All this trailer nonsense is turning us into animals...

[Royce & Mueller]

Hi
You are correct about days bbs and coded, but I think you're jumping to conclusions about Nomura.

Hmmmm... Jumping to conclusions? Maybe. But I didn't really explain how I got to those conclusions in the first place. First thing is, I've been following the KH games and Nomura's work since Chain of Memories was first announced. I mean, technically, I bought the original KH on like release day, or close behind anyway, but I didn't really follow him until CoM was first announced. And it's always been like this. It doesn't matter what kind of show SE partakes in, open doors or closed, the KH games in particular were always favored behind closed-doors. Kotaku even once wrote an article on how little sense it made to hype up your games by NOT showing them off, and instead only talking about how hyped the people were behind those closed doors. "The few people I actually showed the games off to really liked it, so you should too!"

Next, we move to Versus XIII. Eight years. We didn't get ANYTHING for nearly eight years. In fact, the first time we truly, really got something substantial...was when a completely different director took over the project. And true to form, early builds of Versus XIII were shown behind, yup, closed doors.

And as an amusing side-note, I love how Nomura hastily changes subjects on has to why and how he was replaced on that project. He got the boot cause he did nothing with it. Eight years, and he failed to build more than 25% and didn't even remotely hype or market the product. He dun goofed and got fired. In a manner of speaking, at least of VXIII/XV.

Now, remember how I said Nomura is full of ego? There's three things in particular that stick out to me. The first, and most recent, was on a Famitsu interview I believe, where he said something along the lines of "Only I can make Kingdom Hearts games." ....I can think of three other people at SE right off the top of my head who can make a true-to-form KH game, even with 0 involvement or approval from Nomura. Tai Yasue is probably the obvious choice. In fact, because of Nomura's propensity to work on like a dozen projects all at once, one could even argue that Yasue has done more work on recent KH games that Nomura himself. And then we have the other two designers, Gen Kobayashi and Tatsuya Kando. Their work more or less speaks for itself.

Next, we have a game that's beloved on here: The World Ends With You. In fact, the fact that KH Insider even has a tab on its site dedicated to this game speaks of Nomura's ego: That's not even his game. All he literally did was work on a single piece of art (ergo design of the five main characters), and co-producer. He didn't write any of it. He didn't direct any of it. He didn't design any of it. He didn't even conceptualize it. Aside from two things, he had NOTHING to do with it. Yet, for some reason, the game ended up getting associated constantly with his work and name. As a result, he literally bamboozled the project out of Kando's hands and proceeded to milk it dry via various OST remixes, mobile ports and spinoffs, and the main characters ending up in a KH game. That couldn't have happened if A) He had a modicum of humility and decency and B) he wasn't valued more than Kando. But he is worth more than Kando, hence he knows he can do whatever the hell he wants without anyone saying anything back. He's almost like a....like a Sears store manager in that respect.

And finally, his third proof of ego is a game that I actually loathe, The 3rd Birthday. Unlike with WEWY, he never actually took credit for it - that was actually one of Hajime Tabata's earlier works. To be sure, it was terrible, but not everyone has a winner! But moving on. Nomura's involvement in this game was VERY minimal. In fact, he's responsible for only a single aspect of it: The Overdive system. More specifically, Aya Brea retaining her clothing damage during Overdive. He was so adamant to retain this aspect in the game that he literally stalled development so it can be implemented. The funny thing is, of course, that clothing damage during Overdive is one of the biggest plot-holes and inconsistencies the game has. Considering how bad the game is overall, that's really saying something... He took an already terrible game, and for the sake of a little fanservice, made it even worse. Not cool.

Now, here's the thing: Ego in game development is not uncommon. It's in fact hysterically common. Just google Phil Fish. And that's nothing to say of guys like Sid Meier, who put their own names on a game's title. You see, it's not called "Pirates", it's called "Sid Meier's Pirates!" Big difference. The thing is though, this kind of ego IS uncommon with Japanese developers - who sort of pride themselves on a sense of humility that most western developers don't really have.

