there’s a vehicle-type enemy, and we’ve already got Sora being able to ride that enemy all around during battle.

fun! seriously that sounds like so much fun!

also more info at TGS confirmed :D

Wow sounds all amazing (apart from it clearly being so early on in development =( ) Glad he confirmed that more news will be coming at TGS this year which is fantastic, he is usually so secretive about whether things will show or not. At this point I just want to see more gameplay and visuals so so badly!

Nomura: I know there are many fans who are restless because we have only released spin off titles since KHII, so I decided to announce it along with FFXV. Looking at the stage of development, though, I do think perhaps it is a bit early to be announcing it.

God damn it Nomura!

Nomura: Among the developers we are calling the visuals ‘Kingdom Shader’. On original worlds, this is the feel the characters will have. The Shader will adjust depending on the world, so the visuals will match with the style of each Disney World.

I'm just taking this to mean if a world is bright (like Destiny Islands), the characters will be bright. If the world is dark, the characters will be darker. No more Port Royal problems.

For the section of battle in the trailer we showed, we didn’t have time to prepare a clip of it working on the existing equipment because of tool issues, so instead we made an FMV that would give a feel for what is possible in realtime. Even so, the way it moves doesn’t look much different at all in realtime.

You better not be lying to me Nomura. If you can get gameplay to look like that in realtime then ;A;

Nomura: Right now there’s a demo version that works on our existing equipment… and it’s an absolute storm (laughs). It goes even beyond ‘bold action’. In KHIII you will have a three person party, but depending on the world NPCs will also join in fighting, basically, we’re developing some very flashy action. You’ll be flying through the sky unfolding into air battles without landing.

Everyones hopes for a 4 person party are gone. BUT FLYING THROUGH SKY UNFOLDING INTO AIR BATTLES WITHOUT LANDING? YES PLEASE.

The enemy AI is becoming rather elaborate, and we’d like for coordinated action to flow from enemies and allies alike. For example, there’s a vehicle-type enemy, and we’ve already got Sora being able to ride that enemy all around during battle

Glad to see they've already got some new Heartless/enemies coming in! A car this time... Cars world?

FFXV and KHIII are projects that exist as great rival projects that polish each other up as they are developed. At our private conference, despite KHIII being the lucky last and being at a low stage of development, I’m aleady feeling a response. For KHIII, developments unseen in the KH series so far involving online elements are under investigation, so please look forward to upcoming news. This year in Japan we will be exhibiting at Tokyo Game Show and at Disney’s D23 Expo Japan event, so I think there will be more information available around those times.

Looking forward to some more KHIII at those events!

Thanks Nomura <3


Also, I think there will be more info on June 20th. Maybe screenshots. I dunno.

Oh damn....I really hope so ! =D Don't think it will be anything new though, maybe another shot of the logo and some screen caps from the demo teaser most likely.

What I don't get is why Nomura contradicts himself with calling the handheld titles "spin-offs", as he himself stressed just how important at least BBS and DDD are, lol.

Yeah I'm expecting just screens from the trailer. But we shall always remain hopeful! ;A;

I think its ok if he has had a change of perspective on those games. I mean look where he is now compared to where he was post kh2. He is directing and in charge of pretty much two of Square's biggest games ever revealed so I think he realises the immense importance and depth of these titles compared to what he was doing before. Also just because he does use the term 'spin-off title' does not necessarily mean he is devaluing their importance =). KH3 just really is such a big deal compared to those games and he has probably waited so so long to admit anything about the game so.

Ooh, more info coming up~ I was thinking it'd be like Versus; we get told it's being made then don't hear anything for a long time.

I noticed that, too. xD

i think he meant it as in "restless fans who see them as spin-offs"

possibly in sarcastic manner

also re: car enemies

Mr. Nomura has been pretty busy it seems. Well, it sucks about the game being so early in development, but if we can get real time gameplay that looks like that......wow, just.....WOW!!!!!!!

