Kirby dev says the series’ stories have “no clear timeline”

The Washington Post published a new interview today with some of the key developers behind the Kirby series, and some interesting discussion came about when they were asked about a possible timeline or thread that ties the different entries together. 

It actually turns out that “there is no clear timeline for the game stories”, according to HAL Laboratory general director Shinya Kumazaki. Kumazaki explained that this is done so that the development team “constrained by past settings”.

His full words regarding a possibly Kirby timeline are as follows:

“There is no clear timeline for the game stories. This is to avoid being constrained by past settings, and so that we can easily take on new challenges and prioritize the optimal gameplay experience for each installment – even in a series with a long history.

However, we can’t progress the story much if we have Kirby meet King Dedede for the first time in the opening of each game, so new installments inherit story elements that can be naturally accepted and easily understood by the players. For example, we use story elements that are effective at making each new game better, such as when the character Magolor repented his past actions and moved to Dream Land, or when Meta Knight got his revenge on Kirby.

I also pay attention to the details when writing the text for the story. This is because, if future installments are going to inherit these story elements, we need to first prepare detailed settings for each installment. However, the main focus of the Kirby series is action and gameplay, so we prepare the settings required to make these elements more appealing in each game.”

The latest Kirby game, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, is out now on Switch.