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IGN Brazil has posted their E3 2018 interview with series co-director, Tetsuya Nomura. Not a lot of new information on here, but we've posted a translation below for your reference!
It was at the end of the second day of E3 2018 when, breathlessly, I arrived at the Square Enix booth to do what I personally consider the most important interview I did during the event. The next step was to follow the press agent and two Latin American journalists into a room with four other people, the wall behind them had a picture of Kingdom Hearts 3. One of these people was Tetsuya Nomura, a veteran of Square Enix and co-creator of Kingdom Hearts.
This was the third time I've been in his presence, but our first face-to-face interview. In all the times I saw him, Nomura always seemed shy and reserved, like most Japanese developers. The first time was in 2017, at the Official Orchestra of Kingdom Hearts, where he took the stage quickly to thank the fans and soon left us. The second time was this year, during an event in Los Angeles where I was able to play the Kingdom Hearts 3 demo. At the time, Nomura made a press conference for the present journalists, which was a little disappointing because of the inexpressiveness of the director in the situation. To my relief, both as a fan and as a journalist, I found a friendly and willing Nomura during E3 2018.
At age 47, Tetsuya Nomura currently works as a director of Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake, franchises that he's been involved in for much of his career. In fact, he seems to have adopted the aesthetics of the characters he created over the years - or was it the other way around? I've always seen Nomura in shorts with chains on the side, a black T-shirt, sometimes also in the same color jacket, and thick medium-bare boots. Almost like a Noctis cosplay. There's also a lot of zippers wrapped around his clothes, a detail present in the aesthetics of characters from Kingdom Hearts.
I have no idea what this means for Nomura's personality, but during our conversation he gave some clues as to how he sees and identifies with his own work. I was surprised when the director said that his favorite character from Kingdom Hearts is Ansem, the Heartless of (or for simplicities sake, a version of) the great villain of the franchise: Xehanort.
"When I wrote the story, I realized that I'm more on Ansem / Xehanort's side, because they say things I would probably say. On the other hand, Sora says things I would not personally say," said Nomura.Despite not identifying himself with the main hero of the franchise, the director explains that he prefers that the games in the series of JRPG do not have explicit moments of violence. At the same time, the struggle between light and darkness (and darkness itself) is one of the main themes of Kingdom Hearts, so that the representation of these two sides happens in ways not so brutal.
"We do not have a boundary set on dark themes, as long as it's not on the screen and the game does not have very violent scenes." This may change slightly in Kingdom Hearts 3, as Nomura has promised that the game will have "shocking scenes" .The director and his development team also invest a lot of time in choosing the worlds that will be in the games of Kingdom Hearts. He seems preoccupied with the details and especially with the fact that each setting makes sense with the gameplay."For each game and each world, I ask my team to bring ideas and create concepts. These documents include which worlds they would like to see in the game and what kind of gameplay we could develop in these worlds," he explained. "I take a look at all this and see which world or which gameplay is interesting enough for me, then I make a list of these and other worlds that should be in the game and in order of priority."
Speaking of the worlds, Nomura laughed when I asked which was his favorite in the franchise. In addition to stating that his favorite world has not yet been revealed, he also confirmed that there will be "some original worlds in Kingdom Hearts 3". Do not wait, however, for something from Mary Poppins, since the director has not yet found the ideal way to include it.
I questioned Nomura if he has any idea how great Kingdom Hearts is in the world and in Brazil, citing the fact that the franchise's official orchestra will finally arrive in September . Raising his eyebrows, the director admits that he was surprised when he discovered that there were Brazilian fans of the franchise. "We are developing this game in Japan, so when I come to events like this [E3] and I meet people from the press from different countries and regions, that's when I realize how big the franchise is, because it's not something I feel in practice. I know that all of this is real, but I don't realize it in my day-to-day. "
At the end of the interview, the press agent asked if we wanted to take pictures and autographs of Nomura, something extremely rare to happen in any interview. Unfortunately, I did not have any of my Kingdom Hearts items with me, but I took a picture next to Nomura, with Sora, Donald, Goofy and Riku in the background. Then the press agent said, "Just don't post the picture on social media, Nomura-san doesn't like to show up in them." I left the Square Enix booth with a confused smile, thinking how grateful I was to have gotten to know Nomura a little better, and for the image that will never leave my photo gallery.
We'll keep you posted on more news!
Thanks to forum user kingsoraful for letting us know about the article!
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"Mary Poppins has always been in our conversations about concepts and ideas, but we've always wondered how we can use that film in the franchise. There's a possibility, as long as there's a good idea for that."