Know that a written interview is still written by someone other than the person who's being interviewed. Combine that with the interview being translated, I'd say there's a high possibility of having a "misunderstanding" along the way. Thing is, he could also refer to them as "spin-offs" just for the sake of everyone being able to understand which games he's talking about (being specifically: BBS, Re:Coded and Days). Or he could've said the actual titles in the interview, but the interviewer just chose to write "spin-offs" because it's shorter.

A lot of possible scenarios. In short: I wouldn't be bothered too much.

Anyways, GODDAMNIT Nomura, why are you announcing a game "a bit early"? You should've learned by now..

That's also a possibility, lol.

Oh gosh, I hated that Heartless in KH2. Not because it was that dangerous, but because it going invincible would drag out the battle. I made sure to always have some MP left to fry them with Thunder magic after that.

EDIT:


I wasn't bothered by it per se, I just noticed the discrepancy and found it a tad amusing. ;)

Excellent interview! When he mentions Luminous Studios he means the Luminous Engine right? Or is that an actual studio?

I also believe it's bad form to refer to them as "spin-offs". I don't believe he thinks of them that way, not in terms of story or combat, but in scale, budget etc. Still, it comes off extremely wrong.

Love the fact that they don't plan on making us wait until next E3 for more info :D

I sometimes end up being more confused when I read one of Nomura's interviews. This is one of those times. It sounds like that they are taking what they've had with the previous two games and are building on that.

I think they are just using "spin-offs" to refer to any game that isn't a direct numbered sequal is all. Nothing all that bad about it.

NPCs? Did he just say there will be NPCs? If so, that is great! Not sure how I feel about the "air battle" stuff. I wasn't a big fan of the mechanics in kh2 with all the aerial fighting. Battles entirely air-driven... Just not sure how that'd work. Guess I'll just have to wait and see

Ummmm, any chartacter not controlled by you would be an NPC, so any character that's not Sora. It's nothing new. The previous games had world natives join the party too.

So don't know if this is the same interview that was recently added to the news section, but reading it a few things have caught my interest:


Nomura said he wanted to implement more surprising worlds and he always wanted to have Jungle Book as a world. Will jungle book finally be a world in kh3?

He also said kh3's battle system will be like kh1 and2's , with a slight mix of the command decks (which is awesome!)

Then he said disney characters won't be the only summons, maybe ff characters will be, since he mentioned more FF characters will come back.

Kingdom Shader makes me sad. D:
Couldn't they just change art styles depending on the world, rather than just shaders? Or is that too much work?
Worlds based on animated movies could use the cel shaded art style, and others could use the style they've used in all the other games.
Anyways, looking forward to TGS, even though anything KH3 related will probably be minor.

im interested in when they started development, from this interview, it sounded like they didn't start in 2010, but only recently. it also sounded like they have more stuff to show us, but couldn't due to hardware limitations. TGS just got more exciting, still cant believe this is happening lol.

The action being a "storm"? "Kingdom Shader"? I don't know what to say.

This sounds interesting . I'm really interested in seeing how the Kingdom Shader will play out, it could either be really cool or kind of lame. I like the idea of each word having it's own visual style and feel.

What he said about the characters being more interactive in a fight should be interesting. I wonder if that means they'll gang up on you and finish you of with coordinated attacks... I'd be screwed if they did.

I'm really looking forward to learning more at the Conventions he mentioned.

That's actually what they're doing. The FMVs are not the best route to go because, much like the in-game HD, they're still probably trying to find a look for the FMVs. I know the famitsu scan used the DDD fmv look, but that was only after several months.

In fact, I actually think the trailer already looked pretty close to the DDD opening with the exception of the shot of DDD sora.

But that's all just speculation. Point is that Disney characters may be cel shaded, but the worlds they inhabit will not be. Those movie backgrounds have been either CGI rendered sets, or fully realized paintings.

You have to look at it from a marketing point of view.

When trying to sell side games, there's no way you want them to sound like skippable 'spin offs'. As the director, Nomura knows that his opinion is going to influence people, so he will make sure to highlight their importance to the series in interviews held to promote the game.

Now they're trying to sell a numbered title for the first time in 8 years, so they're trying to highlight how weighty and exciting that is, and how long people have been waiting, and how much better and more important this title is going to be than anything else that has been released lately.

