A Look Back: KINGDOM HEARTS Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1
- Details
- Published on August 30, 2019 @ 04:56 pm
- Written by Cecily
Kingdom Hearts fans are no stranger to the the Ultimanias - Square Enix's signature line of guidebooks. While they contain an absolute wealth of walkthroughs and statistics, they are most well known for the exclusive staff interviews and concept art.
With the Xehanort Saga having finally concluded, it seems like the perfect opportunity to revisit the Ultimanias to explore old interviews and the like that may not be very well known. Starting off with a collection of artist comments found in the galleries, they provide insight on the design process and share early ideas that were scrapped or have since been repurposed for other games.
Huge thanks to goldpanner for her hard work in translating! If you'd like to say thanks, please consider buying her a coffee!
Weapon Designs (Tetsuya Nomura, Director)
Oathkeeper: If you look at this Keyblade on its side, it forms the Japanese character for "Light". In the early stages we called it the "Kairi Keyblade," and I was envisioning giving it a paopu fruit keychain. It's my personal favorite Keyblade.
Oblivion: Its development name was the "Riku Keyblade." In early stages we planned to have Riku give you a keychain, just like the lucky charm, which is why the keychain is a different colored version of Sora's necklace. If you look at this Keyblade on its side, it forms the Japanese character for "Darkness".
Ultima Weapon: It is based on the Dream Sword, which appears at the beginning when you select a weapon. It has a fairly complex structure, and I won't deny that I went overboard, but I believe this design has impact.
Soul Eater: This isn't a Keyblade, but it is a sword that Riku uses in the first half [of the game]. I wanted to make a sword without a blade, and this is what came out after a lot of sketches. Like on the box art, I thought it was nice how it looks like a wing when he carries it on his back. Well, not that he carries it on his back in the game.
Weapon Designs (Takayuki Ohdachi, Art Director)
Metal Chocobo: As this is what you get from defeating Cloud, it's similar to his Buster Sword weapon from his original game, with an overall crude feel. The keychain is a chocobo because of Cloud's "chocobo head" nickname?
Lady Luck: A colorful design based on playing cards. It's perfect for the world where you get it, Wonderland.
Pumpkinhead: I reproduced the creepy spiked look particular to Halloween Town. Jack is on the hilt, and the keychain is a pumpkin.
Crabclaw: Since you get this from Ariel, a mermaid who lives in a kingdom under the sea, it is overflowing with an ocean vibe. The tip is a crab, the hilt has mermaids, and the keychain is a shell.
Lionheart: As this is a weapon you get from defeating Squall, it has the same name as his ultimate weapon from FFVIII. The silver tone brings to mind Squall's aesthetic. The tip and the keychain are designed after the Griever, which holds great meaning in the original game.
Divine Rose: The design is based on the rose that plays an important part in the original movie Beauty and the Beast, and the stained glass you see at the beginning and end.
Wishing Star: This design is bursting with the aesthetic of Gepetto's house, where you find it, with crafted mechanisms.
Smasher: Very small and simple. A protective design with an emphasis on attack.
Herc's Shield: Basically we turned the lightning medallion Hercules has had since he was born into a shield.
Save the King: A shield featuring designs based on wings and a heart-like shape. Just as the name suggests, the center features a crown mark.
Grand Mallet: This staff has an emphasis on attack, but it looks like an inflatable toy mallet which is adorable.
Lord Fortune: The tip is designed after the Milky Way, with lots of planet-like spheres attached.
Morning Star: As the name suggests, the tip is a star. This magic staff has a simple design.
Weapon Designs (Tetsu Tsukamoto, Texture Designer)
Keyblades: Jungle King, Three Wishes, Fairy Harp, Spellbinder, Olympia
Staves: Violetta, Save the Queen
Shields: Stout/Golem/Adamant, Mythril/Onyx, Genji
Character Designs (Tetsuya Nomura)
Ansem (robed): Based on the robed figures who wanted Reunion in FFVII. In early stages he also had a face, and he was going to appear wherever Sora went to leave mysterious messages. Even into later stages of development he was going to be a mysterious old man from Destiny Islands.
Riku (Ansem): This creepy costume is based on muscle and sinew. I actually was thinking of secretly making him a bit taller, but it would have caused issues with the animations so I rejected myself. There are a few things that perhaps only I know, such as how I made the tip of his Keyblade have a cut-out heart shape because it still needed Kairi's heart to be complete, and how the Heartless emblem on his chest is missing the thorny cross because Riku's heart has not yet completely fallen to darkness.