I can really only think of four other Japanese developers who have an ego the size of Nomura's: Keiji Inafune, Koji Igarashi, Hideo Kojima and Tomonobu Itagaki. The difference between them and Nomura, though? Both Inafune and Igarashi seem to respect their fans, their input, and frequently engage in actual dialogue with them. They're not...giant shut-ins. And Kojima? Well, he's just a very personable guy. I mean, Nomura is working on one of Disney's biggest game franchises, yet he didn't get a personal invitation by J.J. Abrams to visit the Star Wars set! So HA! And besides, did you actually see Kojima's business card? The man has an ego to be sure, but he also has a hell of a personality.

None of these things you can say about Nomura. He doesn't engage with his fans. He doesn't even seem to consider any fan input or critique. He doesn't even have a personality to speak of. You can't tell if he's funny, or moody...or anything really. And combine that with all of the above, he comes off as a very self-important guy.

If he didn't make Kingdom Hearts, I would probably very much loathe him because of how little he cares for his fans. Unfortunately, I DO like Kingdom Hearts - so that means for the longest time ever, I've had to put up with his constant nonsense.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Tomonobu Itagaki. Yeah. He's pretty much exactly like Nomura, only a 100% unadulterated dick. He can get stuffed for all I care.

 

[Squood!]

Hmmmm... Jumping to conclusions? Maybe. But I didn't really explain how I got to those conclusions in the first place. First thing is, I've been following the KH games and Nomura's work since Chain of Memories was first announced. I mean, technically, I bought the original KH on like release day, or close behind anyway, but I didn't really follow him until CoM was first announced. And it's always been like this. It doesn't matter what kind of show SE partakes in, open doors or closed, the KH games in particular were always favored behind closed-doors. Kotaku even once wrote an article on how little sense it made to hype up your games by NOT showing them off, and instead only talking about how hyped the people were behind those closed doors. "The few people I actually showed the games off to really liked it, so you should too!"

Next, we move to Versus XIII. Eight years. We didn't get ANYTHING for nearly eight years. In fact, the first time we truly, really got something substantial...was when a completely different director took over the project. And true to form, early builds of Versus XIII were shown behind, yup, closed doors.

And as an amusing side-note, I love how Nomura hastily changes subjects on has to why and how he was replaced on that project. He got the boot cause he did nothing with it. Eight years, and he failed to build more than 25% and didn't even remotely hype or market the product. He dun goofed and got fired. In a manner of speaking, at least of VXIII/XV.

Now, remember how I said Nomura is full of ego? There's three things in particular that stick out to me. The first, and most recent, was on a Famitsu interview I believe, where he said something along the lines of "Only I can make Kingdom Hearts games." ....I can think of three other people at SE right off the top of my head who can make a true-to-form KH game, even with 0 involvement or approval from Nomura. Tai Yasue is probably the obvious choice. In fact, because of Nomura's propensity to work on like a dozen projects all at once, one could even argue that Yasue has done more work on recent KH games that Nomura himself. And then we have the other two designers, Gen Kobayashi and Tatsuya Kando. Their work more or less speaks for itself.

Next, we have a game that's beloved on here: The World Ends With You. In fact, the fact that KH Insider even has a tab on its site dedicated to this game speaks of Nomura's ego: That's not even his game. All he literally did was work on a single piece of art (ergo design of the five main characters), and co-producer. He didn't write any of it. He didn't direct any of it. He didn't design any of it. He didn't even conceptualize it. Aside from two things, he had NOTHING to do with it. Yet, for some reason, the game ended up getting associated constantly with his work and name. As a result, he literally bamboozled the project out of Kando's hands and proceeded to milk it dry via various OST remixes, mobile ports and spinoffs, and the main characters ending up in a KH game. That couldn't have happened if A) He had a modicum of humility and decency and B) he wasn't valued more than Kando. But he is worth more than Kando, hence he knows he can do whatever the hell he wants without anyone saying anything back. He's almost like a....like a Sears store manager in that respect.

