I'm pretty sureKingdom Hearts is safe. Not sure about Versus. If I were president I would say"give us a playable demo for the public at a game expo or face cancellation ". Seriously, Wada was way too soft on Nomura

Kingdom Hearts is safe, though probably after the Xehanort Saga I doubt we'll be seeing anymore handheld titles unless they are outside of the main storyline and have little to no impact on it. SE is doing really fantastic in the handheld business as a 3rd party developer/publisher even if they don't think so, so I doubt they will actually step out of it even with fans complaining.

Anyways, considering yesterday's terrible events I am concerned over Matsuda's plan.

I wouldn't say Wada was too soft. He was too trusting of his developers. He gave them so much trust he didn't think to put pressure on them, or limits. Soft would imply he let the devs walk over him and not reprimand them. If that was so, they wouldn't have fired the XIV 1.0 team.

They aren't going to can Versus after seven years of money being funneled into it. That'd be an even worse decision, but considering Nomura's on anxious feelings over Versus I think it is easy to believe it is ready to be shown off in some capacity.

I could potentially see some handheld titles in future arcs, but only ones with heavier plot relevance like BBS or DDD. I don't think the series could maintain its popularity in future arcs if there is a heavier focus on side-games than there is on the main games.

I'd also wager that future arcs will have (slightly) less convoluted plots as a result.

This arc has developed a sort of an expectancy for each new KH game to have a plot twist or revelation by the end of the game, and after all these side-stories and plot establishing games, the Xehanort Arc has gotten extremely convoluted. Die-hard fans that have been following all of the games and do outside research to read the Ultimanias know the plot well enough, but casual fans barely have a clue as to what all has gone on in the story.

Anyways, considering yesterday's terrible events I am concerned over Matsuda's plan.

Likewise. Things are definitely going to be changing at Square-Enix. Hopefully it all turns out for the best.

I think Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy will be fine. Final Fantasy Versus seems the most likely candidate to be the "announcement" Square Enix announced they will have at E3 when they were at the Playstation 4 reveal conference. They came on and announced they will have a Final Fantasy related announcement at E3.

I think after Kingdom Hearts 3, if the Kingdom Hearts series continues, i believe the next one will be on a large console like Playstation.

The only series I am worried over really would be "The World Ends With You", I really hope they will make a sequel and not end abandoning it altogether, with this new shake up.

also I don't believe the Kingdom Hearts series plot is all that convoluted if you think about the stories from the games in their chronological order instead of the game release order.

I don't imagine the fanbase would be pleased with handheld games having heavy plot relevance. It was the reason people were pissed BBS was on the PSP, and KH3D on the 3DS. People seem to associate handhelds to being less important, and with the sales of KH3D it doesn't seem viable to continue placing plot relevant games on handhelds. KH3D had great sales as a 3rd party game, but to only reached less than half of their overall audience is not good. They need to start keeping it all on home consoles.

But people like Nomura, Yasue, (Tabata,) and Kando all like making fun games, handheld titles on the 3DS are selling well, so I can't imagine them dumping them altogether. Thus moving away from plot relevant games and probably to more non-relevant games. Then again either way fans will be pissed. :\

I'd also wager that future arcs will have (slightly) less convoluted plots as a result.

This is definitely a given. From the start Nomura has no idea if Kingdom Hearts would ever get a sequel, and from the way things were with the end of KH2 he probably would have been fine ending it there as well. These last few years have been an attempt to add on to a story that was never seriously thought out from the beginning. We'll see a more concise plot in the next saga...if there is a next saga. I hear Disney is cutting their loose strings as well.

Likewise. Things are definitely going to be changing at Square-Enix. Hopefully it all turns out for the best.

Definitely hoping the people who got laid-off will find jobs fast, and SE gets their act together in a way that benefits fans and the company.



SE should be very aware that there is a huge demand for a sequel. It'd be near idiotic to not do it after building up its popularity again with KH3D, Solo Remix, and adding the secret image into Solo Remix.