World of Chaos: One step before this final form, we had a phantom full body version prepared. Just like the last form has, we had a dedicated level completely created and everything. It was such a waste, I cut it with a heavy heart. Those kinds of cuts happen all the time when making games…
Illustrations (Tetsuya Nomura)
Keyblade: As a result of being asked for a necessity behind defeating enemies, the concept of “a key that frees hearts stolen by the enemies” was born. As such, the birth of the Keyblade was the foundation upon which the entire scenario of Kingdom Hearts was created.
Sora: The beginning of everything. The world of Kingdom Hearts began with this character. It was honestly such a huge honor that an extension of my own design would be joining the Disney character family, and very special feelings went into creating him - like he was the culmination of all the protagonists I’d drawn so far. In the early days I was considering a person with beast-like features including a tail, but he lost the tail due to the overlap with FFIX. His outfit also had more straight lines, which I changed to curves to match with Donald and Goofy. It was a long road to the Sora we have now. But, even so, he’s still developing as a character.
Riku: His design was born from balancing with Sora. I drew him as a good old fashioned rival character, without any particular curveballs. He carries the responsibility of playing a more worried protagonist than would suit Sora. In that way, maybe he’s more of a classic Square style character? The things Riku does to restore Kairi’s heart are perhaps less about his feelings for her and more about his regret over sins he has committed? Or so I think. He’s a surprisingly immoral guy.
Kairi: With the heroines of the other titles I’ve worked on so far, since I wasn’t the only person in charge of the plot, I had to be more careful with them than other characters, and it was difficult to have full control - but this time I was allowed to draw exactly as I pleased. During development we floated the idea of having Kairi be playable, and I wanted to depict Kairi’s personality even more eg. against Sora, against Riku, and her past. But due to circumstances we had to postpone those ideas for now. Her hair is a secret homage to Utada Hikaru, who provided the theme song.
Foreshore (Sora): This was drawn especially for an advertisement, so I pounded it out in a single day. I had no idea it would end up being used so much. The highlight is the fishbone in his mouth. Honestly, I wanted to draw more pictures along these lines.
Blue Sky (Riku): I drew this at the same time as Foreshore. The idea behind this scene is him telling Sora, “You wanted one, didn't you?” In the game that happens at sunset, though.
Red Sunset (Kairi): I also drew this at the same time as Foreshore. The idea is that Kairi is lost in thought on the beach at sunset, although there isn’t a scene like that in the game.
Donald & Goofy (KH version): Upon Disney’s suggestion, their default outfits in the game are Kingdom Hearts original costumes. They said they wanted to see a “Nomura-style” design, so in order to have them match Sora I put zippers, which I make frequent use of, on every important spot. The base colors are the same as their standard costumes. I took care not to make them feel too different from their usual selves.
Friends: This is a publication-level redraw of a rough sketch I did to include in all kinds of presentation documents. It was popular among the KH PR team, so I finished it up so they could use it somewhere. In my heart, I made it to give to the PR team.
Piggyback: I drew this in the early stages for an image board to check the sense of balance between Sora, Donald and Goofy, and re-drew it fresh for publication. I like this one because in a single drawing you can see the sense of collaboration and the relationship between the three of them. As it was drawn so early on, Donald and Goofy are in their standard costumes. Once the new costumes were revealed, I limited their exposure. But the standard costumes escaped being shelved - they saw the light again in the ending. Did you notice? I find it interesting that one of the very first things I drew ended up becoming the final image of the game.
Sora (Atlantica version): I drew this for an image board in the early days, to help explain to Disney the use of each Disney world and the harmony between each world’s aesthetic, which was to be the core of Kingdom Hearts. That was this merman Sora. I wanted to spend more time on the official design, but I didn’t have time to indulge myself like that, so we just went with what I drew in the early days. Personally, there are lots of things I wish I could have fixed up.
Goofy (Atlantica version): I didn’t draw Goofy for the board in the early days, and I stressed over what to have him turn into. I got the idea for this turtle from the supervising Disney artists, and somehow finished it without him looking too much like a seahorse. I think it’s a perfect fit for the easygoing Goofy. However, I am a little bit bothered by one thing - it seems his hat didn’t change…
Donald (Atlantica version): This was, like Sora, drawn for the early image board. Once the model and textures had been completed and we put it up on a screen, the tentacle suckers were a lot grosser than I had imagined and we had to keep adjusting them until we reached the current version.
