If you have yet to see for yourself, I’d recommend taking a look at the hideous character models in Aqua’s Unreal Engine 4 tech demo, Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth By Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage. KH4 ditches the plastic look of the Unreal Engine 4 Kingdom Hearts games. KH3‘s development Hell was somewhat based off the switch from Square Enix’s in-house Luminous proprietary game development engine to Unreal Engine 4, but the payoff wasn’t there. I think I can pinpoint one of my major issues with KH3 that has been fixed in KH4: The game was developed in Unreal Engine 4. Some think it may have taken even longer, as Kingdom Hearts 2 was released in 2005. I look back on it wondering, “Was the development Hell of KH3 even worth it?” The game wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anywhere near as extraordinary as its previous two numbered titles.Ī common estimate of how long KH3 took to develop averages at around the six years between the game’s announcement in 2013 to its release in 2019.

He is of the genre, but the genre, namely the Final Fantasy series, has changed a lot since 2002. That’s not to say Sora shouldn’t feel like an anime character anymore. Now that we’re fully into the ’20s, I think we can all agree it is well past due time for Sora’s look to be updated beyond his previous simplistic color pallets and cartoonish anatomy. Protagonist Sora and his goofy (not to be confused with Goofy Goof) Keyblade are, cute. Sora’s anime look is dated, but the reveal trailer for KH4 allows the series to leap forward.

Kingdom hearts 4 sora art