Thanks to DDragonWhisper for getting the translation of the “Winnie The Pooh” story of Another Report from Kingdom Hearts Volume 4 of the Manga series:

Hi everyone. Thought you might be interested in seeing some pics from the Eminence concert in Sydney, Australia. It was a wonderful night and a great experience (being my first gaming concert). The piece from Kingdom Hearts, “Fantasia alla Marcia” was the final piece in the program and well worth the wait. Even better was the encore, which was recognised by the whole audience as soon as the orchestra had struck the first few notes, “One Winged Angel”.

We were lucky enough to get to meet the seven special guests of honour following the concert and get some autographs. I got a chance to meet Yoko Shimomura, composer of the Kingdom Hearts music and, even though she only speaks Japanese, she understood enough English for me to tell her I love Kingdom Hearts and ask her about if there will be a Kingdom Hearts 3. She replied “Maybe. There is very good chance.” Then I asked if she would be doing the music and she answered “I hope to be”.

I just want to say if Riku hadn’t told me about the concert, I’d never have known about it or had such a great night. Thanks Riku.

Enjoy the pics.

Aerith

(Click any image to enlarge it)

(Riku: We also have a video of the Eminence Symphony Orchestra rehearsing for this 2007 concert. Enjoy it!)

TheWertle is doing a fantastic job! He’s translated secrets about the first Kingdom Hearts game from the first Kingdom Hearts Ultimania book. Being secrets, these are mostly Spoilers though:

1. If you go to Neverland, before doing Monstro, a scene will occur with Riku that should have been seen in Monstro when you arrive there.

2. If you complete Deep Jungle before doing Alice in Wonderland, the same scene with the villains is shown at “Villains’ Vale”, but instead of Alice, Snow White will appear.

3. For the scene in Hollow Bastion when Belle and Beast are reunited, the scene will change depending on which door you entered through in the library.

4. If you defeat Maleficent in Hollow Bastion before you take on Cerberus in the Coliseum, the last scene featuring Hades will not include Maleficent.

5. It’s okay for you to lose the following matches: Cloud in the Coliseum, Leon in Traverse Town, and Sabor in Deep Jungle. It’s also safe to lose against Darkside in the first two fights.

6. You are not able to create potions in the Deep Jungle camp until Donald is with you again. Also, if you do it with Tarzan on your side, there will be a slight change.

7. If you didn’t do certain things, there are scenes to help you out. An example is if you talk to Leon after defeating Guard Armor, he’ll advise you to help out Pongo and Perdy. They’ll be at the café bar in District 1.

8. You can find Pinocchio in the accessory shop after Cid gives you the Comet Gummi.

9. Kairi will be in a small house after you lock Hollow Bastion’s door.

10. If you do 100 wins and 100 losses against Riku on Destiny Islands, the game will still allow you to challenge Riku, but the game will stop counting.

11. In the cave on Destiny Islands, you can find a picture of Donald and a Chocobo drawn together on the wall.

12. If you ring the bell 3 times, the Inn-keeper will say “No vacancies.”, and will also say “Aren’t the paintings nice?” if you look at the two paintings instead. If you look at the paintings and then hit the bell, he will instead say “Aren’t the paintings nice? But if you do stay over, try hitting that clock.”

13. If you make Pooh fall into the river water, he will get his head stuck in a pot of honey.

14. If you go to Rabbit’s house, the letter in his mail box will change each time you get a new page. The letters are as following:

• 1. “I sure would like to eat some honey from the honey tree. Love Pooh.”
• 2. “Would it be okay if I jump around your field to my heart’s content? Love Tigger”
• 3. “The Swing sure is fun. I flew really far. Love Pooh”
• 4. “Won’t you come jump with me and Tigger? Love Roo”
• 5. “Let’s all go play Hide-and-Seek. Of course Sora will play with us. Love Pooh”

15. After you find Eeyore’s tail, he’ll build his house somewhere else. You can actually break this house, and he’ll make it in a new place. The order is as following:- At the swings, the big field with the log, next to Pooh’s House, next to the honey tree, and next to Rabbit’s house - Afterwards it goes through 3 and 5 in a repeating fashion.

16. Finally, Pooh will be at different places after completing the mini-games. First, he will be in bed after the honey tree. After Rabbit’s house, it will look like he’s dancing inside his house. After finding Eeyore’s tail, he’ll be sitting on the log in front of the fire, and you can light the fire to get some extra scenes with him. After Tigger’s Giant Pot, he’ll be inside at his window.

Spelling and grammar corrected myself.

GameFAQs’ TheWertle translated an interview from FF13Vids, who got it from the Japanese magazine “Dengeki PS” (電撃PS):

Question: Your debut as director was with Kingdom Hearts. What was the process of bringing that out like?

Nomura: With the designs of Kingdom Hearts, I had designed a plot around the time that Final Fantasy VII was in production, and by the time of Final Fantasy VIII, I had full out designs. But at that point the Disney characters hadn’t completely appeared. Shinji Hashimoto came up with the idea of a story with Disney. Since, at that time, Mr. Disney was in the same building, Hashimoto would sometimes talk with him on the elevator - And I guess they worked something out.

Question: Were you the director at that time?

Nomura: No. I was polishing up the Kingdom Hearts designs and thinking of what the next line of development would be. Someone else was appointed as the director for this “Disney game”. I think until then the things I did were often pretty useless. But the Kingdom Hearts team told me “We want you to participate with us Tetsu-san. No one else would make a better director“, and so they pushed for that afterwards.

Today marks the release of the Kingdom Hearts Complete Official Soundtrack (which includes 9 CDs)!

There have already been sample tracks found on the internet from the package. The first is known to be an extract from a track known as simply “13″, while the other is completely new. (Save Target As…):

After Jump Festa, we were lead to assume that it would be likely that there would be new Kingdom Hearts projects in 2007. In the latest edition of the magnificent Famitsu magazine, however, Square Enix have actually confirmed that they will be working on new Kingdom Hearts projects!.

That’s right, Tetsuya Nomura has confirmed there will be news surrounding the future of the series in mid-2007. So can we expect KH3 to be announced? We suspect Kingdom Hearts 3 to be announced in May or June time, with a long build-up likely. As well as expecting Kingdom Hearts III, it has been hinted that there will be a ‘non-game’ project, which could quite possibly be a movie.

More soon, KHIII fans!

Well, the news about Kingdom Hearts 3 is still limited I’m afraid. What we do know, however, is that Tetsuya Nomura is planning and working on a new Kingdom Hearts game, though it appears likely that this game will not be the numbered sequel “Kingdom Hearts III”, but rather another adventure entirely.

It is likely, therefore, that the game Kingdom Hearts 3 might not be released for a few years to come, but there is likely to be another game or other games in between to satisfy our Kingdom Hearts desires!

Please comment if you have ideas, rumours, suggestions, or information about Kingdom Hearts 3 or any other Kingdom Hearts game!