Like I said, it makes plenty of sense if you follow all the games, and it also helps to research the Ultimanias. I've been a fan of the series since the first game came out in 2002, so I understand the Xehanort Arc pretty well, but the plot has gotten so convoluted that it's really difficult for me to explain it all to other people, and there's so many games out there that it's unlikely that new fans will seek out all of the new games.

For quite a long time, it wasn't that hard to explain. Sure, it would be a rather wordy explanation, but not a difficult one to make. But by the time coded and Birth by Sleep came out, I noticed that it was becoming trickier. For example, I could say to someone new to the series: "Yeah, so Roxas is Sora's Nobody that was made when Sora sacrificed his heart in KH1, but Roxas has a heart because of a guy named Ventus that hid his heart inside Sora when Sora was just a boy." That's a bit complicated, and that's only explaining Roxas himself. Now imagine having to explain both why Sora sacrificed his Heart in the first place, then Ventus and his ordeal with Vanitas, and that's just focusing in on two of the 'Sora Clones'.

It's simple enough to talk about the series here, as most of the members here are die-hards that either have played all the games or follow the plot closely and are up to speed. Imagine trying to summarize the entire Xehanort Arc to someone completely new to the series. You can tell them just play KH1 and move on from there, but how many people will seriously seek out all of the following games:

- Kingdom Hearts 1 (PS2)
- Chain of Memories (GBA) or RE:Chain of Memories (PS2)
- Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)
- 358/2 Days (DS)
- Birth by Sleep (PSP)
- RE:Coded (DS) *
- Dream Drop Distance (3DS)

*I didn't list the original Coded because seriously, who would actually go through the struggle to get a Japanese cell phone game?
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Most people would just look for KH1 and KH2, and maybe RE:CoM. That said, S-E is being smart by releasing the REmix packages on PS3. It's a good way to collect most of the arc thus far onto one console for people to go through. However, that's still a LOT of gameplay and plot to take in. And it still doesn't change the fact that it's very difficult to explain the series thus far to newbies.

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We'll see a more concise plot in the next saga...if there is a next saga. I hear Disney is cutting their loose strings as well

Ok the link doesn't work, so I am a little confused? Disney cutting loose strings? Is it possible that the end of the Xenanort Saga could also mean the end of Disney being involved in future KH titles?

[INDENT] Ok the link doesn't work, so I am a little confused? Disney cutting loose strings? Is it possible that the end of the Xenanort Saga could also mean the end of Disney being involved in future KH titles? [/INDENT]

I think what user above meant is this article (I hope)...? :)
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/04/03/disney-closes-game-publisher-lucasarts.aspx

http://forums.khinsider.com/video-games/174224-disney-shuts-down-lucasarts.html

Disney has been downsizing and shutting down studios they own. I'm just saying that Disney is being really unpredictable and anything can happen.

Well LucasArts getting shutdown doesn't seem like it would be effecting the KH series in my mind. Though I have always wondered if the KH series would one day be able to leave Disney behind (eventually all the movies/lands will be used) and travel new worlds (Next saga perhaps?). Maybe some Sora/Mario action? Haha King Mario from Nintendoland? :cool: Now the "mushroom kingdom key" sounds like a good idea right there..

If disney is downsizing studios, then what does that mean for the kh series

Nothing. It means nothing. The series makes them money, the game is fully developed and mostly funded by SE so Disney isn't putting much money into it. I'm saying that in the future there may be a chance we don't see anymore KH because in the end it is still partially Disney's game with Disney properties and if Disney decides to call it quits they will.

Disney did say they plan to concentrate on licensing titles so KH may continue forever as well.

I wasn't scared until I started reading everyone else's comments. I hope nothing too drastic happens. :(

Do you really go around telling people a summary of the whole series? o_0
Dude, I never do that when introducing people to ANY series. I just give them a simple introduction to the story in the first game/movie/book/etc. Which is very simple.
"There's these three kids that live on this island named Sora, Riku, and Kairi. They have dreamt of going to other worlds and have even come up with a plan to seek other worlds. But one stormy night changes all that when these monstrous creatures known as Heartless appear and Sora, Riku, and Kairi disappear from the world. You continue to play as Sora who has arrived inside a town in another world. The game continues on as you go to different Disney worlds and meeting Disney characters, all the while you are searching for your missing friends Riku and Kairi."

