It’s been a few years sinceKingdom Hearts 4was officially announced, and we’re still largely in the dark about its development. That’s nothing new; it was pretty much the same with Kingdom Hearts 3, and Kingdom Hearts 2, for that matter.
10 Best Worlds In The Kingdom Hearts Series
Kingdom Hearts transports players to many fantastical worlds. Here are the best from throughout the series.
All the same, the game is always in the back of our minds, with possibilities for new characters, stories, and gameplay mechanics swimming about. Perhaps the biggest question mark that comes with any new Kingdom Hearts game iswhich Disney worlds Sora will find himself in.
It’s pretty much impossible to make a real guess as to which properties will be represented this time around, but we can certainly hope for some fan-favorite picks. Some of these may be long shots, but hey, as long as you’re dreaming, you might as well shoot for the stars.
10Kokaua Town
Lilo & Stitch
Lilo & Stitch’s titular blue gremlin has already appeared in three Kingdom Hearts games. In two of those, he was mostly just a cameo and summon, while in Birth By Sleep, he did have his own world. However, that world was just the intro to the movie, with Stitch in transit in space.
Considering Stitch already knows and likes Sora, it’d be nice to check up on him like we did with Mushu and Simba in Kingdom Hearts 2. We could visit Hawaii, do a little surfing, and perhaps beat up Gantu again.
It’s also worth remembering that Dr. Jumba met and conversed with both Terra and Aqua in Birth By Sleep, so it could be interesting to see his reaction to meeting another Keyblader now that he’s over the whole evil scientist thing. Of course, this is all assuming Sora lands in Hawaii after the events of the movie have already taken place.
9Riley’s Mind
Inside Out
Sora’s no stranger to mildly-metaphysical worlds, having visited both the Sleeping Worlds and two instances of a world inside a computer. Considering that, it wouldn’t be that far-fetched for him to end up in the mind of Inside Out’s Riley. Given Riley’s habit of conjuring up imaginary boyfriends in the first film, her Emotions could probably rationalize Sora’s appearance fairly easily.
Since the world of Inside Out could be considered to be the inside of Riley’s “heart,” it’d also be an ideal candidate for a little Heartless invasion that needs repelling. If they’re feeling ambitious, we could even see the effects the Heartless have on Riley in real time.
On a character level, it wouldn’t be unfair to say Sora’s had a bit of a… disrupted development, given everything that’s happened to him. Maybe seeing another young person jumping some emotional hurdles would be good for him.
8Radiator Springs
Okay, this one’s a curveball, but hear us out. Both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 had worlds where Sora needed to undergo a near-complete change in form and fighting style — Atlantica and the Pride Lands, respectively. If we wanted to get really weird with it in Kingdom Hearts 4, Cars is the perfect movie for the job.
Fans have been driving Sora as an anthropomorphic car for years now, so don’t even pretend you aren’t curious about it. As for how he’d use his Keyblade in such a state, that’s perhaps a bit of a hangup, but it’s nothinga Keyblade transformationcouldn’t fix.
Plus, several Kingdom Hearts games have some manner of racing mini-game, and a lap around Radiator Springs would be ideal for such a diversion. It might be a combat-lite world, but it’d be entertaining for sure.
7Casa Madrigal
It’s fun when Sora makes his way into a Disney world with an established foot in magical realms, seeing how his own freewheeling spellcasting interacts with an entirely alien system. It’d be pretty neat to see how he handles an entire living household.
While Casita itself might not be big enough to carry an entire Encanto world on its own, the surrounding town and mountain range would give Sora plenty to explore. We could even have a boss fight against a Heartless mimicking Casita and turning into a giant living house itself.
One request, though: don’t do the thing we did in Kingdom Hearts 3 with the Frozen world. Specifically, don’t make us sit through a shot-for-shot remake of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” with Sora bumming around in the background. It was silly when they did it with “Let It Go” and it really wouldn’t be necessary here either.
6The Land Of The Dead
Sora’s had a couple of dalliances with life and death in his adventures, such as his jaunt through the Greek underworld and dueling undead pirates in Kingdom Hearts 2. He’s already got a frame of reference, so why not expand it a bit with a trip to another domicile of the deceased?