And finally, his third proof of ego is a game that I actually loathe, The 3rd Birthday. Unlike with WEWY, he never actually took credit for it - that was actually one of Hajime Tabata's earlier works. To be sure, it was terrible, but not everyone has a winner! But moving on. Nomura's involvement in this game was VERY minimal. In fact, he's responsible for only a single aspect of it: The Overdive system. More specifically, Aya Brea retaining her clothing damage during Overdive. He was so adamant to retain this aspect in the game that he literally stalled development so it can be implemented. The funny thing is, of course, that clothing damage during Overdive is one of the biggest plot-holes and inconsistencies the game has. Considering how bad the game is overall, that's really saying something... He took an already terrible game, and for the sake of a little fanservice, made it even worse. Not cool.

Now, here's the thing: Ego in game development is not uncommon. It's in fact hysterically common. Just google Phil Fish. And that's nothing to say of guys like Sid Meier, who put their own names on a game's title. You see, it's not called "Pirates", it's called "Sid Meier's Pirates!" Big difference. The thing is though, this kind of ego IS uncommon with Japanese developers - who sort of pride themselves on a sense of humility that most western developers don't really have.

I can really only think of four other Japanese developers who have an ego the size of Nomura's: Keiji Inafune, Koji Igarashi, Hideo Kojima and Tomonobu Itagaki. The difference between them and Nomura, though? Both Inafune and Igarashi seem to respect their fans, their input, and frequently engage in actual dialogue with them. They're not...giant shut-ins. And Kojima? Well, he's just a very personable guy. I mean, Nomura is working on one of Disney's biggest game franchises, yet he didn't get a personal invitation by J.J. Abrams to visit the Star Wars set! So HA! And besides, did you actually see Kojima's business card? The man has an ego to be sure, but he also has a hell of a personality.

None of these things you can say about Nomura. He doesn't engage with his fans. He doesn't even seem to consider any fan input or critique. He doesn't even have a personality to speak of. You can't tell if he's funny, or moody...or anything really. And combine that with all of the above, he comes off as a very self-important guy.

If he didn't make Kingdom Hearts, I would probably very much loathe him because of how little he cares for his fans. Unfortunately, I DO like Kingdom Hearts - so that means for the longest time ever, I've had to put up with his constant nonsense.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Tomonobu Itagaki. Yeah. He's pretty much exactly like Nomura, only a 100% unadulterated dick. He can get stuffed for all I care.

This was pretty uncalled for...

 

[BufferAqua]

This was pretty uncalled for...

Agreed .

 

[Royce & Mueller]

This was pretty uncalled for...

Does Nomura have an account on this forum?

And besides, it wasn't uncalled for. rokudamia2 claimed I jumped to conclusions, so I merely explained those conclusions.

 

[Kaweebo]

Hmmmm... Jumping to conclusions? Maybe. But I didn't really explain how I got to those conclusions in the first place. First thing is, I've been following the KH games and Nomura's work since Chain of Memories was first announced. I mean, technically, I bought the original KH on like release day, or close behind anyway, but I didn't really follow him until CoM was first announced. And it's always been like this. It doesn't matter what kind of show SE partakes in, open doors or closed, the KH games in particular were always favored behind closed-doors. Kotaku even once wrote an article on how little sense it made to hype up your games by NOT showing them off, and instead only talking about how hyped the people were behind those closed doors. "The few people I actually showed the games off to really liked it, so you should too!"

Next, we move to Versus XIII. Eight years. We didn't get ANYTHING for nearly eight years. In fact, the first time we truly, really got something substantial...was when a completely different director took over the project. And true to form, early builds of Versus XIII were shown behind, yup, closed doors.

And as an amusing side-note, I love how Nomura hastily changes subjects on has to why and how he was replaced on that project. He got the boot cause he did nothing with it. Eight years, and he failed to build more than 25% and didn't even remotely hype or market the product. He dun goofed and got fired. In a manner of speaking, at least of VXIII/XV.