I really don't see the need to explain it beyond that. If someone's not interested by then, then they're not interested. Why would you even want to explain the bit about Sora stabbing himself? That's in the climax of the first game. It'd be like summarizing Star Wars and cutting straight to the fact that Darth Vader is Luke's father.



Anyway, as far as this whole situation goes... I don't think anything too bad will happen. At this rate, I'm hoping this can only mean good things for Versus XIII. If it gets a release date for winter of this year for Japan, then we're golden.

Don't be worried. KH is a big franchise and won't be killed off by SE. Disney is known for axing stuff, but KH has been going on for ten years with little intervention by Disney and I doubt they will start to care anytime soon.

I would guess Kingdom Hearts would be safe considering the partnership with Disney. The thing im worried about is localization. I can live with not getting type 0 or bravly default, but if they stop localising ff and kh then that would be sad

I want the next saga to have more games on TV consoles and very little portable KH games. I like to have portable KH games, but I do agree that the number of handheld games in the series is ridiculous. I'm also glad that SE is under new management. Maybe now SE will take the KH series and the FF series seriously.

Just pointing out that handheld KH titles have nothing to do with them "not being taken seriously."

I hate this quote:

I've been hoping for SE to start focusing on new IP's instead of relying on FF to be their sole cash cow. However, this makes it sound like they're going to do the opposite and are solely going to focus on the franchises that they can milk.

@Yosuke Matsuda

What Works-

Kingdom Hearts 3

Final Fantasy Versus XIII (Or FFXV)

FFVII HD Remake


New Chrone Trigger games

Actually giving fans what they have been asking for


What Does not-

MMO's Yeah i hate to break it you ya but you're not Blizzard and you shouldn't try to be

Announcing a game way too early *Cough (FFXIII Versus)

Refusing to localize Type-0

Focusing way too much on the FFXIII series

Refusing to make a FFVII remake

Ignoring your Fanbase

I wouldn't be so hopeful.

Considering how much of a mess SE has been, I guess I'm happy that at least /something/ is going to happen to try and get things together. Whether or not this winds up successful is for the future to tell. Would be lying if I said I wasn't worried, but I'm going to hope that things brighten up.

Sure, so we can have people whine about any changes they make due for any legitimate reason with the technology and how games are designed nowadays compared to back then being the foremost.

They already have enough projects on their hands as it is and remaking FFVII would be a huge undertaking. It's better for them to focus on other things.

MMO's Yeah i hate to break it you ya but you're not Blizzard and you shouldn't try to be

Yeeaaahhh, no, Blizzard isn't the only company that makes MMOs. Strictly speaking, FFXIV has the biggest potential to net the most amount of profit. From what I understand, FFXI is nothing, but profit at this point.

Kingdom Hearts is safe but as for FF Versus XIII i'm not sure.

Keep in mind which team is working on Versus.

Ever heard of a "sunk cost?" It's when you pump money into something that in the end is too costly on not worth it to continue investment and there is no way to recover the assets used for whatever it is. Even with the time and resources that have been put into Versus over the last 7 years the company may well decide to cancel the project. (Using my economics professor's analogy) It's like when you go to college with a certain major in mind and take some classes related to it, then you decide that this direction is wrong for you; you don't just continue with the rest of that major's program because you've already invested so much into it, you "start over" in a new field of study. I do want the game to be finished and released, because it seems like a cool concept and it has KH-like gameplay; new management probably is what the team needs to actually accomplish the game. I'm just saying don't be surprised if it does get canned



I'm no so sure that quote means that they will just milk what they have. He simply said that they will do what is successful and not do what isn't, which is the way a business should be run. If that happens to mean producing only KH and FF titles, then so be it. A business is meant to make money for the people that are part of it, and regardless of whether you like how they approach it, they will do what is most profitable.

