Working on Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

By Dan Birlew | Posted June 19, 2009 in Game Previews | 6 Comments »

My closet stinks. All my clothes and shoes are so typical, so ordinary. I don’t have a bright yellow sleeveless leather shirt with a high collar or black straps crossing the chest to enhance my pectoral area. I don’t have a pair of black pants with billowing blue chaps strapped to the waistline. I don’t have a waist-length white leather jacket with a red lining and checkerboard trim. I don’t have armored shoulder pads that look like Jean-Paul Gaultier cut them. You’d think it would be easy to find a floor-length hooded black leather robe with silver chains that’s fitted to the torso, right? Not a chance.

My hair stinks, too. It’s curly and stubbornly submits to gravity. No matter how much gel or pomade I slick it with, it won’t straighten or stand up, nor will it point in odd directions from all angles of my head. If I tried to add highlights, I’d look more like Ronald McDonald than a model stepping off a Tokyo runway.

Why would a guy who writes strategy guides care about any of this? I guess it’s because I’m playing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days by Square-Enix, and the characters make me feel a little unfashionable and insecure. After all, I work from home. I have little use for fine clothes. My daily wear usually includes shorts and a tank top–a t-shirt if you’re lucky. It’s usually a rare day and a very special occasion to catch me wearing a polo shirt and jeans. But living with the members of Organization XIII every day in the slick, post-modern “World That Never Was,” it’s easy to start feeling a little underdressed.

Tetsuya Nomura is the director, concept artist and character designer–in addition to several other functions–for the Kingdom Hearts series. He’s been giving Square-Enix characters their distinct looks ever since Final Fantasy V on the SNES way back in 1992. Skyrocketing to success with his designs for Final Fantasy VII, he’s been taking on greater responsibilities each passing year in the games we play.

Games like Kingdom Hearts, The Bouncer, and the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII are Nomura’s runway, his fashion debut, his declaration of trend and style. In a video game it works. After all, how do you aesthetically balance a petite man who carries a really big, fat sword? By making his hair so volcanically spiky that no one will notice how oversized his blade is. In real life, no model’s hair would ever cooperate. But in a video game constructed of polygons and vertices, gravity is no issue.

But no matter how outrageous his designs may get, Nomura imbues a sense of balance and appropriateness in every character. Take one look at Vincent from Final Fantasy VII, and you realize the guy has issues. His design for the main antagonist of the original Kingdom Hearts may resemble a man, but the evil eyes and “lordly” appearance gives the sense that you’re dealing with a mere shadow, an imitation. And then there are the dozens of other characters Nomura cultivated from his previous work and redesigned for the Kingdom Hearts series. Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII would have nightmares for a week after seeing his look combined with Vincent’s in the original game. And to look at Leon, you just know you’re seeing a great redesign of Squall from Final Fantasy VIII.

Though I’ll always want Mr. Nomura to focus on making more great games for us to play, I wouldn’t mind if he stopped for a while to put out a clothing line. Who wouldn’t want to dress their kid like Sora from Kingdom Hearts II, and what young girl could deny wanting anything Kairi puts on? I wouldn’t mind having adult versions of Wakka’s vest, or Riku’s entire outfit from KHII. At least then I wouldn’t feel so out-of-place in Organization XIII’s world!

Tags: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, strategy guide

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