Kingdom Hearts 4 will transport players to the Land of the Dead, a vibrant world directly inspired by Pixar's acclaimed film, Coco. This significant reveal came during Disney's D23 Entertainment Showcase, alongside updates on the game's release window and an announcement for a Kingdom Hearts anime series.
The trailer showcases Sora, now sporting skull face paint to complement the world's Día de los Muertos aesthetic, alongside Miguel and Héctor from Coco. Together, they face off against a swarm of Heartless, with Sora acquiring a new Coco-themed Keyblade during the encounter.
Notably absent from this segment of the trailer were Donald and Goofy. Instead, the footage briefly showed them searching for Sora in the Underworld and within Quadratum, the game's realistic Tokyo-inspired central hub city. This marks the most substantial gameplay revelation for Kingdom Hearts 4 since its initial announcement in 2022, as Square Enix had previously shared limited details beyond teaser trailers and developer assurances.
Separately, Square Enix recently addressed accusations of using AI-generated content for promotional materials. The company denied these claims, stating that assets for the Kingdom Hearts Collection 1-3 were created by their development team without generative AI, and that any issues arose from human error.