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plus FF7R Part 3 and Persona 4 Revival in the same year 😵‍💫

choosing my personal most anticipated between it and kh4 is literally impossible wtf am i supposed to do

but then we also have Metaphor which was fine difficulty-wise so I hope the metaphor team works on p6

Hashino also said that p4r will be harder again but I am 90% confident that he lies about it

and is not just a p5 rehash

p4r gives me hope because the UI has its own identity

that would be insanely... EWWWWWW

I am 100% certain they're just gonna make P5-2 that's kind of aII they've made (on the non-spinoff side) since P5 came out Imao

Ok theory that be relevant to 4 or future lore of KH. Involves ML and Ephy. What if Ephemer was using Replica bodies and data of himself to keep himself alive during the timeframe MLs main story took place in. He'd just have to transfer his Heart into a younger version of himself

because chasing the p5 audience didn't help P3R and instead made it worse for the people who liked P3

I hope they kinda go back to the roots with this one instead of chasing the p5 audience and with back to the roots I mean taking risks like they did with P5. P5 was so good because it felt completely different to P4 and P3

If P6 releases next year as well then that’s insane

https://fixvx.com/i/status/2092081620685930547

You know reviewing everything kind of makes Sora the most angsty active character out there. He's just so positive and willing to shove those pesky feelings down cause literally everyone is like 'Sora save us. Smile or we feel sad.' I don't know if the universe could accept a perpetually visible depressed Sora. Everyone will think 'we're doomed!' XD

Don't all the characters have a titanic level of angst already? XD I don't think you got to worry about Sora getting angst anyway. It's a staple in every game he's in. Kh1: loses world. Burdened as the only onr to defeat the heartless as everything tries to kill him. Told he's insignificant faker. Betrayed and abandoned by friends. Kills himself. Forced to leave Kairi to find missing friend. COM: Inception on angry steroids. Kh2: still missing friend. Kairi kidnapped. Existential crisis of helping the enemy. Had to beg for nothing. People can't get his name right. Nearly gets his heart ripped out and lost forever in dark realm forever. Kind of bummed about how worn out he is. DDD: it's Inception for real and ahhhh the follow your heart backfires very badly! Sora's a failed student. X0 Kh3: people keep picking on him and then everyone diiiiiieeeessss! Then Sora diiiiies - for real this time. Kh4: man not even being dead gives him a break. Why is flippin Xehanort of all people giving him a broken umbrella in the rain? Sora: Get out of here man. How'd we end up in the same place?

