If Kingdom Hearts Was Released Today
Square Enix changed the gaming world by surprising the gaming world when they teamed up with Disney to release Kingdom Hearts twenty-one years ago. This JRPG follows the main protagonist Sora on his journey to save his friends. He teams up alongside Donald and Goofy where they travel to different Disney themed worlds including Tarzan, Aladdin, and Alice in Wonderland. Many of the worlds were popular among the players because they have seen the movies before and are familiar with the characters. Kingdom Hearts has nine worlds based off of Disney movies. These worlds are Wonderland, Deep Jungle, Olympus Coliseum, Agrabah, Monstro, Atlántico, Halloween Town, Neverland, and 100 Acre Wood. Twenty-One years later we are looking at what worlds would be added to Kingdom Hearts if it was released in 2023.
Tristate Area: Phinias and Ferb
In Kingdom Hearts Sora and his team visit Traverse Town. This town is used as a hub for travelers who have had their worlds destroyed. Each game in the franchise has a world designed like a town or city, we see the Hollow Bastion in Kingdom Hearts 2 and San Fransokyo in Kingdom Hearts 3. The Tristate area of Phineas and Ferb is a great town which could be used because the Tristate area offers a neighborhood, which is something that Sora has not visited as well as the downtown area. This world could also feature many favorite characters from the show such as Phineas and his friends, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and Candace. Many of the Disney worlds that have been featured in the past were based off Disney movies, however Phineas and Ferb was one of the most popular Disney television shows in recent years. The show was on air for a total of four seasons and had many movies specials that were designed for tv. The Tristate area would be a great world idea for Kingdom Hearts
Afterlife: Coco
A common recurring theme that is shown off in video game levels is the spooky or scary theme. This has been seen in popular games such as Mario 64 with Big Boos Haunt and Banjo Kazooie’ Mad Monster Mansion. Kingdom Hearts followed this theme as well with their level Halloween Town, based off of the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. In this world Sora, Donald and Goofy Travel to this Halloween world and are given a spooky makeover to make it look as if they belong to this world. This Concept could be used in making the Afterlife from the film Coco. In this world Sora and his allies could be designed as skeletons. The scary monster could be replaced with skeletons who are celebrating Dio Day Los Muertos, rather than Halloween.
Zootopia: Zootopia
In Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora Donald and Goofy travel to the Pride lands and in doing so, they are transformed into animals. This concept has been already mentioned with Halloween Town, but also occurs in Atlántico and Monster inc. When Sora is transformed into a Lion cub he runs around the savannah on all fours. This was a cool concept at first but got annoying as the levels went on. This same issue was seen in Atlántico when Sora swims in the water. A Zootopia world would be great because it would give Sora a new animal design, but this would not interfere with moving mechanics because the animals in Zootopia are bipedal rather than the quadrupedal animals depicted in the Pride Lands.
Throughout the Kingdom Hearts franchise there has been a world in each game whose main purpose is to act as the battle arena world. The Olympic coliseum was used in the first game as a battle word, where Sora would battle round after round defeating smaller and larger enemies as well as big bosses. The internet from Ralph breaks the internet, would be a great world as a battle arena. Characters from other Disney films as well Final Fantasy characters could make appearances just like the Coliseum. The Wreck it Ralph films show the characters travel to different games/internet and interact with many other familiar characters. This world could be a great hub for characters from different worlds to interact.
Internet: Wreck it Wralph
Samoan Islands: Moana
Sora’s home world is Destiny Islands, a tropical island theme world filled with sand palm trees and water. Destiny Island is used as a tutorial top the game and explains how the character moves, attacks, and interreacts with the world around them. Destiny islands are destroyed, and Sora is unable to return. Throughout his journey he does not encounter an island for some time. Having a Samoan Island would be great because it would help make Sora feel at home. Moana has been one of the biggest Disney animated movies in the past years and would gain a lot of attractions. Sora could sail along the seas with Moai just like he wanted to do with Riku and Kairi.
Kingdom Hearts 2 features a world inspired by Mulan. Throughout this world Sora travels through the jungle, mountains, villages, and the palace throne room. There is a wide variety of places to go, many worlds do not offer that. Something like this could be done with the film Encanto. Encanto takes place in the Mountains of Columbia and offers a beautiful rainforest scenery. Sora could travel through this rainforest like the Tarzan world, Deep Jungle.
Mountains of Columbia: Encanto
Strange World: Strange World
In the Kingdom Hearts game to travel from one world to another Sora Donald and Goofy use the Gummy Ship. They must fend off heartless while their ship travels through deep space until reaching a new or returning world. During Kingdom Hearts while travelling to Atlantica, The Gummi Ship is swallowed by Monstro, which is the introduction to this Pinocchio inspired world. When this happened, it was very surprising because prior to this each world had its route. This feature could be used again but with a world inspired by Strange Worlds. While travelling through space in the Gummi Ship there could be some type of engine failure or wormhole that takes the gummi ship to this new world.
Kingdom Hearts has featured a wide variety of level themes throughout their franchise, but one of them that has been missing is time travel. A meet the Robinson world would be great for them to tamper with Time travel in their story. Meet the Robinson’s is often overlooked when it comes to animated movies but brings a lot to the table. The Robinsons live in a giant futuristic fun house which would be interesting to explore. Throughout the Kingdom Hearts games Sora travels to different Castle’s where he must explore around the giant maze-like design. The house that the Robinsons live in is a giant futuristic mansion in the movie and this design would be perfect for a Kingdom Hearts World.
Todayland: Meet the Robinsons
