-- So, the new Days is one of the three titles announced in the Autumn of 2007 as new projects in the KH series.
Nomura: Those three titles were all announced at the same time, but in reality the opportunities for the projects were raised in a disjointed way. [color= #808080;]Birth by Sleep[/color] is a project that was raised within our company, but Days is from Nintendo, and [color= #808080;]coded[/color] is from Disney, so we started by talking to each of them.
-- So out of those, was Days the first project put into motion?
Nomura: That's right. Actually, from just before the DS was released, there were voices saying it should definitely have KH. When we first heard of the DS' specifications, we thought it was a kind of hardware completely unheard of in previous ways of thinking. There had been no other game machines with two screens, and we were pretty worried about how they should be put to practical use. So we didn't get started straight away, rather we continued searching for the form of a KH that it would be meaningful to release on DS. Separately, we wanted to make a completely new game making full use of the DS' functionality, and began [color= #808080;]The World Ends with You[/color]. So we were able to work on the concept for KH while actually working with the DS.
-- When you decided to make KH for the DS, what was the first concept you thought of?
Nomura: It was the multiplayer. With [color= #808080;]The World Ends with You[/color], there hadn't previously been a game concept like it, and we couldn't fit in the concept of playing with multiple people at the same time. So this time, we thought we wanted to expand on that. Then, looking at the hardware specs, we considered whether to go with 2D presentation like [color= #808080;]Chain of Memories[/color] or [color= #808080;]The World Ends with You[/color], or whether to use a specialised system for the DS' capabilities. When the market changed to more serious games (for example, educational games), I felt as a game creator that I wanted to give people a more straight-forward �game�-like game. Also, from our experience with [color= #808080;]Chain of Memories[/color] we felt that what fans wanted from KH was this kind of straight-out game, so first of all we had h.a.n.d. draw up a test version of a traditional, fundamental KH, and when we saw how good it was, our resolve to go with a straight KH game even on DS was solidified.
-- Where did the idea to use the Organization members for the multiplayer come from?
Nomura: We made a game where characters from various FF games got together to battle, [color= #808080;]Dissidia[/color], but that was a project we were originally thinking of using for KH. However, deciding it would be a bad idea to make Disney characters fight each other, it never materialized for KH and ended up shifting to FF. Even this time we thought that it would be difficult to bring out Disney characters and have them fight each other in multiplayer, and wondering what to do, we arrived at the idea of using Organization XIII. These guys were still connected to Disney, but we thought it would be okay because they were original KH characters. Also, with all their attributes and weapons being different, it would be easy to show their individuality, so made a scenario where you could play as Organization XIII in multiplayer. After deciding that, when we were thinking about which time period we should place the scenario in, we thought if we cut out the one year that Roxas was in the Organization it would link well with the multiplayer idea.
-- I see, so from the multiplayer you expanded on the concept of the storyline and time period.
Nomura: That's right. Only, in the end Donald and Goofy, who are original Disney characters, ended up in multiplayer too (laughs). When we went to confirm with Disney that it was alright to include those guys, we were unexpectedly told it was OK. I guess it's okay so long as it's not a one-on-one battle.