Last year, it was revealed that Square Enix designer Tetsuya Nomura originally conceived with chainsaws. "There things I wanted to do [with Kingdom Hearts]", Nomura recently told Kotaku, "but things that were not allowed."
Maybe like chainsaws?
Obviously, you can't have Mickey Mouse wield a chainsaw. (Well, I guess you could. And I guess it would be pretty awesome!) But Disney definitely has a set image in how it would like its character portrayed, which is understandable. It's Mickey Mouse! That doesn't mean that Nomura can't bring his vision to Disney characters.
"I push for things," he says. "And I'm usually able to do what I want. It is just important to pick." So Key Sword? Yes. Chainsaw? Hrm.
Walt Disney, who created Mickey, passed away in 1966. Now, other artists, like Nomura, are either reproducing or reinterpreting the mouse. For gaming, many of Nomura's characters (like Cloud from Final Fantasy VII) have reach iconic status of their own. What would he think about, say, another artist in fifty years or so reproducing his characters?
"I'm not sure other designers could reproduce my characters," Nomura said. "Heck, I'm not always able to."