News ► KH 20th anniversary event Q&A masterpost

[Henryp]

I actually don’t care about them reusing the KH3 worlds. What really bothers me: if they are already reusing the same worlds, Why do they not release the game on consoles? Why does it have to be a mobile game?

I really wouldn’t mind if it was copy paste KH3’s worlds with new gameplay mechanics

Because it's easier to produce than an underwhelming new gameplay mechanic for home consoles, and it'll probably give more money to SE with the whole gatcha thing than doing a single payment game for consoles. As far as I know, mobile games are huge in the east. Either way, I won't discard the possibility of the game, with similar gatcha mechanics, making it into home consoles as time goes by.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I'm actually really intrigued by this. In Dark Road, Young Xehanort changed his hairstyle. After possessing Terra, Xehanort/Xemnas also styled his hair in this way. Also, despite having a different hairstyle in BBS, Saix chose to grow out his hair and style it in a similar way. I wonder if it was for the same reason.

I mean, it was always a visual indication of their relation to Xehanort.

I’m sure now it’ll mean it is a visual connection to Darkness.

 

[MATGSY]

I'm just sick of mobile games & hate that they replaced proper handheld entries. Come on Square, make a new game on Switch that isn't rhythm or cloud!

 

[Nayru's Love]

— Are Nobody emblems natural? Do humanoid Nobodies have them?
Nomura: Is this something you all care about? (laughs)

— When did Namine and Ansem meet?
Nomura: It wasn't, but I didn't show it because I thought people would be able to figure out what happened on their own.

Nomura Translation: What stupid fucking questions

Sleep-deprived Nomura is just shooting the shit and I'm loving it...Looking forward to more interviews with this madman.

 

[MATGSY]

Yeah, all those physical traits have to be related somehow. The hairstyle, the pointy ears, the yellow eyes. Maybe it's all related to how the Master of Masters looks.

I think it's broader than that:

Darken skin & yellow eyes are basically a visual shorthand that tells audiences "hey, this is a bad guy!" There's enough prior examples of it happening in Disney media that they likely influenced (if subconsiously) Nomura's designs for the heartless. & then the heartless designs influence Ansem's design, which in turn influenced every other Xehanort off-shoot.

 

[AdrianXXII]

— Where did Riku get the Keyblade he gave to Kairi in KH2?
Nomura: If you're asking about that... I'll follow up on it. If I don't, then we'd just be throwing that all away.

I don't even know what Nomura is trying to say here.

 

[Sign]

Made another batch of updates thanks to Famitsu and Gamer JP's recaps. Really hope this will be the last time lol I don't want to edit this thing again

 

[2 quid is good]

— When did Namine and Ansem meet?
Nomura: When there was no one else left in Castle Oblivion. Organization XIII had been eliminated, and Sora and Riku were gone, so they were like "Well now what we do?" (laughs) Hazama: It wasn't that amicable, was it? (laughs) Nomura: It wasn't. I didn't show it because I thought people would be able to figure out what happened on their own.

Surprised this was even asked, like Nomura, I thought it was pretty obvious. Some of these questions picked could have gone to much better ones

 

[Sign]

Surprised this was even asked, like Nomura, I thought it was pretty obvious. Some of these questions picked could have gone to much better ones

I feel like whoever went through the list picked these out intentionally to waste time.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

• First started work on KH in 1997.

That explains the level design and the platformer-esque style of Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Sign]

That explains the level design and the platformer-esque style of Kingdom Hearts.

We knew Nomura started working on KH after FF8, but he'd been vague about what that actually meant (after he completed his work on FF8? after the game released?) so it's nice to finally have the answer and pinpoint an exact year.

 

[Xx_HS_xX]

— When did Namine and Ansem meet?
— Why did Riku's hair get cut in KH3D?
— Master Xehanort hijacked Terra's body...why didn't he do anything about it while he was still young?

Barring the fact that some of the questions were, unfortunately, just plain pointless to ask, my issue is actually towards the staff who actually went through these questions and chose them. I pretty sure there was hundreds upon hundreds of questions that were submitted for the event. Were these the ones they thought were good? Really?

(I swear that Ansem question was already answered way back when in the interview or Ultimania)

 

[Rob]

My goodness. Did they not review the questions before choosing to answer them? Rhetorical because obviously not. Asking questions like how did Ansem and Namine meet when that was answered back in the KH2 Ultimania. That couldn't have been a Japanese question (I'd be disappointed if it was; the only exception is if the person just started the series) because the Ultimania's are only released in Japan.

Straight from the Scenarios mysteries of the KH2 Ultimania in 2006, which you can find all the interviews on KHI:

---Did Namine meet DiZ after Sora's story in KH:COM?
Nomura: Yes, they contacted each other between Sora and Riku's stories. Namine coorperated with DiZ not just because she's against the Organization but also because she wanted to protect Sora. She promised to restore Sora's memories so she needed to stay beside him. As stated in Ansem's Other Report #10, DiZ thought it's dangerous to leave Sora in Castle Oblivion, and in order to protect Sora, Namine needed DiZ.

