New Nomura Gameinformer interview. Discusses Disney Worlds, Quadratum, and Final Fantasy in KH4.
- Thread starter mriku90
- Start date
|
REGISTER TO REMOVE ADS |
|
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2018
- Messages
- 3,943
- Awards
- 5
When I say they’re probably busy, I mean with their real lives. They’re all volunteers with real jobs and responsibilities that have to take priority. But I don’t think we really need more site staff at a time when there isn’t much news coming out. This interview was probably done a while ago and we probably won’t have any more significant news until D23 later this year.
I hope not Hercules because Hercules is finished with Kingdom Hearts
KH13 hires and fires more staff than a lady changes her mind lol. The culture there is not a good one, talking about from top down. Yeah this place dropped off quite a bit after the KH4 announcement but I'm sure it'll stick around. KH13 is bleeehhhh
There's also the unusual timing of this interview. We all know Kingdom Hearts IV is going to be a while before it's released.
That's most likely because at least in KH IV he has, in his view, no real room for both the extended major cast originating from Days/BBS and the FF cameos because all room is "needed" for either the even more recent new characters such as everyone from the X-era and perhaps some of the former Organisation XIII-members or it is because there are even more completely new characters waiting to be introduced.
Cuz if I recall correctly in the last interview he also talked about how there would be not much room for Yozora and his gang either when asked about how KH IV would relate to Verum Rex.
What I'm understanding from this is that KH4 seemingly has no space for anyone except Sora, Donald, Goofy and Strelitzia. Oh, and MoM
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2007
- Messages
- 314
- Awards
- 4
Well..possibly even less Disney worlds than KH3 had, and less likely to involve any of the classic Disney worlds? For all I know we won't have a full fledged Star Wars "world" either, and instead have a quarter of Endor as apart of Quadratum. Also a small chance of seeing any of the old Final Fantasy characters return? Yup, my hype for this game has already plummeted to a new low that's damn near unfathomable.
P.s, I would be absolutely livid if out of the six Disney worlds they waste a spot for yet another visit to Olympus.
P.s, I would be absolutely livid if out of the six Disney worlds they waste a spot for yet another visit to Olympus.
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2012
- Messages
- 3,782
- Awards
- 37
You may be finished with Hercules, but I'm not sure Hercules is finished with KH.
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2018
- Messages
- 1,224
- Awards
- 7
that's a bit hyperbolic.
we have the foretellers, yozora (unless nomura is sneaky and verum rex is KH spin-off), riku looking for sora in quadratum, sigurd which is seemingly important, new characters, and whatever is going on in the KHverse.
kairi training with aqua and mickey in scala were never going to be side game of their own, so nomura gonna shove these "plot lines" in KH4.
But most of the live action remakes are boring crap
Though I hate to say this, the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee has largely finished their goal of restoring Radiant Garden to it's former splendor. Granted we only see small bits of it but compared to how it was in KH II it's much closer to the original world that it once was. It's a shame though, their storyline of restoring it jumps from 50% completion of their goal to being finished by the time we catch up with them in III. They've forgiven the apprentices and likely just welcomed Ansem the Wise back as their king off screen, despite those interactions being something that a lot of fans wanted to see (myself included). Would they still hold a grudge for inciting the battle of 1000 heartless and standing in the way of their progress? or would they learn about Xehanort's treachery and join the committee? Before KH 2 they mainly had Leon, Yuffie and Cloud to dispose of larger heartless that the claymores couldn't defeat, Dilan and Aeleus could be pretty formidable assuming they can still summon skysplitter and the lindworm and use their respective earth and aero moves.
Notice how my suggestions open more opportunities and doesn't limit them, THAT'S what we needed to see to round them off. But no, let's visit hercules for the 7th time, I'm sure there's something going on there because Hades can't die for good.
Preaching to the choir Fears, preaching to the choir.
*Pokemon Sword catching flashbacks intensify*
Personally, I'm not sure about weather and different times of day. Whenever RPGs add it (Pokemon is a good example) often that would mean that exclusive enemies and events would happen at a certain time of the day. And unless you're able to fast forward to a certain time it's a pain to wait for say, a giga shadow to appear at midnight and be available to fight for 5 minutes until it disappears.
Last time I checked KH13, the forums were pretty dead tbh
most active KH forum is probably the
My predictions are: Alice in Wonderland, Star Wars, Marvel/Spiderman (he's showing up on an Xbox marvel game - maybe this opens the floodgates for a Spiderman world or at least appearance in a Marvel world), and Lightyear
As for a 5th World - can be any Live Action disney world or most likely Frozen II
EDIT:
San Fransokyo let's you pick the Night or Day versions of the map in the save menu teleportation
Last edited:
I wasn't really being very serious in that post tbf. And the foretellers have all the character of a sleazy politician. It's still not an incredibly long list.
I should probably write a proper response to this interview now, but really, Nomura has just repeated himself on FF characters, and managed to contradict himself in the same interview, which is great, really.
