Kingdom Hearts 4, 5 worlds we would like to see in the next Square Enix game

Kingdom Hearts 4

The announcement of Kingdom Hearts IV, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the series, took everyone by surprise, mostly because we know the biblical times of Tetsuya Nomura and did not expect it so soon. After all, however, three years have passed since the release of Kingdom Hearts III and we still don't know when the fourth chapter will arrive on ... well, we don't even know what the reference platforms are, even if PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X seem more than safe. We only know that it will run in Unreal Engine 5 and that a new narrative arc will begin - The lost master - starting from the end of the previous one, with our Sora, now a teenager, who ended up in the city of Quadratum and then in the world of Verum Rex, a video game we stumbled upon in the world of Toy Story. The story is getting more and more complicated.

But does this mean that we have left the Disney worlds behind? It would seem so not, as evidenced by the same teaser at the end, showing us Goofy and Donald struggling with the unmistakable mood swings of good old Hades. However, the change of look could justify a definitive shift to more modern franchises, from Disney and Pixar CGI feature films - which we've already begun to explore - to the Star Wars and Marvel Studios films. For the moment we can only fly with the imagination, so we have thought about 5 worlds that we absolutely would like to see in Kingdom Hearts 4.

You, on the other hand, which ones would you like to visit?

Kumandra

Kumandra, Raya and the last dragon Released on the Disney + platform in the middle of a pandemic, Raya and the last dragon have gone quietly, also because it differs strongly from the Traditional Disney Films: It's an adult and adventurous tale full of action and combat that takes place on the mystical eastern continent of Kumandra. The distinctly fantasy setting would work perfectly well in Kingdom Hearts IV, especially if we consider the monsters that the gritty protagonist Raya has to face: they are called Druun, spirits of darkness who turn anyone they touch to stone and who look a lot like the Heartless.

It wouldn't be the first time that Nomura uses similarities and affinities to mix his universe with the Disney ones, so the context would be spot on, and besides, Sora could count on the help of Raya and her band of heroes, who they would be perfect supporting actors in fights. It goes without saying that the dragon Sisu could become a new summon: we are pretty sure that this gameplay dynamic will be back in force in the fourth episode as well.

The Land of the Dead

The Land of the Dead, Coco Let's put it this way: if you haven't burst into tears like fountains in Coco's final scenes, then you have a stone for a heart. The 2017 film is undoubtedly among the best films of Pixar, a triumph of music and colors that cannot leave indifferent, and which above all paints the Mexican afterlife as a kind of alternative reality to ours in which the dead turn in the form of skeletons. and they live a second existence, waiting each year for the day when they can briefly reunite with their loved ones still alive.

And it seems that in Kingdom Hearts IV they will come to terms with the idea that life exists beyond death, a concept already extensively explored in the previous chapters and that the trailer puts in the spotlight in Strelitzia's jokes. Coco's Land of the Dead could be a fantastic world to explore, if we also consider its verticality and the alleged dynamics of movement introduced by the chain / grapple. Gameplay Tips? A rhythm game with Miguel, on the notes of Remember me, and the evocation of Dante in alebrije version.

Zootropolis

The city of Zootropolis We know that Tetsuya Nomura is a huge fan of musicals - you know the story of Final Fantasy XV which was supposed to become a musical at some point, right? - and so we thought about the Colombian region where Encanto is set, but then we realized that the Oscar-winning Disney movie is a bit too recent and will probably be out of the picture at least for Kingdom Hearts IV.

So we fell back on another world that in our opinion would be really spot on: that of Zootropolis. The film was released in 2016 and belongs to that category of slightly drier animated feature films: there are no songs in this buddy movie, a real detective set in a city of anthropomorphic animals. And considering that Sora is used to the company of talking animals like Goofy and Donald, the scenario would not clash at all even with the more realistic look of the trailer. The subplot could retrace that of the film, adding Sora to the couple formed by the protagonists Judy and Nick, or tell a completely new story, as happened with the Toy Story franchise in Kingdom Hearts III.

The Death Star

The Death Star, Star Wars If you have read our preview of Kingdom Hearts IV, then you will know that the fandom is completely unhinged at the sight of a detail that for some would be the unmistakable foot of an AT-ST. If we then consider that it appears in a wooded scenario that has nothing to do with the city of Quadratum on which practically the whole teaser is centered, it was easy to put two and two together: Square Enix would have indirectly shown us none other than the wooded moon of Endor! While we're not at all sure, Kingdom Hearts is heavily inspired by Star Wars, which now belongs to Disney, and so it's not all that unlikely that Sora could end up in George Lucas' faraway galaxy ... but in Endor?

Part of the final battle took place on the wooded moon in Return of the Jedi, and then we returned briefly in The Rise of Skywalker, but it's not a very important planet, apart from the presence of the fluffy ones Ewok. We thought it would be much more epic to explore the bowels of the Death Star. It would be an interesting change of scenery - reminiscent of the old Absolute Space - and would allow us to relive some historical moments in the Skywalker Saga. After all, Emperor Palpatine looks a bit like the Master of Masters ...

Asgard

Asgard, Marvel's Thor Okay, this one was really complicated to choose. As you may have understood, we have thought of three Disney worlds, one of Star Wars and one of Marvel: in the latter case, there would have been spoiled for choice, but many scenarios in which the Marvel Studios films took place are extraterrestrial or absolutely earthlings, and we finally thought of Asgard, the world from which Thor and his dysfunctional family come. The reasons are manifold. For starters, in previous Kingdom Hearts we had Greek gods because of Hercules, so the Norse ones wouldn't be a bit out of tune. Secondly, Asgard is one of the Seven Kingdoms in Norse mythology that the Marvel stories refer to: the number is recurring, the Kingdoms are worlds ... voila.

And then the Heartless would blend well with the Dark Elves, a recurring plague in Thor and Marvel's side. Loki, Hela or Malekith, then, would be perfect in the roles that, in the past, have been of Hades, Maleficent or Gambadilegno. The only problem would be to slip in the other Avengers too ... but who says they're not over there to help the Thunder God in time of need?

Have you noticed any mistakes?