Square Enix announced high-definition versions of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories for PlayStation 3 via Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix at the Tokyo Game Show last month. But what about Kingdom Hearts II? Famitsu interviewed series director Tetsuya Nomura this week and inquired the same.
“Is there gonna be a high-definition version of Kingdom Hearts II later?” asked Famitsu.
“It’d be unusual if there wasn’t,” Nomura replied with a smile.
Nomura also shared new details on Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix. Sora and the other character models for Kingdom Hearts have been replaced with character models from Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. And play operation is closer to Kingdom Hearts II. Regarding the Theater Mode, 70 percent are mainly old scenes made to be new cutscenes with voice.
“I’m happy to be restarting this title,” said Nomura. Or, literally, “If this title becomes a restart, I’m happy.”
Other details include:
- The screen ratio and gauge placement have also been revised.
- Nomura thought of doing a full remake for 358/2 Days (our source wrote Re: Chain of Memories, but I think that’s a typo), but since it was too late to start work on a new title, it was done in the form of Theater mode.
- The series so far has been scattered on various hardware, by the time new fans came to know Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II was already out.
- “I figured since there were people who had a hard time keeping up with the sequels, we had to start from the beginning with Kingdom Hearts HD,” said Nomura.
- “I also thought that familiar fans might make new discoveries seeing everything in chronological order with the sequels side by side.”
Thanks, Game Nyarth.