallowed by darkness, and both falling into a comatose state. A bright flash of light outside occurs as she wakes from her nightmare, and she steps outside to find Destiny Islands dark and bleak, the normal cheery attitude replaced by something much darker, much sinister. The image disappears, as Nobodies, mostly of the Dusk variant, swarm around the once pleasant, peaceful, tropical paradise. After learning to summon, Rainfell, her first Keyblade, Kairi, assisted by a mysterious young man who later reveals himself to be Shiro Yang, a Keyblade wielder himself, but who also uses a rapier, two katana, and a pair of handcrafted 'stun pistols' which render enemy combatants immobilized to the spot. After an introduction and some explaining, Shiro guess’ that reason for the abundance of Nobodies is a reaction to Anti-Darkness, which instead of destroying a world as regular darkness; Anti-Darkness reverses the world, causing the mirror image to take place of the actual world. After defeating the source of Destiny Islands Anti-Darkness, Kairi, along with Shiro, board the spacecraft called The Flying Wing II, on which she meets the rest of Shiro’s crew and associates. After receiving instruction and some advice from Yen Sid, Shiro, Kairi, and the rest of the group head for Radiant Garden. There, while walking through the borough near Merlin's house, Kairi closes very close to being severely wounded by former Organization members Larxene and Xigbar, who is now Braig. The shock of the event nearly stops her from continuing, but with encouragement, Kairi continues to press forward, undaunted by the odds or the Heartless. At one point, a mysterious crimson hooded girl attempts to persuade Kairi to abort her quest. Kairi refuses, and the two clash. Kairi wins by having herself and Namine fight the stranger away. The mysterious girl arrives again, only for Shiro to ambush her, and Kairi is partially horrified at the face she sees. It is her own face, only with dark black hair intertwined with streaks of dark blue; the girl's eyes pitch black. Once she escapes by using a Corridor of Darkness, Shiro lets Kairi know the truth: the girl's name is Kuro Yin, the embodiment of the Anti Realm's Darkness, while Shiro himself is the embodiment of the Anti Realm's Light. The pair is brother and sister, and sworn enemies of each other. The two have been battling since they knew of each other’s existence. It was only after Kuro discovered she could manipulate her anti-darkness into the Realm of Light that Shiro decided to form a team to stop her rampage before she ruined all worlds, and twisted them into her own image. After traveling throughout all the worlds, Shiro and Hope come to one final conclusion: In order to stop Anti-Darkness from tearing the world apart, they have to go straight to the source, and fight Kuro in the Anti-Realm to stop the Anti-Darkness from conquering the Realm of Light. Each member agrees, though some have doubts. Kairi urges them all on, and they finally reach Kuro's palace. The girl has twisted the very fabric of space to her will, conjuring everything from former friends to exact copies of Sora and Riku. Kairi and the group continue onward, fighting through horde after horde of darkness before finally reaching Kuro. Exhausted, they valiantly put up a last stand, and defeat Kuro. Kuro refuses to fade into darkness and instead stabs Kairi in the heart, possessing the Princess of Heart's own body, ejecting her heart into the beyond. Shiro musters his strength, and blasts Kairi's body with light, forcing Kuro out of the body, her form now like a Nobody, at the cost of Kairi's body. Shiro begins to fade into light, before giving his own body back to Kairi, thanking her for showing him how to never give up, and he thanks the rest of the group for their unwavering support. He then forcibly grabs Kuro's own tangible form with his own, and the pair disappears into light and darkness. Kairi then wakes up on Destiny Islands, shocked to find she is alive. Lightning and Serah fill her in on the details and non-existence of Shiro and Kuro. Kairi asks if they would possibly be able to stay, and the trio walks out onto the beach and watches the sunset. The game ends showing Shiro and Kuro's keyblades impaled in a memorial garden near the beach.

For the Secret Ending, a hand, shown off-screen, pulls the keyblades out of the ground, before Light and Darkness pick them up, and send them hurling off into space, as if summoned by their wielder.



Lightning Farron- Second-in-command and close combat expert, the former Guardian Corps sergeant, now turned demi-goddess, uses every ounce of her courage and might to stem the flow of Anti-Darkness, along with the rest of group. Often reserved, Lightning is not afraid to show disapproval or concern over missions.

Serah Farron- Lightning’s younger sister. Specializes in long-range combat and magic. She cares for her sister with resolve like no other. She has a keen sense of justice, and always supports those around her.

Sazh Katzory- Pilot of the Flying Wing II, unmatched in flying skills. A baby chocobo resides in his afro, and he is willing to step back and look at the odds before charging in. He has his own reason for joining Shiro’s group.