For some inexplicable reason, FF/SE characters have become a flashpoint for the entire fandom, whether it was the point where a fan started to further/begin criticising the series, or defend it even more. KH fans have always had a tendency to insulate KH from a lot of things, but THIS is a point that always fostered lots of discussions, same way that disney worlds do, and despite what it feels like right now, there really wasn't many people at all pre KH3 who would even consider that Final Fantasy characters wouldn't show up at all.
When Nomura says fans have got it wrong, fine, that's his prerogative. But why is he the only one with any say on the topic? There were other writers and visionaries who worked on KH1- KH2 and I don't see why they wouldn't have just as much of a stake on KH as Nomura does, especially on how it was conceived in those early years.
If Nomura intended FF characters to be disposable, why bring the entire HBRC back for 3 consecutive games? Why even bother with Zack in 2010? Why bother with a credits teaser for him and Rinoa which are clearly aimed at FF fans and even people who AREN'T fans can interpret something from them. Why, in 2012, when he had the best chance to "reset" the way the franchise is viewed as KH3 was clearly conceptualised in a certain way at this point, did he decide to go big on the cameos and bring in the main cast of TWEWY? Why from 2013 to 2015 was he clearly indicating in interviews that they would feature?
Why the revisionist history? It's one thing for him to indulge in it but why are so many fans propping it up? Well, either way, it's pretty clear that a lot of people are unhappy with the comments, and frankly, rightfully so. This IS an integral part to KH that makes the games FUN. KH is serviceable without them and can exist, nobody is saying it can't. It's just that KH is undeniably better when it embraces its Square-ness, and if Nomura didn't think that, he never would have put TWEWY in 3D, because I really don't think anyone would have piped up about disinclusion of characters if they'd been absent in yet another handheld.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2021
- Messages
- 46
- Awards
- 4
You won't find me disagreeing with any of that lol. Believe me, I've known Daniel for a while. He's never really known how to run a site. I'm just saying, as dead as the forums may be, at least the main site still keeps up with the news.
I'm starting to think the 2013 mods might have been doing him a favour when they hacked the site... but most of them were pretty bad themselves so...
Well yeah, they have loads of people on their staff and anyone they DON'T have on their staff who do helpful twitter threads they just use their stuff. KHInsider is a lot more consolidated, KH13 has always had the issue of having a different article for every scrap of news, even if its from the same source. Multiple people post here every day, KH13 on the other hand is actually dead. At least over here there's a proper community to facilitate discussion.
I'm disappointed with Nomura's view on the FF characters. As I said, the original FF characters from KH1 are hardly FF characters to me. Kingdom Hearts was my first real introduction to Final Fantasy at all so for him to say it was never intended to be Disney x FF bothers me.
To this day, I have not played FF7 or FF8. Leon and the rest of the restoration crew are basically KH characters. They weren't introduced as funky cameos for funsies like say, WOFF. They had a purpose, they were part of the story with their own unique backstory to the KH universe. They truly seemed like Sora's friends, his little extended family who looked out for him.
I don't need a bunch of new FF characters each game or whatever, I just want to keep the ones we already have? I don't understand why he's treating them like they meant nothing and can be hand waved away like this. Kingdom Hearts doesn't need a new Final Fantasy character every game to be relevant and attract gamers. You already HAVE an audience! But why in the world are you trying to erase the characters you've already integrated into the universe???
The voiceless stiff organization members are simply not as cool as the Restoration committee, Sora's besties. Completely replacing the Restoration Committee with the organization members and having them all casually chilling in one of the Restoration Committee's base of operations is way worse than just... keeping the Restoration Committee in charge of Radiant Garden and using an actual plot/side story to bring some of the organization members back in charge if that's what you really wanted Nomura. :/
Makes me pretty sad.
To this day, I have not played FF7 or FF8. Leon and the rest of the restoration crew are basically KH characters. They weren't introduced as funky cameos for funsies like say, WOFF. They had a purpose, they were part of the story with their own unique backstory to the KH universe. They truly seemed like Sora's friends, his little extended family who looked out for him.
I don't need a bunch of new FF characters each game or whatever, I just want to keep the ones we already have? I don't understand why he's treating them like they meant nothing and can be hand waved away like this. Kingdom Hearts doesn't need a new Final Fantasy character every game to be relevant and attract gamers. You already HAVE an audience! But why in the world are you trying to erase the characters you've already integrated into the universe???
The voiceless stiff organization members are simply not as cool as the Restoration committee, Sora's besties. Completely replacing the Restoration Committee with the organization members and having them all casually chilling in one of the Restoration Committee's base of operations is way worse than just... keeping the Restoration Committee in charge of Radiant Garden and using an actual plot/side story to bring some of the organization members back in charge if that's what you really wanted Nomura. :/
Makes me pretty sad.
While I'm personally doubtful about Yozora due to Nomura's statements in the last Famitsu interview I agree with the rest here.
It seems that Nomura is fully immersed in the whole X-era cast right now and intends not only to use already introduced characters from these entries but also to introduce even more new ones.
