KINGDOM HEARTS 15th Anniversary Feature in Famitsu

[Sign]

The latest issue of Famitsu Weekly has a large feature covering the KINGDOM HEARTS 15th Anniversary.This feature covers the previously released titles and includes a summarized timeline of events spanning through the series.

There are also comments by celebrities who are fans of the series, the voice cast like Risa Uchida (voice of Kairi & Xion), Kouki Uchiyama (Roxas & Ventus), Megumi Toyoguchi (Aqua) and Mamoru Miyano (Riku), and even Masahiro Sakurai (Director of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros.)

Results of a recently conducted fan survey are also shared in this issue, in which fans were asked about their favorites such as favorite title, female characters and boss battle, which aspect of the game they enjoy the most, what Final Fantasy character they'd want to make an appearance, etc.

Series Director Tetsuya Nomura also has a brief message on the anniversary.

View the scans below, thanks to Churro. Translations will be available as soon as possible.

   
   
   
   

Survey Results:
Period: 3/17/2017~3/20/2017

Gender Ratio (990 total):
Male: 472 people (50%)
Female: 472 people (50%)
Blank Answer: 46 people

Age Range:
10s: 293 people
20s: 554 people
30s: 42 people
40s: 6 people
Blank Answer: 95 people

 

Q1. What was your first game?
1. Kingdom Hearts (534 votes)
2. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (127 votes)
3. Kingdom Hearts II (121 votes)
4. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (67 votes)
5. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (37 votes)
6. Kingdom hearts II Final Mix (28 votes)
7. Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (23 votes)
8. Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (18 votes)
9. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (12 votes)
10. Kingdom Hearts Unchained X (8 votes)

Q2. What is your favorite game?
1. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (300 votes)
2. Kingdom Hearts II (201 votes)
3. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (183 votes)
4. Kingdom Hearts (90 votes)
5. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (76 votes)
6. Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (39 votes)
7. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix (35 votes)
8. Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (27 votes)
9. Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- (9 votes)
10. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded (5 votes)

Q3. Who is your favorite male character?
1. Sora (284 votes)
2. Roxas (210 votes)
3. Axel (188 votes)
4. Riku (98 votes)
5. Terra (38 votes)
6. Ventus (32 votes)
7. Vanitas (14 votes)
7. Demyx (14 votes)
9. Xigbar (10 votes)
10. Xemnas (7 votes)
10. Mickey Mouse (7 votes)
10. Marluxia (7 votes)
10. Cloud (7 votes)

Q4. What do you love most about the series?
1. Story (50.9%)
2. Battle System (14.4%)
3. Characters (13.9%)
4. Music (12.3%)
5. Other (5.4%)
6. Secret Movie (3.0%)
7. Training Element(Growth System?) (0.1%)

Q5. Who is your favorite female character?
1. Aqua (397 votes)
2. Xion (208 votes)
3. Kairi (182 votes)
4. Namine (112 votes)
5. Larxene (10 votes)
6. Olette (6 votes)
6. Tifa (6 votes)
8. Maleficent (4 votes)
8. Ava (4 votes)
10. Yuffie (3 votes)

Q6. What is your favorite scene?
1. [KHII] End of Summer Vacation  (146 votes)
2. [KH 358/2 Days] Roxas and Xion's battle (144 votes)
3. [KH] Sora's Heartless Form (69 votes)
4. [KH] Ending (53 votes)
5. [KH BbS] Final Battle at the Keyblade Graveyard (41 votes)
6. [KHII FM] Sora and Roxas's battle (37 votes)
6. [KH 358/2 Days] Axel and Xion's battle (37 votes)
8. [KH3D] My friends are my power! (36 votes)
9. [KHII FM] Roxas and Axel's Farewell (33 votes)
10. [KHII] Ending (27 votes)

Q7. What is your favorite Keyblade?
1. Oathkeeper (248 votes)
2. Kingdom Key (146 votes)
3. Oblivion (129 votes)
4. Ultima Weapon (106 votes)
5. Two Become One (36 votes)

Q8. What is your favorite enemy?
1. Lingering Will (122 votes)
2. Shadow (62 votes)
3. Xion (58 votes)
4. Axel (48 votes)
4. Sephiroth (48 votes)
6. Xemnas (44 votes)
7. Vanitas (38 votes)
7. Xehanort (38 votes)
9. Roxas (36 votes)
10. Phantom (31 votes)

Q9. What is your favorite world?
1. Twilight Town (240 votes)
2. Traverse Town (86 votes)
3. Halloween Town (69 votes)
4. Destiny Island (53 votes)
5. Hollow Bastion (51 votes)

Q10. What is your favorite optional element?
1. [KHII FM] Organization XIII Data Battles (136 votes)
2. [KHII FM] Lingering Will Battle (68 votes)
3. [KHII FM] XIII Mushrooms (60 votes)
4. [KH3D] Raising Dream Eaters (48 votes)
5. [KHII(FM)] Sephiroth Battle (36 votes)
6. [KH BbS(FM)] Mirage Arena (30 votes)
7. [KH BbS(FM)] Command Board (17 votes)
8. [KH 358/2 Days] Mission (16 votes)
9. [KHII(FM)] Gummi Ship (13 votes)
10. [KH0.2] Completing Challenges (11 votes)

Q11. What is your favorite song?
1. Hikari (226 votes)
2. Dearly Beloved (142 votes)
3. Roxas (83 votes)
4. Vector to the Heavens (75 votes)
5. The Other Promise (59 votes)
6. Passion (26 votes)
7. Musique pour la tristesse de Xion (19 votes)
8. Hand in Hand (16 votes)
9. Fate of the Unknown (12 votes)
10. Sora (11 votes)

Q12. What is your favorite unresolved mystery?
1. What's inside the box the Master of Masters gave to Luxu?
2. Who are the 7 Guardians of Light and 13 Seekers of Darkness?
3. Who are the remaining members of the true Organization XIII?
4. What are the goal, identity and whereabouts of the Master of Masters?
5. Why does Xehanort have the Master of Masters' Keyblade?

