Nomura interviewed in Ultimania
TheKingdom Hearts III Ultimaniabook just came out in Japan, and in true “ultimate companion” fashion there’s a pretty big interview with the boss of the series, Tetsuya Nomura. While bits and pieces have been circulating for a bitKH13 has the full translationand it’s definitely worth reading if you’re into the series.
Through the talk we learn a few bits about Nomura’s process, like the fact that he immediately began work onKingdom Hearts IIIafter completing the second one (sometime around 2005) on a conceptual basis, with full development beginning “much later.” He also muses on the fact that the Osaka team mainly handledKingdom Hearts IIIafter working on spinoffs and re-releases, sharing how far they’ve come. Oh, and the cat next to Ventuson the cover art(look in the bottom middle)? That’s actually modeled after Nomura’s cat.
EvidentlyToy Storywas the first world they worked on and the idea behind mecha-combat was a Nomura original, and that without Pixar, Nomura isn’t sure he would have been able to finishKingdom Hearts 3given his passion for the studio’s works: he even wrote the narrative outline for the Toy Box world before the rights were approved.
Speaking of rights, things are still a complete mess on that front. When asked why there wasn’t Marvel and Lucasfilm (Star Wars) representation Nomura breaks it down plainly.As a public Marvel fanyou know he’s dying to give it a shot, but he breaks down the issue, noting “contracts must be made with each company separately, and there are cases where other game companies already have contracts, so although the Disney Group has indeed added those [properties], incorporating them intoKHisn’t so simple.” He clarifies that this is the reason why Mickey was only in one scene in the firstKingdom Hearts: they basically begged Disney to allow it after realizing that since “another company was releasing a game that had to do with Mickey,” they wouldn’t get full rights.
It’s amazing thatKingdom Heartseven got off the ground at all, and it also begs the question of why Nomura would break his back negotiating for some of these properties when they could put moreFinal Fantasyand Square Enix IPs in (something he justifies here, stating that the game had too many characters).
As for the future, Nomura is still sticking to his “Kingdom Hearts 3DLC first” story beforeKingdom Hearts 4is even in the conversation: based on his wording he seems to confirm that it’s not being worked on right now and that “nothing has been officially decided yet.” He has “two ideas” that may have to be done at once, so he’s as cryptic as ever.
