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Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
- There is actually a "cursed song" within the KH1 soundtrack, one that you hear in both the beginning and the end of the game with a chorus (Destati), whose lyrics represents the dark side of Kingdom Hearts. Because the chorus was used in multiple tracks, it had to be loaded into each one during their creation. Whenever this was attempted, something bad would happen, the worst being the electricity to the entire building being cut off.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
- Animating the cloth in the pre-rendered movies was done separately, so during production, at one point, Sora didn't wear his pants or his jacket. KH1 Movie Director Takeshi Nozue describes it as a "precious image".
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Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
- The 'Kingdom' in Kingdom Hearts stands for the kingdom image and sound of the word that Disney is known for, as well as providing a deep meaning so as to not be taken lightly. The development team making it was also a newly formed team making an entirely new project, so they had a sense of creating their own "kingdom".
Despite the strong feelings towards the title of "Kingdom", the name could not be useddue to an already existing registered trademark of the same name. In a brainstorming session with everyone, only ridiculous names could be created, one of which was "Kingdom Champion", nicknamed "Kinchan".
The 'Hearts' in Kingdom Hearts was added on for two reasons:
- One of the themes of the story is heart.
- The singular 'heart' doesn't flow well.
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- Near the end of the game, there was a secret map in which you would fight Riku once more in the End of the World, created to look like the interior of the island. It was 90% completed before it was scrapped.
Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
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Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
- After arriving in Traverse Town when Goofy calls out "Pluto, we're going," Pluto is actually not present at that time. Sometime between the time he first disappears and then reappears in the ending, he met up with King Mickey. The reason he perked up in Traverse Town was because he felt the King's presence.
Pluto traveled to many worlds that did not appear in Kingdom Hearts while he was in possession of the King's letter (the one in the ending). When asked about this, Nomura brings particular mention to the worlds erased by the Heartless, the End of the World (a world made up of fragments of erased worlds), and the place the door to Kingdom Hearts appears where Sora and the others currently reside (we know this world to be the Land of Departure/Castle Oblivion).
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Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
- The intro scene, as well as Sora's monologue during it, is supposed to express his confusion at the world he lives in, trying to figure out if it's real or not. This was intentionally used to make the player suspicious of the worlds they're in, creating doubt as if you actually imagined it.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Ultimania Interview
- Out of all of the newly introduced Organization members in Chain of Memories, Nomura’s favorite was Axel. Axel was also favored by the majority of the staff. Nomura described Axel’s future roles in KH2 as “delicious”, and that his story could make you cry.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania Interview
- Ever wonder why Kingdom Hearts was a heart-shaped moon? Nomura didn’t have a plan for the heart-shaped moon on the cover of Kingdom Hearts. It wasn’t until he asked Kazushige Nojima to write Kingdom Hearts II’s scenario that the idea was born to use the heart-shaped moon in the series.
In Nojima’s scenario it was written that the Kingdom Hearts Xemnas created is "like a moon that floats in the World that Never Was." When Nomura read it he thought, "Oh, this can be connected!" so Nomura decided to make the moon look like the previous game’s key visual.
“The World that Never Was has the "Dark City" right from the beginning of the game's development and since then its background is night. That's why when Nojima-san wrote that Xemnas was creating Kingdom Hearts in the sky, coincidentally he wrote "it looks like a moon" but I thought it got connected by destiny,” said Nomura.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- Due to the contract, Mickey Mouse could only be included in a single cutscene, because Disney didn't want him to be abused in order to attract attention. Their example for the type he could play was "waving from behind a large crowd."
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- When asked about what kind of song he wanted from Hikaru Utada for Kingdom Hearts, Nomura said that the song would play during the ending where Sora and Kairi parted, since the concept of the scene existed even early on in development. He stated that he didn't want to make the ending look sorrowful, but optimistic.
Nomura explained that "The lyrics fit so perfectly that when I first heard it, I trembled and couldn’t speak. I did ask her to not put in words that do not exist in the game’s worlds, such as “cellphone”, but she added in “television”. (laugh) But I am glad that even from that, one can take away a deep meaning."
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Source: Kingdom Hearts 1 Ultimania
- Originally, in the scene where Sora, Donald and Goofy first meet in Traverse Town, Donald and Goofy were supposed to explain abilities and the like through singing.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- Before speaking with the staff, Nomura had chosen over 20 worlds to include in Kingdom Hearts, including original worlds.
