The stunning trailer debuts a brand new Pixar world!
My father-in-law, whom I was really close with, passed away in early 2018. I don’t usually equate big emotions with movies, but there was one, seemingly perfectly timed film (and a Disney one at that) that helped my family and I deal with that loss and sadness: Coco. Focusing on the celebration of life, of prolonging life through love (and music!) and what our legacies actually are, did, surprisingly, help my family heal. We first watched it soon after he left us, and then kept it on repeat for months afterward.
It remains an important, wonderful, beloved film in our household for that reason. Timing can be everything.
While I was growing more and more interested in Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts IV it was sort of a “this looks neat, I like fun stuff that I have ties to” kind of thing. I had played all of KH1 when it launched way back in 2002, and then bought and played through Chain of Memories within the first few weeks of its release, then was a Day One Dude for KH2 the following year. I loved all three, but then there weren’t any new games in the series for years, I got married and my available gaming time dipped, and I had to cut back on a few series I loved. Unfortunately in the battle between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, I chose to side my available hours with the latter. Later on I picked up the giant collection of games for the PS4 but never went too far into it, because time!
And so KH4 is announced, and it looked… fine? I hadn’t played anything past those initial three, so I wasn’t sure about where this modern world fits into things. Were Sora and Mickey and crew now out of the Disney-specific worlds? Was Squeenix trying something wildly different? I couldn’t tell, but we weren’t going to get any answers because the game went dark pretty quick after that, putting itself into development lockdown to focus and get things right. I wish more studios did that, to be honest. Just focus and get things right, timing and years be damned.
When it recently reappeared in a Nintendo Direct of all places, it still looked neat but it was also still gray. Also still sort of set up in the “real” world. What was happening? I didn’t know! But I did have some inkling of optimism, what with the game (and all of the originals) now announced for Nintendo’s Switch 2. That would give me more opportunity to play the games that I missed, and even if I didn’t get to the grayness of KH4 in time for its release I could still absolutely get into the colorful, poppy worlds of its predecessors.
But wait, HOLD UP. What’s this? Square Enix and Disney, ahead of their massive Kingdom Hearts panel at D23 on Saturday, have just dropped a full-on, beautiful trailer full of life — FULL OF COCO. Full of MY COCO. The very same that helped me heal during some tough times is going to be a world in Kingdom Hearts IV! I was warm and growing warmer towards the game and my return to the franchise, but this trailer alone may have sent me bouncing around my house. Ahhhhhh! THIS is good stuff, right here! THIS is the Kingdom Hearts I remember from my time with it more than 20 years ago!
The panel is Saturday night, with a whole bunch of the cast and developers on hand to discuss the details and likely break some more info, so I’m sure those who know more about Kingdom Hearts will have all the in-depth lore details, but for a guy like me, who’s spinning back into the series this was the trailer that has officially put me over again.
Time to plan my trip to Disney!
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