Tetsuya Nomura on Sora and Kingdom Hearts III
Character designer reveals some surprising secrets behind Sora's original design.
Posted Feb 06, 2010 at 04:24, By Anoop Gantayat
Tetsuya Nomura has two of Famitsu's top five characters.
Kingdom Hearts' main character Sora is the subject of the fifth installment of Famitsu's continuing tribute to its readers' favorite characters. This, of course, means an interview with the character's creator, Tetsuya Nomura. Nomura previously made some notable comments in an interview about the Cloud character a couple of issues back.
Here, Nomura shared a surprising secret about Sora's birth. The character's original design was more beast-like -- somewhat like a mix of a lion and human. He had a tail and beast-like ears. Instead of his keyblade weapon, he used a chainsaw. These beast-like features were implemented in order to make the character match the Disney characters.
In the end, the tail was removed because Final Fantasy IX's Zidane character already had a tail. After consulting with Disney's staff, the character was further modified. One example of the changes is the "overly straight" part of the character's designs being given more curvature. The shoes and pants are the most notable examples of this, says Nomura. The final form of Sora was made after a night's work.
Sora will be appearing in future titles, Nomura confirmed to the magazine. However, he said that he could not say just what those titles will be.
He provided a hint that the character's next appearance could come from either the Kingdom Hearts Tokyo team, which he noted is currently hard at work on Final Fantasy Versus XIII, or from the Osaka team, which made Birth By Sleep. The Osaka team has shown that it has the capability to handle the series, said Nomura.
Finally, a comment on Kingdom Hearts III. "Regarding III, fans and partners alike are pressing us for it, so we'll work to realize it as soon as possible."
But what about the chains, Nomura? What about the chains?
KEYWORDS
- Kingdom Hearts SeriesSeries
- Tetsuya NomuraPerson
- SoraCharacter
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Reader Comments (showing 5 of 5)
Cosign @ 2010.02.06, 5:59
They HAVE to learn to write stories that don't rely on players having played 1 and 2 (like they did with Chain of Memories. i.e KH1.5). The franchise is bizarre enough as it is with a cast of very appealing Japanese-like Bishounen (or unappealing, whichever suits your taste). I'd like to see this game draw an even greater crowd because the first game really opened up to the range of audience possible and was a huge success, but they've been shrinking ever since 1. Cease servicing the fans because, as a fan, I'm tired of it already.
anoop @ 2010.02.06, 6:27
In a past interview, Nomura said that they make sure that players can enjoy the stories of each Kingdom Hearts game without having played through the past titles.
yowvapa @ 2010.02.06, 6:30
It would be interesting on what platform that Kingdom Hearts III be, which we will not know until the game is further in development.
CarminaSuva @ 2010.02.06, 13:44
Sora's character design, the Kingdom Hearts series. Tetsuya Nomura's he
anoop @ 2010.02.06, 15:17
@CarminaSuva: It's almost a haiku.