Sora (Halloween Town version): I drew the body in an energy rush and don’t really remember the details, but with the face I had to do quite a lot of exploring for Tim Burton’s design sense. In the end, I couldn’t find a good compromise, and after much pain and suffering I landed on this design. It was surprisingly well-received, and I was relieved. The motifs behind this design are imps and vampires.
Goofy (Halloween Town version): This was the easiest of the three Nightmare versions to decide on. At first he only had Frankenstein elements, but as the design went on I decided to try adding some werewolf. This made it much more interesting, so that prompted me to give all three of them two different elements.
Donald (Halloween Town version): There was an early design that I created while taking great pains to follow Tim Burton’s style, but it made me burst out laughing, as well as my staff. Disney did not give it the stamp of approval, of course, but they did give me a big laugh. They said they could see how I got to that design, but they wanted me to leave more of Donald’s original parts, and somehow we ended up with the current design. I am so sorry that I cannot show you that early design. The motifs behind this design are mummies and invisible men.
Shadow: Basically, we needed a make a Heartless that would be easy to display enmasse, so I challenged myself to see how simple I could make it. I wanted to have them become flat shadows and move around, so their design began there. Also, this became the concept for the movements of all Heartless.
Soldier: This design became the concept behind all Heartless. In the early days I was thinking of going with something a little more comical, but the story was getting more serious, so the designs changed too. I like all the Heartless designs.
Darkside: The concept behind it is a conglomeration of Shadows, an abstract symbol of the darkness of the heart, and of nightmares. In the development stage, you were able to stand inside the heart in its chest.
Ansem: I like this type of character, so I was naturally motivated. I planned to give him golden hair and pale skin, but as I looked at several color variations, I settled on the current colors, which are the exact opposite. Ansem is a man of many mysteries. This is his form after casting away his body - what is his true form…? I’ll leave that for another time.
Tidus: A simpler version of his FFX design. He was the first FF character I drew, and I was relieved when he came out looking nice as a chibi like this.
Selphie: I planned to give her a different outfit from her FFVIII one, but once her model was complete and I compared them, it was basically the same. My mistake...
Wakka: I actually planned to have Irvine from FFVIII play this role, but no matter how many times I tried to draw him, I couldn’t make him fit the island theme, and ended up going with Wakka instead. I drew this right before the deadline.
Leon: This is the first FF character we decided to have cameo. In the Kingdom Hearts universe, the FF characters aren’t from the exact same settings, and are more like parallel universe versions. However, we put things in that people who know the original FF game will understand as they play, such as the wing designs on his back and his long hair. There are several reasons he doesn’t go by the name Squall, but… that’s for another time, sorry.
Cid: A refined Cid from FFVII. Did I go too far? It’s a rather mismatched design, and I was sure Disney wouldn’t go with something like this, but I did it anyway.
Yuffie: This has a complicated story behind it… In the early stages, I had planned for this role to be played by Rikku from FFX. However, something happened and we had to quickly shuffle Yuffie, who originally had a different role, into this one. In the end, Yuffie’s original role was cut due to time constraints. Because of these circumstances, we designed her body to suit either role.
Cloud: The protagonist of FFVII, and a character I have a strong attachment to. The single wing that appears when he uses the power of darkness is a homage to his eternal rival Sephiroth. One answer for the scene during the credits with Aerith is that it is possible because this is a parallel universe, or so I think. By the way, the Kingdom Hearts versions of the FF characters are copyrighted by Square Enix. Fans, don’t worry.
Aerith: At the time of FFVII, her expression wasn’t the one intended. I asked them to change it to the correct one, but I was too late. This role was planned to be played by Aya from Parasite Eve until halfway through, but due to requests from staff who had worked on FFVII, Aerith was made to appear. Her story with Cloud grew from there. The developments in characters’ stories sometimes do come from exchanges like this.
Moogle: I’d drawn these so many times before, but due to the extreme reduction of lines this time, I think I was finally able to draw my own ideal Moogle. I think the nose is the highlight...
Premonition: Disney requested a key visual that could be used to represent the entire Kingdom Hearts world, and we had many huge meetings in order to decide on this one drawing. Both Disney and Square shared a vision for Kingdom Hearts, but it was an extremely tough job to represent it in one drawing. I was particularly stressed over how to represent Donald and Goofy in a serious scene. People tended to misunderstand the tone of Kingdom Hearts, and I wanted to wipe that out. After several rejected pieces, we finally arrived at this one. I think that it was the first time in a long time that I had poured so much heart and soul into an artwork.
