Our staff at KHInsider were lucky enough to be able to meet with Tetsuya Nomura today at the Kingdom Hearts -HD 2.5 ReMIX- Launch Event and ask him a few questions about the new HD collection. These questions were asked in joint with Churro from KHUltimania. Due to the short time we had with Mr. Nomura, we only got to ask a select few questions so please enjoy!
---To start things off, how are you today, Nomura-san?
Nomura: I'm doing fine, thank you. Looking forward to being here. Actually my flight was delayed for 2.5 hours but I didn't realize it until later because I had fallen asleep (laughs).
---How did it feel to revisit these titles again?
Nomura: It felt the same as it did throughout the series, as our focus was to make the game more accessible to newer players. That was our stance throughout the project, and it has not changed.
---How big was the development team for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix?
Nomura: It was the same as 1.5. We has a designated team of programmers specifically working on the remasters and a same art team that's been working on the series.
---One of the two new scenes in Re:coded features a conversation Xigbar has with Young Master Xehanort before the events of KH3D. In this scene, it appears that not even his younger self is entirely on board with Master Xehanort's plans, as if his status as a confident participant is uncertain. Could you tell us about his position at this current point in time and what we may look forward to in the future with him?
Nomura: As you know, Xehanort loses his memory at the end of KH3D. However, he has something like a beacon inside him that guides him unconsciously. It's a feeling in his heart that he doesn't quite understand but follows regardless. In that regard, you could say he really is just walking the path laid out for him.
---Many of our fans are excited to see the Birth by Sleep Final Mix secret ending, which mentions Birth by Sleep Volume 2. What were your thoughts behind including this?
Nomura: I suppose you could say that the ideas are "floating". See, Birth by Sleep Volume 2 was never meant to be the second chapter of Birth by Sleep. Rather, it was intended to be a separate piece. The ideas are still there, but they are not currently being pursued. Perhaps in the future we will have the opportunity to touch back upon this subject.
---What was the process in choosing which scenes from Re:coded to remake?
Nomura: I'd go over the entire script first. Of course the scenes that were already animated would automatically be included, but we'd tweak them in such a way that "adds flavor". That is, make them more interesting for players to experience and more suitable for cinematic theater as we can't rely on gameplay. We also focused on taking the scenes that focused purely on the Kingdom Hearts original content, and enhanced them further because they are so crucial to the story. In order to select from the Disney worlds, we focused on balancing the important scenes with the charm that these characters and locales inherently bring.
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