Now, remember how I said Nomura is full of ego? There's three things in particular that stick out to me. The first, and most recent, was on a Famitsu interview I believe, where he said something along the lines of "Only I can make Kingdom Hearts games." ....I can think of three other people at SE right off the top of my head who can make a true-to-form KH game, even with 0 involvement or approval from Nomura. Tai Yasue is probably the obvious choice. In fact, because of Nomura's propensity to work on like a dozen projects all at once, one could even argue that Yasue has done more work on recent KH games that Nomura himself. And then we have the other two designers, Gen Kobayashi and Tatsuya Kando. Their work more or less speaks for itself.

Next, we have a game that's beloved on here: The World Ends With You. In fact, the fact that KH Insider even has a tab on its site dedicated to this game speaks of Nomura's ego: That's not even his game. All he literally did was work on a single piece of art (ergo design of the five main characters), and co-producer. He didn't write any of it. He didn't direct any of it. He didn't design any of it. He didn't even conceptualize it. Aside from two things, he had NOTHING to do with it. Yet, for some reason, the game ended up getting associated constantly with his work and name. As a result, he literally bamboozled the project out of Kando's hands and proceeded to milk it dry via various OST remixes, mobile ports and spinoffs, and the main characters ending up in a KH game. That couldn't have happened if A) He had a modicum of humility and decency and B) he wasn't valued more than Kando. But he is worth more than Kando, hence he knows he can do whatever the hell he wants without anyone saying anything back. He's almost like a....like a Sears store manager in that respect.

And finally, his third proof of ego is a game that I actually loathe, The 3rd Birthday. Unlike with WEWY, he never actually took credit for it - that was actually one of Hajime Tabata's earlier works. To be sure, it was terrible, but not everyone has a winner! But moving on. Nomura's involvement in this game was VERY minimal. In fact, he's responsible for only a single aspect of it: The Overdive system. More specifically, Aya Brea retaining her clothing damage during Overdive. He was so adamant to retain this aspect in the game that he literally stalled development so it can be implemented. The funny thing is, of course, that clothing damage during Overdive is one of the biggest plot-holes and inconsistencies the game has. Considering how bad the game is overall, that's really saying something... He took an already terrible game, and for the sake of a little fanservice, made it even worse. Not cool.

Now, here's the thing: Ego in game development is not uncommon. It's in fact hysterically common. Just google Phil Fish. And that's nothing to say of guys like Sid Meier, who put their own names on a game's title. You see, it's not called "Pirates", it's called "Sid Meier's Pirates!" Big difference. The thing is though, this kind of ego IS uncommon with Japanese developers - who sort of pride themselves on a sense of humility that most western developers don't really have.

I can really only think of four other Japanese developers who have an ego the size of Nomura's: Keiji Inafune, Koji Igarashi, Hideo Kojima and Tomonobu Itagaki. The difference between them and Nomura, though? Both Inafune and Igarashi seem to respect their fans, their input, and frequently engage in actual dialogue with them. They're not...giant shut-ins. And Kojima? Well, he's just a very personable guy. I mean, Nomura is working on one of Disney's biggest game franchises, yet he didn't get a personal invitation by J.J. Abrams to visit the Star Wars set! So HA! And besides, did you actually see Kojima's business card? The man has an ego to be sure, but he also has a hell of a personality.

None of these things you can say about Nomura. He doesn't engage with his fans. He doesn't even seem to consider any fan input or critique. He doesn't even have a personality to speak of. You can't tell if he's funny, or moody...or anything really. And combine that with all of the above, he comes off as a very self-important guy.

If he didn't make Kingdom Hearts, I would probably very much loathe him because of how little he cares for his fans. Unfortunately, I DO like Kingdom Hearts - so that means for the longest time ever, I've had to put up with his constant nonsense.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Tomonobu Itagaki. Yeah. He's pretty much exactly like Nomura, only a 100% unadulterated dick. He can get stuffed for all I care.