As for the direction of the company, I like that Matsuda is willing to make bold decisions for the best of the company, because it directly influences the games we see them produce. I don't know what kind of record he has, but my initial impressions are good. I hope that Square starts doing a better job with public relations and marketing. In the last 10 years, they have had a terrible habit of vaguely "revealing" news or announcing a project long before any substantial progress had been made on the title.

There's also the issue of spreading Kingdom Hearts too thinly over many different consoles. While I commend trying to reach a broader audience to boost overall buzz and sales of the KH series, the fact is that the majority of people who play KH, at least in the West, are more casual gamers who like Disney and are not going to go out of their ways to buy every single system just to get the whole story. I know there are people like us who are crazy fans who see a title and instantly decide to purchase whatever system it's on, but we are a minority here. I guess we'll see if it has been a profitable strategy if it continues following KH3.

I hope that someone puts a leash on Nomura. Kingdom Hearts has fallen way past believable.

Nomura was only a character designer for XIII, VII, and X. The writer and director for XIII is Motomu Toriyama. Toriyama was also the director FFX. And VII was directed by Kitase, who is the producer for XIII and was for X.

Any complaints you have over XIII should be aimed at Toriyama/Kitase and their leashes being loose.

Sorry, everyone praises Nomura for 7 so much, and his huge involvement with KH plus working on FF recently confused me. So... his character designs are neat -_-' ...ok, my disapproval is now directed at Toriyama. Thanks for the heads up! I've fixed my post.

I tend to associate the names with the projects, but I don't really pay attention to what role they actually play. I mostly look at the company as a whole. Please excuse my ignorance.

He did contribute ideas and is kind of like a figurehead of VII. Also the first FF game he got to do the main character designs for. Not to mention he was the one to direct the movie, but VII has been a mixed bag of talent through the years. xD

It's fine. We all do it. I didn't know Nomura wasn't the director of FFVII up until a few years ago xD

What's successful? More FF games!

A gaming company like SE shouldn't continue to use FF's name as a crutch to keep them going. They need to attempt to have some more innovation with new IP's, because honestly the bulk of FF fans are either angry or apathetic to the recent entries.

FF is a huge name in the gaming world obviously, but SE is too reliant on it and the name of the franchise is just so tarnished at this point. Versus better be a helluva game.

As for the direction of the company, I like that Matsuda is willing to make bold decisions for the best of the company, because it directly influences the games we see them produce. I don't know what kind of record he has, but my initial impressions are good. I hope that Square starts doing a better job with public relations and marketing. In the last 10 years, they have had a terrible habit of vaguely "revealing" news or announcing a project long before any substantial progress had been made on the title.

Honestly, I don't have much hope for SE starting to have better PR now and suddenly listening to all of their fans wants.

They've clearly realized their mistake by revealing Versus too early. DDD, KH1.5, FFX HD (the lack of word was remedied with the addition of X-2 imo), XIII-2, LRFF, etc, have all been announced and given reasonable release dates afterwords. Versus was a huge blunder but it's not one they've continued to repeat.

There's also the issue of spreading Kingdom Hearts too thinly over many different consoles. While I commend trying to reach a broader audience to boost overall buzz and sales of the KH series, the fact is that the majority of people who play KH, at least in the West, are more casual gamers who like Disney and are not going to go out of their ways to buy every single system just to get the whole story. I know there are people like us who are crazy fans who see a title and instantly decide to purchase whatever system it's on, but we are a minority here. I guess we'll see if it has been a profitable strategy if it continues following KH3.

Luckily Nomura has acknowledged this issue and we're now receiving the HD collections, which will allow people to familiarize themselves with at least 6 or the 7 current entries in the series.

As far as I'm aware, all KH titles have been profitable. The only game that didn't do as well as was hoped is DDD and that's just because there aren't many 3DS adopters yet.

