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| Liz Maas |
On Xehanort, the reasoning behind the compilation and more.
10.10.12 - 7:29 PM
The recent announcement of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix for PlayStation 3 was the first and last we'd heard on the title. The first questions many asked were 'why not Kingdom Hearts II?' and 'why is this dated but Final Fantasy X HD isn't?'
Tetsuya Nomura explained the latter in a recent interview that the Kingdom Hearts compilation had been decided upon first. In fact, it's been in the works for quite some time, but with a few hangups, like only having two programmers on the project for a long time. As for the lack of Kingdom Hearts II, Nomura hinted that another compilation may come, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone anyway.
Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix will also not have a secret movie at the end, which is traditional to a Kingdom Hearts game. This shouldn't be surprising since, well, there are no new games in the bundle. While it contains Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories HD, it will also only have the cutscenes (in HD, of course) from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Originally, the latter was supposed to get a remake until other projects got in the way. The scenes will, however, contain about 70% of the story with new voice acting and 'supplemental text' for the worlds - in all, there is 2-3 hours worth of material.
Xehanort's story, which much of the series has been about so far, is now being officially dubbed the 'Dark Seeker chapter.' Development is nearly done, with the team deciding how to implement trophies. They also implemented a camera based on that of Kingdom Hearts II, and special actions are used with the triangle buttons.
Because Kingdom Hearts is usually spread out over so many systems, Nomura hopes that the compilation(s) would make the games more easily accessible to newcomers to the ten-year-old series. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix is set for a PS3 release in Japan sometime next year.