Well that was exciting, wasn't it? D23 this year proved to be even more than we expected in terms of content and information for Kingdom Hearts. As we covered throughout the week, what was initially advertised as a retrospective on the Kingdom Hearts series, gave us so much more than just that- from a surprise snippet of the Coco trailer on Friday, to the full reveal on Saturday, the announcement of an animated series for the franchise coming to Disney+ in the future, and even a surprise appearance by Tetsuya Nomura himself at the Deep Dive panel. Before reading further if you haven't already, please take a look at our coverage of these exciting announcements, as well as the gallery of beautiful screenshots we've assembled from the new trailer before reading if you want to get caught up on all of the new information before our own deep dive into the new trailer. If you would like an audio/visual analysis, consider checking out the video done by fellow KH13 staff members JustaKHGirl and Kye ~x~ here. This analysis will solely be focusing on the extended Coco trailer, and I will only be covering the four minute extended trailer, as while I have seen the English and Japanese versions of both the teaser version and the longer version, I noticed no significant differences. As a result of this trailer being just shy of four minutes, this analysis will also consequently be significantly longer than the last one. We will be covering Coco, its themes, and how it could connect to the story of Kingdom Hearts IV, analyzing the story beats, and delving into the combat mechanics on display, as well as tracing the narrative breadcrumbs and exploring their potential possibilities, with over a hundred screenshots to enhance your reading experience. Before getting into it, I wish to extend my heartfelt grief for the passing of Hayden Panettiere. From Kingdom Hearts to Heroes, Until Dawn, Scream and so much more, she touched the lives of several generations in such a short time, and has left us far too early. She will be dearly missed. The trailer begins with one of the most famous scenes from Coco, in which Héctor Rivera plays the somber melody of "Everyone Knows Juanita" as his friend Chicharrón fades away to his "Final Death". Kingdom Hearts is always a rewarding experience as a Disney fan; the developers ability to recreate these scenes continues to amaze. Some minor liberties are taken with the camera angles and the trailer has a subtly brighter color palette, as seen below, but ultimately, it is a faithful recreation. The top image will be from Kingdom Hearts IV, and the one beneath it will be from the original film, both of these are of the same scene with the same dialogue. That note of praise is a contentious one amongst the fandom, as there has always been a latent criticism of the Disney Worlds outside of Kingdom Hearts I and Chain of Memories following the films too closely. Even if one includes examples from Coded, 358/2 Days, and certain selections from Birth By Sleep as well as A Fragmentary Passage, if broken down, at least half of the worlds in the franchise follow their movies of origin exactly to some degree. I do agree with some aspects of the criticism, strongly so even, but objectively the praise given to their ability to recreate these films gains merit with each passing game, especially as Kingdom Hearts utilizes more and more of the recent Disney catalogue of movies. Coco visually and narratively has long been considered one of Pixar's best, and much can be gleaned and hypothesized of the narrative that can come out of its inclusion, even from these, the very first moments of the trailer. I will go into specifics of character and plot parallels to the film later, but for now, I would like to go over this concept of a "Final Death" and what this could mean for the latest Kingdom Hearts story as well as some broader aspects that Coco shares with Kingdom Hearts. To quickly recap, Quadratum has been referred to as an 'Afterworld', a realm that resembles that of ours, the players, but is referred to by the cast of Kingdom Hearts as 'Unreality'; a 'Fictional World.' It also is modeled after Tokyo, specifically the Shibuya and Minami-Aoyama districts. Already this connects the game to the story of Coco in interesting ways; the Land of the Dead, the afterlife within the Coco universe, is based on a real city as well; specifically Guanajuato, Mexico. The key difference between the two lies in that the Land of the Living co-exists alongside the Land of the Dead. Miguel, Coco's protagonist, is only able to see the departed after strumming the guitar of Ernesto De La Cruz, after having stolen it from his mausoleum. Sora is sent to Quadratum after too many uses of the Power of Waking, a realm that as far as we know at the moment, can only be observed when there. The words "Final Death" are heavy on the chest to say, and brings a chill when thinking about its implications and possibilities, but it is a concept we are not unfamiliar with. I will illustrate the correlations with 2 lengthy but important points based on two ideas: death, and fading away and the relationship the two share. Death has subtly followed Sora since the very beginning of his journey. The destruction of his island, sacrificing himself to save the hearts of Kairi and the other Princesses, witnessing the deaths of Rinzler, Flynn Rider, and Will Turner; all of this and more along with his journey to the Final World in Kingdom Hearts III. Despite how temporary the death has been stated to be or how softly the message is delivered, death has also followed Sora in other ways as well; remember what Chirithy said: Sora has gone to the Station of Awakening in some form or another in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts III, Birth By Sleep when sharing his heart with Ventus, the data version of Sora gets a Station of his own in Re:Coded, Riku visited a version of Sora's in Dream Drop Distance, and of course Roxas visits the Station in Kingdom Hearts II. Each example of these can have some attribution to sleep, and/or death, birth as well. In Kingdom Hearts I and III, it is presented to us via the framing of a dream- III's is re-contextualized much later in the game by Chirithy's words, doubly so since Sora is there after the death of he and his friends, but with Kingdom Hearts I's version of the Station, while yes a dream, there are other elements of death at play. The shattering of the Station for Snow White, and the Stations of Belle and Cinderella becoming submerged in Darkness have always led me to an interpretation of this representing their worlds having been consumed by the Darkness, and destroyed. It feels like no coincidence that not only are those all the worlds Ventus (as well as Terra and Aqua) had been to, but they are also all visited in Chi/Union Cross, the time period Ventus originates from, and are the same three worlds Aqua visits in A Fragmentary Passage. Darkside ends that fight in I whether you win or lose by submerging Sora in Darkness, with Sora likening it to not being able to breathe. A final little known fact to tie in with this, as was confirmed to me by KH13 translator Ryuji, during Sora's conversation with Kairi after the tutorial, Sora says something different in Japanese when telling Kairi he would like to see her old homeworld. Just something to consider. Fading, and fading away is also a present concept in Kingdom Hearts, and in fact is one employed quite liberally. In Kingdom Hearts we have seen memories fade, Hearts fade, Light fades, truths and lies fade and morph into one another creating new existences in their stead. Even data can fade and change into something new, bodies can be created, hearts can enter other hearts; all of these things within this universe can either happen naturally, or be engineered somehow. When Roxas is at the Station of Awakening, he doesn't know it yet but he's fighting for his existence; his right to exist, and to be, in an attempt to stave of what was at the time believed to be the death of his body and personality following his reunion with Sora, a fight he attempted to initiate in 358/2 Days. However it is not always Darkness one can fade into, as demonstrated by Roxas, Eraqus, Xehanort and others vanishing into brilliant flashes of light; don't forget, Light and Darkness, like death itself, are not inherently good or evil respectively, nor are they necessarily prone to either side, rather it is the ambitious and beliefs that others supersede unto them that transform and inform the context of their existences to others. Of course there's always a Maleficent out there, but there's also Terra, and Riku, and yes Eraqus's black and white philosophies about Light and Darkness colored the perception of them to his students, but there's also people like Mickey and Sora who understand that both are different sides of the same coin; they may not use Darkness but they see that complete eradication of it will accomplish nothing. These two points converge with the concept of memory; memory has always been a key part of Kingdom Hearts' narrative, how we relate to our memories, how they make us feel, how they can motivate us, lie to us, how they can be manipulated. Memory is something else too that can be engineered; fake memories can be planted, added and removed on a whim, in this universe our brains forget but our Hearts remember. In Coco, it is not enough to meet someone in the Land of the Dead and go back to the Land of the Living and remember them, you had to know the person, experience the person, built memories with them, or be passed down their story from friends and family- it is not enough to just exist, one has to live. So with this in mind, is Chicharrón fading away to his Final Death because there is no one left alive in the real world to pass down his memories and story really so different than Xion for example fading at the end of 358/2 Days and everyone forgetting her? Or the ancient Keyblade War? An apocalypse that no living person remembers but the World does? Or the Foretellers; the Lost Masters who commanded hundreds if not thousands of children in their battle against Darkness; all of them completely