This is a translated interview from the Re:Riplai book with Tetsuya Nomura.

KINGDOM HEARTS Birth by Sleep

Q. Why does Maleficent know about “Kingdom Hearts”?
A. She is influenced by contact with a certain person. It’s a main part of the story to look forward to.

Q. Sora and company appear too!?
A. Though he is unrelated directly, please wait to see how the story leads to where Sora and company follow it up.

Q. The person wearing the full-faced helmet, have they appeared in the previous games?
A. Have they appeared… Have they not appeared… I can’t yet reveal their true character.

KINGDOM HEARTS coded

Q. It’s a matter of concern whether or not it’ll be released on a platform other than the mobile phone.
A. There are no plans to release it off the mobile at this stage. Since I want to continue introducing this specialized system on the mobile phones more in the future, I think that’s something to consider after the distribution of this title is finished.

Q. It look like it’d be fun even if you haven’t played Kingdom Hearts…
A. With this game as a start, people will become interested in the other Kingdom Hearts games.

Q. Isn’t it difficult to play an action game on the mobile phone?
A. It’s been tuned to be played by a simpler input method compared to the that of the normal Kingdom Hearts games. Additionally, this game comes preinstalled on the P-01A mobile phone, which can connect to a television with the appropriate cable, so it can be enjoyed on the big screen as well.

Q. Like with Before Crisis FFVII, can you communicate and play with other people?
A. This is different from BC, there are plans to play by an interesting communication.

KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 Days

Q. I’ve never played a Kingdom Hearts game before, so it’d be best to start from the first game?
A. This time it’s a new main character in a new story. If you’re not familiar with Kingdom Hearts, I think you can enjoy it from this main character’s point of view. Additionally, it’s full of content fans of the series will enjoy.

Q. I was interested in the system introduced in the demos.
A. I regret I can’t reveal all the details of it yet. Please expect more information to be revealed about it in the future.

Q. What kind of mode is multiplayer?
A. The multipart is basically pulled out of standalone gameplay and become missions on a higher degree of difficulty. Even playing on your own, you could choose whatever character you wanted and play.

Q. When playing as the various characters, do you gain experience points?
A. It’s not the sort of system where what you do in one play mode only influences that mode, but it’s the sort which shares levels and items mutually.

Q. Since it covers only a year of Roxas’s time, I worry that the volume of the single player mode will be small.
A. Most of the time the plot is taking place between the previous games. Since this story is independent and is elaborating from the time of Kingdom Hearts II, I think that after clearing all the missions you won’t feel that the contents were short lived.