I like this guy's style. He has a lot to say and he's not afraid to say it.

 

[Absent]

Royce has a point with the communication part. Its 2015 and more developers(especially Indies) are engaging more with their audience. As much as I love KH, I think this series doesn't have the best relationship(Especially in the west) with its fans compared to other franchises.

 

[rokudamia2]

Hmmmm... Jumping to conclusions? Maybe. But I didn't really explain how I got to those conclusions in the first place. First thing is, I've been following the KH games and Nomura's work since Chain of Memories was first announced. I mean, technically, I bought the original KH on like release day, or close behind anyway, but I didn't really follow him until CoM was first announced. And it's always been like this. It doesn't matter what kind of show SE partakes in, open doors or closed, the KH games in particular were always favored behind closed-doors. Kotaku even once wrote an article on how little sense it made to hype up your games by NOT showing them off, and instead only talking about how hyped the people were behind those closed doors. "The few people I actually showed the games off to really liked it, so you should too!"

Next, we move to Versus XIII. Eight years. We didn't get ANYTHING for nearly eight years. In fact, the first time we truly, really got something substantial...was when a completely different director took over the project. And true to form, early builds of Versus XIII were shown behind, yup, closed doors.

And as an amusing side-note, I love how Nomura hastily changes subjects on has to why and how he was replaced on that project. He got the boot cause he did nothing with it. Eight years, and he failed to build more than 25% and didn't even remotely hype or market the product. He dun goofed and got fired. In a manner of speaking, at least of VXIII/XV.

Now, remember how I said Nomura is full of ego? There's three things in particular that stick out to me. The first, and most recent, was on a Famitsu interview I believe, where he said something along the lines of "Only I can make Kingdom Hearts games." ....I can think of three other people at SE right off the top of my head who can make a true-to-form KH game, even with 0 involvement or approval from Nomura. Tai Yasue is probably the obvious choice. In fact, because of Nomura's propensity to work on like a dozen projects all at once, one could even argue that Yasue has done more work on recent KH games that Nomura himself. And then we have the other two designers, Gen Kobayashi and Tatsuya Kando. Their work more or less speaks for itself.

Next, we have a game that's beloved on here: The World Ends With You. In fact, the fact that KH Insider even has a tab on its site dedicated to this game speaks of Nomura's ego: That's not even his game. All he literally did was work on a single piece of art (ergo design of the five main characters), and co-producer. He didn't write any of it. He didn't direct any of it. He didn't design any of it. He didn't even conceptualize it. Aside from two things, he had NOTHING to do with it. Yet, for some reason, the game ended up getting associated constantly with his work and name. As a result, he literally bamboozled the project out of Kando's hands and proceeded to milk it dry via various OST remixes, mobile ports and spinoffs, and the main characters ending up in a KH game. That couldn't have happened if A) He had a modicum of humility and decency and B) he wasn't valued more than Kando. But he is worth more than Kando, hence he knows he can do whatever the hell he wants without anyone saying anything back. He's almost like a....like a Sears store manager in that respect.

And finally, his third proof of ego is a game that I actually loathe, The 3rd Birthday. Unlike with WEWY, he never actually took credit for it - that was actually one of Hajime Tabata's earlier works. To be sure, it was terrible, but not everyone has a winner! But moving on. Nomura's involvement in this game was VERY minimal. In fact, he's responsible for only a single aspect of it: The Overdive system. More specifically, Aya Brea retaining her clothing damage during Overdive. He was so adamant to retain this aspect in the game that he literally stalled development so it can be implemented. The funny thing is, of course, that clothing damage during Overdive is one of the biggest plot-holes and inconsistencies the game has. Considering how bad the game is overall, that's really saying something... He took an already terrible game, and for the sake of a little fanservice, made it even worse. Not cool.