forgotten, with the former being interdimensionally displaced for a hundred years, and the latter only existing as Dream Eaters? That being said, it is important to remember, we do not know for a fact that Quadratum is in fact actually an afterlife for these characters, but that is how they themselves are perceiving and defining it. There is an interesting gap in continuity to the above screenshots and the ones below, as the scene of Héctor, Miguel, and Sora on the cable car happens immediately after Miguel gets his guitar, where as the shot above of Miguel observing the talent show is supposed to happen before Héctor plays his song for Chicharrón. As you can see in the image below, Sora is not only in the crowd, he is actively cheering Miguel on, implying they are familiar with each other already. This means either he meets them between Chicharrón passing away and getting on the cable car, thereby being one of our first gameplay sections for the world, or Sora was present during the aforementioned scene, and we just were not shown that he was. I hope he is in fact present for the Final Death of Chicharrón, as not only would this be a good application of the themes we've discussed so far, it would be a powerful scene for him to bear witness to, for several reasons. Firstly being that this scene would happen to him relatively not too long after the prior discussion mentioned with Chirithy about death, secondly it would give interesting parallels to Sora's current situation, and lastly it's important to remember that Sora himself as been slowly introduced to these concepts as time has gone on across all 5 of his starring games. Starting with Chain of Memories and really hitting its stride in Dream Drop Distance, Sora has little by little been faced with dilemmas and ideas that previous characters from Birth By Sleep, 358/2 Days, and the Chi titles have long confronted. Love, death, betrayal and identity, all of these and more have been presented to Sora, a simple person by nature, having to grapple with these tough to swallow concepts has great potential for a deep story. For clarity, Sora already has plenty of depth to his character and does not need to "change", the games themselves have told us this since the first title, but him growing up with each new game has been a subtle but tangible part of Kingdom Hearts' overall grand narrative, and is one of its strongest threads, just as much as Xehanort's story, or the Master of Masters machinations. It's a surreal and pleasant feeling seeing the classic Shadow Heartless once again after having only seen the Quadtratum styled Heartless since 2022. I've seen several sharp-eyed fans point out that the Shadows seem to only go after Miguel here, and how this lines us with what we were told in Kingdom Hearts I's "Ansem Reports"; specifically the fourth entry: Could the Heartless be targeting Miguel simply because he is the only 'living' person in the Land of the Dead? Even if that's true, what are they doing there in the first place, did Sora's arrival bring them here? Is there a possibility that Miguel is of special interest to the World, and therefore a target of the Heartless? Of course that begs the question of how Sora even travels to the worlds this time around, and their place in the grander Cosmology of the Oceans Between, but as of now we have no way of knowing. I suspect that perhaps Miguel's ability to interact with the living and the dead may be of special interest to someone, but this is just speculation for now. These shots from the trailer are incredible to see, it's not just that the colors are vibrant and expressive, they're very layered and nuanced with their shading, gradients, and depth. These shots have been heavily speculated to be from a FMV (Full Motion Video) segment from the game but not only that, some are theorizing these shots might just be from the games intro. Pictured above is someone with a posture similar to that of the Master of Masters, tall and upright, with his hands behind his back, amongst a field of flowers, which of course includes dandelions. Where is this taking place? It seems to be in a location that is similar to where we would see the man talk to Ira in Back Cover, where, just some food for thought, he would discuss his hypothetical disappearing, or 'fading away', he does not quite seem to be in the 'Quadratum' style. However the moment is deliberate in obscuring the towering spires of Daybreak Town that would confirm this location by having the camera positioned at just the right angle to make actual pinpointing difficult. I am reminded of the initial Kingdom Hearts IV trailer: Star Wars speculation aside, could the location the figure is standing in be connected to this forest we saw a glimpse of in the reveal trailer? Theorizing about Quadtratum is beyond the scope of this analysis, but there is so much we don't know about the world and its relation to the Master of Masters, so it is my belief that a correlation between the two is very much possible. The next shot of the trailer is perhaps one of the most striking images in the entire video. This shot, mirroring almost exactly a similar one from the intro to Kingdom Hearts I has made it very difficult to maintain my professionalism as I write this. Nothing before in the series has invoked the feeling of everything beginning to come full circle than this moment. The skies behind Sora seem to suggest Sora is in the same location as the assumed Master of Masters. Whether this will be an artistic representation used in an FMV utilizing the games eventual theme song, or a true genuine meeting between the two, it does a great job at building anticipation for this eventual clash between the two. Sora being around dandelions is also particularly interesting, as while Sora was never a Dandelion like the wielders in Chi/Union Cross, he has been aided by them in the past. If my reading of all of this is accurate, remember what we saw Sora doing in the June trailer: I am not necessarily connecting this to the idea that the Keyblades Sora surfs in this trailer are also the Keyblades of the fallen Dandelions, but rather so making a point of how it is interesting how this follows a pattern of Sora learning from past experiences, like how after Dream Drop Distance he can go on to summon the Dream Eaters in Kingdom Hearts III. In fact it is possibly Sora's connection to the Dream Eaters that lends to a potential, if only partial, explanation to Ephemer's intervention during the Demon Tide boss fight, which is a great narrative thread that could be expanded on. There are two major things Sora has not been clued in on yet: the events at Castle Oblivion, and the story of the Keyblade War; which I am meaning to include the Foretellers, Master of Masters, Dandelions and all relevant story beats to them together in one large group. It would be interesting to see Sora's connection to the Dandelions, however miniscule it may be for now, explored and deepened, and perhaps it will. I do not believe these things would go unaddressed without a good, or at least interesting, reason. Strelitzia's words hang over this beautiful shot of the city, the very same ones she spoke in the initial reveal trailer four long years ago. This scene allows us to get our best look at the scope and size of Quadratum so far. The way the sun casts and reflects off of the buildings makes the industrial metropolis appear like an ocean, extending as far as the eye can see, sunlight reflecting off of its 'water'. Sora, speaking for the first time in any of the revealed trailers, tells Strelitzia that someone is asking for "Dandelion Dispatch", as they hold cellphones in their hands. Before unboxing wha that could mean, I'd like to highlight how our two familiar faces look, it should be a point of praise. These models of the characters are similar to those from the previous trailer, and I have not been able to notice any significant differences. Sora's character model and appearances has been possibly the single most contentious issue taken with the art direction on display in Quadratum, aside from feelings on the location itself, has seen the most significant changes between the reveal trailer, the screenshots, and the two recent trailers. It would not surprise me in the slightest if Tetsuya Nomura or someone on the team declared it as something that worked at the most out of all the character models, as we can see here, comparing all prior mentioned looks at him side-by-side with the officially released render: Of course it is a given that things will change across four years, but the big jump in quality from the screenshots to now is quite the sight to see. Eagle-eyed fans have noted that Sora's phone has not only a Hidden Mickey, or Lucky Emblem if you prefer, but a charm attached to it that some are saying is in the shape of Jiminy Cricket. I can see where people would see the top hat and shoes at the very least, but whether it is or isn't remains unconfirmed for now. Very neat attention to detail if true though, its a fun way of keeping him along for the journey in spirit. Dandelion Dispatch brings to mind various things, and unfortunately we can only speculate for now, however I believe there are still some context clues we can piece together, seen here in our next screenshot. These were seen briefly in the prior trailer's background. These have been widely pointed out to be practically identical to the Assault Craft Dropships from Final Fantasy XV, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say Final Fantasy Versus XIII. From Yozora's appearance, and to that extent Riku's as of Kingdom Hearts III, to the secret ending in ReMind -Limit Cut- mirroring the original promotional trailer for Versus XIII with Noctis in the back of his limo, this has been a long time coming, as Nomura and his team are clearly through being subtle with the allusions to each game. And objectively, they were not being very subtle in the first place. Analyzing the connections to Versus XIII and what that could mean for the plot is beyond the scope of this analysis and trailer, but it is something that should consciously be in our minds as Kingdom Hearts IV's inevitable release looms ever