Hip to be Square

With the Final Fantasy VII Remake, Kingdom Hearts III and World of Final Fantasy on the way, OPM quizzes the men behind Square-Enix’s gems

KINGDOM HEARTS III

As with so many of Square Enix’s Japanese games. Kingdom Hearts III’s announcement was preceded by years of speculation, spin-offs (eight of them since KHII) and dizzying amounts of bureaucracy.

Was a true treacle doomed to sit on an eternal back-burner while Square’s resources pooled towards Final Fantasy XV? For a while it seemed so.

The very fact that you’re reading about it here does somewhat give the ending of that story away, though. With original director Tetsuya Nomura back at the helm, the long-anticipated Disney-infused action-RPG is on its way to the good ship PS4, and Nomura sees the series like his own child. A child with an almost unnerving enthusiasm for Disney universes, roller-coaster rides and shape-shifting heroes, that is. Here’s what the legendary developer has to say…

…ON PLAYERS COMING INTO KHIII COLD:

“Players that are jumping into Kingdom Hearts with this newest iteration will have serious different ways to find out information on the different story plot points that happened in the previous games. The HD remix kind of collected together some of the key plot points for people who are jumping into the series new with KHIII, to understand the plot points of the story itself. We’re hoping that that will help. In terms of gameplay, we’ve kept it consistent throughout the series so even if you’re not familiar or comfortable with an action game, we make gamely very exhilarating and fun to play. It should be something that even new players will enjoy when they come to Kingdom Hearts III.”

…ON KINGDOM HEARTS III’S DISNEYLAND-INSPIRED ROLLER-COASTERS:

“I like those different attractions! I’ve ridden many different kinds of rides. In terms of where and in what opportunities these attractions will show up, if you fulfill a certain criteria it’ll trigger what we call the ‘Attraction Flow’. You’re given the choice to execute certain moves and depending on the place and situation, it’ll dictate what is available to players. So, it’s not something that you have a list of things to choose from; it’s more dependent on a place or situation.”

…ON WHAT IT MEANS TO FINALLY BE MAKING A TRUE KINGDOM HEARTS SEQUEL:

“It’s actually a sort of personal rule that I have that proper numbered titles are always going to be on a console, and spin-offs are going to be on a handheld. Developing for a console requires a lot of development time as well as the resources, and I wanted to have my development team gain experience of being quick on their feet and developing in a very fast-paced situation, but still have that experience and skill to bring high-quality in the optimum time possible. They’ve done multiple rounds of that now. It’s sort of like… it’s not a test, but more like we’ve got finished products and [people] able to finish products. [The spin-off titles] were a way of getting experience under their belt. So, through all those different spin-offs we’ve been able to put out, we are now at that time where we’re ramping up for a console release, something that is a lot more challenging in terms of the time and the resources that are needed. The quality is different because it’s on a platform that is capable of such high-quality processing compared to a handheld. So now that [my team] has the experience, the bar is raised very high. As a team and myself, we feel that we are prepared and that we’re ready to take on this challenge.”

…ON BEING THE DADDY OF KINGDOM HEARTS:

“It’s my brainchild, my creation. It’s almost like my child, so it’s as if I’m raising my own child when I work on the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I don’t just see it as a product, but more as something very special to me.”

…ON CHOOSING THE BEST DISNEY WORLDS FOR THE GAME:

“It’s actually sort of a collaborative event. Team members put together ideas on what worlds they want to include, but more importantly what kinds of gameplay they want to include. So they will develop documents that lay out what kind of fun element that they want to include into each of the worlds and propose a whole bunch of ideas to me. Then I review the different ideas and see which would be most fun to include, which would be interesting, and then build the story from there. And then I’ll flesh it out to make sure it fits into the world of Kingdom Hearts. Now, in terms of which world I prefer – of course, I’ve been saying this for a while now, but it’s The Pride Lands, which is the Lion King world. That’s been my long-time favorite. This is one of the only worlds where Sora actually turns into a four-legged lion. And of course, throughout the series he’s turned into a Mermaid or was able to fly, but he was still just generally ‘Sora-shaped’ – so it’s very drastic and dramatic to see him on all fours and being in The Pride Lands. I’m not able to say what worlds I like that are not included in Kingdom Hearts though, sorry!” [Laughs]

…ON HOW CLOSE TO COMPLETION THE GAME IS CURRENTLY:

For the most part we've established the ground foundations, like the basic systems and mechanics of what's going to go in the game. Development of that is pretty much close to complete. But of course, since this is an HD title, it's now building the resources, and development of the 'mass' elements of it, like mass production of the areas and the actual things that are going into the game.Other elements, including the mini-games and other various smaller items; their progress is very varied...some of them are polished and very close to final state, but at the same time some elements are still in the planning phase and I haven't laid out the groundwork yet. But the basic structure of what's going to go in the game is set, it's now a matter of mass production of the different elements."