How far the already established cast beyond Riku, Donald and Goofy will make appearances still stands in the stars but from what I've gathered so far they won't play much of a role in KH IV, which btw does not mean they won't play a more significant role further down in the saga itself.
It is pretty clear to me that Nomura's stance on the FF cameos, yes, they were always advertised as cameos even back then when they still had a semi-important role, changed during the last few years, especially after Coded which was iirc the last time they were included on purpose.
Nowadays they are certainly seen as placeholders which are strictly spoken not needed anymore.
When one looks at Nomura's surprise that the characters introduced in 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep got as popular and beloved as they did I do get the vibe that while Nomura likes all the characters to some degree beyond Sora, Riku and maybe Xehanort he doesn't value anyone as high when it comes to go on with the series itself and actually delve more into the supposed close relation- and friendships between them.
Overall lore and mysteries as well as the "big picture" is more important than the characters and their relationships themselves and he will continue to introduce new characters as the overall big plot demands, ignoring and focusing on already existing ones as said bigger plot demands as well.
He's the only one with say on the topic because he's the main guy in charge of the main story and all overall twists and turns it takes. Shinji Hashimoto was one of the few members of the overall KH-team who knew more of the behind the scenes of the story and he's retired by now. Tomoco Kanemaki, author of the novels also knows some more details most likely, but final decisions always go through Nomura because he's the "father" and main authority on the overarching storyline itself.
That's also where the whole everything where KH appears in some form (like Melody of Memory or Sora in Smash Bros.) must be connected to the story thingy comes from.
If I recall correctly the appearance of the FF cameos in Re:MInd of KH III was done by Nomura only because of both backlash from fans and other members of the KH development team concerning them.
If Nomura could have had his way completely the FF cameos would most likely have been dropped from the series for good with KH III.
That's actually explained in the interview. The first three games (KH I, CoM and KH II) were those where the cast of central original characters wasn't that big yet so they were still needed.
During CoM and KH II Organisation XIII were more or less two-dimensional one-note villains (with Axel being a sort-of break out character) and besides Sora, Riku and Kairi the only more central original characters were Naminé, DiZ and to a certain degree Roxas (in II only).
It was with 358/2 Days that the Organisation XIII became a bigger and more central group and their members were elevated to more relevancy (despite the big focus on Xion), a trend which continued with BBS where actually the first signs of the FF cameos being "unwanted" came up as the original intention for Ventus' story was that he would meet the younger versions of the FF cameos in Radiant Garden with young Cloud and Squall/Leon having the roles filled with Lea and Isa in the final version of the game.
Nomura stated he felt Radiant Garden already "too crowded" in BBS and replaced the FF cameos with the original beings of Organisation members (Even, Dilan, Aeleus, Lea and Isa) because they are/were more important to the overall story and Ventus meeting them instead of the FF cameos would have "a bigger impact" whatever that meant, lol.
Zack was probably a sort of stealth advertising of FF VII: Crisis Core back in the day as it was a PSP game like BBS itself.
TWEWY =/= Final Fantasy and if I remember correctly Nomura included them because the themes of the original TWEWY-game overlapped to some degree with those of Dream Drop Distance (that's also why Joshua acts as an info-dump towards Sora & Riku in regards how to reconstruct hearts and make disappeared people exist again). They were also included to mix up things as originally the Radiant Garden crew of FF cameos were considered again but then dropped in favor of Neku & co.
When it comes to KH III one must also keep in mind the big gap between BBS (which was originally intended to be the bridge game like CoM was for I and II) and when KH III actually started development.
The initial story concept for KH III was quite different to what we eventually got, especially since the whole X[chi]-stuff was created and started to seep in.
When one looks just at the secret endings of BBS (Blank Points) and the original Re: Coded (before the remasters added X[Chi]-related stuff) the prospect of an eventual KH III looked much different then what would eventually be made from the groundwork laid by Dream Drop Distance.
Either around when DDD was made or at the latest when the whole X[chi]-stuff with the original japan-only browser game started there definitely was a shift in Nomura's general approach as well as the up to then hinted at story concepts.
Kingdom Hearts has proven that the Disney movie's quality has no correlation to the enjoyment of a Disney world.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2021
- Messages
- 46
- Awards
- 4
You guys do realize as it stands, Disney's next, right? The series was never meant to be a marriage of FF with Disney, or even just Disney. Those two elements were nothing more than stepping stones for Nomura to tell his own convoluted ass story, with the aim to ditch them when the time is right. He failed as a mangaka, so he went into games instead.
Look no further than TWEWY and Verum Rex as proof. When TWEWY, at best, only found success as a cult title, he shoehorned the characters into Kingdom Hearts. And when he failed to get Versus XIII off the ground, he crowbarred all of its ideas, once again, into Kingdom Hearts. It's a cut and dry pattern with him, and frankly, it's just about killed my interest in the series.
As deeply entrenched as I am in the modding community, the truth is, KHIV will likely be the final game I'll give a damn about. IF the series can even hold my interest before it's out...