closer with each passing day. What we can instead think about at this moment, is what this means for a 'Dandelion Dispatch.' A voice blares over the city, stating that "a Darkside has appeared near Shibuya Station." Once again the new incarnation of Darkside appears before us. After my mild shock at hearing a voice actually refer to him by his name wore off, I began to try and make sense of this shot. At first glance I assumed in the moment that this was how he appeared in the world, these hexagonal shapes surround him before bursting: It appeared as if his presence was distorting reality, but then if we recall the reveal trailer showed him simply materializing in the world, unless of course that has been changed for the final product. After that thought fell through, I arrived at two possible ideas as to what is happening. Remember the Dropships; in the context of Final Fantasy XV they utilized Magitek engines. Magitek is a recurring concept across multiple Final Fantasy's but in XV they're powered mechs called Magitek Armor which impede Noctis' journey. These mechs cannot use ice, however the original Magitek Armor from Final Fantasy VI can. Perhaps a Magitek Armor, or something similar to it attempted to encase the monster in Ice, or perhaps the dropships in this world have the ability to do it themselves. I admit it is far-fetched to ponder if perhaps Magitek Armors will be present in Kingdom Hearts IV, let alone anything from Final Fantasy VI, however I believe there exists a modicum of merit to this idea. Kefka has appeared in Kingdom Hearts; Union Cross specifically, as the 'Mysterious Sir" super boss, accompanied by "Dancing Mad" no less, along with Final Fantasy V's Gilgamesh who Sora has not fought yet. Let us not forget, Coco originally had a series of medals in Union Cross, and that film has now come to Kingdom Hearts IV; true of course that Zootopia, Moana and others that were present are still unaccounted for, but it is enough of a chance that I am willing to put it out there, and keep it under consideration. My other possible idea is much more mundane, it could perhaps be as simple as multiple Keyblade wielders, or perhaps some sort of other device or technology attempted to contain the monster, but he broke free. Regardless, I believe this is indeed Ice magic at play here. Are these dropships the Dandelion Dispatch? We know there are other Keyblade wielders in Quadratum, does Strelitzia work for them? I theorize they are a type of 'law enforcement' or 'peace keepers' for this world that get called in whenever the Heartless invade. There is evidence I believe to support this later. As Darkside attacks, it appears as if this; the distress call and the dark orb attack you see above seem to be the beginning of his attack, as there are many civilians on the street still, actively running away from the monster, and the city is in good condition before the aforementioned attack. The orbs bring to mind Darkside's ability that has him reaching into the ground and pulling out an orb of the same colors before sending it into the sky to reign down projectiles. This also brings to mind two prior scenes we have seen before, one from the screenshots, and one from June's trailer. The first image is positioned at just the right angle to line up with the shot where Darkside is about to attack, and the second image has holes in the destroyed buildings that seem to line up with where the orbs were launched. Could this be the sequence of events? The image from last year was the subject of much debate, from speculation relating to potential Keyblade wielders, to ballistic missiles, to Donald and Goofy arriving in Quadratum. The object hurdling towards Darkside on the top right seems to be colored blue; could this possibly play into my Blizzard theory? This has quickly become one of the most memorable sequences from the trailer; Sora dashing through a tumbling bus to save a woman and her cat. This is not the first time Sora has explicitly been shown actively saving the lives of NPC's throughout the worlds, and in fact is not even the first time he has fought something the size of the new Darkside either, but never before has it been done quite this cinematically. This is a good opportunity to discuss another aspect that has been on display for Kingdom Hearts IV; cutscene direction. This and voice direction were two of Kingdom Hearts III's biggest points of contention, the usual criticism they felt at times static and stilted. The Disney worlds were considered as having been by and large mostly fine, but the staging of certain scenes, some specific examples cited being the Gummiship and Keyblade Graveyard cutscenes feeling at times they were lacking in visual diversity. Kingdom Hearts IV's vocal performances have been received well enough so far, but the dynamics of the cinematography has been widely praised, highlights noted have been the sharp camera shots, dynamic and dramatic angles, as well as the movements of the characters themselves. As seen below, these demonic incarnations of the Heartless go a long way in restoring the feelings of horror latent within them, as beings and their mere existences. The Shadows descend as Sora calls out a familiar name to the same masked ninja looking character from the last trailer, confirming his identity as Vali. I suspect Vali has potential to prove a fan favorite when the game is finally released. Much like most of the Quadratum cast, his outfit is simple but distinct, and his style of wielding his Keyblade backhanded brings to mind Ventus, albeit it is in a different style. We have not seen much of what his character could be yet, within these trailers and in Dark Road as well, but Square Enix has always had a certain way of making the minimalistic silent types endearing and memorable. Sora's watch has also been an interesting discussion point, as he did not have it in the initial reveal trailer, but since the screenshot release last year, it has been a constant presence. Initially I thought it would be the replacement for the Gummiphone; a way for Sora to communicate with his allies, and perhaps even hold the 'journal' for this game. However as he now has a cellphone, its purpose is once again completely elusive, as we have not yet seen it be utilized in any way. Perhaps this will be how he accesses the map? The world of Quadratum is massive, perhaps this will be used to observe the map quickly and set markers, if that is such an option. Another possibility is perhaps this is how he will be able to summon in this game? III allowed him to do so by way of the Heartbinders, perhaps this will be the equivalent to that in this game? Or maybe it is simply a part of Sora's new fashion statement, we shall see. Interesting lore tidbit: Vali's name has several linguistic origins, across Arabic, Hindi dialects, and Latin there is a shared commonality of being associated with valor, bravery, and in Arabic tongues specifically words like guardian, and protector. In Norse culture, which the Kingdom Hearts series has been pulling from quite liberally for some time now, similar to Final Fantasy VII, Vali is the name of one of Odin's sons, specifically he is an archer tasked with avenging the death of Baldur. His identity is that of a weapon, a tool to take revenge on Loki, who tricked the blind Hoder into killing Baldur, who in the myth are twin brothers instead of brother and sister. Could this be a hint at Vali's role in the story? We know of an Odin to exist in Kingdom Hearts, but who would Loki be? The Master of Masters? Luxu? Xehanort? Sora? The possibilities are as endless as they are fascinating to think about. Back in the Land of the Dead, Sora, Miguel, and Héctor descend the cable car down to the talent show being held at La Plaza de la Cruz. Immediately after this, we see something very exciting happen. The Keyblade in this world is nothing short of beautiful, arriving in a flash of Light, with swirling petals of marigolds, or cempasúchil as they're called in Mexican-Spanish, forming into the shape of a guitar, similar to the ones donned by Miguel, and Ernesto de la Cruz. It's interesting upon closer inspection because initially it seemed to me the whole Keyblade was a guitar but if you look closely, there is a guitar complete with its fret board above the handle, instead of the handle being the guitar's body as I initially thought. Now feels the most appropriate to discuss Sora's new look in the Land of the Dead. Notably despite what can be seen at an immediate glance, Sora is relatively unchanged. In fact as far as his clothes are concerned they are exactly the same as when he is in Quadratum. Interestingly, this is the first time we have seen the Kingdom Hearts IV outfit in the 'classic' Kingdom Hearts style. Though comparatively Pixar is known for dipping more into realism with their movies than Disney tends to, as an art direction though certainly not exclusively, Coco is not a 'realistic' looking film; nothing is overly cartoon-y, but it is far from photo-realism. Therefore it is safe to assume that this is close to what Sora's outfit would look like outside of Quadratum. Another thing to take away here is Sora's 'skeletal' form- when standing next to Héctor it is clear that Sora is not a skeleton, as his limbs and mouth move in such a way that they simply would not otherwise. Conversely, unlike Miguel who for his time in the Land of the Dead his skin becomes transparent, but like Miguel Sora's face looks as if it it was painted, which would explain the heart and crown under each eye, his limbs to not look so, instead it appears as if his skin has simply darkened and the bones underneath are shining through. It was Sora's legs that were throwing me off the most; if you take a glance at his model above you'll notice he is not wearing tall socks, but in the Land of the Dead they're completely black minus the bones. That being said, the crown and heart are a stellar touch all the same, they not only suit Sora but also the world. The location is a point of interest as well, Sora seems to be standing in what Coco dubbed 'Shanty Town', where nearly forgotten skeletons gather; meaning their living family has no offerings