It’s been a wild 12 months for VG247, so to have a good time we’re going to be republishing a few of our favorite work revealed in 2018 – opinion items, options, and interviews, that we’ve loved writing and studying, and which we consider showcase a few of our greatest work. Enjoy!
How Pixar and Square Enix collaborated to convey Toy Story and Monsters Inc to Kingdom Hearts 3 was first revealed on May 21, 2018.
Bringing collectively Disney’s best is a frightening activity – and Kingdom Hearts Three is crossing firm traces greater than ever earlier than – a problem for perfectionists at each Pixar and Square alike.
When the decision saying Square Enix’s curiosity of their movies arrived at Pixar, one worker particularly was fairly excited: Tasha Sounart, the Associate Creative Director at Pixar Animation Studios. Sounart’s resume contains A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc and Finding Nemo, however she additionally has a powerful connection to games – in a short break from Pixar, she directed Double Fine’s wonderful Costume Quest.
“I’ve been a Kingdom Hearts fan for a long time,” Sounart explains to gathered press on the Kingdom Hearts Three hands-on premiere occasion. “I played the first two games and a couple of the handheld games – and so just as a player I always wanted to see Pixar worlds represented.”
“Rob Rowe, our director in the interactive group, just came up to me one day and said that they were thinking of adding Pixar worlds to Kingdom Hearts 3, and what did I think of that? I was like… er, yes please! I really want to work on this! So, yes, I was super excited.”
In a way, Disney and Square has all the time appeared a match made in heaven. Both corporations are recognized for his or her artistic drive and their perfectionism – one thing that has now and again earned Square some criticism for game delays and prolonged improvement cycles. Kingdom Hearts Three has been no exception – it was introduced 5 years in the past now – however listening to Sounart and Pixar Story Supervisor and Toy Story veteran Jason Katz speak concerning the game drives house simply what a problem melding totally different franchises collectively is.
“The person who designed Buzz is giving notes, the person who designed Mike is giving notes – all to try to make the integration of Sora and Donald and Goofy into Monsters and Toy Story feel right”
“Square Enix’s process is very similar to ours on films, where they’ll go all the way from script to storyboard to layout to blocking animation – y’know, it’s a very similar path that all the scenes take, and we were involved from the very beginning and giving notes on the script just to make the characters feel authentic to how they would actually act in those situations,” Sounart explains.
“The person who designed Buzz is giving notes, the person who designed Mike is giving notes – all to try to make the integration of Sora and Donald and Goofy into Monsters and Toy Story feel right,” Katz provides.
“That’s an important thing. It’s an easy thing to say and a tough thing to realize. Like – what is the monsterisation of Donald? What does Sora look like as a toy? But it’s so important, because not only does it move the story line, but it helps buy them into the world – there’s a reason for them being in that particular story.”
That story is essential, too – Kingdom Hearts goes past light-hearted fan service and tries to really make the merging of worlds matter. When Sora and firm go to the toybox world they don’t simply blabber about their world-saving plot – it’s a operating joke within the sequence that Donald continuously nags Sora about defending the ‘world order’ – as an alternative they discover themselves entwined in an all-new plot for the Toy Story crew, in flip serving to them to resolve it.
If you’ve seen a screenshot of Kingdom Hearts Three you seemingly already understand how spectacular and film-like its illustration of the Toy Story world seems. That solely ups the problem, nevertheless, with Katz explaining that when he noticed how carefully the game was now in a position to resemble the still-gorgeous 1995 CG film, the bar was raised.
“All of a sudden the degree of notes and the amount we’re gonna push up our glasses and really dig in on the details… it’s gonna raise,” Katz says of Pixar’s involvement with KH3. “Because if it looks like the film it needs to move like the film and feel like the film.”
“They have such an attention to detail and really care about getting things right. That really is very similar to Pixar.”
Katz and Sounart each say they consider Kingdom Hearts 3’s illustration of the worlds of Toy Story and Monsters Inc are profitable on this regard, however it’s clearly the results of many hours of painstaking back-and-forth between Square Enix’s builders in Japan and the Pixar group again within the states. It isn’t all about visuals or story both, with these conversations bleeding into game design. As it seems, my favourite part of my KH3 hands-on session was immediately impressed by conversations between the 2 corporations.
“A big part of the Toy Story universe and those films is nostalgia – nostalgia for toys that we remember growing up, or that feeling of playing with a toy as a kid. I remember having really great conversations about… challenging the folk at Square Enix, asking ‘What were the toys you remember? What were the toys from your childhood?’,” Katz says.
The finish result’s slightly style of Japanese toys within the game. In the Toy Story world, you head to a toy retailer and find yourself battling evil, possessed toys. The hardiest of those are very Japanese-feeling – Gundam-like mechs that you may even take over and pilot generally known as Gigas, and monster toys which can be recognized, appropriately, as Kaiju. Piloting the gigas is without doubt one of the greatest bits of the Toy Story world, a placing and extremely enjoyable little diversion.
“When they brought back the idea for the Gigas and taking advantage of things that were specific to their experience playing with toys, that’s when it really started to click. That’s when it really began to feel like we were speaking the same language – but it’s also a very specific thing for Kingdom Hearts 3. That’s when you really take advantage of the time it takes to develop a real quality story,” Katz provides.
“Just like making our films, that takes time. It takes time to establish trust, to understand what we can both collectively bring to the table to make the end product reach the ideals we have.”
Most essential to the collaboration, nevertheless, might be that the 2 corporations share a mindset – even when it’s a mindset meaning Square Enix games have generally sluggish-seeming improvement cycles.
“They have such an attention to detail and really care about getting things right,” Sounart says of Square. “That really is very similar to Pixar, where we will have a meeting where we’re all obsessing over this one little shadow or something [laughs]. The way that Square Enix is – they really try to get everything as good as they can get it, and so we really appreciated that when we were working with them.”
“Just seeing Buzz and Woody running around with Sora… I dunno, I’ve just wanted this for a long time – it’s so cool!”
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