Throne: I drew this as part of an agreement with Toshiba EMI. It overlapped with the final stage of development, and I drew this under extreme stress. Actually, this was my personal pick for the key visual, but since it was finished in a short time it was reworked. This is the first time other than the soundtrack cover art that it has been published.
Connections: This is another piece I drew under stress with no time. I’m sure you’ll see it if you look, but Sora looks a bit grown up. I’d like you to imagine for yourselves what it means. I’m still daydreaming myself.
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COMMENTS
kingdom hearts is gunner erasure
Interesting tidbits. It never occured to me that Robed Ansem resembled the Sephiroth clones from FF7. Also liked that they used the original plan of having Ansem be an old man from the islands for Master Xehanort.
Since Oathkeeper was originally called the "Kairi Keyblade" now I really wish it was her main Keyblade instead of her crappy Destiny's Embrace, lol
I mean, there are a lot of similarities between KH1 and FF7 visually. The computer room in the World Terminus is definitely reminiscent of the Mako tanks that held the Sephiroth clones. Also Ansem's entire World of Chaos was like a crazier version of Sephiroth's various forms lol
kingdom hearts is gunner erasure
EVERY MAIN KH GAME ;A;
Honestly makes me wonder what most of the cast's original ideas where. Like Kairi...given those ideas of playable Kairi and exploration of character development has been postponed for 16 years now.
I wish we could have gotten the Memorial Ultimania overseas, at least. :(
I'm loving this thread! Keep up the great job!
Wouldn't this actually be a good time to inform people on what the Japanese names, the original name, that Nomura and his team came up with before it was changed in the overseas release? Might as well take this time to enlighten folks since you're going through the Ultimania. I'm not saying go out of your way to mention everything, just when you happen to mention something that has a different name in Japanese.
Example in Part 1:
Oathkeeper (JP: Oath's Charm)
Oblivion (JP: Passing Memories)
| Oathkeeper: If you look at this Keyblade on its side, it forms the Japanese character for "Light". In the early stages we called it the "Kairi Keyblade," and I was envisioning giving it a paopu fruit keychain. It's my personal favorite Keyblade. |
Kairi: With the heroines of the other titles I’ve worked on so far, since I wasn’t the only person in charge of the plot, I had to be more careful with them than other characters, and it was difficult to have full control - but this time I was allowed to draw exactly as I pleased. During development we floated the idea of having Kairi be playable, and I wanted to depict Kairi’s personality even more eg. against Sora, against Riku, and her past. But due to circumstances we had to postpone those ideas for now. Her hair is a secret homage to Utada Hikaru, who provided the theme song. |
TWISTING THE KNIFE!!
I wonder what Yuffie's original role was supposed to be? Maybe she would have been a teammate on one of the worlds?
And it's interesting they were going to use Aya from Parasite Eve before Aerith replaced her. I wonder how that could have effected future KH games with an earlier SE non-FF franchise being used?
I wonder what Yuffie's original role was supposed to be? Maybe she would have been a teammate on one of the worlds?
And it's interesting they were going to use Aya from Parasite Eve before Aerith replaced her. I wonder how that could have effected future KH games with an earlier SE non-FF franchise being used?
It opens a wide opportunity of branching out to other SE games to be placed in KH. If The World Ends With You was any consolation, I'd say it opened that idea up. A pity that the crossover aspect seems....far gone. The Disney aspect barely has any relevance other than being there and the Final Fantasy aspect dwindles within each game. Only thing left's magic & moogle(s).
I'm guessing if they stuck to the idea of Riku giving Sora the Oblivion keychain it would have been during the Traverse Traverse Town second visit. Cause that was the last time they were on good terms until the very end of the game
TWISTING THE KNIFE!!
