If there’s one thing that Kingdom Hearts 4 protagonist Sora knows, it’s that his friends are his power; if there are two things that Sora knows, it’s how to accessorize. At least, that is the case up until the release of Kingdom Hearts 4 in 2027.
Kingdom Hearts 4 fans were recently treated to the most in-depth look at the upcoming game yet at D23, not only confirming that Disney and Pixar’s Coco is one of the game worlds, but that Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are all fully playable characters. How it all ties together remains to be seen, but alongside everything else, Square Enix released an official render of Sora’s new appearance online. Unfortunately, it appears that Sora forgot how to accessorize.
Kingdom Hearts 3’s New Design Is Free of Frills
Sora’s design has always been exaggerated ever since Kingdom Hearts 1, although many argue (like developer Jade Law) that his design in Kingdom Hearts 2 was the best. Sure, Kingdom Hearts 3 trimmed down some of the frills, but that Disneyfication of the character was still prominent. Every version featured exaggerated belts, zippers, unique and soft shading, big shoes, and so forth. It’s distinctly Sora, but that trend is over with Kingdom Hearts 4. Sora’s new design streamlines all of this, almost to the point that he looks like a standard character, or as Law calls him, a background Final Fantasy character hanging out with Chadley.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
While some argue that this is because Sora is in Kingdom Hearts 4‘s take on Quadratum, that does not accurately reflect that his 25 years of drip are over. Quadratum could have made him more realistic but allowed him to remain consistent with the design language of older games. In other words, Sora is no longer consistent with his past appearances, and this is a big deal. Not only were many fans simply inspired by how big, bold, and out there Sora really was in clothing, but Sora’s positivity was also communicated by this design. Heck, it makes the fandom joke about Donald and Goofy looking for Sora in Disney’s depiction of Hades (the first Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer) hit a little more.
After all, it has been previously hinted that Quadratum is some sort of underworld or afterworld for Sora, which makes sense given the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3. If the goal is to make Sora appear unhappy and dead, then that has been achieved. It’s just sad to see 25 years of expression and life sucked out of Sora in the name of conflict design language. Kingdom Hearts 4‘s new Coco world dealing with death is definitely hinting at something, namely that death does not need to be so drab whatsoever.
Perhaps Sora’s Quadratum design is not the final form he assumes throughout Kingdom Hearts 4, even if the Coco trailer showed it sticking through the transformation, but that would require an unprecedented swerve from everything shown off so far for the Square Enix game. And surely, it’ll still be good. It’s just sad to see Sora’s self-expression era give way to a funeral outfit after 25 years of consistent design language for who he is.
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Franchise
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Kingdom Hearts
