Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep - Development

Development

Development of the game began in June 2005 and was originally intended for the PlayStation 2 with Sora as the prototype protagonist of the game. Birth by Sleep was developed by Square Enix's fifth Product Development Division, based in Osaka, the same team behind Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, and uses the same graphical engine as both Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Dissidia Final Fantasy. During development of Kingdom Hearts II, the Osaka-based team had requested to be involved in a spin-off if one were to be made. Development of the game began before the release of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+. The plot was completed, but development was halted six months after it began due to development of Re:Chain of Memories. The development team changed the platform to the PlayStation Portable so as to make use of the PSP's functions such as co-operative and competitive multiplayer gameplay. The title of the game is based on II Final Mix's secret ending, "Birth by Sleep", a title which director Tetsuya Nomura developed as he wanted a phrase having "by" as well as to use an English title like previous games. Nomura has referred to the game as "Episode 0" saying that the game is on the same scale and plays as big an importance as Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.

Early during the game's development, Nomura already had in mind various scenes in mind such as Terra's and Riku's conversation in order to explain the latter's ability in the original games. Various parts from the plot had to be modified to make the game more light hearted such as Eraqus' death at the hands of Xehanort after being defeated by Terra, how Aqua's scenario was supposed to end with her already trapped in the Realm of Darkness rather, and the relationship between Ventus and Sora. Two of the newly introduced protagonists, Ventus and Terra, were based on other characters from the franchise while Aqua's design did not have a base. Nevertheless the three wear outfits meant to expand the student-and-teacher bond shown in the game. The Disney worlds were chosen to expand the characters of the Princesess of Light as well as Maleficient's who are connected with the events of the first Kingdom Hearts game, while the Olympus Coliseum was added to emphasize how the game was a prequel owing to Hercules' youthful appearance.

Birth by Sleep was directed by Nomura and co-directed by Tai Yasue. It was announced alongside Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts coded at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 2007, where a trailer was shown in a photo-prohibited theater. New trailers were shown at the 2008 Jump Festa in December 2007 and the DKΣ3713 Private party in August 2008—a playable demo was also available at DKΣ3713. The June 5, 2009 issue of Famitsu covered an interview with Tetsuya Nomura, where he said that the game was, at the time, at the voice recording stage. Nomura also confirmed in an interview that Birth by Sleep would contain a secret ending like in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II for the next game in the Kingdom Hearts series, which he confirmed to be a main game and the one which Nomura stated would link up Birth by Sleep, 358/2 Days and coded. He also confirmed that a Birth by Sleep demo would indeed be playable at the 2009 Tokyo Games Show together with a new trailer. In early October 2009, Nomura revealed that the concept of the Command Board originated from when he was in elementary school as at that time he was very fascinated with board games and even made his own; hence he wanted to incorporate a fun board game into the game.

In late October 2009, Nomura revealed that he was currently designing the cover art for Birth by Sleep as well as editing the staff rolls due to there being three main characters in Birth by Sleep. He also revealed that they were editing the new opening movie for the game. As with coded and 358/2 Days, Yoko Shimomura, the series' main composer, composed the most prominent themes, while the rest was created by other composers. Like Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep uses Hikaru Utada's theme song "Hikari" for the Japanese version and its English version, "Simple and Clean", in the overseas releases.

The game made its final public appearance before its Japanese release at Jump Festa 2010 on December 19, 2009 where a playable demo as well as new footage from the game were present and shown. Like previous console titles in the series, the game contains a secret movie at the end, which had been described as being more like a "true ending" rather than a teaser for the future like previous ones. Development of the movie began in October where Nomura noted in the blog that the game would contain a teaser to the next major Kingdom Hearts game similar to the teasers Deep Dive and Birth by Sleep.