Famitsu – Kingdom Hearts 3D Images & Interview!

Kingdom Hearts 3D, the next chapter in the series!

Famitsu has uploaded several images from the Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance trailer, as well as posting a more complete version of the interview with series director Tetsuya Nomura in which he explains about the title, the character switch and even a potential clothing change for Sora and Riku!

Here is the interview with more additional information courtesy of Andriasang.com:

THE NAME

First up, the name. Is it “Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance” or “Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance”? The second one is correct. When you say Dream Drop Distance, you don’t say 3D. Okay?

ACTIONS

Famitsu said that Sora’s actions in the trailer looked a bit like the actions during his Kingdom Hearts 2 form changes. Nomura agreed. And there’s a reason: they want players to be able to experience dynamic form change-like actions even as normal actions here.

Some of the actions shown in the trailer look like they might be tough to control. Nomura joked that at present the wall jump detection (in the trailer, you can see Riku springing off walls as he darts forward) is pretty severe, and the only the person who’s in charge of that part of the programming can do it. They’ll be making adjustments so that it will be easy to control in the end.

CHARACTER CHANGE

One of the biggest surprises from the original interview is that the promised character changes between Sora and Riku will be automatic and sudden — that is, you’ll suddenly be switched between the two characters when you’re walking through town or in the heat of battle.

In the full interview, Nomura says that the main reason they decided to use this system was for “surprise.” By taking away the feeling of security players have that if they reach a certain point the character will change, they can give rise to thrills. The character will suddenly change, perhaps when you feel like you want to continue playing as the current character, or maybe when you feel like you’d like to change. This will give players the enjoyment of coming up with their very own strategies for how to progress according to their expectations.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SORA AND RIKU

Sora and Riku have different stories, with different bosses. While they visit the same worlds, they do so in different orders. They’re not in the same place. In the trailer video, we see them in the same place, but this is rare.

The two characters have different actions, and different control methods. This area is related to a new system that has yet to be announced, said Nomura. You can think of the differences as being the same level as how in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories Sora’s card deck could be freely set while Riku used a preset deck.

MAIN VISUAL

The image you see at the upper right of this article is the first image visual for the game. It was made with Disney anime packaging in mind, said Nomura.

Nomura actually hasn’t drawn any specific drawings for Kingdom Hearts 3D yet. He’s actually looking into an idea of changing Sora and Riku’s clothing. One of the reasons for this is that if the characters appear in the same clothing, some people might think that KH3D is a remake.

Of course, Sora and Riku have to appear in their original Kingdom Hearts forms as part of the story. Nomura said that he’s considering having them appear in their current clothing at the start of the game, and change midway through.