"We wanted to exceed fan expectations" with Kingdom Hearts III

Kingdom Hearts III was released back in January to acclaim from fans and critics alike, and at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) in California we got to talk with co-director Tai Yasue after the dust had settled to look back on development, and how tough it was handling the expectations of the fans.

"I think we wanted to exceed our fans' expectations, so in a way I guess it was hard," he said. "But I guess we were aiming towards doing the most we could, and you hear a lot of stories about game development and how they're cutting things off, intermitting things because of the cost for example, or the schedule. I really felt that we were able to do everything we really wanted to do in the game, so it feels very full to me, there's a lot of content there."

In terms of the goals, Yasue also added that the team "wanted to provide a wider range of things that you could actually do in the game battle-wise [...] When playing the game at early stage there was a lot more that you can do, compared to other Kingdom Hearts titles, at the beginning of the games."

The emergence of streaming was also discussed, as Yasue said:

"One thing I felt after development that was really interesting from a developer's standpoint is all the streaming video that's up on the internet, and I think it really changes how we think about creating a game, because I used to always think about a game only being played, right, but in a way people that are playing and people that are watching are also enjoying the game, so creating a game to that audience as well might be important as well I thought."

Have you finished Kingdom Hearts III yet?