SQUARE ENIX Presents just sat down with Tai Yasue, Co-Director of KINGDOM HEARTS HD II.5 ReMIX. Yasue also co-directed Re: Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep, Re: Coded and HD I.5 ReMIX. In this interview he was grilled with fan questions about the upcoming HD II.5 ReMIX. Read on for more!
Q. When is the game coming out?
NA - December 2nd 2014, EU - December 5th 2014!
Q. Will a multiplayer option be available for Mirage Arena in Birth By Sleep?
A. Unfortunately multiplayer takes a lot of time to implement, and we are also working simultaneously on Kingdom Hearts 3 right now. So Mirage Arena will now be a solo experience, but we have tweaked all the bosses and AI, and also added a challenge to each encounter for additional rewards, to make a compelling solo experience.
Q. Will KINGDOM HEARTS HD II.5 ReMIX (2.5) feature a theater mode?
A. Yes. Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded will be available as a full theater mode. Re: Coded has been remastered as a 3 hour cutscene. 2 hours of the cutscene are completely new and never seen before due to the limited number of cutscenes in Re: Coded. There is also additional footage and events that weren't featured in the original Re: Coded that flesh out Xehanort's story a little further.
Q. Will the game mechanics differ from their original versions?
A. KINGDOM HEARTS 2 Final Mix and Birth by Sleep Final Mix both got really good reviews, so we didn't want to change anything. We focused more on the really polishing the graphics and sounds.
Q. What was the biggest challenge in making 2.5 compared to 1.5?
A. We didn't have a lot of difficulty with 2.5, as we resolved a lot of these challenges with 1.5. However, we wanted to do more of an upgrade to the graphics and sounds. We've remade all the textures for KH2 and also completely redone all the polygonal models for BBS. The colour palettes are also far richer due to the power of the PlayStation 3.
Q. What was the most important part of 2.5 for you?
A. The most important part, to me, was not to change the original experience because that is ultimately what made these games special.
Q. What was the most enjoyable part of making 2.5?
A. The team are a really great bunch of people who are fun to work with. Also we check regularly what the game looks like on a big TV, and it's always very rewarding to see it running in full HD.
Q. How do you go about bringing a PSP game to the PS3 in HD?
A. We recompile the program and make it into the PS3 version, then we have to fix the code to support the additional resources of the PS3 and also sometimes have to reprogram the way the controls work.
Q. Which Disney world was the most fun to make?
A. I love Castle of Dreams from Cinderella. That was one of the first zones I made. I really love the story of Cinderella too. Plus it's a really vertical environment, which makes it really interesting to play in.
Q. What is the thing you enjoy the most about making these HD remasters?
A. The whole team actually made the original version of Birth By Sleep, so it felt very special to be remastering it into HD.
Q. Are there any mechanics you've wanted to include?
A. We experimented a lot in Birth By Sleep and loved that system and tried a lot of thins in that game. We've tweaked the controls a bit to make it more fluid for PS3.
Q. Are there any FINAL FANTASY or Disney characters you've wanted to add, but couldn't?
A. I really wanted Vincent Valentine (FINAL FANTASY VII) in the original Birth by Sleep, but we couldn't think of a good way to include him that made sense.
Q. On an related note, were there any challenges with bringing Zack (FFVII) into Birth by Sleep?
A. He was a very real character before. We made him a lot cuter when we brought him into Kingdom Hearts.
Q. Will Birth By Sleep HD feature the original command system or will it be changed to be similar to KH2?
A. It will keep the original Birth By Sleep command system.
Q. What is your favourite Disney world?
A. I love the Timeless River. It taps into the classics, and we wanted to show a lot of respect to the animation history of Disney when making that world.
Q. How many people did it take to complete 2.5 Remaster?
A. It's actually very difficult and time consuming. We had over 70 people working on this. 35 cutscene guys and a lot of artists retouching all the textures and palettes etc. Everyone was also working on Kingdom Hearts III at the same time!
Q. Can you give us a development update on 2.5?
A. We're doing the finishing touches on the cutscenes, tweaking the trophies and just performing general debugging.
Q. Will 2.5 HD feature any new battles beyond what was included in Final Mix?
A. No, these games were never released outside of Japan - so we really wanted to get these into your hands so you can experience the full story.
Q. How difficult was importing the music?
A. We actually re-recorded a lot of the BGMs from Kingdom Hearts 2 with live instruments. We've also added a lot of environmental sounds into Birth by Sleep to enchance the experience.
Q. Will Re: Coded be a full movie, or can you select individual clips?
A. Both. You can watch it all in one go, or you can watch individual scenes. It's the same as how 358/2 Days worked in 1.5
Q. What Disney movie do you wish made it into the existing games?
A. I can't really answer this. But, on a personal note, I really enjoyed Frozen. I would love to see a Frozen world.
KINGDOM HEARTS HD II.5 ReMIX will be available on PlayStation 3 from December 2nd in North America, and December 5th in Europe.
06-11-2014, 01:51 AM
Freya
We would all love a frozen world Tai Yasue.
06-12-2014, 11:58 AM
Rostum
Ah I loved KH growing up. But after playing I.5 I think I'm kind of over it all now, they really took their time with III and now I feel like I've outgrown it. :\ I'll most likely get II.5 still, and keep my eye out on III, but at the moment I don't feel at all that excited.
06-12-2014, 03:36 PM
Aulayna
As an addition, he also confirmed that the dialogue at the end of that II.5 trailer, is actually the dialogue that will be featured in the opening cinematic of KHIII!
06-12-2014, 09:31 PM
Pumpkin
Oh this is for PS3? Might get it down the road then
