RPGSite, who managed to speak to game director Tetsuya Nomura, asked questions about Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV and how the two games will be different, along with their previous questions.
Tetsuya Nomura is the director of both Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV. Both these games are coming to next-generation consoles; both these games have a large fan-base and high expectations; both these games were announced together. Since they share some similarities, one wonders how these two games will be different. Will Nomura perhaps show us similar elements in both games, hence causing each of them to lose it’s charm by forgetting to be a unique experience? After all, Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy XV are sharing a similar real-time combat system. Anyone can notice the striking similarities by watching their trailers.
“Okay, so… two games. Both directed by myself,” Nomura said, laughing. “However, both games are developed by two completely different teams. The two of them – they don’t fight, but they compete – in a friendly way – and they try to create better things together. Both sides are, of course, developed for next-gen consoles as well.”
The fact that the two teams are competing is a good thing here. Each team will strive to bring something new into the game; something that the other team does not have. This will certainly make the two games different.
“There’s a difference between the two, of course; Final Fantasy XV is a numbered title – the big history behind Final Fantasy, the task they have on their shoulders is huge, because it’s the latest Final Fantasy game and has to live up to that history.
“For the Kingdom Hearts team there is less history, but there are thousands of people around the world who are so passionate about the Kingdom Hearts series and have been for years – and this of course is the first announced numbered Kingdom Hearts title in many years, as well. People’s hopes and expectations are very, very high there, as well – so that is on their shoulders as well.”
The topic of sequels and spin-offs was also raised. Square Enix has been known (and sometimes blamed) to produce sequels and spin-offs, some of which like X-2 and XIII-2, were quite unnecessary, according to many fans. Others, however, like Crisis Core were met with great enthusiasm. According to Nomura, “creating an HD game is unbelievably difficult.” A sequel or two are already being considered for Final Fantasy XV – even before it’s release!
“Of course, with Final Fantasy XV, we announced at E3 that there will – probably – be a sequel to this game, as well,” said Nomura. “There’s a lot of different reasons, and they all depend on the game and the situation as well. Of course with FFXV I wanted to release the previous version of the game constantly – but it was very, very difficult to do so. Now we have re-revealed the game, I’m excited to bring more information in the future.”
Speaking about HD remasters, “Everything is difficult in the process, even with a HD remaster of a game,” explained Nomura. “For 1.5 for instance, when we decided to make it, we had to decide where we were going to concentrate because it was so difficult, there was so much work involved.”
Nomura also explained that the reason Kingdom Hearts spawned spin-offs was because the third main title could not begin production, for reasons that he could not share. In order to prevent the Kingdom Hearts series from being forgotten, the spin-offs were created.
“So, in a way, because of this, if there were no spin-off games, there was no Kingdom Hearts III,” said Nomura. “It was kind of needed to have all those spin-offs – a lot of spin-offs – because the time was quite long before the Kingdom Hearts III preparation started.”
I wonder… would the story of Kingdom Hearts III be different if no spin-offs had been created? Or would their stories have been delivered to us in the third game itself?
What are your thoughts on Kingdom Hearts III, Final Fantasy XV and this new information? Let us know in the comments below.
