how the kingdom hearts franchise was made skypillar

by Dameon O'Reilly Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago

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How did Kingdom Hearts get made?

The first Kingdom Hearts began development in February 2000. It was directed by Tetsuya Nomura and produced by Shinji Hashimoto, who had conceived the idea when he met with a Disney executive in an elevator. Square and Disney had previously worked in the same building in Japan.

How did Tetsuya Nomura come up with Kingdom Hearts?

Nomura first heard of the game during a discussion between Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi regarding the use of the character of Mickey Mouse in a video game. He was inspired to work on Kingdom Hearts by Nintendo's platforming game Super Mario 64.

How successful is the Kingdom Hearts franchise?

The series consists of thirteen games available for multiple platforms and future games are planned. Most of the games in the series have been positively received and commercially successful. As of March 2022, the Kingdom Hearts series has shipped more than 36 million copies worldwide.

Who came up with the idea for Kingdom Hearts?

As fate would have it, Hashimoto ended up getting on an elevator with a key Disney executive and, with no one else around, Hashimoto went for it. He pitched the partnership idea and by the end of the elevator ride, he'd somehow secured what would eventually become Kingdom Hearts.

How much did Disney charge for Sora?

Ultimate owners who've bought the second Fighter Pack will automatically get Sora for no additional cost, but Sora can be bought individually for $5.99.

Why is Nomura obsessed with belts?

He went on to say that he'll actively fight against people telling him not to do something, thus explaining why he's just added more belts and zippers to his designs as time went on: “I'm not the type of person that would shrink down when people tease me about it,” Nomura said.

How old is Sora in KH4?

Sora's 17 in KH4. He was 14 in KH1. Exactly 365 days pass between KH1 and KH2, making him 15 in KH2.

Who owns Sora Disney or Square?

Sora and the Kingdom Hearts IP are 100% owned by The Walt Disney Company. Square Enix are only the developers!

What age is Sora?

Sora continues to be 14 years old from Kingdom Hearts through 358/2 Days until Kingdom Hearts 2 where he is 15. He is still 15 when the events of Dream Drop Distance on 3DS occur.

How does Disney feel about Kingdom Hearts?

Disney Still Cares About The Kingdom Hearts Games It seems as though the inclusion of the Kingdom Key D was something of a group effort, with various other artists on the Mickey Mouse team helping design the shot and ensure the Kingdom Hearts reference stuck around through all levels of production.

Why is Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts?

Mickey Mouse, formally referred to as The King, Your Majesty, or King Mickey, is the king of Disney Castle and a recurring character in the Kingdom Hearts series. Originally a ship's hand working with Captain Pete at Timeless River, Mickey became a student of the Keyblade Master Yen Sid.

Is Kingdom Hearts 4 confirmed?

We've known for a few months now that Kingdom Hearts 4 is in development but that doesn't mean it feels any more real. Initially revealed during the Kingdom Hearts 20th-anniversary event in Tokyo last April, we've all since been desperate to find out more about Sora, Donald, and Goofy's latest adventure.

What was the inspiration for Kingdom Hearts?

Nomura then set out to further develop the story. The name Kingdom Hearts was originally inspired by Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park, which back then had just recently opened in Florida.

Did Square Enix lose the source code for Kingdom Hearts?

Since the release of original Kingdom Hearts (2002) the original source code of the game had been lost which meant developers had to recreate the code by extracting data from retail copies of the game.

What is the story of Kingdom Hearts?

Some fondly look back on the frantically fun combat system, while others still jam to the poppy tunes courtesy of Utada Hikaru. Whatever it is that keeps players coming back, the series stands as one of the more exciting crossovers in all of media. It fuses an eclectic mix of Disney properties and Final Fantasy characters, all of which revolves around a central cast of original heroes and villains. At the end of the day, though, Kingdom Hearts tells a story about light versus dark, good versus evil.

How does Kingdom Hearts 2 start?

Kingdom Hearts 2 begins by putting players in the role of Roxas, who wakes up in (a simulated) Twilight Town. He and his friends try to save up some money to go on a trip during their summer vacation. While doing part-time work, he is approached by some Nobody minions, and he quickly unravels the simulation around him. Roxas discovers a mansion that houses a secret lab, where DiZ and Naminé are working on Sora's memories. The last piece of the puzzle is merging Roxas and Sora, which Roxas eventually accepts.

What happened to Ventus and Vanitas?

Meanwhile, Ventus fights Vanitas in his mind, vanquishing the darkness at the cost of fracturing his heart. Ventus' heart now recuperates within the heart of Sora, the series' main protagonist.

Where did Xehanort get the X-blade?