Hope Esthiem- Technology expert and researcher. Hope provides a voice of reason, looking for motive or scientific explanation behind the appearance of Anti-Darkness.

Oreba Dia Vanille- Specializes in healing and mid-range combat, but her sunny and boisterous personality hasn’t changed a bit. She still can be serious when she needs to be, challenging common sense with her own personality.

Noel Kreiss- Hunter from another era, Noel Kreiss lends his prowess, knowledge and skill to the team; often playing the peacemaker along with Serah should tension arise.



Voice Actors:
Main Cast-
Kairi- Hadyen Panettiere
Shiro Yang- Ryan O’Donohue
Lightning Farron- Ali Hillis
Serah Farron- Laura Bailey
Hope Esthiem- Vincent Martella
Sazh Katzory- Reno Wilson
Oreba Dia Vanille- Georgia van Culenburg
Noel Kreiss- Jason Marsden
Namine- Meaghan Jette Martin
Mog the Moogle- Ariel Winter
Kuro Yin- Alyson Stoner



Minor Cast (Sample)
The Phantom Blot
Kain Highwind (Final Fantasy IV)- Liam O' Brien
Cloud Strife- Steve Burton
Leon (Squall Leonhart) - Doug Erholtz
Yuffie- Mae Whitman
Aerith- Mena Suvari
Sephiroth- George Newbern
Zack Fair- Rick Gomez
Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV) - Yuri Lowenthal
Golbez (Final Fantasy IV) - Peter Beckman
The Emperor (Dissidia 012)-Christopher Corey Smith
Garland (Dissidia 012) - Christopher Sabat
Zidane Tribal (Final Fantasy IX- Bryce Paperbrook
Snow Villers (Final Fantasy XIII)- Troy Baker
Balthier (Final Fantasy XII) - Gideon Emery
Fran (Final Fantasy XII) - Nicole Fanti
Vaan (Final Fantasy XII) - Bobby Edner
More characters and voices can handled for other locations within the game as necessary. The above list for minor or guest characters are suggested characters that can be used in different worlds and environments as needed.

Playable Worlds:
Destiny Islands
Radiant Garden
Neverland (Featuring the Disney Films Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland and the films Tinker Bell, as well as Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure)
The Toy Box (Based off Pixar Animation Studio's film Toy Story)
Lunar Paradise (Based off the Pixar Animation Studio's film Wall-E)
Twilight Town
Olympus Coliseum
Cafe de Paris (Based off Pixar Animation Studio's film Ratatouille)
Merlin’s Tower (Based off the Disney film The Sword and The Stone)
Port Royal (Featuring the films Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and if needed, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.)
The Pridelands (Featuring The Lion King II)
Castle Oblivion
The Beginning of Anti (The location of Kuro’s palace within the Anti-Realm)

Party System and Playable characters:
The party system remains fairly the same within Kingdom Hearts Reverse, similar of the previous installments of the Kingdom Hearts series. The party is either a trio or a quartet, depending on the player’s choosing. However, much like the Paradigm system of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2, different combinations of characters result in different bonus for the party as a whole. For example, if the player chooses Kairi and Shiro as well as Serah Farron and Noel Kreiss, the party receives the Guardian bonus, which gives Serah and Kairi a 25% boost in magic, and Noel and Shiro receive a 25% boost in attack. However, if Kairi, Hope and Noel Kreiss are used, the party receives the bonus Reserve which awards the party +10% health and +5% Experience. Different combinations of characters result in different bonus, so the combinations of people are very wide and diverse.

The playable roster includes:

Kairi

Namine (who is 'unlocked' or usable after a side-quest)

Lightning Farron

Serah Farron

Noel Kreiss

Sazh Katzory

Oreba Dia Vanille

Hope Esthiem

Shiro Yang


Music:
Yoko Shimomura, the renowned composer for Kingdom Hearts, along with other composers Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta and Mitsuto Suzuki, each of whom were composers for Final Fantasy XIII-2, would be combined to create the Kingdom Hearts Reverse musical score. Songs range from Yoko Shimomura’s slower, more elegant themes, to Masashi Hamauzu’s more repetitive, up-tempo songs. Mixing existing songs is an element of the soundtrack. For example, a theme for Destiny Islands would take the already produced theme, and mix in the theme for New Bodhum of Final Fantasy XIII-2. If that does not work, perhaps all four composers could each create different parts of the soundtrack, and then combine their work together into one unified soundtrack.

Game Engine:
The game runs off of The Crystal Tools engine, most known for its use in Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII-2. The engine would need to be formatted for Kingdom Hearts fast-paced combat, and yet retain the cell-shaded graphics of the series. Higher quality graphics are a very appealing option. In a better analogy, it is trying to make a Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children look of realistic graphics, yet still a Kingdom Hearts style.