upon their ofrenda, and they cannot cross over into the living world on Día de los Muertos. Shanty Town was portrayed as a waterfront of sorts, hence why there was an ocean in view of the trailer's opening scenes. This lends credence to what I suggested earlier that Sora did perhaps bear witness to the Final Death of Chicharrón, he may have just been omitted, or was elsewhere. Lastly, the other notable thing about this scene is the simple fact that it happened; Sora has never obtained a world's Keyblade during its plot progression, let alone in a cutscene. The only times that come to mind as being close to comparable are when in Kingdom Hearts I the keychains were given to him by the respective Disney heroes as a memento after beating that world's Disney boss, whereas subsequent games saw their protagonists simply obtaining them after the world's completion. The other time is in Kingdom Hearts II where Sora transforms into Valor Form after getting his new clothes, where he is shown wielding Star Seeker. What could have happened that caused Sora to manifest this version of the Keyblade? Is this still just a keychain? Time and again the games and wider lore have referred to the Kingdom Key as the true form of Sora's Keyblade, but this scene is framed as if it is being bestowed upon him, or as being a genuine separate Keyblade. Then again, the lore on keychains is at times elusive; sometimes they are physical items given to Sora that take the shape of his new weapons, sometimes they are manifestations of Sora's bonds, his memories or his friendships, sometimes all of these or some of these mixed together. Regardless, I hope similar scenes follow all of Sora's other Keyblades this time around! The proof that this Keyblade is obtained during the world's story, possibly very early as well, is on display for us in the next sequence. Quick note: it doesn't seem the colors of the mini-map on the top-right of the screen changes colors with the world; that could always change, but just taking note of it. This segment brings to mind the first phase of the Spellican boss fight from Dream Drop Distance. I don't believe this to be the final boss of the world, and I cannot immediately tell if it is a Heartless. It most likely is but it has the same color scheme as the spirit guides of the Land of the Dead; the Alebrijes, although it does not appear to be the one belonging to Imelda Rivera, who was chasing Miguel at this time in the film. The Keychain from Sora's Keyblade seems attached to the monster, although we have seen Sora's Keyblade function as a kind of grappling hook in these trailers consistently, so perhaps it has something to do with that. Once again the button prompts that allow Sora to instantly snap to a location appears. We then see our first look at combat within Coco's world, as Sora fights side-by-side with Miguel and Héctor. This short collection of sequences gives us more than a few things to take note of. Firstly, the Parasol Beauty Heartless that debuted in Kingdom Hearts III makes a return here. We also catch glimpses of a new Heartless, one that appears to be themed to the world of Coco; it appears to be a bird-like creature, holding what could be fans or maracas. The Limit Attack, or Team Attack as Kingdom Hearts III calls them, that Sora does with Héctor is very interesting to watch, Héctor and possibly Sora seem to dance during the move, similar to Jack Skellington's Limit Attack, Dance Call, from Kingdom Hearts II. Sora then begins gliding around, casting AOE (area-of-effect) magic in the center of the stream of music notes, before coming together in the middle to cast what at first appeared to be the finishing blow, but the real finale was yet to come. The bar at the top of the screen I can't quite pinpoint- at first I thought it was a part of the attack, but judging by the skeleton people both silhouetted on the bar and watching in the background, this might actually be a kind of performance meter; entertain the crowd. This would make sense considering it is a talent show, although that is contradicted by Miguel actively being a part of the combat, which would place this fight after his rendition of "Un Poco Loco". When speaking at the Deep Dive Into Kingdom Hearts panel at D23, Tai Yasue had this to say about what we can look forward to when it comes to fighting alongside the Rivera's. Sadly we were not able to get a glimpse at what this will look like, but it is clear that a lot of effort has gone into fleshing out the Disney/Pixar characters in combat; building on what was started in Kingdom Hearts III. Other little things of note are there weren't any flashy combos on display this time, the focus of this trailer seemed more so on story than gameplay, and that in terms of battle related voice clips, Sora's seem to be entirely comprised of lines from Kingdom Hearts III. Not a surprise, the game is still a long way out, but it was noticeable all the same. Also to quote Mr. Yasue again, that is in fact a 'magical piñata' Sora slashes through at the end of the sequence. Now onto the Mickey portions of the trailer within the Scala Ad Caelum library. Immediately we can see there are a few notable differences with The King; there seems to be a fuzzy texture on his ears that I don't believe was present in Kingdom Hearts III. Also his outfit is different as well, instead of a grey undershirt it's white now, and instead of red pants they've been swapped out for black ones. His shoes have the same pattern but the yellow is softer, and the only red on him is his jacket; the torso and back sections. This area was first shown to us in the screenshots from last year, where we saw Mickey standing atop a chandelier. This moment is something truly special, finally Kingdom Hearts will give us full control of Mickey Mouse. Mickey has been playable before, yes, as a life saver in Kingdom Hearts II, a secret character in 358/2 Days Mission Mode, and then of course his legendary solo segment during Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind, but not to this degree. Full ranged movement, complete control of his abilities, and a dedicated gameplay segment, not simply a special scripted scenario, or a chance encounter that some players may actually miss, The language you see displayed on the book that Mickey gets sucked into is both readable and translatable. Diehard Kingdom Hearts lore sleuths sometimes refer to it as "Scaldian", as while the language is actually found across the whole series, it is primarily within Scala Ad Caelum that these translation efforts are focused, and there have been attempts to decipher the alphabet for years, dating back to the release of Kingdom Hearts III, possibly even before. I have not attempted to try or seek translation for anything you see for this write up, but if any decoders out there can piece something together, let a staff member know, we might be able to update this very article if the information is pertinent enough. Puzzles have always been a part of Kingdom Hearts' DNA, some games more than others, but from what we see of this 'paper world' as it was referred to during the panel, Mickey finds himself in, this is shaping up to possibly be one of the most creative things Nomura's teams have done yet. The counter up at the top-left of the screen seems to indicate Mickey must find five books, possibly pages- we never see the number change throughout this trailer, but its clear this will be a lengthy segment. The patterns that adorn this bridge Mickey creates brings to mind the stained glass design that could be seen on the Door to Darkness from the end of Kingdom Hearts I. This stained glass type design has been present in Kingdom Hearts from the various Stations of Awakening, to different doors, and the floating tiles Sora and Roxas walk across during their visits during Kingdom Hearts I and II and in general is an artistic aesthetic that has come to define the series. I strongly believe this is more than just a nice visual flair, however. My reasoning for this is since Dream Drop Distance the Kingdom Hearts titles after it have often engaged with acknowledging themselves, and what I intend this to mean is, it feels more than just easter eggs and fan service. Contentious it may be, Kingdom Hearts III is a very deliberate game in its message and tone; history repeating itself and the seemingly fun little callbacks that are brought up by the cast of heroes and villains do not simply reference them, they reframe them, at times even mock them. Young Xehanort in particular was very good about doing this to Sora, and again, Kingdom Hearts IV is being very intentional about manifesting feelings of things coming together, so this design being here in Scala ad Caelum is surely intentional. Mr. Yasue expanded a little on what we see during the trailer and what we can expect from this new paper world: He explicitly refers to this as being puzzle-based game design, and he noted that it was perhaps the gameplay segment he was looking forward to the most, referring to it as 'fresh.' Here we see what appears to be the paper thin Mickey, running along a pathway of some sorts. On the bottom right of the screen we can see that Mickey has two 'party members' of sorts; two different Mickey origami, and two of each of them. There is yet no confirmation on which one is which, but going off the shape of the blue copy's head, this could potentially be the box Mickey variant, or even the tiny Mickey. Its shape reminds me of the collaboration Disney did with Bearbrick (stylized as BE@RBRICK) for a line of collectible designer toys. They are a Japanese based company, so there is that slim possibility. On the bottom left of the screen there's a whimsical image of a book with scattered pages underneath Mickey's Command Menu. Having mentioned that, Mickey only has the Attack command, so that leads me to believe this will be mostly if not entirely non-combative; a thought came to me as I combed over the footage, perhaps this will be a replacement for the 100 Acre Woods. I would love to see Winnie-The-Pooh come back so they can expand on the story they hinted at of his connection to Sora being weaker, but on the surface this world checks