Now, here's the thing: Ego in game development is not uncommon. It's in fact hysterically common. Just google Phil Fish. And that's nothing to say of guys like Sid Meier, who put their own names on a game's title. You see, it's not called "Pirates", it's called "Sid Meier's Pirates!" Big difference. The thing is though, this kind of ego IS uncommon with Japanese developers - who sort of pride themselves on a sense of humility that most western developers don't really have.

I can really only think of four other Japanese developers who have an ego the size of Nomura's: Keiji Inafune, Koji Igarashi, Hideo Kojima and Tomonobu Itagaki. The difference between them and Nomura, though? Both Inafune and Igarashi seem to respect their fans, their input, and frequently engage in actual dialogue with them. They're not...giant shut-ins. And Kojima? Well, he's just a very personable guy. I mean, Nomura is working on one of Disney's biggest game franchises, yet he didn't get a personal invitation by J.J. Abrams to visit the Star Wars set! So HA! And besides, did you actually see Kojima's business card? The man has an ego to be sure, but he also has a hell of a personality.

None of these things you can say about Nomura. He doesn't engage with his fans. He doesn't even seem to consider any fan input or critique. He doesn't even have a personality to speak of. You can't tell if he's funny, or moody...or anything really. And combine that with all of the above, he comes off as a very self-important guy.

If he didn't make Kingdom Hearts, I would probably very much loathe him because of how little he cares for his fans. Unfortunately, I DO like Kingdom Hearts - so that means for the longest time ever, I've had to put up with his constant nonsense.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Tomonobu Itagaki. Yeah. He's pretty much exactly like Nomura, only a 100% unadulterated dick. He can get stuffed for all I care.

I don't fully agree with you, but I can see your logic. So I respect your opinion.
I definitely agree about the communication part.

 

[Royce & Mueller]

Who knows, maybe things will change and I will be proven wrong with regards to communication and respect towards fans.

But if recent events are anything to go by, it'll be a while.

 

[BlackOsprey]

tbh, every video game fandom seems to have a very sharp love-hate relationship with their respective franchise's creator. I mean, yeah, Royce did put up some valid points about Nomura, and I can't say that I have a very solid counter-argument for many of them. But as far as I'm concerned, general lack of communication and ego problems are better than what the Pokemon fandom has been perceiving in their current current helmsman, Masuda; apparently, the guy is cutting content from the games themselves to try and "streamline the experience" in order to appeal to the cellphone gamers. And don't even get me started on all the complaints about ORAS because he decided to cut almost all the Emerald content from the games. It's turning the fanbase toxic and cannibalistic.

Maybe Nomura isn't very personable, maybe he has an ego, but if it mostly influences pre-release and advertising matters like this D23 debacle, I find it preferable to having it screw up the content and character of the games themselves.

Also, Royce, nice essay. And I'm not being sarcastic. That was well-put and well-argued.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Whoo, this is a doozy of a post. Gonna just...Welcome to KHI, Royce & Mueller!

It doesn't matter what kind of show SE partakes in, open doors or closed, the KH games in particular were always favored behind closed-doors.

You shouldn't blame this on Nomura as much as you should blame it on Square Enix and Disney combined. Nomura doesn't actually have full control over marketing decisions.

Kotaku even once wrote an article on how little sense it made to hype up your games by NOT showing them off, and instead only talking about how hyped the people were behind those closed doors. "The few people I actually showed the games off to really liked it, so you should too!"

I agree with this.

And as an amusing side-note, I love how Nomura hastily changes subjects on has to why and how he was replaced on that project. He got the boot cause he did nothing with it.

Yes, because getting the boot = being told "Yo, you're remaking FF7."

If he wasn't able to complete a game, I highly doubt he'd have been given FF7 Remake. If anything, they would have kept him a million miles away from this game.

They would have only had him on KH3 on and would have been kept out of the limelight. Instead Nomura was suddenly pushed out into the limelight with video game and art and merchandise collaborations with other companies and Comic Con appearances and even more games with Nomura's art in it.