I hope that someone puts a leash on Nomura. Kingdom Hearts has fallen way past believable.

KH was believable before?

I do believe that creating new (good) properties would be very good for Square and the gaming audience. They did a bit of expanding with the likes of Nier, but that didn't do too well. However, producing games like Tomb Raider seems to have been a good move. And Bravely Default, while Japan only, is an example of something new that was successful. Hopefully more, new creative IPs will happen, and worldwide releases on most, if not all, games would be excellent.

We also need to consider "old" fans versus "new" fans. There are plenty of modern gamers who really like FF13. Just because the "traditional" fan doesn't like it doesn't mean it's bad for the company. It's possible that old outweighs the new, but the 13 games have sold well and it seems like Lightning Returns has good buzz from its fans (I am one who enjoys playing that series)(also the semi-recent FF12 is my fav). Still, over saturating the market with Final Fantasy titles will probably cause an FF fatigue that could seriously hurt them; Lightning has also overstayed her welcome.

Maybe Versus should have been something other than FF. It probably is using the brand as a crutch. Same with Type-0. Those could've been new franchises or simple spin-offs with some FF elements without being a "Final Fantasy."

I would still put FFX HD in line with the Versus announcement. Nothing for nearly 2 years is ridiculous even with the X-2 announcement. It doesn't make me want the games any less, it's just a poor decision to promote games in this way.

As for believability of KH: Kingdom Hearts: simple and believable. COM and KH2: A bit of a stretch, but I can accept this. Days: I'm sorry, what did you say Xion is? BBS: a step in the right direction, but Vanitas and Ventus are still stretching. DDD: WHAT? Really?
They're still fun, and the Disney worlds are great, but the story frustrates me at this point. It's a game with Disney characters. It shouldn't be convoluted.

New IP's need a lot of advertisement or else they're going to do poorly sales wise. If no one knows what it is, chances are they won't be willing to purchase it on a whim (of course there are always exceptions but it's not often). Nier is a wonderful example, hell, even TWEWY is a great original IP. I agree, Tomb Raider "Reborn" was a wonderful decision on their part. Not only for SE, but for the TR franchise as well. SE can make really great games when they give themselves the creative freedom to move beyond FF.

We also need to consider "old" fans versus "new" fans. There are plenty of modern gamers who really like FF13. Just because the "traditional" fan doesn't like it doesn't mean it's bad for the company. It's possible that old outweighs the new, but the 13 games have sold well and it seems like Lightning Returns has good buzz from its fans (I am one who enjoys playing that series). Still, over saturating the market with Final Fantasy titles will probably cause a FF fatigue that could seriously hurt them; Lightning has also overstayed her presence.

To be quite honest, I'm one of the people who enjoyed XIII as well. But the small handful of fans like yourself and I do not outweigh the bevy of people who despite XIII, so here's hoping that we can make LRFF at least somewhat profitable.

Maybe Versus should have been something other than FF. It probably is using the brand as a crutch. Same with Type-0. Those could've been new franchises or simple spin-offs with some FF elements without being a "Final Fantasy."

Type-0 and Versus both use the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology though, so they couldn't really be anything but FF. Even Agni's Philosophy (SE's tech demo from E3 and the Playstation conference) would be a pretty cool new IP.

I would still put FFX HD in line with the Versus announcement. Nothing for nearly 2 years is ridiculous even with the X-2 announcement. It doesn't make me want the games any less, it's just a poor decision to promote games in this way.

We didn't get anything for two years but then we got the news that it would be coming out this year with the sequel included. It wouldn't have hurt to throw something at us in between that time, but it's hardly comparable to Versus.

As for believability of KH: Kingdom Hearts: simple and believable. COM and KH2: A bit of a stretch, but I can accept this. Days: I'm sorry, what did you say Xion is? BBS: a step in the right direction, but Vanitas and Ventus are still stretching. DDD: WHAT? Really? They're still fun, and the Disney worlds are great, but the story frustrates me at this point. It's a game with Disney characters. It shouldn't be convoluted.

