I remember reading a story/rumour years ago that the birth of Kingdom Hearts was when a head executive of Square Enix (Squaresoft back then) and a Head executive of Disney walked into an elevator and when they walked out they devised "Kingdom Hearts."
Please tell me if this is true or not.
and... if it is/isn't what is the full story?
I found this quote from Tetsuya Nomura:
"It is common knowledge that a chance meeting in an elevator between Square Enix and Disney people where the beginnings of an idea for a game came about, but Tetsuya Nomura also has commented on another aspect that influenced the creation of Kingdom Hearts."
In an interview conducted in Japan, which touched upon his favourite games and other such things, Nomura stated:
."..Super Mario 64 had a big influence on me. We used many of the fundamental elements in Kingdom Hearts. As for the purest experience as a player, it's the Tekken series. Every time a new entry in the series comes out, I play it until I've beaten it with every character"
And another quote from an Executive of Square Enix (SQUARESOFT, back then):
"The idea for Kingdom Hearts came about when producer Shinji Hashimoto met with a Disney executive in an elevator; Square and Disney had previously worked in the same building in Japan. The production team was composed of over one hundred members from both Square and Disney. The game began development in February 2000 and originally focused more on the gameplay with a simple story to appeal to Disney's target age range. After executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi told director Tetsuya Nomura the game would be a failure if it did not aim for the same level as the Final Fantasy series, Nomura began to develop the story further. When choosing the Disney worlds to include in the game, Nomura and his team tried to pick worlds that had distinctively different looks. They also tried to take into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting. Though they had few restrictions on which worlds they could use from the Disney franchises, they tried to remain within each character's boundaries set by their respective Disney films."
Please tell me if this is true or not.
and... if it is/isn't what is the full story?
I found this quote from Tetsuya Nomura:
"It is common knowledge that a chance meeting in an elevator between Square Enix and Disney people where the beginnings of an idea for a game came about, but Tetsuya Nomura also has commented on another aspect that influenced the creation of Kingdom Hearts."
In an interview conducted in Japan, which touched upon his favourite games and other such things, Nomura stated:
."..Super Mario 64 had a big influence on me. We used many of the fundamental elements in Kingdom Hearts. As for the purest experience as a player, it's the Tekken series. Every time a new entry in the series comes out, I play it until I've beaten it with every character"
And another quote from an Executive of Square Enix (SQUARESOFT, back then):
"The idea for Kingdom Hearts came about when producer Shinji Hashimoto met with a Disney executive in an elevator; Square and Disney had previously worked in the same building in Japan. The production team was composed of over one hundred members from both Square and Disney. The game began development in February 2000 and originally focused more on the gameplay with a simple story to appeal to Disney's target age range. After executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi told director Tetsuya Nomura the game would be a failure if it did not aim for the same level as the Final Fantasy series, Nomura began to develop the story further. When choosing the Disney worlds to include in the game, Nomura and his team tried to pick worlds that had distinctively different looks. They also tried to take into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting. Though they had few restrictions on which worlds they could use from the Disney franchises, they tried to remain within each character's boundaries set by their respective Disney films."
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