The Kingdom Hearts series has always been easily recognizable by its unique art style, which is especially apparent in the design of its protagonist Sora, whose hair and feet feel strangely small in the latest trailer. The reasoning behind it is simple. The franchise's original characters need to be able to easily blend in with animated Disney characters like Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. As a result, the Kingdom Hearts games tend to feature bright color palettes while its characters sport uniquely toon-like attributes such as gloves and oversized shoes. However, the Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer, which was released as part of the series' 20th anniversary, showed players a version of Sora who seems to have lost his spiky hair and exaggerated features. What happened to Sora's iconic design?
The 20th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts occurred on March 28, but the special anniversary event in Japan wasn't held until April 10. Several interviews, art pieces, and even trailers were released during this event to celebrate the series's history and look ahead to its future. A brand-new mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, was among these reveals, as was the previously-announced Kingdom Hearts Dark Road. However, the biggest surprise came in the form of an early gameplay trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4. Although it looks as though KH4 will pick up immediately after the events of Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory, other elements like the game's art style seemed like they were making a significant departure from tradition.
Some fans have guessed that Kingdom Hearts 4's visual style is merely an example of the series finally embracing the Final Fantasy side of its crossover premise. The trailer does look similar to recent Final Fantasy games such as the FFVII Remake and FFXV. The most recent numbered title in the series, Kingdom Hearts 3, was criticized for almost entirely excluding Final Fantasy characters from its gameplay. Perhaps KH4's developers are attempting to compensate for that by dialing back the Disney influence in the series' latest game. However, there are quite a few reasons to believe that isn't the case, and the largest of these is directly related to Kingdom Hearts' ongoing storyline.
What Sora's Appearance Means For Kingdom Hearts 4's Story
The ending of Kingdom Hearts 3 culminates in Sora being sent from his current reality to an entirely new one, an afterlife of sorts known as Quadratum. To other characters in Kingdom Hearts, Quadratum is considered a realm of fiction, an unreality that no one can journey to or escape from without great difficulty. Kingdom Hearts' Re Mind DLC and Melody of Memory both involve the series' other characters going out to start searching for Sora while players learn a bit more about where he's been sent to. Some of the footage in these games reveals that Quadratum is not only inspired by the real world but actually includes factual locations such as Shibuya. Even Sora's KH4 apartment seems to have a real address.
Quadratum represents reality rather than the fictional world that players have come to know throughout the rest of the Kingdom Hearts series, which is precisely why Sora looks the way he does in KH4. His outfit has been toned down significantly from previous games, and his hair lies almost entirely flat now compared to the signature spikes he's sported in the rest of the series. His shoes, which many Kingdom Hearts fans were quick to note, are also normal-sized compared to his standard attire. Even the world itself looks toned down compared to the usual Kingdom Hearts art style. The city of Quadratum is almost entirely monochromatic.
Luckily, it appears as though these artistic changes will only apply to Sora and other Kingdom Hearts characters located within Quadratum. The end of the Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer showcases Donald and Goofy looking almost the same as they did in Kingdom Hearts 3, implying that other Kingdom Hearts characters won't be faced with such drastic changes as Sora, either. Once Sora is rescued, even he should go back to his iconic appearance again. However, whether that will happen during KH4 or later on in a future game is currently unknown.