I'm certain if she was playable in the first game he might not have neglected her for the rest of the series
| Oblivion: Its development name was the "Riku Keyblade." In early stages we planned to have Riku give you a keychain, just like the lucky charm, which is why the keychain is a different colored version of Sora's necklace. If you look at this Keyblade on its side, it forms the Japanese character for "Darkness". |
| Ansem (robed): Based on the robed figures who wanted Reunion in FFVII. In early stages he also had a face, and he was going to appear wherever Sora went to leave mysterious messages. Even into later stages of development he was going to be a mysterious old man from Destiny Islands. |
| Ansem: I like this type of character, so I was naturally motivated. I planned to give him golden hair and pale skin, but as I looked at several color variations, I settled on the current colors, which are the exact opposite. Ansem is a man of many mysteries. This is his form after casting away his body - what is his true form…? I’ll leave that for another time. |
So old man Ansem became Xehanort, and the golden hair, pale skin Ansem became Ansem the Wise.
| Kairi: With the heroines of the other titles I’ve worked on so far, since I wasn’t the only person in charge of the plot, I had to be more careful with them than other characters, and it was difficult to have full control - but this time I was allowed to draw exactly as I pleased. During development we floated the idea of having Kairi be playable, and I wanted to depict Kairi’s personality even more eg. against Sora, against Riku, and her past. But due to circumstances we had to postpone those ideas for now. Her hair is a secret homage to Utada Hikaru, who provided the theme song. |
| During development we floated the idea of having Kairi be playable, and I wanted to depict Kairi’s personality even more eg. against Sora, against Riku, and her past. But due to circumstances we had to postpone those ideas for now. |
For now?
For now?
FOR NOW???
head asplodes
I really hope Kairi will be playable/have a bigger role in the future
Nomura said soriku rights 17 years ago I cannot even believe
My half-joking aside, Nomura should revisit some of those old concepts aka make Kairi playable please and thank you
I now wish Aya Brea would have been in kh1. I love parasite eve.
Some really interesting things here!
It's so great to hear Nomura talking about this game with passion. Particularity Sora, since apparently he doesn't like him as much anymore. I hope some of this feeling can come back for him:)
The thing about Oblivion is neat (as is Oathkeeper almost having a paopu keychain, though we already knew that from the scanned original design for it in this Ultimania;)), as well as the fact the Keyblade of People's Hearts was designed to look incomplete because it was missing Kairi's heart. And that Riku was missing the thorn of the Heartless emblem on his outfit, because he hadn't fully succumbed to the darkness. (Another thing about hearts: being able to walk in the Darkside's heartless area would have been cool.)
Don't worry, Nomura. You made "Ansem" someone from Destiny Islands in the end--and an old man--but not at the same time;)
Like everyone here, I'm REALLY praying that Nomura revisits this idea of playable Kairi, and developing her relationships with Riku and Sora more... I know I'm probably in the minority here (and I get it: KHIII burnt people bad when it came to her), but I DO think Nomura's planning something with her. I don't think they would have made certain decisions in III (making her and Sora literally bound to each other now), and be including her in stuff more than ever before, if he wasn't. Granted, you could say they were doing that even before KHIII, and look how that turned out... but realistically, they kind of had to have Kairi be a bit bad in KHIII (like what KHI Sora, before being endgame KHI there, would have been. And I don't even think end-of-the-game-KHI-Sora could have handled the Keyblade War... And maybe having Kairi in some of Sora's KHI poses was to hint at her being like him there), but she can only get better now. And KHIII let her down so badly, that really the only way she can go is up. Plus, I sort of think KHIV was more on Nomura's mind while making III than III was. Maybe this buildup was always hinting at IV stuff with her (what, with her medals being the most powerful in KHUX, and KHUX being KHIV setting up, for example).
REALLY curious about the fact that Yuffie originally had another role (wonder what it was), and that Aya was supposed to be Aerith. Being from a horror game, I can see why they almost went with her, in the first game's Heartless apocalypse. It's also cute to know that Irvine was originally supposed to be Wakka:)
...Also wonder what Nomura would have done with Sora's merman design today.
Really interesting stuff!
Thank you for translating this, guys. I got my much needed KH fix for the day ^_^
Honestly reading all of this reminded me of how different KH1 is compared to all of the games that came afterwards. The first game always had that aesthetic that the later installments never managed to capture
This is great. I feel like some of Donald and Goofy's weapons weren't as inspired as Sora's.
So that legendary image is named "Premonition"...
Honestly reading all of this reminded me of how different KH1 is compared to all of the games that came afterwards. The first game always had that aesthetic that the later installments never managed to capture
It probably helped that KH1 was developed as a standalone title and not as part of a massive franchise. They didn't know if they'd be given the greenlit to make sequels, so they just went all out as if this was their one and only chance.
I’m still not over the crown charm comment. Don’t give me hope Nomura.
I’m still not over the crown charm comment. Don’t give me hope Nomura.
It is a fairly popular theory that Riku gave Sora the crow necklace. Even back in the day it was an idea floating around...believe!