Q13. Which Final Fantasy character would you like to appear in the series?
1. [FFXV] Noctis (237 votes)
2. [FFXIII] Lightning (201 votes)
3. [FFIX] Zidane (81 votes)
4. Chocobo (30 votes)
5. [FFV] Bartz (22 votes)

Q14. What are your hopes and wishes for the future of the series?
Various answers.

Q15. Share your memories of the series and messages for the staff!
Various answers.

 

[OathkeeperRoxas XIII]

I see Noctis, Lightning, Bartz, and Zidane, I wonder what fans in Japan would like to see in KH

Can't wait for the translations, no rush.

 

[Nazo]

Stoked for translations. I also would love to get my hands on a copy of one of these somehow. Anyone know anything about importing Famitsu magazines?

 

[Grono]

Can't wait for what Masahiro Sakurai has to say about the series! This entire thing has me stoked, maybe Nomura will actually have something to say other than a "please be patient for KHIII news" this time.

 

[Lonbilly]

Lightning, Noctis, Bartz AND Zidane??? In MY KH3??? It's more likely than you think!

But forreal, that is a cocktease and since I cannot read it, I can only guess it's something unrelated but raising my hopes at these lovable assholes being in KH3.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Unsurprising that Noctis and Lighting are the most wanted FF characters.

The fan survey is pretty easy to figure out, at least.

 

[hemmoheikkinen]

Zidane and Bartz in KHIII would be a dream come true. It would also be cool to see Noctis and Lighting there too. I am looking forward to finding out what rest of the article says, it looks interesting. I guess most of them are polls about favorite characters.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

The Japanese sure love 358/2 Days, Terra and Larxene. I'll be intrigued as to why that's the case...

 

[Sign]

I've added the results of the survey to the OP!

 

[ShardofTruth]

I've added the results of the survey to the OP!

Thank you Sign.

On a different note, it seems that the "100 years before KH1"-setting for the χ-series is again confirmed here, or did I misinterpret it?

 

[catcake]

Thanks for the translation! They sure love Days huh... xD Interesting. I think a lot of those rankings would look different in the West, since for the longest time we didn't have the final mix versions here.

 

[Bobjam]

Apparently Nomura has said in this article that the timing for KHIII information is still undecided. I think at this point it really is now whenever Disney of the SE higher ups want it. Maybe the 'winter announcements' have at this point turned into something else which will unveil itself at E3....

*continues to stare at the 'More Info Coming Soon' on the KHIII website in angst*

 

[S.Gill17]

I definitely want Noct and Lightning in there. I'm still not fully over the ending of FFXV. Gotta replay that amazing game again when I get the chance. Try and 100% it this time round.

 

[gosoxtim]

Apparently Nomura has said in this article that the timing for KHIII information is still undecided. I think at this point it really is now whenever Disney of the SE higher ups want it. Maybe the 'winter announcements' have at this point turned into something else which will unveil itself at E3....

*continues to stare at the 'More Info Coming Soon' on the KHIII website in angst*

if square want it e3 if disney want the d23 in july then we might news soon

 

[faemarch]

Thanks for sharing!

Can't say I'm really surprised that Aqua won the female character popularity poll, considering that she's probably had the most screentime/development out of the handful of KH-original female characters next to Xion.

On a different note, it seems that the "100 years before KH1"-setting for the χ-series is again confirmed here, or did I misinterpret it?

They went with "100年以上" (100 years or more) again, yeah. I'm still doubtful that's really the case, though.

 

[SkeithTheTerror]

7. Training element/growth system (0.1%). Is this referring to level grinding or improving Dreams Eaters, I'm assuming the latter, but on the other hand, no one likes level grinding

 

[ChiakiX3]

Ahh yes Roxas mai boi slay both fav char and fav music and other related scenes and stuff. Same Japan, I love days :')

 

[SomeKHFan]

I hope to see these FF characters in KHIII.....particularly Chocobo. The best of the five in my opinion.

I wonder what new character designs and backgrounds each character would get?

Also want Gilgamesh, with how easy he would fit in the storyline without making him a new character.

 

[gosoxtim]

what would a chocobo fit in?

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

Q2. What is your favorite game?
1. Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (300 votes)
2. Kingdom Hearts II (201 votes)

Why am I not surprised....

Like, I have no problem if people like the game. I like plenty of flawed works, but this is a case where I wonder if they say it's their favorite because maybe it's the only game they played and not because they somehow find it better out of all the others.

what would a chocobo fit in?

A deep fryer~

Outside of Radiant Garden or Twilight Town would be fine places.