Additional Developers:
Tri-Ace, who was used in Final Fantasy XIII-2, for additional graphics and design, could provide extra developing muscle should anything arise. Tri-Ace had a very good design in Final Fantasy XIII-2, so why not have them assist Square Enix again?

Game platforms:
Kingdom Hearts Reverse would be available for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Thank you for reading the letter and I do realize it was rather long. Since you cannot use ideas from the general public, I offer to sell all rights, ideas, and properties to Kingdom Hearts Reverse for a price of.

 

Is that the letter you mentioned earlier ? Or is this a new letter ? If it is a new letter then you didn' t understand what I told you before.
Also, did you learn Japanese at all ? Relying solely on google translate is a very bad idea if you intend to be understood (let alone taken seriously).

 

Have to agree with this. Perhaps translate a note at the beginning saying that you are sorry you don't know Japanese. Odds are good that people over there will be (at least vaguely) able to read English, and if worse comes to worse THEY can run it through Google Translate.


Furthermore the legal reason is only part of the story. Yes they don't want to boher with royalties or the transfer of intellectual property, but the main issue is that they get a lot of ideas pitched at them. They can't take them all seriously and so they made the policy so that none of them are taken seriously. If you're going to get anywhere you need to make a really really good impression. As it stands now I doubt that your email was even entirely read, much less passed on to anyone that could even get it off the ground.

 

Yes, the same letter. Do I know Japanese? No. Do I have a vague idea that whenever you address a business letter you are extremly respectful? Yes. Are the Japanese respectful? Yes. I can only hope they liked it. I know...4 words of Japanese. And those are all from anime.

Acuatally, I translated the letter, printed it, and mailed it to Square Enix in Japan, and Square Enix USA in California. I had sent a letter to Square Enix USA before, and got a reply. Add up the current news, and the fact I pitched to sell ALL the rights of the idea(Not Kingdom Hearts, Disney, or Final Fantasy) to them....Yeah. Nomura has new game. Wonder what it is.....

 

Hmm... Maybe you should have enclosed both then? Particularly English I would bet they could read, and it is better to leave it untranslated if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I could see wanting to have native tounge there (and would likely consider google translate myself), but you don't know if what you just sent out makes any sense.

I'm willing to bet that you will get a reply saying that are not allowed to accept ideas from the public. Even if your offer is to surrender rights for free they would likely give that reply because it is how the public relations team is trained to deal with these game pitches. They really read just far enough to see that it is a game idea pitch and then send back a nice (probably pre-written) response to decline your offer. Not to sound mean, but the truth of the matter is they don't care about your idea.

 

See, that' s what I tried to explain to tell you : you don' t have anything to sell. Just because you had an idea doesn' t make it legally yours. To make it legally yours you' d have to copyright it (i.e. pay). Assuming you actually trust your idea enough to throw money at it you still have another problem on your plate : your concept involves ideas that are already copyrighted. You could ask Disney and SE to graciously allow you to commercially exploit their copyrights (I' m sure you can see the odds for that to happen), or try to buy their rights (but I' m pretty sure they picked the priciest kind of copyright, the one that can' t be bought by someone else no matter how rich he is).

Now that you sent them your letter they are free to take as many ideas as they want from it without giving you a single cent nor asking your permission. But as I said before they most probably won' t : they already hired Nomura to write and direct the KH games, and chances are he doesn' t pay any attention to fan-stuff (not enough time, couldn' t care less etc ...). Also, KH is already a partnership, Nomura himself has to submit all his ideas to Disney and hope they' ll green-light them (for instance Disney recently rejected the DDD ending that Nomura initially wrote).

tl,dr : No big-shoe will ever agree with doing a partnership with you unless you' re a big-shoe yourself. If you' re actually serious about working for SE then study to become a professional writer/designer/programmer and try to get hired. Having several hats is a must, ideas alone won' t get you very far (who doesn' t have ideas ?).

 

Yeah, that's the harsh life for those that have ideas but can't make them come true at the moment. That's why I'm planning on going to school to get into SE and work for them. I have ideas, and if they could become a game, that would be awesome, but I know not to send anything to any company because I know they don't really take ideas from people, and all that other legal stuff.

yeah, that's the unfortunate truth. The best you can do with this is keep it in your head and hope one day you can get high enough on the chain and actually present your idea to them. Right now all you're really doing is giving them an idea, and if, IF they even decide it's good, you won't get credit for it. as Patman said, you have no rights to this stuff. You have the idea, but everything in that idea belongs to either Disney or SE.

 

You know what they say: "The truth hurts. But the truth will set you free." I'm going to get some kind or form of writing and development education to work for Square. I just want to work for Square.