Like everyone here, I'm REALLY praying that Nomura revisits this idea of playable Kairi, and developing her relationships with Riku and Sora more... I know I'm probably in the minority here (and I get it: KHIII burnt people bad when it came to her), but I DO think Nomura's planning something with her. I don't think they would have made certain decisions in III (making her and Sora literally bound to each other now), and be including her in stuff more than ever before, if he wasn't. Granted, you could say they were doing that even before KHIII, and look how that turned out... but realistically, they kind of had to have Kairi be a bit bad in KHIII (like what KHI Sora, before being endgame KHI there, would have been. And I don't even think end-of-the-game-KHI-Sora could have handled the Keyblade War... And maybe having Kairi in some of Sora's KHI poses was to hint at her being like him there), but she can only get better now. And KHIII let her down so badly, that really the only way she can go is up.
I'm certainly not gonna disparage anyone for having optimism, but that's what I thought before KH3. I thought, well no matter what they do it can't be worse than how Naruto handled Sakura throughout its long run. And then it was ?
Sure seems (again) like she has nowhere to go but up, but you gotta figure Nomura doesn't have the same plans as he did...*checks notes* 17 years ago. She has so much latent character potential to explore, increasingly more so with every game, but for god's sake she's not even in the secret ending or the DLC trailer.
So Sora's necklace was given to him by Riku, then?
I don't think so? I don't think it's implying that Riku would have given Sora his silver crown necklace that he wears even at the start of KH, but rather that Riku would've given Sora the black crown keychain... err necklace(?) at the bottom of Oblivion. So perhaps the black crown necklace from Oblivion originally belonged to Riku. It sounds like to me, that both boys once had one as a "best friends" sort of thing (that someone like their parents bought for them, or that maybe they bought themselves) and Riku probably stopped wearing his when his and Sora's rivalry grew. Perhaps there would have been a scene where Riku could have given it to Sora as a gesture of good will. Like, originally we were going to fight another version of Ansem possessing Riku's body in the endgame stuff, before he went full-on Ansem there. Maybe Riku would have fought back here, and in the moment he had brief control of himself thrown the keychain necklace(?) at Sora. But I'm just spitballing here.
[USER=38951]@Xagzan[/USER] didn't see your reply until I'd already responded to FudgementGuardian here. Sorry about that! I... get you. Believe me, I do. If I'm being honest, sometimes it's hard for me to have hope for her myself and I find myself falling into the pit of despair at times (what KHIII did to Kairi and what Game of Thrones did to Daenerys have not been good for my mental state this year). But at the same time, I DO think there are things to be hopeful about here. Call it stupid optimism... but being the opposite of Yuna here, I guess I'd rather have false hope than none. And I DO feel in a lot of ways that it can't get worse (at least Nomura can't kill Kairi for Sora's man pain anymore--hopefully--since he already did that at the climax of KHIII)... unless they just decide to leave her out completely. Which they could. But IDK. I feel like Nomura has now written himself into a corner with Kairi, since she and Sora's destinies are intertwined no matter what, where he HAS to do stuff with her. I'm not saying that stuff will be good, or that it'll even be frequent, but I don't think he's just literally going to completely keep her out of the next saga. For me, the Kairi situation is kind of how it's always been: there's a chance for some good and there's a chance for some bad, and more likely than not we'll get both. And as sad as it is to say, I'll take that... and continue to fight for her to be treated better while I'm at it (nicely to Square Enix, of course. Like doing fan art with her in it--actually doing things--so they know we want that). I'm also praying the extended version of the III secret ending (that we know we'll get in Re:Mind) will have at least some hint of Kairi in it, but we'll see.
I'm certainly not gonna disparage anyone for having optimism, but that's what I thought before KH3. I thought, well no matter what they do it can't be worse than how Naruto handled Sakura throughout its long run. And then it was ?
Sure seems (again) like she has nowhere to go but up, but you gotta figure Nomura doesn't have the same plans as he did...*checks notes* 17 years ago. She has so much latent character potential to explore, increasingly more so with every game, but for god's sake she's not even in the secret ending or the DLC trailer.
I have a theory about why Nomura shafted Kairi the way he did.