You'll want to look at other developers who were taken off their projects or left SE and see how frequently they discuss it. I'll give you the quick rundown: they don't. They aren't allowed to. They are NDA'd up the butt by Square Enix. They are legally bound to not discuss this stuff.

Eight years, and he failed to build more than 25% and didn't even remotely hype or market the product.

Because Square Enix took his team constantly. First they took his team to finish XIII because Crystal Tools was incomplete and a failure of an engine, then they took his team to remake FFXIV because the game was a failure, and it reached a point where he only had a handful of people under his control.

During those times, he only had a skeleton crew making the game.

When he did have a team, which was probably no more than probably a year of accumulated time between 2006-2011, he did get what we know exists done and that's pretty impressive for a game that essentially was never worked on ever.

It wasn't until 2011 that the Type-0 team was free that they were made the new staff for Versus, and that was around the same year that Square Enix heard about the PS4 and decided to shift Versus to a numbered title and make it a next-gen game.

In the time between 2011 and 2013, they had to then learn how to use HD technology, restructure the game, and wait for Luminous Engine to be built.

Next, we have a game that's beloved on here: The World Ends With You. In fact, the fact that KH Insider even has a tab on its site dedicated to this game speaks of Nomura's ego: That's not even his game. All he literally did was work on a single piece of art (ergo design of the five main characters), and co-producer. He didn't write any of it. He didn't direct any of it. He didn't design any of it. He didn't even conceptualize it. Aside from two things, he had NOTHING to do with it.

Pretty certain Nomura was creative producer and helped create some of the story. He certainly wasn't the main staff behind it, but he sure as hell had a ton of input into how the game was made.

As a result, he literally bamboozled the project out of Kando's hands and proceeded to milk it dry via various OST remixes, mobile ports and spinoffs, and the main characters ending up in a KH game.

I'm confused about this. Kando has had control over TWEWY since TWEWY was made. He wanted to make the mobile port and was director for it. He wanted to make the social game and was the director for it (and to note, Hazama was the producer for it).

Kando and a number of the TWEWY staff work on KH, and along with Nomura, decided they wanted to include the characters in KH.

Ishimoto wanted to make the OST remixes. Literally every single thing about the OST remixes was because Ishimoto couldn't stop making music for the game and even made his own Square Enix-approved band based on the game.

And finally, his third proof of ego is a game that I actually loathe, The 3rd Birthday. Unlike with WEWY, he never actually took credit for it - that was actually one of Hajime Tabata's earlier works. To be sure, it was terrible, but not everyone has a winner! But moving on. Nomura's involvement in this game was VERY minimal. In fact, he's responsible for only a single aspect of it: The Overdive system. More specifically, Aya Brea retaining her clothing damage during Overdive. He was so adamant to retain this aspect in the game that he literally stalled development so it can be implemented. The funny thing is, of course, that clothing damage during Overdive is one of the biggest plot-holes and inconsistencies the game has. Considering how bad the game is overall, that's really saying something... He took an already terrible game, and for the sake of a little fanservice, made it even worse. Not cool.

Okay...I'm not sure how this equals ego but okay. It's not like Tabata is any better or shall we ignore Cidney and Tabata's comments on that? Or the really pervy shit in Type-0 (panty shots ignored because it was a female artist who wanted to do that)?

The thing is though, this kind of ego IS uncommon with Japanese developers - who sort of pride themselves on a sense of humility that most western developers don't really have.

All of the games in the Japanese market with big boobed women, panty shots, and so on seem to tell me differently. I can't think of any Japanese game I've played that hasn't had some kind of fanservice and the developer behind it raving on about said fanservice.

Inafune

People following Mighty No.9 or Red Ash would disagree to the moon and back. Many Japanese developers would disagree.

Kamiya would also disagree.

yet he didn't get a personal invitation by J.J. Abrams to visit the Star Wars set!

I'm sure Nomura's crying in his house in front of his computer with his cats over this.

None of these things you can say about Nomura. He doesn't engage with his fans. He doesn't even seem to consider any fan input or critique.

