In a recent Famitsu Interview, Ichiro Hazama (KH Series Producer), Masanobu Suzui (KH Melody of Memory Co-Director), and Tetsuya Nomura ( Kingdom Hearts Series Director) were interviewed about the development of Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory. They revealed the games original narrator, pandemic delay issues, plans for DLC, new gameplay screenshots and Nomura’s next new project. Below you can find the main points translated from the article.
- Special attention has been paid to make this game feel like an extension of the rest of the series, from character animation to the sound of the cursor.
- Currently, there are no plans to add DLC. The team wants this to be a definitive omnibus for the series.
- The Theatrythm team has a hand in making this game and has wanted to for some time, proposals of which began about five years ago.
- From the key art, Kairi is considered the main character of this story. Though Nomura was working on it right up until the deadline.
- Originally, Chirithy was going to be the narrator but Nomura decided Kairi was more appropriate. When he asked his team to make new cutscenes for this game, they were surprised but did it anyway.
- There are no secret episodes or movies, everyone gets the same content regardless.
- To keep up with the theme of Kingdom Hearts as an action series, the gameplay took on the same appearance as the 15th anniversary memorial music box. Still, special consideration had to be paid to avoid players from feeling motion sickness.
- There are over 140 songs, and choosing them was difficult. Suzui used concerts’ set-lists as a guide for popularity then made edits based on what was appropriate for the story.
- There are 47 normal worlds, 16 of which are “Kingdom Hearts” worlds, and 31 of which are Disney worlds. In addition to that, there are about 33 boss arenas.
- If you follow the story and play through the world trips fast, it should take about 10 hours.
- COVID-19 made some things difficult, mostly being able to record overseas but they were able to make it work.
- Nomura has reminded everyone that 2022 is the 20th anniversary of the KINGDOM HEARTS series. The team’s been working on the next project and he can’t say when new announcements are coming but they’ll be amazing.
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory will release for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and Xbox One consoles on November 13th, 2020.