I think that Nomura noticed the fans were crying out for her to be more involved in the story, and he tried to go in that direction to please us, but at the end of the day, Nomura struggles to separate Kairi from this version he has of her in his head where she's just a damsel for Sora. I think perhaps Nomura originally did try to set Kairi up so she would have a deeper agency in KHIII, but as much as he wrote her in that mindset, when time came to actually have her do something, he buckled and retreated back to his fantasy of her being just a weak girl that needed to be saved. I can't get inside his head (who ever could?), so I can't be sure that was the mentality behind it, but honestly, I really can't fathom there being any other reason why they did what they did to her. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to just show her doing something of actual consequence besides passively using her princess powers to save Sora's heart. They could still even fix it in Re:MIND with just a few simple edits to a couple of endgame scenes to show her actually fighting back or even sacrificing herself to save Sora. He could have still had her die so that we could reach the same point at the ending. There was just so little in the way of having her do something that I can only imagine Nomura himself is resisting doing anything with her to protect his pristine image of her in his head.
I wonder if maybe Yuffie might’ve been intended to appear in one of the Disney worlds similar to Cloud originally. I could picture her in either Agrabah (as a thief) or perhaps Neverland. Neverland in KH1 always did feel abbreviated.
I wonder if maybe Yuffie might’ve been intended to appear in one of the Disney worlds similar to Cloud originally. I could picture her in either Agrabah (as a thief) or perhaps Neverland. Neverland in KH1 always did feel abbreviated.
Honestly, I think she was supposed to have been on Destiny Island. The comment about her body may mean they made her a little childlike so she could have fit in there too.
Aya was supposed to fill Aerith’s role? Interesting.
However, I’m suddenly more intrigued by the fact Irvine from 8 was supposed to be in KH1, but didn’t fit the “island” theme. …And now I’m picturing him in a Lone Ranger world.
Interesting... Before knowing this, my favorite keyblades in KH1 were the Nomura-designed ones, the ones I thought were pretty good were Tsukamoto's, and the ones I couldn't stand looking at were Ohdachi's (except for Lady Luck, but that one is just okay). Now I know why.
I have a theory about why Nomura shafted Kairi the way he did.
I think that Nomura noticed the fans were crying out for her to be more involved in the story, and he tried to go in that direction to please us, but at the end of the day, Nomura struggles to separate Kairi from this version he has of her in his head where she's just a damsel for Sora. I think perhaps Nomura originally did try to set Kairi up so she would have a deeper agency in KHIII, but as much as he wrote her in that mindset, when time came to actually have her do something, he buckled and retreated back to his fantasy of her being just a weak girl that needed to be saved. I can't get inside his head (who ever could?), so I can't be sure that was the mentality behind it, but honestly, I really can't fathom there being any other reason why they did what they did to her. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to just show her doing something of actual consequence besides passively using her princess powers to save Sora's heart. They could still even fix it in Re:MIND with just a few simple edits to a couple of endgame scenes to show her actually fighting back or even sacrificing herself to save Sora. He could have still had her die so that we could reach the same point at the ending. There was just so little in the way of having her do something that I can only imagine Nomura himself is resisting doing anything with her to protect his pristine image of her in his head.
I could be wrong on this--because again, who knows?--but I get the sense that Kairi was originally supposed to do more, as you're saying (and that's what all the buildup was for, why her in front of the mansion in the BbSFM secret ending exists, and maybe partly why assets for Radiant Garden existed in this game), but Nomura says in his foreword for Kingdom Hearts III that he rewrote the ending numerous times. And I think somewhere in there, Kairi's role changed and then it was too late to do damage control after they'd already built her up.
Why it changed, is anyone's guess. I suppose it could be because he sees her as a damsel, like you say... Or it could have been that he needed in his mind casualties in this War, a tragic romance, to be "shocking", or to try and be realistic (maybe he was even worrying Kairi would seem like a Mary-Sue if she was too good--if he has any concept of that kind of thing at all--but then dialed it back way too much the other way), or is now saving her character arc for the next saga: where a lot of people think she'll go through a guilty phase like Riku did after KHI, and it'll push her to finally develop (here's praying for that one). But it was something.
