Alright, I find this necessary since what we talk about most is of course...*Sigh* Kingdom Hearts. It's a great RPG so just let this thread be for general discussion of this RPG. Talk about Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and the upcoming additions to the series 358/2 Days, Birth By Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts III: Keyblade Wars. Post videos, pictures, and of course discuss anything related to the game, just so we don't have to spread the discussion in numerous topics.
Well to start things off, I have some news that may shock those who have like Utada Hikaru's work with doing the theme for both Kingdom Hearts I and II.
Utada Hikaru may not even be writing the Kingdom Hearts III theme...I was really looking forward to hearing the new theme when it came out for III but I guess not...
Here's what Utada had to say:
Â?Â?Are you going to be involved in the soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts III?
Utada: I donÂ?t think so, I donÂ?t know. Probably not. Mr. Utada: We said no to Disney. Utada: OhhÂ?
Â?You turned down Disney?
Mr. Utada: Yeah. Because they donÂ?t pay.
Â?Because they donÂ?t pay, yeah. My parents work for Disney World, so IÂ?m sure theyÂ?d be in agreement with you on that.
Utada: They can have a drink over that [all laugh].
Â?Okay, so going back a little bit, the fact that Exodus was released in English also in Japan, was that a conscious decision? Was there ever any pressure either on your label over there, or from other people to say, Â?Well, if you do Japanese versions of these songs, theyÂ?ll be so much more accessible, many more people will get to that?Â?
Utada: Uh-huh. Well, from the beginning, yeahÂ?before doing that contract, IÂ?d done a few songs where I had to translate, like for Kingdom Hearts, I had to make an English version of the song Â?Hikari,Â? which became Â?Simple and Clean,Â? and then also for Kingdom Hearts II, I had to make the Japanese version which was the song Â?PassionÂ? and then the English version that was Â?Sanctuary,Â? and that was so hard, itÂ?s justÂ?and it felt strainedÂ?and as a result, IÂ?m happy that I worked hard to do those, because those English versions are really good and Â?Simple and Clean,Â? I think, is a really good song, and peopleÂ?most of the people that know me here, they know me for thatÂ?but itÂ?s not ideal for me as a writer, toÂ?because, actually, I changed the melodies for Â?Simple and CleanÂ? and Â?Hikari,Â? because when you change the language youÂ?re singing in, the same melodies donÂ?t workÂ?and as a writer, itÂ?s just very frustrating to have, likeÂ?I wrote these melodies for Japanese words, and to have to write in English for that, itÂ?s just not right. And then, so, for this, uh, this contract with Island Def Jam, in the beginning I separated it to this English language album, and I donÂ?t do Japanese translations. I just, my integrity as an artist just would not take that, could not take that.Â?
Disney's being a bit cheap right now. Sure Utada seems a bit whiny about getting her music to the U.S but I could see how it would strain her. She says that she feels uncomfortable changing her music and she doesn't want to do it without being properly paid. It's like telling someone in America to change whatever they did into Japanese.
News on KH:Birth by Sleep Now we know KH:Birth by Sleep is on its way to the PSP and you may or may not know is that it takes place before KH I and II. Examine the video below to see the main characters of the game.
The three keyblade weilders are Aqua(magic and acrobatic specialist), Terra(Strength of the group), and Ven(Speed-orientated). The story behind these characters are unclear and if you've noticed Ven looks like Roxas. We do know Ven is somehow linked to Sora, or at least the other way around, but the reason is unknown. The main baddie will be Xehanort, no not the one you know all ready, and he will have an army of unbirths, the new set of enemies. The origin of unbirths, King Mickey's role, and the importance of each character, these connections are unclear. Each main character will have their own story and play style, but anything else about the game is secret. There have been no major announcements about relations of the characters, Xehanort and his cohort, the storyline, or the keyblades. We'll just have to wait, play, and see.
Yeah, I was aware of the time this was taking place, it was pretty obvious as well because of the scenery of the trailer. These are the original Keyblade Masters.
Aqua - Kairi
Terra - Riku
Ven - Roxas/Sora
And yes, the main bad guy is and older version of Xehanort along with his apprentice who is the figure you see as my avatar.
I'm glad each character will have their own story and play style just to keep me in sync with the game, give me the eagerness to keep up with the story itself, and more.
I'm looking forward its release more so than 358/2 Days which is coming to us soon.
NOTE - Xehanort's apprentice has the costume and matching Keyblade, it should remind you of Riku's dark side with his costume and weapon.
But overall, the Birth By Sleep trailer is very epic and the game shall be very exciting.
With the Birth By Sleep Trailer being posted, I shall post the trailer for 358/2 Days.
NEW SPECIAL TRAILER (Not in English but translated for you)
Aaagh! If I have to wait any longer I'm going to explode of anticipation. I've followed the series since the beginning and now that there are so many more doors opening I'm overwhelmed. All these trailers can't quench my thirst for the real thing.
How much longer is the wait? If you have any releases dates share them whenever possible. Don't forget any breaking news to keep the content coming.
Yeah, I only know about the release of 358/2 Days. Birth By Sleep isn't revealed yet, and Kingdom Hearts III doesn't have really any information of its release, not even a trailer.
Release Date for 358/2 Days : 9/29/09
Not too bad, especially when school starts back up to kill the time.
And yeah, there are a lot of doors being opened up with Kingdom Hearts now, the fans are hearing about three games already, I find that exciting. Nothing like this has happened in quite some time, with any game really.
I'll be looking for into Kingdom Hearts so I'll try and post some more information later so just hang in there.
