Tetsuya Nomura, Director of the Kingdom Hearts series, whose hobbies include being interviewed constantly, has once again been interviewed. The Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Ultimania has revealed a second interview with Nomura as well as the first which can be read here.

As the Re:Coded Ultimania is considered a guide of sorts, the interview contains spoilers that may ruin the game for some fans. If you do not wish to possibly ruin the story for yourselves then i suggest you do not read on.

You have been warned.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Tetsuya Nomura Interview

Out of the three titles he released on the mobile phone, the story of the Kingdom Hearts series finally proceeds to this new phase of gaming. Now director Tetsuya Nomura sheds light on everything, from Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded to the future of the series.

The volume of content increases compared to the original mobile phone version!

First off, please tell us what inspired you to remake the mobile phone game Kingdom Hearts Coded for the Nintendo DS?

Nomura: The biggest reason was because there were many people who were unable to play the game due to the limited platform it was released on. There are many fans of the Kingdom Hearts series overseas as well, and the original platform Coded was released for is completely unavailable for them. Therefore, I figured if it was released for the Nintendo DS, then more people would be able to play it.

358/2 Days, Birth by Sleep, and Coded were all made for handheld gaming devices and seemed to be three side stories. How is Coded placed among them?

Nomura: Since it had communication components, I wanted to make it a title that was fluid on its own. It was linked with the Kingdom Hearts mobile service called Avatar Kingdom as well, so there were various developments in its design to include those elements. If the mobile phone’s internal hardware was improved more, we planned to make it so it could be played online.

So why did you choose to port it to the Nintendo DS?

Nomura: The main reason was because it’s the most popular handheld gaming device. When the project was beginning, we considered releasing the episodes for download via WiiWare; however, we wanted to make it accessible to as many people as possible. Internationally the Nintendo DS has sold the most units, so we chose it. But once we decided the platform would be the DS, we were still planning on porting Coded as it was. When we considered where we should request help with the development, naturally the company h.a.n.d. that helped before with 358/2 Days came to mind. The question then became, “If we ask h.a.n.d., since they already have the know-how of making a 3D Kingdom Hearts game, would it be better to make a full 3D remake?”

So it was after deciding to work with h.a.n.d. that it became a 3D remake?

Nomura: Yes. I think if it had been with another company the thought wouldn’t have crossed our minds, but we knew that h.a.n.d. was highly capable since working with them on 358/2 Days.?When we first asked, we said,“Remake it roughly as it is.” After that, the volume wasn’t full yet so we changed to say, “Do it in full 3D and put in the panel system arrangement from Days”. Despite this, taking away the time it took to actually produce the remake, the development period took about a year to complete. The developers from h.a.n.d. said it was nearly impossible, but they gave it their best.

In the process of producing the game, the scale of the game got bigger then.

Nomura: When I first wrote out the proposal, it summarized the changes that brought Coded to Re:Coded. Ideas steadily came to me as I itemized the things I wanted to include like the panel system and the full 3D aspects. I was thinking, “Maybe we can do this, too” and “Maybe we should try this”. In addition, when the interesting plans came together, the feeling overall from our two co. directors Jun Katou and Hiroyuki Itou, as well as our planning supervisor Tai Yasue from the Osaka production team was “Well, let’s do that, too”. As a result, the volume increased quite a bit.

The Osaka team also participated in production?

Nomura: The Osaka team took care of the electronic communication aspects. Since there were so many plans, h.a.n.d. weren’t the only ones who had a hand in production, but the Birth by Sleep team from Osaka joined as well. We advanced by cooperating together.

What kind of meaning was put into the title of Coded?
Mr.Nomura, every title in the Kingdom Hearts has a strong meaning, what kind of meaning does “Coded” entail?

Nomura: If we compared them all the time, then they don’t hold a clear meaning to any extent. Overall, the title comes from the word “code” meaning something to be deciphered, indicating that the mystery of the message left by Namine in Jiminy’s Journal leads to a journey. Additionally, unlike the titles up until now, the developments aren’t as dramatic with strong ups and downs. Instead they were distributed in short periodic episodes, each one designed to leave an impression with a mysterious keyword. Also since the Data World is the setting, I wanted the title to be associated with a very digital atmosphere.

The initials of the 3 titles Birth by Sleep, Coded, and Days in short lined up are BCD. Was this intentional?

Nomura: I didn’t think of that at all; afterwards I was surprised when it was mentioned. With the Final Fantasy VII Compilation works it was done intentionally, however this time it was really done by accident. When I heard that if you considered Avatar Kingdom, it becomes ABCD, I had really surprised even myself! (Laughs)

Speaking of an adventure taking place in the Data World, there are many terms relating to computers as a characteristic of this title.

Nomura: Since the time Coded was becoming Re:Coded, I was very conscious of putting in computer terminology. At first I worried, “Won’t this give a difficult impression?” But since this was my only opportunity to put these sorts of vocabulary into Kingdom Hearts, I decided to go through with it.

As the director, what sort of story did you intend Coded to be?

Nomura: I had decided I wanted to make a compact story, not something extravagant like the other titles in the series so far. In addition to that, I wanted a story that stayed within the Data World. Furthermore, the last objective with the scenarios was that I wanted the stories to flow with the other two titles Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days.

What was the reason for making Data Sora the main character?

Nomura: One reason was because I wanted to use Sora’s Kingdom Hearts I design. Another reason was so that those who were playing the series for the first time could familiarize with the main character, even though it might wrack the avid fans brains a bit. For the players who don’t know the back story, making Sora start at Level 1 was necessary so they’d be in the same position as the hero. If the real Sora was the main character, then the conditions dealing with the way Kingdom Hearts II’s adventure had ended would be heavy content, thus instead Data Sora was introduced.

Different then in 358/2 Days, in Re:Coded the cutscenes are shown using still images to convey conversations, what was the reason for this?

Nomura: At first we were going to use the same polygons like in 358/2 Days to express the conversations. However, besides the labor it took, the player’s reactions weren’t satisfactory. Dealing with the DS’s capabilities, no matter what we did the displayed images, there was a limit to how much their facial expressions could be expressed. That being the case, being able to see the characters nicely took priority, so we went ahead and used 2D pre-renders (a HD image made beforehand) that displayed their expressions better. Which way is better, it’s up for the players to decide. There was the opinion though that we should try using the opposite approach of 358/2 Days and try 2D styles in Re:Coded.