To whittle them down, worlds were chosen based on popularity, if there were interesting characters to play as, and if there were interesting places to be in, in that order.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- Composer Yoko Shimomura decided on Italian lyrics for the chorus of "Destati" as it was a language that could be listened to and not understand immediately like with English or Japanese. Other languages considered were German and Latin.
Although there are only 76 tracks on the KH1 Original Soundtrack, Shimomura actually composed 99. Why 99? Because she didn't want to have more than 100.
All together, Kingdom Hearts has over 15,000 individual sound tracks in the game. Note that sound tracks include things like the sound of footsteps, the clinking of the Keyblade's keychain, and other sound effects.
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- During the early development of Kingdom Hearts II, the final battle against Xemnas was planned much differently than the one that we all know. Xemnas was to meld with The World That Never Was after absorbing power from Kingdom Hearts and become a Transformer-like creature. After you defeated him once, he would transform into a much more distorted version of this creature. You can see concept art from the Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania below, which show how this original idea would have looked.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts II Ultimania
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Source: SquareEnixEmily + Feltbeats + vvmasterdrfan.
- Popular British actor Tom Felton, well known for his role as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series, is seen posing with vvmasterdrfan at Dragon Con 2009, posing with the fan's handmade Bond of Flame Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts II. He did not however, know what Kingdom Hearts or Keyblades are. Vvmasterdrfan was kind enough to let us feature his photo below:
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- Nomura was in a room speaking with Hironobu Sakaguchi (if you don't know who he is, go take a look at Final Fantasy history~) about what kind of game he wanted to make, of which he had an idea in mind for an action game with stylized characters. Shinji Hashimoto and a Disney employee was speaking together in that same room, and the Disney employee liked the idea, and proceeded to suggest the use of Disney characters that are known worldwide because they're stylized.
After Nomura offered to work on the Disney game, he had no team and had to do all the planning and negotiations with Disney by himself. He worked solo for a year, beginning shortly after Final Fantasy VIII.
Because Nomura had to act as the director and artist at the same time, it became troublesome to work with both burdens, but the hardworking leaders in the team worked wonderfully throughout the entire process to do what he couldn't. However, sometimes he would be late finishing the drawings in accordance to the schedule, and would sneakily adjust it.
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- The original scenario of Kingdom Hearts involved Sora going to rescue the Princesses of Heart with their respective princes.
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- Haley Joel Osment, voice actor of Sora in the Kingdom Hearts series, has done work in various movies throughout his career. One of the more popular movies he has appeared in is Artificial Intelligence, a 2001 science fiction drama where HJO plays a human child-like android with the ability to love. His one wish is to become a “real boy”, just like the story of Pinocchio, so David goes on a journey to find the Blue Fairy.
Ironically, Sora also meets the Blue Fairy in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance!
HJO has also voiced Esmerelda and Phoebus’ son, Zephyr, in the 2002 direct-to-home animated sequel of the Hunchback of Notre Dame
Coincidentally, the word “zephyr” means “a soft gentle breeze”, and the origin word “zefferus” denotes the personification of the west wind. Sora seems to have a lot of connections to people who have names meaning “wind”.
Below is a picture of Sora with his mother and father in La Cité des Cloches!
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- KH1 Animation Director Tatsuya Kando had counted the total number of animations used in the game, including those that were cut with unused event scenes, reaching a total of almost 8000. He refers to these animations as "animations of the heart".
Likewise, there are many "models of the heart" as well. KH1 Character Modeling Director Tomohiro Kayano had created many unused models of original monsters and characters from the 1997 Disney animated film "Hercules".
Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
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Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
- Final Fantasy characters were included in Kingdom Hearts to play roles that were not possible for Disney characters to play.
Leon was decided to play the role of the "guiding swordsman" who'd lead Sora in the right direction on his journey. However, if people immediately saw his original name (Squall) in Mickey's letter before actually meeting him, it would take away all of the suspense and the impact would be greatly weakened. Event Planning Director Jun Akiyama suggested to change his name for that reason.
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Source: Dengeki PlayStation - Nomura Interview July 2010
- It is not news to any fans that Leonard Nimoy, know for his iconic role as Spock in the sci-fi franchise Star Trek, voices Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. It is also well known by the fandom that Mark Hamill, who is best known by his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise, voices Master Eraqus in the same game.
Something not many know is that Nomura personally requested for the both of them to voice their respective characters because of their past roles as Spock and Luke Skywalker.