Either that or maybe look up some more RPGs we'll be interested in like more information on Mass Effect 2 if you can find more, or any other RPG we don't talk about as much on here.
This isn't really new news but if you didn't know this I suggest reading this because it's pretty interesting.
"In an interview with Famitsu, Square Enix character designer and Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura revealed some secrets about the early history of the franchise.
The ensemble-cast design of the games, for example, stemmed from a disagreement between Square and Disney over the protagonist: Â?Square wanted to make a game starring Mickey Mouse,Â? Nomura said, as translated by 1UP, Â?and Disney wanted a Donald Duck title. Meanwhile, I wanted neither.Â? The resulting compromise was Â?a game featuring lots of characters without focusing on any particular one.Â?
The Keyblade weapon, despite being an early component of the game, was not NomuraÂ?s first idea for a signature weapon. Â?Actually,Â? he said, Â?the first weapon I showed Disney was a chainsaw. It was this chainsaw-like weapon that I had a rough sketch of when I first showed my concepts to Disney.Â?
Disney reacted pretty much like you would expect Disney executives to react to the heavy use of a chainsaw in a game about Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck: Â?Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room. Dead silence. And I thought Â?No, I guess this wouldnÂ?t work, huh?Â?Â?
It occurred to us that the chainsaw was the perfect Nomura weapon, because the teeth on the chain are reminiscent of those on a zipper."
The Keyblade was once originally a chainsaw and the game starring Mickey Mouse...Interesting, we could have easily been playing around with a chainsaw.
Heh could you inagine that? It's rediculous almost. It would be Mickey's Madworld with color, instead of black and white. Actually that could make an old cartoon feeling, since it's Micket and all.
It makes me crack up too. Why would Square want Mickey as a lead but Disney wanted Donald as the lead. I couldn't see the game as it is with Donald or Mickey being Sora.
Mickey falling in love with Kairi, Donald being best friends with Rikku. It's kind of awkward thinking about it. Who would be the magician if Donald has a keyblade/chainsaw.
Goes to show that not every game was planned to be what it is now.
This new trailer I found, it isn't in the best quality because I believe it was recorded directly from one of the beta testers but it's translated so that's a good thing. It's really great.
I know for a fact I'm going to LOVE playing as Terra, they way his combos and magic looks is amazing. It somewhat reminds me of how Leon uses his Gunblade when he shoots fire out of it.
I'm kind of getting an idea here. The new guys aren't darkness or light they're in the middle, nothing. Nothing goes on forever too. The enemies are unbirths, which means they're not supposed to be alive. It's very possible. Sora just might be Ven reincarnated which explains Ven's and Roxas' likelyness, or he could be related to Sora somehow. I know Sora is somehow related to Ven and I bet Rikku is related to Terra, they're friends after all.
Just for the heck of it, Aqua is related to Kairi in a way. That actually makes sense. The first three originanal keyblade weilders were friends and now that Sora, Rikku, and Kairi all have keyblades. You never know.
It is true, I explained this in another thread but you may not have remembered what I said or you skimmed or skipped my post.
Terra (like terrain) is referring to earth, which they are comparing to Riku.
Aqua (as you know water) is compared to Kairi. The name Aqua would fit Kairi because if you think about it, Kairi moved to the island, she wasn't there all her life like Sora and Riku. In the opening of the game Kingdom Hearts I and II, you see her looking into the water and at it, so she seems like she's interested in the water, but that's my personal opinion.
And yes, Ven relates to both Sora and Roxas. Since Roxas came out of Sora, it would make sense to include both of them in Ven. Maybe there will be an question answered while playing Birth By Sleep to figure out why Ven looks exactly like Roxas.
The game is about the original Keyblade Masters which as you said, Terra, Ven, and Aqua, and of course Mickey makes an appearance, along with Xehanort and (the seeker of darkness) his apprentice (name I don't know).
The apprentice is the character I'm most interested in. He's the character obviously resembling my avatar, and he also seems like the older version of the Riku Replica. Who knows, in this game he could be considered Terra's Replica. I love his costume and Keyblade nonetheless.
Sorry, I didn't see the thread. I like your explanations, it makes sense. I really am waiting for this game to get some answers. There's so much mystery behind all this and I bet you that the game will hold some secrets for Kingdom Hearts III. Somehow the games will all relate to each other.
Looking back, I never realized that KH would have such an involving story. At first it was just a boy with a keyblade, but now it has really bloomed into something totally different. There's so much more depth.
Yeah, for a while I wasn't liking Kingdom Hearts because I remember being stuck early on when I first got it and it annoyed me, but after the story unraveled itself I fell in love with yet another RPG that would soon become my personal favorite.
I was also oblivious to the fact Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories came out in English for the US, I never got it because it really wasn't a must has since I had Chain of Memories and beat it 100%.. Re: was just a remake of Chain of Memories for the PS2 version, but it looked awesome.
@BoP - Yeah, Kingdom Heart's difficulty was there and Kingdom Hearts II definitely had a drawback of it, although I enjoyed playing II more.
I got stuck in the Alice in Wonderland world once, because it was like a maze. I thought KH was more dificult than KH II, but KH II is more fun. I think it was because it had a bit more story and it just seemed cooler.
That's the same place I got stuck, most likely where everyone's first problem was.
@BoP- Yeah, people get more of an understanding for things when older so if you tried it again as you said, you'd do a lot better. I believe my first KH experience was when I was 10.
Well although this isn't 358/2 Days or Birth By Sleep, it's still KH and it's the Final Mix released in Japan.