But it just kills me, because even if he didn't want Kairi to be the greatest thing in the world it didn't have to be this bad. I'm actually mostly okay with her fight scenes, because while people ignore some of her wins in this game (fighting alongside Lea against all those Heartless, destroying one Heartless in a cutscene, blocking Xion's attack and sending her flying, doing pretty good as a party member, etc.) she did have some. And it was probably a good balance of winnings and losses for a beginner. But if Nomura'd wanted to increase the wins a wee bit more, he could have even done that without going too crazy with it and it would have been fine. What really bothers me is the kidnapping and fridging. I'm never going to understand why Nomura just didn't have Kairi die in bringing Sora back: like, it cost her her life to do so or something. That would've gone over so much better, and would have made her end be a a heroic sacrifice (and more in line with Aerith and Luna, like he was probably trying to emulate) and made Sora doing the same for her all the more meaningful in the end. We didn't freaking need Sora to have man pain here. We really didn't. But here's hoping Re:Mind fixes some of these things. -sigh-
Edit: Back to the point about how I think things with Kairi might have gone differently, in one of the first endings Nomura wrote... Even though "Don't Think Twice" does have a melancholy tune to it, and Nomura is a troll... IDK. I still feels like that song is still way too happy for what we got with SoKai at the end? And it's made many theorize that originally we were supposed to get a happier ending with them.
I could be wrong on this--because again, who knows?--but I get the sense that Kairi was originally supposed to do more, as you're saying (and that's what all the buildup was for, why her in front of the mansion in the BbSFM secret ending exists, and maybe partly why assets for Radiant Garden existed in this game), but Nomura says in his foreword for Kingdom Hearts III that he rewrote the ending numerous times. And I think somewhere in there, Kairi's role changed and then it was too late to do damage control after they'd already built her up.
Why it changed, is anyone's guess. I suppose it could be because he sees her as a damsel, like you say... Or it could have been that he needed in his mind casualties in this War, a tragic romance, to be "shocking", or to try and be realistic (maybe he was even worrying Kairi would seem like a Mary-Sue if she was too good--if he has any concept of that kind of thing at all--but then dialed it back way too much the other way), or is now saving her character arc for the next saga: where a lot of people think she'll go through a guilty phase like Riku did after KHI, and it'll push her to finally develop (here's praying for that one). But it was something.
But it just kills me, because even if he didn't want Kairi to be the greatest thing in the world it didn't have to be this bad. I'm actually mostly okay with her fight scenes, because while people ignore some of her wins in this game (fighting alongside Lea against all those Heartless, destroying one Heartless in a cutscene, blocking Xion's attack and sending her flying, doing pretty good as a party member, etc.) she did have some. And it was probably a good balance of winnings and losses for a beginner. But if Nomura'd wanted to increase the wins a wee bit more, he could have even done that without going too crazy with it and it would have been fine. What really bothers me is the kidnapping and fridging. I'm never going to understand why Nomura just didn't have Kairi die in bringing Sora back: like, it cost her her life to do so or something. That would've gone over so much better, and would have made her end be a a heroic sacrifice (and more in line with Aerith and Luna, like he was probably trying to emulate) and made Sora doing the same for her all the more meaningful in the end. We didn't freaking need Sora to have man pain here. We really didn't. But here's hoping Re:Mind fixes some of these things. -sigh-
Edit: Back to the point about how I think things with Kairi might have gone differently, in one of the first endings Nomura wrote... Even though "Don't Think Twice" does have a melancholy tune to it, and Nomura is a troll... IDK. I still feels like that song is still way too happy for what we got with SoKai at the end? And it's made many theorize that originally we were supposed to get a happier ending with them.
The thing is, Nomura could EASILY fix this in ReMIND. You would only need two really simple edits in a couple cutscenes of the last level, and all would be good.
1) Nomura could change the scene with Kairi getting kidnapped to her running after Xemnas.
2) Include a short cutscene after the Xemnas/Ansem/Young Xehanort battle where, instead of Master Xehanort lifting up an unconscious Kairi and slaying her right then and there, change the cutscene so that Master Xehanort instead tries to go directly for Sora, maybe just with a simple little key-beam or what have you. Kairi wakes up, and just in the nick of time she jumps in front of the key-beam to save Sora's life, in turn sacrificing her own.
That's it. Nomura wouldn't have to change a single other thing about the entire game, or even about the ending, if he just did those two minor tweaks, and not only would it give Kairi agency, but it would fulfill her promise of keeping Sora safe. That's all he has to do. I don't know if he will, because this should have been an incredibly simple thing to get right in the beginning, and who knows if he really actually cares about Kairi anymore beyond just being a trophy for Sora. Here's hoping he has the sense to fix this, because even though I loved KH3 on the whole, this was the one part of the game that I really couldn't bring myself to swallow, it was so bad.
I know it's not encouraged to post in old threads but I was wondering what Ultimanias are these translated from?
Zettaflare
August 30, 2019 @ 07:28 pmOffline