The Land of the Dead in Coco is a positively sprawling locale, perfect for some high-flying combat setpieces, not to mention plenty of beautiful colors and vistas to show off whatever graphics they’ve been cooking up all these years.
Speaking of setpieces, we’ve already got ideas for fun activities and battles, such as joining Miguel onstage for a rhythm mini-game at the talent show and sucker-punching Ernesto in his mansion.
5Zootopia, Zoonited States
Zootopia is one ofDisney’s most prolific filmsof the 2010s. If any movie has a near-guaranteed shot at representation in Kingdom Hearts 4, Zootopia is near the top of the list, hands down.
Considering Zootopia’s story leans heavily into themes of fear and corruption, it’d be pretty easy to sneak a few Heartless in here and there to stoke the flames in the citizenry’s hearts. Judy could join up to kick some butt, and Nick could… also be there.
The only question mark is whether Sora would remain human in this world. We don’t know if Donald and Goofy will be joining him for this adventure, though if they do, there is a potential for a very funny joke where Sora inexplicably becomes an animal person while Donald and Goofy are exactly the same.
4Nomanisan Island
The Incredibles
Not unlike Kingdom Hearts itself, The Incredibles had a long period of dormancy between its two entries. You could almost say the franchises are kindred spirits, though you could also just say it’d be fun to drop Sora on a supervillain’s island base.
Syndrome’s Omnidroids are built specifically to subdue superheroes with their large array of weapons and adaptable intelligence. It’d be an awesome combat setpiece to pit Sora against one, especially if it adapts to the attacks and magic you use and forces you to mix it up.
Maybe all the familial love between the titular superhero family will also help to remind Sora of his own misplaced parents. Remember them, Sora? Remember your poor mom calling you down to dinner and then never seeing you again?
3Avengers Tower
The Avengers
Disney has had full ownership ofMarvelsince 2009, well before the release of Kingdom Hearts 3. As such, more than a few fans were expecting an appearance from Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in that game, which unfortunately didn’t come to pass.
Now that Marvel’s properties are more firmly entrenched in the Disney portfolio, it’d be a good time to get Kingdom Hearts in on the action. However, rather than dropping Sora in the midst of an MCU plot, it might be better to just cook up a generic Avengers setting, just so we don’t have to frontload him witha hundred movies’ worth of baggage. That’d also allow them to create style-appropriate depictions of the Avengers instead of trying to awkwardly adapt the actors.
Even without the specifics of the MCU, it’d be a blast to fly around New York with Iron Man, not unlike fighting alongside Baymax in San Fransokyo. Maybe we could get in a brawl with Hulk, too.
2A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars (Franchise)
In a similar vein to Marvel,Star Warshas become a much more integral part of Disney’s offerings in the last decade and change since its acquisition. People have wanted to see Sora with a lightsaber Keyblade ever since that acquisition went through, and Kingdom Hearts 4 could be a good time for it to happen.
Of course, also like Marvel, there’s a lot of baggage associated with the Star Wars films, far too much to insert Sora into any single one, let alone confine matters to a single planet. Anthologies like Star Wars Visions have shown how well the franchise lends itself toexpanded universe material, so why not go that route?
We could see Sora befriending a young Jedi knight in training, maybe accompanying them on a pilgrimage to a few different planets, and wrap it all up with a climactic lightsaber duel against a Sith apprentice. It writes itself, really.
It is borderline criminal that no Kingdom Hearts game to date has had any kind of representation from Disney’s many episodic animated series. Those shows have fandoms rivaling or even exceeding those of the movies, and they’re positively rife with potential.
We’d be happy to see a world set in a series like Gravity Falls or The Owl House, but if we had to pick just one, it would probably be Amphibia. It’s a large,fully-realized settingwith distinct topography, and plenty of dark hearts for the Heartless to munch on.
As for Sora’s role in such a world, he could certainly meet Anne and the Plantars, though he might need to be a frog himself just so Anne doesn’t start asking how another human showed up. It could be fun for him to stay human, however, just so Wartwood immediately treats Sora with suspicion instead of the usual warm reception he gets wherever he goes.
Kingdom Hearts 4
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