Square Enix Turned Kingdom Hearts 3’s Creative Restrictions into a “Fun” Story Element

kingdom hearts iii, kingdom hearts 3

Square Enix is bringing a number of Disney worlds and characters in Kingdom Hearts 3, and for the first time in the series, it will feature worlds from Pixar as well. Toy Story was the first Pixar world revealed, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy sporting a unique character design to match the appearance of Andy’s toys. This was followed by the reveal of the Monsters Inc. world, with Sora and the gang receiving a monster-like makeover. Apparently, the decision to make Sora and the gang transform and blend in select worlds first sprang from creative restrictions.

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Speaking to The Koalition, Square Enix senior manager Brendan Docherty said the team behind Kingdom Hearts 3 was given creative freedom “to create the magic of Kingdom Hearts.” However, developing each world was still “a very collaborative process,” with teams from Disney and Pixar keeping in touch to ensure that Square Enix is “obeying the rules” set in each universe. “That’s actually one of the story components of the game,” said Docherty.

“Disney characters like Mickey, Donald, and Goofy might know that there’s other worlds out there, but Elsa doesn’t necessarily know that Big Hero 6 is out there. So when Sora, Donald and Goofy go to some of the worlds, sometimes they have to blend in and transform.”

Essentially, the main characters blend in and transform to prevent certain characters from learning about other Disney worlds. Donald Duck actually first hinted this during Kingdom Hearts 3’s Toy Story reveal trailer, informing Sora that they transformed into toys “to protect the world order.”

According to Docherty, “sometimes you can turn restrictions into fun parts of the story as well.” We will get to see how well Square Enix handles all these worlds when Kingdom Hearts 3 hits shelves on Jan. 29, 2019 for PS4 and Xbox One.


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Matthew Gatchalian
After graduating from journalism, Matthew pursued his dream to write about video games. When he's not playing games to create interesting articles, he's trying to clear his huge gaming backlog, which he'll never accomplish because of The Witcher 3.