all the boxes for it, however instead of minigames it is exploration based puzzles. Then again maybe not, when Sora was inside Pooh bear's book the Attack Command was replaced with 'Hit', or 'Strike' in Kingdom Hearts III, so perhaps combat is still possible. Thin Mickey runs along 2-Dimensional planes a la the side-scrolling platformers of old, it plays with perspective in a way that has drawn comparisons to the Paper Mario series of games, of which I agree. There are similar games I'm reminded of but actually whether those making the connection are aware of it or not, that comparison is actually rather apropos. After all, what Super Mario 64 did for 3D platformers is quite a large part of Kingdom Hearts I's DNA. And considering Square Enix's historically friendly relationship with the plumber, having developed Super Mario RPG when they were SquareSoft, plus Yoko Shimomura composing its soundtrack, the influence feels more intentional upon closer inspection. These assumedly have to be what Mr. Yasue referred to as the giant Mickey's, which lumber forward in big striders, breaking through boxes. Those that it breaks are colored red as well, this could mean the puzzles involving the giant Mickey's could be color coded and you will need Mickey copies of different colors, or it simply is a way of identifying what can and cannot be broken through. Notice too the Command Menu here and in the screen shots featuring thin Mickey, for the side scrolling segment there is only a command for "Return to Mickey", and in the giant Mickey segment we can see "Swap" as a Reaction Command, with the signal to do so targeting the real Mickey, as well as "Throw". This seems to suggest that this Mickey copy will be able to pick up and move things, perhaps to be used to destroy obstacles or remove hazards? We only see a brief glimpse of this origami figure, so we don't know yet its full movement capabilities or if it can even jump, but what we can see is Mickey only has the option to control this copy at this moment, and only has one of them available. Notably the book counter in this segment displays 0/3 books instead of 5, like the prior segments, this could mean that these are not only separate areas of the paper world, but also different segments of Mickey's journey. Before the feeling of knowing that Mickey is truly genuinely playable for the first time and taking in this new world and its mechanics can breathe and settle, the trailer then shows us that in fact he is not the only character whose journey we will be following. At last, this trailer confirms once and for all that Donald and Goofy did indeed go to Olympus' Underworld to talk to Hades. This was speculated as far back as the reveal trailer, as sharp-eared fans from all sides clocked Hades Japanese seiyu, however there was still some confusion to some if this was really the case, but now we see it in full. Goofy asks Hades when someone passes away in the World if they always go to his Underworld. We don't see Hades provide a direct answer to this question, all he offers the Knight and Mage is "Sora isn't here." The idea of Donald and Goofy searching for Sora here has been a story beat derided through bewilderment and humor, as since it is the Underworld, the realm is thought of as a 'bad' afterlife, and thus reflects poorly on Donald and Goofy's perceptions of Sora as a person. However, them being here makes perfect sense, and may in fact correlate to the story, but to explain why will require a quick detour into Greek Mythology, and Kingdom Hearts Chi history. Yes, even by Disney standards 1997's Hercules plays fast and loose with its source material for the adaptation of its story, but these tenents of the myth could prove important to keep in the back of your mind. After all, despite their penchant for Norse Mythology, they have never shied away from Greek myths across their games either. The Underworld, interchangeably referred to as the Underworld and Hades, named after the God himself, was where all souls went; the rich, the poor, the malevolent, and the innocent. There were layers to the Underworld, as it was not one set location, with three main plains of existence, and 7 rivers. Let's quickly go over those three realms. Elysian Fields: You went here if you were a hero in life, especially virtuous in life, or blessed by the Gods. Always sunny, no rain, no labor, no sorrow; no worries for the rest of your days. You gained passage only by being deemed worthy by the three judges of the Underworld. I won't expand on them but it might be worth noting, one of them was named Aeacus, his title was Master of Keys, the keys being to the gates of the Underworld. Asphodel Meadows: Consider this a 'general' afterlife; akin to certain perceptions of purgatory, it is a shrouded in shadows and quietness. The denizens here have no memory, and in fact very little feeling, it is characterized as a land of complete and total boredom. Most mortals went here. Note: scholars have debated on the meaning of its name and description, some claim it is a field of ash, some say it's a field of flowers. Tartarus: This realm was a prison, where it held those who rebelled against the Gods or violated laws of the Cosmos. It was described as being covered in darkness, surrounded by an unbreakable iron gate, a river of fire, and a chasm so vast you could fall down it for an entire year without touching the bottom of it. There are several reasons I am providing this information to you, the main two being to illustrate that Hades, the location, does not have an inherent bias towards good or evil, and second was to plant the seeds of theory. By now certainly one could already see some similarities to Kingdom Hearts' setting, worlds, and even its plains of existence. Putting these pieces together is beyond the scope of this analysis, but before moving onto the Chi correlation, let's quickly consider those rivers. Styx: The most prominent river, referred to sometimes as the river of hatred. Acheron: The river of woe, sometimes misery, or sorrow. Pyriphlegethon: The river of fire, often associated with punishment. Cocytus: The river of wailing; sometimes weeping, or lament. Lethe: The river of forgetfulness. Lethe in the myth is the Goddess of forgetfulness, as well as oblivion. Eridanos: The river of scorching, and mourning. Oceanus: The river that circles the whole world. Named after the Titan, or Primordial God of the same name, this river was a perfect circle around the world, when it was thought to be flat, and acted as a Cosmic boundary separating the mortal realm from the Underworld. It's waters were described as sweet, as it was not sea salted water. Oceanus was the son of Uranus and Gaia; the sky and earth. Or, as they were referred to in Roman Mythology, a language closely related to Latin, both of which Mr. Nomura borrows from often, Caelus and Terra, respectively. The other reason why they visiting Hades makes sense is found in Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road. During that games 7th chapter, Xehanort, Eraqus and their classmates journey to Olympus to discover what happened to their deceased classmates. Hades plays a major role in these events and is very much a crucial part of Dark Roads story despite his minimal screen time, as he takes the students to his Underworld where they are able to talk to their passed on friends one last time before they fade away to the Final World. Though it is incredibly unlikely that Donald and Goofy would have heard of these events, they know for a fact that Hades once upon a time summoned Auron back from the dead (with some theorizing he is actually the Auron from Final Fantasy X), so it is not out of the realm of possibility for them to think that since Sora disappeared Hades would at least have some idea about what happened to him. Also remember, at the conclusion of Episode VI, we see someone approach Hades off screen but it is never revealed who, so it is fair to think that this and Hades in general will be quite important in Kingdom Hearts IV. What follows is arguably just as grand an event as being able to play as Mickey, if not more so. After almost twenty-five years, Donald and Goofy are playable in Kingdom Hearts (Outside of Days' Mission Mode). This is something that I never believed was possible, not that it wouldn't be possible for the team to do, but more so that I just assumed they would never do it. Not only are Donald and Goofy controllable party members, they are fully fleshed out with combos and a Team Attack. Let's take a closer look. Right away after the sliding segment, we can see the Command Menus for the two are different than Sora's; both have Attack, and Items, as well as a new option; "Combat Style". There is no confirmation about the finer details when it comes to playing as Donald and Goofy, nor what this command actually does but one prevalent theory many have had, of which I share some agreement, points to this possibly being what allows us to switch between the two. A mechanic rather similar to the one in Final Fantasy XV that was added a year after its initial launch. This mechanic also just so happens to be one that Tetsuya Nomura had intended to be implemented in Versus XIII from the get-go, imagine that. Whereas Donald has the traditional Magic Command, where Goofy's should be has been replaced with "Skills." Goofy has never utilized Magic as a power in the series, unless one wants to count his MP Gift ability from Kingdom Hearts I, but in II and III whenever Sora has a Limit/Team Attack with Goofy all of the stats calculated are for his Strength, and all of his abilities that consume MP only account for his Strength as well. In fact, unlike Kingdom Hearts I and II, Kingdom Hearts III does not have any shields that give Goofy any boost in his Magic stat, turning him into purely a tank, but one with a lot of fire power. Speaking of Team Attacks, Donald and Goofy pull one off in the trailer, combining both of their powers to unleash an attack we haven't seen before. At the top left of the screen we see a counter keeping track of the number of waves the two have gone through. I take this to mean that Hades has sent the Heartless after the two, despite