Did you ever wonder how Disney and Square Enix ended up working together on Kingdom Hearts? According to producer Tetsuya Nomura (The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy XIII Versus), the reason is him.

In an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Nomura recounted how the project got started:

"...I was talking with [Square Enix corporate executive] Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi. The topic came up that it'd be nice if we could make a game with Disney. I had been wanting to make an original action RPG by that time, and I had had the basic game system for KH in my mind for a while by that point. I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me, so I raised my hand and told them to let me handle it."

Nomura's original concept: Disney characters with chainsaws.

Read on to find out what happened to those chainsaws.

As you may have guessed, the idea did not go down well,

"It was this chainsaw-like weapon that I had a rough sketch of when I first showed my concepts to Disney. Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room. Dead silence. And I thought 'No, I guess this wouldn't work, huh?'"

In fact, both Square Enix and Disney wanted the project to move in a decidedly family-friendly direction. "Square wanted to make a game starring Mickey Mouse, and Disney wanted a Donald Duck title. Meanwhile, I wanted neither," said Nomura. "So I built a project plan for KH and began negotiating with both sides. That plan was largely what you see now; a game featuring lots of characters without focusing on any particular one."

These days, Nomura says he's not interested in the casual vs. hardcore distinction. What matters is fun - an attitude he says played a major role in developing Kingdom Hearts 358/2 for the DS,

"...As long as you can grab their interest, they'll play your game. That's the userbase I want to attract here. You have to, or else you'll never challenge yourself. I'm not here to analyze the game industry or anything. All I believe is that if you make a fun game, people will play it."

Cheers, Nomura. May you make many more fun games.