A few weeks ago, Famitsu Weekly conducted an interview with Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded's Co. Producers, Kato and Ito. Although the pair did not reveal anything new, they provided an interesting view on the game's development.

About when and how did the Re:Coded project begin?

We were considering the fact that there were a lot of people that who wanted to try out Coded outside of the mobile phone version, so from about October of last year we started development together with H.a.n.d. on the DS version. (Kato)

Tell us the reason for including the new elements in the system areas.

A greater volume was being updated to the growth system from the mobile phone version, so to keep up with the stronger Sora it was necessary to update the system areas. So in place of the “Debug Mode” which was a strong puzzle element in the mobile version, we opted for a random dungeon style system area instead. (Ito)

The attributes like side-scroll action and 3D shooting stages that existed in the mobile version added a variety of ways to play so we made the best of them, so by using the system areas as the places of adventure we increased the play volume. (Kato)

Concerning the status matrix, do the status points finally have a maximum value? Also, what is the highest level you can achieve?

When the status effects reach their maximum points, the colors of the numbers change and they can’t increase. There is a maximum number of level-up chips that can be obtained, however if they are used smartly, the maximum level you can reach is 99. (Ito)

The Avatar Kingdom feature of this title utilizes the DS Wifi feature that activates when players pass by one another. Even if players don’t pass by, do built-in avatars appear?

Since the device can pick up various radio waves, it’s easy to encounter other avatars while out in the real world. There are various kinds of built-in avatars with messages included too, so please enjoy them. (Ito)

If you have any particular memories or episodes from during development of this title, please tell us about it.

This time development was handled with H.a.n.d. Thanks to everyone working on it tackling the project positively, the finished product is really good. (Ito)

For a moment we considered giving up the Scratch Card idea, but thanks to the Osaka staff’s efforts we were able to make it happen. (Kato)

Finally, any messages for the players of Re:Coded?

You can change your avatar’s outfits using the touch pen, so you can get quite detailed. You can use the pen to add tiny parts like “Cid’s toothpick” and other things make sure to check it out. (Ito)

Collecting trophies can earn you cheat panels which are useful, by all means make use of them! (Kato)

Despite it being short, it was a nice, sweet interview, it was also fun to learn about what they were thinking behind the scenes.