seeming to not desire their power when talking to Pete and Maleficent in Kingdom Hearts III. This creates an interesting story beat, as in Dark Road he had Xehanort and companions fight in a short tournament in where their victory would mean he would take them to the Underworld. He will almost surely reference that incident, especially remembering how Kingdom Hearts enjoys calling out its own recurrences. Perhaps he is offering the two an answer or solution to their problems and in order to prove themselves they have to survive against a variety of Heartless? We know he's watching, he can be seen sitting in the background during this sequence. We were given quite the preview of their combat capabilities, let's look at them more in depth, starting with Donald. Donald dashes and glides around the arena as he fires magical projectiles, very similar if not outright lifted straight from Sora's Wisdom Form from Kingdom Hearts II; Master and Final Form did this as well. This is the only attack we see him do on his own, so we don't fully know what his casting will play like, but I assume it will be similar to Kingdom Hearts III in how Sora was able to remain moving even while casting all of his spells, again like in his Kingdom Hearts II forms. Wisdom immediately becomes the most prominent comparison due to that form using the same attack method; shooting off non-elemental magical projectiles while moving, what Donald has that Wisdom Form did not, is the big AOE finish, where Donald summons a star, and smacks it down on his foes, creating a n explosive and stunning combo finisher. Goofy's combos seem to start and end quicker than Donald's, as from what is shown to us, the first two parts of his combo have extended forward-range, and the final two moves in the combo have 360° range in their swings. He might still as a skill, but the glimpses of Goofy's attacks show us that he doesn't have a forward thrust in his standard combo- I am very intrigued to see what his air combos look like, because though it is not the "standard" gameplay loop as we will experience with Sora, again it is on display how quick and snappy the combat is. None of the trailers have shown Sora or anyone doing simple standard combos on the ground or in the air, there's always special moves involved, or the camera cuts away, so it is difficult to tell how much begin and ending lag there is between each combo, or exactly how much there is when touching down on the ground before being able to act again. However considering that Kingdom Hearts IV is bringing over the little quality of life changes that Kingdom Hearts III had; being able to combo-cancel into a roll or block at almost anytime, casting magic while keeping forward and horizontal momentum, I have faith that the endgame product will feel as good as it currently looks. Don't forget, as good as it looks now, there is still a year and change for it to be even better. This attack that closes out the sequence, possibly a Team Attack, involves Donald and Goofy spinning around atop Goofy's shield, as Donald uses his fireworks inspired Flare Magic, before the big finish. It is unknown how much control we will have during this move, as the only commands that are available to us are Fusion Jump, and Cancel. The wave counter is also 3/3 for this portion, could this be how Donald and Goofy end the fight, or is this move possibly just a part of their repertoire, this just so happens to be when they are using it ? As seen briefly in the first image, the name of this move seems to be "Fusion Spin", which is also the same name of an ability Sora can learn in Kingdom Heats III, acting as a combo finisher when Sora is near Goofy. The trailer begins its closing act by giving us several reveals back-to-back in quick succession. Sora being able to see Donald and Goofy, whether it is a hallucination or they are somehow actually projecting themselves into Quadratum is one of the biggest twists in the whole trailer. We knew they were trying to find him, we knew Sora would be trying to get back home, maybe even find some way to communicate with the Realm of Light- speaking of which, we still have no word yet on why they showed us that rotary telephone in the screenshots last year, but this is a big surprise. This sequence seems to imply that only Sora is able to see them, for now, in this moment, and the shock of it all causes our hero to feint. Before this can settle however, we see that as it turns out, Sora is not the only one venturing to the Land of the Dead. This seems to imply that Donald and Goofy will in fact be joining Sora on his Disney world journeys after all, however there are a few ways this could go, going by what the framing of this scene implies. If the scene above is indeed Sora merely hallucinating Donald and Goofy, that that can take place any time, however, Donald has a line of dialogue saying "We can't find him in that!" This seems to mean they have not found him yet, which opens the possibility that they could arrive here with Sora, before Sora, or even after Sora. I highly doubt they would take one look at the Land of the Dead and just not investigate, but it does raise questions about the chronology of Coco's inclusion. Is this early game? And if so, how early? Does Donald and Goofy's inclusion here mean they will be available in all of the Disney worlds, or jus this one? To that point, if Donald and Goofy indeed join Sora, will we be able to switch between the three? The last question raised by this moment is how did they get here? Did Hades send them here? Their skin, or fur and feathers I suppose, seems to be blacked out, just like Sora, and their designs are much more distinct. Sora seems to be unchanged from his normal attire outside of his skeletal makeover, but Donald and Goofy look striking, dashing even. Goofy in particular, his outfit reminds me a little bit of his Gaucho look from Disney's Saludos Amigos!: Not exactly of course, as Coco takes place in Mexico and Goofy's Gaucho attire seen here is inspired by attire seen in South America's Uruguay and Argentina. A good time to remind, Mr. Nomura does not just work with Disney, he is actively a fan. Their inclusion in this world is also rather amazing from another perspective. Disney is obviously a world wide recognized company, but Donald and Goofy have always in particular been very popular in Spanish speaking countries, in part thanks to Disney's aforementioned Saludos Amigos! and The Three Caballeros, and Donald's relatability and Goofy's comedy having a universal appeal. No doubt this news has excited many fans around the world. The full scope of the land before them is laid bare, the colors popping out at the screen, its hard to imagine that this is how it looks now, twelve to sixteen months out from release, just imagine how it will look on release. A familiar voice greets a familiar figure, it is here and now that we get a look at the Young incarnation of Xehanort, walking around in Quadratum. This is however not the first time we have seen him, Mr. Nomura has drawn artwork of this very same incarnation of Xehanort on two occasions, once to commemorate the finale for Dark Road, and once again this year for the 24th anniversary of the series, respectively. The voice that addresses him is unmistakably Xigbar, or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say Luxu, addressing the revitalized Xehanort with his familiar nickname for him of 'old coot.' Luxu was already suspected to be here in the first place, not just because he has been carrying out his masters orders for over a century, but these two figures from the initial reveal trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV have drawn much speculation that these two figures are in fact Luxu and the Master of Masters. There has been an interesting fact pointed out about Luxu's dialogue to Xehanort, there being a noticeable difference between the English and Japanese versions: Of course this is a pretty straight forward translation, and as we all know Japanese is heavily dependent on tone indicators, context, and pronoun usage, but it is still interesting to think about how it is worded in Japanese. This could potentially imply that this is not just Xehanort from another time period, or a new and different version of Xehanort, but instead this is the same old man Xehanort having for a yet undisclosed reason taken the form of his younger self. It raises many questions and several concerns but we can only speculate for now. It is here the trailer throws a lot of information at us very fast in its last thirty or so seconds. The situation is looking grim as now three Darkside Heartless are staring down Strelitzia and a man who will soon be identified as Sigurd. As Sora fights off the Neo Shadows, we see what looks like to be armored guards backing away in fear, equipped with shields and halberds. From top to bottom these soldiers are extremely similar to the Crownsguard Soldiers uniforms from Final Fantasy XV/Versus XIII; at minimum they are inspired, at most they are directly lifted. There's a deeper connection to be made here; they were the loyal guards to the Kingdom of Lucis, of which Noctis' allies Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto were also members of. Ignis and Gladiolus received allusions to during the Verum Rex trailer within Kingdom Hearts III, upon entering Toy Box for the first time with the characters Magia (magic) and Aegis (shield). Donald and Goofy were directly referred to as these two characters respectively in cut dialogue from Toy Box by Rex. They not only served the Kingdom of Lucis, they also protected the capital of Insomnia as both a protection and countermeasure task force serving directly under the King, Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII. Who is the king they serve in Quadratum? Yozora? The Master of Masters? They don't seem to wield Keyblades, are they Quadratum's military? Come to think about it, is Quadratum the entire world, or just the city? Or is perhaps the city the whole world? We see them hesitate and begin to back up, and when we see what they see, it is not hard to see why. This is possibly the most terrifying form the Heartless