Considering the conflict between the two characters in the game, it seems almost like an extension of the age old debate, “Star Trek versus Star Wars.” At least found out Nomura is a big science fiction fan!
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- Remember the White Mushroom Heartless from the original Kingdom Hearts? How they only appeared with other ones when you encountered them? Well it turns out that during development there was some trouble animating the Heartless which caused it to take up much more data than expected. This meant that no other enemy could share the spotlight unless it was another White Mushroom.
One of the animations it performed was when a little light appeared above it's head, which prompted you to cast Thunder magic on it. This is actually meant to imitate a street light! See the resemblance? When the White Mushroom was being designed the team was told to make it look dark and depressed, and what's more dark and depressing then standing under a single street light on a dark road?
Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
Spoiler ShowRinoa's wings were added to the back of Leon's jacket in order to imply that something happened in the past that would lead him to reject his original name.
Nomura personally thought that Rinoa was different from the other characters in Final Fantasy VIII and her personality was harder to grasp, leading to her exclusion in Kingdom Hearts.
Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
Spoiler ShowAfter what seems like months and a million news updates later, trivia is now back! We've got a lot of great stuff we want to show you while we patiently wait for more news on the localized version of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]! So sit back, relax, and do keep your hands and feet inside of the gummi ship at all times!
Unless you have been keeping up with the latest Digimon series, you probably didn't know that Quinton Flynn voices the main protagonist, Marcus Damon, on Digimon Data Squad. What does this have to do with Kingdom Hearts, you ask?
In episode twenty of Digimon Data Squad, Marcus begins talking about how he remembers everything about his first house. "I remember my first house! Every little nook and cranny of it. I got it memorized all right here." Yep. That's what he says. Even points to his head. Don't believe me? Just take a look at the video below.
Quinton Flynn and Jeff Nimoy, voice director of Digimon Data Squad and longtime friend of Quinton, explained at Youmacon 2007 that the scene in Japanese was "I have a scar here from when I fell down." When Quinton saw the scene while dubbing, he knew they had to add Axel's catchphrase to the scene.
Spoiler ShowThe topiary sculptures in Disney Castle are based on scenes from the 1935 animated short The Band Concert. All of the characters in the short are seen in the topiaries, minus Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Also, the classic Mickey Mouse short is one of Disney's most highly acclaimed short films, as well as the first Mickey Mouse film produced in color.
Spoiler ShowKairi's name was originally going to be left as "Kai," but Nomura didn't think it was feminine enough for her character. In order to find a way to make her name sound more feminine, Nomura went through and added each Japanese syllable to the end of her name (starting with "a") until he found the one he liked.
Thus, Kairi's name was born!
Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
Spoiler ShowAs you probably know, Monstro from Disney's Pinocchio was used as an entire world in the original Kingdom Hearts. Well did you know that Monstro was also going to be a boss Sora, Donald and Goofy fought while traversing on the Gummi Ship? The development team ran into some difficulties programming the massive whale though, and it was eventually cut from the game.
Personally, I would have really enjoyed to scuffle around with Monstro before being sucked in by him. Not only that, but it would make their efforts to avoid the oncoming space traveling aquatic mammal seem more realistic too!
Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
Spoiler ShowDirector Nomura was deadset on choosing Utada Hikaru to compose the series' theme songs from the very beginning, despite the beliefs of failure from the other staff. In fact, persuading them otherwise took more time than to negotiate with Utada.
Source: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania
Spoiler ShowRemember how much fun you all used to have on Destiny Island? The thrill of fighting Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie at the same time, racing against Riku just to have a perfect 99-0 score, finding a ton of miscellaneous items for Kairi, and having a ball exploring every nook and cranny of the place? It was such a fun world and I used to be sad that, in comparison to other worlds in Kingdom Hearts, it was extremely small. I used to wonder what else where was to Destiny Island. That couldn't be all that there was to the homeworld of our three main characters.
When we got the chance to visit it one more time at the End of the World, I was so overjoyed! I never thought we'd see the island Sora lost to the Darkness again. And then I stumbled upon this glitch and it seemed like my wish was granted in some weird, twisted way:
(Video by sdarkshadow on YouTube)
The glitch seems to be found only in North American copies of Kingdom Hearts, so it could have been something missed during debugging after they added in new content to the game. Whatever happened, it's extremely fun to exploit. High jumping until Destiny Island is just a dot on the screen or just walking on the water behind the island, I could spend hours on this glitch.
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