Having met Nomura on two occasions, I'll have to disagree on this. The guy doesn't engage with fans frequently because he isn't a social guy. Is it a crime to be introverted?

Nomura gets the feedback and he listens to it but the difference is that he doesn't let it shape his vision.

He doesn't even have a personality to speak of. You can't tell if he's funny, or moody...or anything really. And combine that with all of the above, he comes off as a very self-important guy.

I can tell you that the people he knows think he's a swell guy to hang out with (i.e. Hazama) and like to joke with him like he's a little brother or something (i.e. Kitase & Toriyama) and go drinking and get dinner with him (i.e. Tabata & Kojima).

Fantastic post, though. It's nice to see people with a little kick in them.

I want to clarify that Nomura certainly deserves some blame, but I don't think he has his head up his ass like you do and that sometimes Square Enix deserves a bit of blame for things since they are the ones who make the orders.

 

[Hirokey123]

Man I really feel for Nomura on FFXV. I mean SE has a history of screwing their directors and employees six-ways up the moon but their handling of FFXV and treatment of him has been really borderline shameful. Took his team constantly, let him make progress only to tell him he has to essentially start everything from scratch, and then behind his back it's decided he would be on FFVII but they didn't even tell him that immediately. Instead they ripped him off the game and not much later "surprise surprise FFVII remake with Tetsuya Nomura"...must of been one heck of a shock to just have that thrown at him. And all the while it's not like he can even talk about this, he just has to take it in a silent stride and try to think of a way to spin "I've been screwed from start to finish" into something positive and perhaps his fault.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Man I really feel for Nomura on FFXV. I mean SE has a history of screwing their directors and employees six-ways up the moon but their handling of FFXV and treatment of him has been really borderline shameful. Took his team constantly, let him make progress only to tell him he has to essentially start everything from scratch, and then behind his back it's decided he would be on FFVII but they didn't even tell him that immediately. Instead they ripped him off the game and not much later "surprise surprise FFVII remake with Tetsuya Nomura"...must of been one heck of a shock to just have that thrown at him.

It was. He bought his first cat as a way to "heal".

 

[Hirokey123]

It was. He bought his first cat as a way to "heal".

Wait are you serious or joking? If so that's both touching but also kind of heartbreaking.

 

[Launchpad]

I just want the trailer. We're all busy people, I'm a busy person. This trailer has me on edge. This shit is really annoying because they're being so cryptic about releasing it. It's hard to focus on important shit with this looming over us

 

[BlackOsprey]

Wait are you serious or joking? If so that's both touching but also kind of heartbreaking.

I think she's serious. :/

Another thing to remember is that the indie developers are able to communicate much more easily with their fans because they're much, much smaller than big businesses like Square. Well, not only are they smaller, but they're less likely to have contracts and requirements from higher-ups that would screw them over if they spilled the beans on some details.

 

[Royce & Mueller]

I'm happy that my controversial post actually inspired real discussion and healthy debate, even if some of us don't see eye to eye on certain subjects.

I already like you guys lol. I mean....hell, if I were to say "I don't like FFXIII" on KH13, Sora96 would go to hell and back to make sure I'm perma-banned... So, mad respek!

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Wait are you serious or joking? If so that's both touching but also kind of heartbreaking.

Serious. He talked about buying his first cat during the 2.5 Launch Event.

I'm happy that my controversial post actually inspired real discussion and healthy debate, even if some of us don't see eye to eye on certain subjects.

I already like you guys lol. I mean....hell, if I were to say "I don't like FFXIII" on KH13, Sora96 would go to hell and back to make sure I'm perma-banned... So, mad respek!

TORIYAMA IS LIFE. /s

 

[Squood!]

It was. He bought his first cat as a way to "heal".

R-Really? That's pretty sad...

edit: Saw the other post

 

[Launchpad]

I think we can all agree that this was complete bullshit. The lack of communication is super duper lame.

 

[Hirokey123]

Well then....I suppose he got a cat out of it so it's not all bad....