have taken yet. This bird-like monstrosities instantly make me recall the feathers from the last trailer that were falling before a hooded figure, could they be connected to them? More pressingly, are these a new Pure Blood Heartless? From the angles provided, I don't seem to see the Emblem anywhere. The Heartless on display are show descending upon Strelitzia. The stance Strelitzia is taking and the Light in front of her intrigues me; she clearly seems to be struggling to summon her Keyblade, but the position of the weapon itself and her hands almost make me think it is a bow-and-arrow of some kind. It most likely is not, but then again we never saw Strelitzia in combat proper during her short appearance in Union Cross. What could be causing this? Fear? Some sort of inner struggle preventing her from using her Keyblade? Despite the impressive looking Keyblade, Sigurd looks mortified at the idea of fighting these Heartless, completely afraid for his life. Perhaps he is a diplomat of some sort, aside from his cape his attire brings to mind a lab coat, or even a business suit. He was presumably a higher up in the ancient Keyblade society's hierarchy, as upon Brain's arrival in Scala ad Caleum at Union Cross's conclusion he tells him how his arrival was "set in stone.", and that he would take him to his head quarters. The stance he assumes in the fourth screenshot is nearly identical to the one Riku made in Kingdom Hearts III as he stared down the Demon Tide. Let's hope that does not spell an ill omen. Just in the nick of time, Riku makes his grand return to save the day, and we are given our first look at his Quadratum outfit. From what little of it we can see there a few notable differences. For one, his jacket has been replaced with what almost looks like a buttoned-up shirt with yellow trim at the bottom, and it is not a solid color either, if you look closely you can see tiny Hidden Mickey's in the design. Riku also no longer has gloves, and on his left arm seems to be a wristband, perhaps a watch? Like Sora and Mickey's new outfits, it seems unfortunately Riku too has moved on from plaid. This also renders how the Sora and Riku looked in the secret ending to Kingdom Hearts III's base game inaccurate to how they'll look completely, unless of course Mr. Nomura finds a way to incorporate both outfits to the story. Sora's expression here fascinates me, as he does not look relieved, or bewildered, or anything like that- he looks uncertain, as if he is in disbelief, could it be he doesn't recognize Riku? Or is he just in awe of seeing him. Riku's physical changes are much less drastic than Sora's, and Sora would have easily recognized Braveheart, is it something else? Is he scared? I have seen rumblings in the fandom suggesting perhaps Sora has a type of amnesia, and while there is nothing as of now to prove or disprove that idea, it is always a possibility. Especially in Kingdom Hearts. It is rather surprising that they would show Riku and Sora reuniting so soon considering we are over a year out until the official release, perhaps this was to get the fandom talking, perhaps there are even bigger surprises waiting for us, time will have to tell. The trailers ends with a voice. General consensus heavily favors the source of the voice being Kairi, although there has not yet been any official confirmation if it is or not, not from Square Enix nor Alyson Stoner, Kairi's voice actor since Re:Chain of Memories, has not yet commented on the subject. The voice saying the line has a lot of layers to it, it is gentle but urging, almost as if it were kindly pleading with Sora. "Wake up and see." That could mean so many different things. See what? The truth? The Light? The world? Something else entirely? And if this truly is Kairi what could the context for this line possibly be? When last we saw Kairi at the end of Melody of Memory, she saw Riku off to Quadratum before returning to the Realm of Light to continue training under Aqua. Could this voice line we are hearing be from Kairi hypothetically when she is in Quadratum? It could be at the stories beginning, middle, end- the possibilities are endless right now. The trailer then ends with a promise. And so ends our latest trailer. So many things to think about and so much time left to think about them. The parallels between the Coco cast and the Kingdom Hearts cast, what the next Disney worlds will be and what themes they'll all share, what role everyone will play. For example, did you know that Sora and Miguel have both had experiences with people walking through them? Miguel's family hates music due to a misconception started over a hundred years ago, when it was thought that Héctor had abandoned his family to pursue his dream, when in reality he was poisoned by Ernesto de la Cruz as he tried to leave. Someone ending someone's life to pursue their selfish ambition and constantly justifying it, a misunderstanding that affected the lives of generations across a hundred years, are these not story beats present within Kingdom Hearts? Miguel's Grandmother Elena destroys guitar not just out of anger, but also fear do to the rules and teachings passed onto her from her Mother, Socorro "Coco" Rivera, who in turned was taught them by her Mother, Imelda. Is this really so different than Master Eraqus's teachings, which while noble in intentions were based on the eradication of Darkness instead of coexistence with it? Remember, upon Aqua's arrival in the Castle of Dreams world, she was prepare to enter the Tremaine Estate and eliminate the Matriarch of that household and her daughters, before intervention from the Fairy Godmother. Unlike Riku, Terra was not provided an environment or support group that allowed him to healthily deal with the Darkness within himself, similar to how Miguel recieved no support from his family, until meeting Héctor. In fact remember, Imelda says point blank that she wanted Coco to forget her Father, knowing full well in her afterlife this would be an eventual sentence to non-existence. I pointed out much earlier how memory is a crucial part of Kingdom Hearts and how people relate to and perceive those memories, feel about them, and relate to them, and now I would like to expand on that. Take the big emotional musical moment from Coco, "Remember Me', Héctor wrote that as a promise, a song of love for his daughter, but Ernesto changed it into a big bombastic love song. When Coco remembered her Father playing music, she remembered how he would write to her through his letters, and poems, where as all Imelda can remember is the pain that music brought her. Memories of the past dictate the future, but sometimes our memories are wrong. Sometimes we lie to ourselves, sometimes we just did not know the full story, both of these concepts are present in Kingdom Hearts. Information is used as a manipulative tool, memory is weaponized to fuel the feelings of other people's wills, and even reconfigure their consciousness. One minute you're just a regular teenager getting sea salt ice cream with your friends during Summer vacation, you think you remember your entire childhood and family, only to turn out your brain was reconfigured, and you're actually part of a secret society that intends to weaponize forces beyond your comprehension for a hard to fathom goal. Even the Ansem Reports are an example of this: This is all not just superficial speculation, Mr. Nomura himself has stated that when considering worlds for these games, plot relevance and unique gameplay mechanics are of equal importance, as said at the Deep Dive D23 panel. Ultimately Kingdom Hearts IV to me seems to be setting the stage to deal with a variety of subjects that while not new to the franchise have seldom been in the forefront, especially as Quadratum aims for a more surreal approach to the series' storytelling. This raises a great number of questions as to what this will mean for Sora. There has been a consistent narrative thread that has needled its way through the series, and it is the gradual tearing down of Sora as a hero. In the first game he is excited to see the outside world, and go to other places, but by the time he reaches Ariel, he seems to possibly not feel quite the same way anymore. Then of course it is revealed that he was never the true Hero of the Keyblade, Kingdom Key was meant for Riku, and this repetition of people telling Sora blatantly to his face that he isn't supposed to be here, that he isn't a real chosen one, is present from conversations with Xigbar, to Sora meeting Terra's Lingering Will, to Sora's own feelings. All the hard work Sora, Donald, and Goofy put in trying to save the worlds from Maleficent and the Seeker of Darkness, winning all of those tournaments, and defeating the 1,000 Heartless gets turned on its head when Saïx tells Sora the entire time, every Heart his Keyblade set free had been absorbed into their artificial Kingdoms Hearts. The most telling of all of this is is the affect the events of Dream Drop Distance had on Sora, who began that game so confident and sure of himself, ending the game with much of his power depleted, with jokes and criticism aimed at him ramped up from earlier titles. Sora's power, his bonds, his validity as a warrior of Light, his friendships, constantly called into question and torn down in front of him. What must Sora be feeling now? Where will this new story take him? These are but a few of the questions I am left with, even at the end of all of this you have just read. And so ends our newest Kingdom Hearts IV trailer, it feels surreal to even say have one new trailer let alone two in the span of two months. Just earlier this year it didn't seem possible. What did you notice in the trailer that perhaps I missed? What Disney worlds do you think would best fit the feeling of Kingdom Hearts IV, after having seen what we have been shown? And of course, when do you think the game will release? We can't wait to here from you! Thank you so very much for reading. Welcome back, Kingdom Hearts. View full news article

Or perhaps the Darkness?

You've seen the Light

makes u wonder, will we see the world after quadratum

so death is just the beginning technically speaking