Disney and Square Enix have offered fans a fresh look at the highly anticipated video game “Kingdom Hearts 4”, including a new world inspired by Pixar’s Coco.
“Kingdom Hearts” is among nine Disney video game franchises that have generated more than $1 billion in retail sales, according to the company’s executive vice president of games and digital entertainment, Sean Shoptaw.
The action role-playing franchise combines characters and settings from Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series with Disney films. It follows Sora, a teenager whose home is destroyed by creatures known as Heartless.
The fourth instalment picks up after the events of “Kingdom Hearts 3”, with Sora trapped in Quadratum, a fictional version of Tokyo’s Shibuya district.
The game is scheduled for release in 2027. A four-minute trailer shown during Disney’s D23 entertainment showcase on Saturday introduced a new world based on Pixar’s Coco, expanding on footage released a day earlier.
The presentation featured familiar characters including Donald Duck, Goofy, King Mickey and Hades, alongside original “Kingdom Hearts” characters and glimpses of several other worlds.
Franchise creator Tetsuya Nomura made a surprise appearance at the panel and said the team selected Disney properties that could offer strong possibilities for gameplay.
“We felt that ‘Coco’ would be the best world that would really help to achieve that,” he said, referring to the film about a young boy who enters the Land of the Dead in search of his great-great-grandfather, a celebrated musician.
Developers also revealed a new Paper Mickey Mouse world, where Mickey will be playable in a storybook-style setting for the first time in the series.
Players will be able to move through cracks in walls, transform into an aircraft and solve puzzles, introducing new gameplay elements to the long-running franchise.
The developers also hinted at a major role for Maleficent, the villain from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, who will return in “Kingdom Hearts 4”.
The original “Kingdom Hearts” was released for PlayStation 2 in 2002 and marked the beginning of the long-running partnership between Square Enix and Disney.
The franchise is also set to be adapted into an original anime series for Disney Channel and Disney+. The project was announced on Friday, although a title and release date have yet to be revealed. Nomura said he was closely involved in its development.
