Kingdom Hearts 4's first new world is inspired by Pixar's Coco

Kingdom Hearts 4, the upcoming installment in the popular series, has unveiled its first new world, drawing inspiration from Pixar's Coco. This revelation was made during Disney's D23 Entertainment Showcase. The new world is set in the Land of the Dead, where Miguel's grandfather, Héctor, warns that those who are forgotten by the living face "Final Death."

Sora, donning skull face paint, joins forces with Miguel and Héctor to combat Heartless, armed with a new Keyblade themed around Coco. Donald and Goofy, however, are not featured in this particular segment, as they are seen searching for Sora in the Underworld and around Quadratum, Kingdom Hearts 4's realistic, Tokyo-inspired hub city.

This is the most significant gameplay reveal for the game since its initial announcement in 2022. Before this, Square Enix, the publisher and developer of Kingdom Hearts, had remained largely silent about the game, providing only occasional teaser trailers and reassurances from series creator, Nomura. Recently, Square Enix addressed claims that they had used AI-generated content in the promotion of Kingdom Hearts Collection 1-3.

In response, they firmly stated that these assets were indeed created by their development team, without the use of generative AI, and that the reported issues stemmed from human error.