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''Kingdom Hearts'' is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Square). It is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios. ''Kingdom Hearts'' is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. The series features a mixture of familiar Disney, ''Final Fantasy'' and ''The World Ends with You'' characters, as well as several new characters designed by Tetsuya Nomura. In addition, it has an all-star voice cast which includes many of the Disney characters' official voice actors. The series centers on Sora's search for his friends and his encounters with various Disney and ''Final Fantasy'' characters along the way. Players primarily control Sora, though there are numerous characters that join Sora's party as computer controlled members. The majority of the characters were introduced in the original game ''Kingdom Hearts''. Subsequent installments including ''Chain of Memories'', ''Kingdom Hearts II'', ''358/2 Days'', ''Birth by Sleep'' and ''coded'' featured several new original, Disney and ''Final Fantasy'' characters while the most recent game ''Dream Drop Distance'' introduces several characters from Square Enix's ''The World Ends with You''. Various types of merchandise modeled after the characters' likeness have been produced, including figurines and jewelry. The characters have garnered praise from several video game websites and magazines for the quality of their voice acting and visual style. Comments focused on the accurate presentation of Disney characters, the unique visual style of Square Enix characters, how well all the characters blended together, and the consistent quality performances from voice actors. ==Creation and influences== The ''Kingdom Hearts'' series is directed by Tetsuya Nomura, the character designer of the games. Nomura has stated that unlike working with ''Final Fantasy'' characters, keeping the main character Sora alive and interesting over multiple games is a challenge. He also stated that though many of the Disney characters are not normally dark and serious, there were not many challenges making them so for the story, and despite this, their personalities shine because they maintain their own characteristics. Though Disney gave Nomura freedom in the characters and worlds used for the games, he and his staff tried to stay within the established roles of characters and boundaries of the worlds.〔 When deciding which worlds to include in the game, the development staff tried to take into account worlds with Disney characters that would be interesting.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=KHU Interview w/Tetsuya Nomura )〕 The inclusion of specific ''Final Fantasy'' characters was based on the opinions of fans and the development staff. Another criterion for inclusion was whether the staff felt the characters would fit into the storyline and in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' universe. Initially, Nomura was hesitant to use characters he did not design, because he was unfamiliar with the background work of such characters. For ''Kingdom Hearts II'', he changed his mind after receiving pressure from his staff.〔 Throughout the development of the games, Nomura has often left certain events and connections between characters unexplained until the release of future games. Nomura did this because he feels that games should have room for fans to speculate and use their imagination. He stated that with speculation, even though a game may get old, people can still be happy with it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Characters of Kingdom Hearts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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