A more useful question, which I submitted, is "when will KH have Japanese audio in the overseas version?" KH is the only Square game that doesn't have JP audio in the overseas release. Even Dragon Quest has it. It's embarrassing. Yes, it's a question that's been asked before and answered, but we need to keep the demand going. Yes, I could just watch a Japanese walkthrough on YouTube (which I already do), but considering they keep catering to casuals who don't follow the story by making recap videos/journals time and time again (DDD/3/the recap videos on YouTube before 3) when you can watch a walkthrough of the series before each new game, this would at least be fair.

 

[Henryp]

Nomura: Roxas and Xion's return in Kingdom Hearts 3. I was struggling with the issue until the very last minute, and even considered a scenario where they wouldn't be revived at all. However, everyone's feelings were so strong that I felt I had no choice to bring them back.

While I do believe he struggled with the scenario to the very end, he was the one who put the seed of their return way earlier than KH3, at the very least for Roxas. Even if Blank Points may have not indicated that, in DDD Sora literally tells Roxas that he deserves to be his own person, and that game was released 7 years before KH3. It would have made no sense not to bring him back after those BbS and DDD scenes. Another proof that DDD was most probably made of undeveloped ideas he had for KH3 that he didn't matured enough.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

The Namine/DiZ question is pretty random. Out of all the questions you could ask about Namine that's the one that gets attention? Not how she got her name, how she was found by the Organization, the limits of her powers, or even why she wears a tablecloth as clothing.

I wish I had submitted some questions. I would have asked why didn't Marluxia start remembering his past the first time Sora defeated him in CoM as opposed to KH3? Is it because he didn't have Mecha Strelitzia with him? Yeah I'm calling that thing Mecha Strelitzia.

 

[Rob]

I was so absorbed in my post that I forgot to mention this:

Axel: "Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to bring you back!"

• Shimizu got goosebumps during recording of the aforementioned line and was very moved. The way Fujiwara tackled it was amazing.
• Fujiwara once had to do 70 takes for a line of dialogue, but did it without a sour look on his face. He's very grateful to him.
• Nomura: "When I talk about Axel, I feel sad."

No wonder Lea/Axel looked kind of sad-ish while keeping up a smile in the anniversary artwork. I wondered how Nomura felt due to FujiKei's passing, especially since he personally chose FujiKei for the red hair roles of his characters.

 

[alexis.anagram]

Hikaru Utada is in charge
Nomura: Always.

Correct answer.

Irino: "He's the one who will always play the leading role."

My nephew, reading me the Ultimania for KH9 in 50 years: "He's still saying to please wait patiently."

 

[alexis.anagram]

I think if Nomura had a really clear authorial intent as to what he was going to do with the "hurting" characters he would have delineated it from the start of that storyline and set up specific outcomes which in retrospect could be recognized as the most appropriate resolutions to their respective arcs. Instead he relegated it to a vaguely defined footnote in the very chapter that was positioned to contend with this narrative problem, hence why the most obvious reading of events is the one that most readily presents itself: if Sora is seen directly preaching to another character, "you deserve to be your own person," that authorial intent speaks for itself.

There's no doubt Nomura phoned in whole portions of the KH3 finale but it would have been pulling the rug out from under the audience to do anything less than restore each of the missing characters to some form of existence, that was implicit to the entire construction of the Days'/BBS/Coded saga. It's like if 10 years from now Nomura says he was considering a version of the KH continuity where Sora never escapes Versusland to reunite with the larger ensemble, yeah it's feasible to say that the story could go in a different direction but there's no discernible reason to expect another outcome.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Barring the fact that some of the questions were, unfortunately, just plain pointless to ask, my issue is actually towards the staff who actually went through these questions and chose them. I pretty sure there was hundreds upon hundreds of questions that were submitted for the event. Were these the ones they thought were good? Really?

(I swear that Ansem question was already answered way back when in the interview or Ultimania)

I think they wanted to go with some easy questions that were lighthearted vs the more heavy-hitting lore stuff. In the end it failed because Nomura was just like “…you’ll find out one day”

 

[SweetYetSalty]

IMO, Roxas never truly understood Axel. He never understood why Axel lied to him, or how much pain Axel was in during 358/2 Days. Lea and Roxas/Ventus had a lot of things to discuss through before they were ready for a happy ending.

Axel was conflicted in 358/2 Days, but "pain" is not what I would describe him as. But whatever pain he might have felt he brought it on himself. Axel wanted to have his friends but never put them above his own survival and let Organization XIII politic their lives until they left or died. Axel failed as friend and frankly his fate of being alone and losing it all was well deserved. He didn't know how to be a true friend at the time. You are right, Roxas didn't understand Axel, but then nobody really did.

But on the subject of Roxas and Ventus, I'm glad they didn't make them the same person. Even if Roxas didn't come back to life in KH3, the games made it clear they were different individuals. Roxas's life was his own. To come out and say that Roxas and Ventus were the same person would have made the prior games misleading and just a bad "gotcha" moment. I don't doubt that that might have been the earlier intention to make Ven and Roxas the same guy when they first made Ventus, but with each game they kept both separate people when addressing one or the other. Why would Nomura hide this when he didn't with the Xehanorts?