To forge the X-blade, Xehanort needed a clash of light and dark at the Keyblade Graveyard, the battleground of the legendary Keyblade War. Four years before Birth by Sleep, he extracted all the darkness from the heart of Ventus, who was apprenticing under him at the time. This created a new entity, Vanitas, who became a ruthless killer and hated Ventus for being a weaker version of himself.

Who saved Sora?

Riku awakens and goes to save Sora. When he arrives, the young Xehanort reveals that this timeline's Xehanort was indeed revived, and he has gathered 11 vessels, with Sora intended as the 12th. These bodies will house parts of Xehanort's heart to become the new Organization XIII, who will fight seven Keyblade wielders to create the new X-blade. Sora is eventually saved by Riku with the help of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Lea (the revived form of Axel, the Nobody who befriended Roxas).

Is Kingdom Hearts Union a cross?

Kingdom Hearts Union χ is a major update to Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ, adding more story elements while rebranding the "χ" to be pronounced as "cross." As is already becoming clear, this franchise is nothing if not convoluted.

What is the most stand out characteristic of action RPGs?

With that said, the most stand-out characteristic of these action RPGs is their cross-over nature, which so far, has encompassed a wide range of both Disney and Square-Enix properties.

Is Kingdom Hearts 3 successful?

In contrast, the Kingdom Hearts series is interesting in that its success has been relatively consistent over the course of its existence. Yes, there have been some Kingdom Hearts games that have been much more successful than others, but at the end of the day, the less successful Kingdom Hearts games have not been disasters by any means. Moreover, the two main installments of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II have done very well without too great a slip in sales between them at 5 million copies and 4 million copies respectively, meaning that it isn’t unreasonable to expect that Kingdom Hearts III will be able to manage something similar. Combined with the fact that the franchise’s sales numbers mean that it has brought in billions and billions of dollars for the companies behind it, it seems safe to say that Kingdom Hearts is very valuable indeed, though assigning it an exact number is impossible because of the inherent un-measurability of intangible factors.

Is Kingdom Hearts a good selling game?

Value-wise, Kingdom Hearts isn’t Square -Enix’s best-selling franchise, but it is up there. First and for emost, the series is said to have sold more than 24 million units by the latter part of 2017, which puts it in an interesting position on the list of Square-Enix’s best-selling franchises. After all, this means that Kingdom Hearts is beaten out by Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Tomb Raider, with Tomb Raider being the lowest at 60 million units. As a result, it seems probable that Kingdom Hearts won’t be overtaking Square-Enix’s best-sellers anytime soon in spite of the upcoming Kingdom Hearts III, not least because Tomb Raider is set to release Shadow of the Tomb Raider in the near future as well. Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that Kingdom Hearts is followed by the Mana series at 11.51 million units, meaning that there isn’t much chance of it being overtaken anytime soon. Something that is particularly true because the Mana series is somewhat notorious for the uneven reception of its games, which might explain why it hasn’t had anything besides a remake since 2014 and 2015.

Overview

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee.
Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney properties based in an original fictional universe. The series centers on the main character, Sora, and his journey and experiences with various Dis…

Titles

• Kingdom Hearts is the first game in the series, released in Japan on March 28, 2002, for PlayStation 2. Tetsuya Nomura served as game director, his first time in this position. Kingdom Hearts introduced the main characters (Sora, Kairi, and Riku) of the series, and established the plot's framework involving hearts and dark beings known as the Heartless. It also established the role of Disney characters in the series, with character cameos from the Final Fantasy series. Kin…

Common elements

Kingdom Hearts features a mixture of familiar Disney and Square Enix characters, as well as several new characters designed and created by Nomura. In addition to original locations, the Kingdom Hearts series features many worlds from Disney films. Sora must visit these worlds and interact with various Disney characters to protect them from enemies. Often, his actions in these w…

Development

The initial idea for Kingdom Hearts began with a discussion between Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi about Super Mario 64. They were planning to make a game with freedom of movement in three dimensions like Super Mario 64 but lamented that only characters as popular as Disney's could rival a Mario game. Tetsuya Nomura, overhearing their conversation, volunteered to lead the project and the two producers agreed to let him direct. A chance meetin…

Reception

The Kingdom Hearts series has been critically and commercially successful. As of March 2014, the series has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The three main games in the series all met with positive sales at the time of their releases. In the first two months since the North American release of Kingdom Hearts, it was one of the top three highest-selling video games. Chain of Memories sold 104,000 units in 48 hours in Japan, a record for a Game Boy Advance game at th…

Other media

Both Square Enix and Disney have released a wide variety of Kingdom Hearts merchandise including toys, figurines, clothing, and jewelry. Two of the games, Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, had a soundtrack released to coincide with the video games. These were followed by a nine CD complete set which featured both soundtracks and unreleased tracks. Kingdom Hearts has been adapted as a trading card game by the Tomy corporation of Japan. An English version o…

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