This is why I think you always have to take into consideration the context of when and why an interview is being held instead of just taking words at face value.

More than anyone I think it's the fanbase that gets the most butt-hurt when the handheld titles are referred to as "spin-offs" when it's all a matter of semantics. It could be a translation thing or Nomura himself considers the handheld titles "spin-offs" because he might just not care what they're called; he might just be using it as an umbrella term for "games that aren't a part of the main story line". It's not the first time he's been translated as calling them "spin-offs"

I'm sure she's aware what an NPC is, it's that for the longest time many in the fanbase have wanted a stronger presence from them because the worlds tend to be so barren and lonely. If they hold to their word and KH3 has NPCs that join in on battles it's kind of a big deal as far as KH goes. It sounds like Nomura's referring to characters not in the party.

Sounds like reaction commands or back. :(

I'll try to be optimistic.




But on a serious note, I don't think it'll be as hallway-actionpacked-totallycoolandrad-explosion-y as KH2. It'll play moreso probably like a cross between all major entries in the series. (1-2-BBS-DDD)

True as well. I guess you can about it any way you want to in terms of interpretation, there are quite a few possible scenarios here. Not that they actually matter, we all know which games were the more- and less important games.

That's what we're all saying, but I won't be too joyous if the Reaction commands aren't as flashy as in KH2. I actually liked them. Made the battles more cinematic for me, like the "cinematic actions" in XIII-2.

That they started in 2010 was never actually said. It was just something the uninformed guys of IGN made up.



Semantics seem to matter in the fandom though, as when hearing "spin-off" many people are automatically going to dismiss the game in question, and then go bitching later because they don't understand squat about the storyline and didn't even bother to look up on it even if they didn't want (or could not due to money issues) play the games.

Characters not in the party joining you we already had in some limited manner also in KH 1 and 2 though, like the first Parasite Cage-battle in Monstro with Riku in 1, Hercules, the Pete of the Past and several FF characters in 2.

That's just the thing though. I like gameplay, not cinematics. I'm not going to pay 60 dollars to be blown away by the automatic kill animations. I'm hoping this car riding stuff is more in line with flowmotion than KH2's action.

Argh, everything Nomura says gets me hyped. New information in the near future, YES! Riding around on a car-like enemy through a level, OMG! Going beyond bold action, I...

That being said, I find it quite nice that Nomura stated FFXV and KH3 are bouncing off each other to become better. Sounds like things will be interesting between both games.

So why are we expecting more on June 20? Am I missing something?

" It should be noted, also (released June 20) issue of the 4th July 2013 Weekly Famitsu, because it is a publication schedule and screen shots along with the interview, I want you to pay attention to there."

Regardless if the handheld games were spin-offs they were important.

Well obviously they wouldn't take up that much of the game and most of them were optional the exception being, like, four bosses. And I'm counting the limit commands on that. And last I checked they didn't always automatic kill. Either way, it's just a matter of personal preference, so if you don't like it, I have no problem with that.
We also had a few occasions of this in BBS with Stitch/626, the three fairies, Hercules, and Prince Phillip.

He actually uses the English word 'spin off', so it's not so much a translation thing as how different people interpret that phrase. I don't think every English speaking person interprets 'spin off' as something negative the way this fanbase does, let alone what sort of connotations it has as a foreign loanword to a Japanese person.

It's not just this fanbase. In general, most people think of spin-off titles as something they can bypass* (cause by definition they are not related to the main series) whether that's in film or video-games. It was a huge mistake from Nomura's part to classify them as such, especially at E3. Needless to say, that attitude doesn't help to sell the collections.

*Kingdom Hearts Mobile and Kingdom Hearts χ

This, although I do give Nomura the benefit of the doubt that he may not know about the negative connotations this term has in the english speaking world. He may just see it as that "spin-off" and "side game" mean the same in essence.
At least as far as I know, here in Germany "spin-off" is more often than not equaled to something that may be set in the same universe of a work, but which has nothing to do with the main narrative/storyline of the work. And with KH this is clearly false as even Re: Coded contributes to the main narrative no matter how few it is, not even speaking of BBS and DDD.