Wait, how can CoM be believable if Xion's true nature was the problem with Days when CoM is the game that introduced the Replica program? rofl. Honestly, the entire notion of Kingdom Hearts is so off the wall and ridiculous that you really just have to lose yourself in it. The great part of KH1 was that you just went with the flow while not asking too many questions.

I have a feeling that advertising and PR are both part of some major changes coming from the "zero-based budgeting." He obviously recognizes that the workings of the company have been bad recently. I could be wrong, though. It's all speculation.

I had completely forgotten about the replicas in COM. For me the difference is that while COM made it more like a robot that wanted "self," Days [SPOILER=]had memories leaking from Sora to Xion and her appearance was perceived differently for each person[/SPOILER] The COM replica was also not the focus of an entire story.

PR and advertising are the places they usually cut from first.

Repliku was a big part of CoM but definitely not as focal as Xion.

I don't use spoiler tags often, so my post was messed up. It's fixed now. It's not completely about the significance.

Anyway, good back and forth. I like discussing business :D Until any new revelations are revealed, I'm done lol

Oh, don't worry about spoiler tags for any of the games except 1.5 (which we're only tagging the new HD Days scenes). They've all been out long enough that their respective spoiler bans have been lifted!

Ok, cool! I didn't know there were new scenes in the Days "movie." I haven't payed too much attention to that part since KHFM and RE:COM have been my main hype, and you know how I feel about the story in Days.... What kind of additions? Hole fillers or more character development?

Unfortunately, nothing so wonderful. A lot of scenes were animated that weren't before and there were some new scenes. Also, Xion with her hood up is terrifying in HD!

Feel free to VM me if you have any more questions or want to chat about it! :3 Just so we don't derail the thread.

If I think of anything I will! Good thing I'm not in charge of thread directions; the entire thing would be my easy to derail train of thought ;P

Something I would like Square to never do again is recruit a popular song artist to replace an original song just to market the game. Using Leona Lewis in FF13 probably did more harm than good for the game's rep, and it increased its cost. I seriously doubt that her inclusion made any positive dent in the sales of the game. "My Hands" is a nice song, but I would rather have had the original composition. If Matsuda has control over the actions of western divisions of Square, he needs to prevent stuff like that.

On the subject of IP's, I am a strong believer in that Square Enix needs to make new ones. Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider have both been amazing games and I have been so proud of myself for taking the risk to get both games(I am terrible with the gore/horror/shooter genre) and I praise Square Enix for taking the reigns for those IP's and helping them get released.
And I'm certain that, given a competent development team, some good writers with fresh ideas and a clean slate, a new Japanese IP would be very well received.

I think they added in a scene where Xion looks into the crystal ball in Castle Oblivion and discovers who she truly is. It's a short scene, and there is no dialogue, but the amount of detail in her eye is just beautiful.


Again, I don't know. I loved "Real Emotion" in Final Fantasy X-2, I think it's a cute song. And actually "My Hands" brought me into the whole Final Fantasy XIII. When I first watched the trailer with that song, I was in love.
It actually convinced me to buy her album "Echo" in an airport in France while I waited for my plan xD

"Real Emotion" is different in that in was always part of the game. However, it's cool that Square was able to simultaneously hook you on FF13 and Leona Lewis. Good game and great artist. If there are more people like you, then good job Square! The FF "fanbase" is just so negative about everything I just assumed it was a failed marketing tactic. BUT imo the song should have strictly been for advertising, not as a theme song replacement.

[strike]I also love "New World" by Charice.[/strike]

Personally, I find all the music they choose for the ending to be perfect.

That scene is in the original, with little dialogue.

There are three big square Enix game series Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom hearts now I don't know what plans the new square president has for company, but I do that he'll end up distributing awesome games for the three major series

Hopefully Square Enix has brighter days ahead them. I am excited to see what this new president will bring to the table. Hopefully we'll see Versus coming out soon!