KH Mobile, Chi and V-CAST are probably really the only true spin-offs the KH series has.

Whether you label them side games or spin-offs or handheld titles or w/e, the end result is the same. I'd say there are a huge number of fans who do bypass them anyway, label aside, because if you played every single game in the series as it came out you would have had to own five different consoles and a specific Japanese mobile phone, and that's not something so many people can achieve.

That's exactly why they have been making such an effort lately with features like 'Memoirs' in DDD and the HD collections in the first place. And since that's where the context of Nomura's statements lie, in 'this is why I made HD' and 'I'm thinking of ways to help newcomers', then if there are people who are influenced to buy or not buy the HD collections based on Nomura's words like you say, then I don't think it will have the effect you're worried about.

Yeah, a spin-off is like the wolverine movies, or dissidia, or Legend of Korra. Rooted in the original but otherwise unrelated plot.

Lol, no. The Wolverine movies are basically like 358/2 Days, where they showcase a main character and elaborate on their story. Also, Legend of Korra is a sequel.



Obviously Nomura wasn't intending to insult the portable entries by calling them "spinoffs" as he's defended their importance and relevance many, many times (particularly Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance).

"Lol, no." correct me however you see fit, I'm open to the possibility of being wrong on just about anything, but it kinda hurts my feelings when someone starts a post like that. Yeah I'm oversensitive that way.

I never thought of korra as a direct sequel though. and I'm far from the first to call it a spinoff. Maybe a common mistake. It's sure further along the timeline but whatever. Wolverine was a bad example and I was using that off the top of my head really, but days really hit you over the head with the tie-ins. Though I haven't really watched Wolverine in a while because it's not that good a movie.

i was gonna mention of Cory in the House, but that show sucked so much I couldn't stand to even think of it. It was a spinoff of That's So Raven on the Disney Channel.



But I guess I have a broad definition here. I have another real spinoff in mind. The Cat returns.

Anyway, back on topic.

Obviously I wasn't intending to hurt your feelings, so I apologize for doing that but I laughed so I typed it.

I never thought of korra as a direct sequel though. and I'm far from the first to call it a spinoff. Maybe a common mistake. It's sure further along the timeline but whatever. Wolverine was a bad example and I was using that off the top of my head really, but days really hit you over the head with the tie-ins. Though I haven't really watched Wolverine in a while because it's not that good a movie. i was gonna mention of Cory in the House, but that show sucked so much I couldn't stand to even think of it. It was a spinoff of That's So Raven on the Disney Channel. But I guess I have a broad definition here. I have another real spinoff in mind. The Cat returns. Anyway, back on topic.

Korra isn't a "direct" sequel (I would relate that more to The Promise/The Search) but it is a sequel as it follows the next Avatar and it contains characters from the original series.

Wolverine Origins establishes Logan's character arc in X1/X2 where he's searching for his beginnings and where he comes from. The Wolverine is what happens to him after X3.

Corey in the House is still a sequel despite it being shitty.

I'm inclined to agree about The Cat Returns though I have a headcanon that the film is actually a book written by Shizuku (from Whisper of the Heart).

You hit the nail on the head with Dissidia as it contains the characters of a pre-established series but throws them in an alternate universe where everything they do is entirely irrelevant to their respective original franchises.


With KH, the only true spinoffs are Mobile and X which most active members of the community are aware of and will agree with. Nomura wasn't using the word in the same context as we do, though.

Okay Thanks for clearing that all up. I know I can get a little defensive sometimes and take myself way too seriously. i still kinda disagree about Cory though. I guess I see that one fundamental similarity to Korra: removing a major hook of the first series in addition to changing the entire premise and setting. I dunno.


I guess I've always defined a spinoff as something that stems off from the original; not an entirely separate entity with vague/gimmicky/unimportant elements from the original. Of course, it's still rooted in the original, like that dtv movie about the two get smart guys. There are also corporate and product definitions, ut we're not talking anout that.

One weird thing is the guy who played the Baron in the Disney dub described the movie as a prequel to Whisper, despite it obviously being moreso Sizukus book than the movie. Maybe that's what he meant, since the book shares the films title.


Anyway, back to the interview.