There was a 'leaked' world list recently. While that always happens with every KH game, I'm actually leaning toward this one being real. The higher number of worlds as well as the inclusion of Radiant Garden sound like a response to KH3 not having many worlds and the lack of the Final Fantasy characters, and I know from past experience that Square Enix tend to respond to criticism and feedback to an almost absurd extreme sometimes. Disney's the same way these days, they almost take a criticism and go way too far the other direction to the point they create an opposite problem.
I always felt like Quadratum would probably be an opening interlude (that is perhaps returned to in the finale) so that tracks. TP&TF, Zootopia, and Moana feel like natural advertisements for Tiana / the Splash Mountain makeover, Zootopia 2, and Moana 2 (even though the former series got canceled, they were probably far along in development by that point). WALL E, Coco, Brave, Inside Out, and The Incredibles all feel realistic to expect, especially with IO2 just out and Incredibles 3 / Coco 2 on the way; the first four of those tie into what little we know about the story fairly well, too, I think. Same with WIR and even Hercules, since one of the things they haven't included from Hercules so far--aside from a trophy cup in 2--are the Fates and 4 seems like an appropiate time to show them. (Since other things seem like a response to criticism 3 received, hopefully the tournaments return in 4. Fingers crossed! Wouldn't mind seeing the Muses, too, and maybe a newgen version of a Hydra boss battle the same way the Titans finally got proper iterations in 3.) And Star Wars doesn't make me so angry since it's just one world of many, like TRON was. Speaking of TRON, it would be a miss if they didn't somehow have him appear in Radiant Garden or WIR. Plus, TP&TF, Brave, and Moana can all tie into the "new" Princesses of Heart plot.
Only thing I'm disappointed by is very few actual Disney (ie, WDAS) worlds in a game that's always been primarily dominated by their canon. And I'm not too fond of WIR or Moana, even though I can definitely see them being fun levels design-wise (same with Coco). At least Hercules, TP&TF, Zootopia, Mysterious Tower, Destiny Islands, and Radiant Garden are things to look forward to, and I do passingly enjoy most of the others. Only the Star Wars stuff is truly eyeroll-worthy, but at least they didn't throw in a bunch of Marvel at the same time. Yes, I know this is a leak and we take those with a grain of salt, but I'm inclined to believe this one, personally. Only thing truly surprising is no Arendelle. I can believe Square would pass because Lasseter was still at WDAS when 3 was made and he was really difficult with them, and particularly in regards to Frozen. That said, I thought Disney would demand they include Frozen anyway. I guess we'll have to wait til KH5 (maybe in 2034 on PS7) for Arendelle to reappear. A shame since it was my favorite world in 3 along with The Caribbean. I imagine Elsa will be a summon though.
One thing to look forward to is the potential for a lot of good boss battles with this list; that was another criticism of 3, that there weren't many actual Disney bosses (they definitely could've made Gothel and Hans work if they'd tried, look at what they did with Scar--I tend to blame that one on Lasseter than Square, tbh), and this list has many potential ones which is another reason I lean heavily toward believing it. Mordu, Syndrome, Syndrome's robot, the computer in WALL E, Dr. Facilier and the shadows, Te Ka, Tamatoa, the coconuts, King Candy / Turbo and the cybugs, Vader, plus any Hercules bosses. With new tournaments, they could give us each Titan, the Cyclops, Cerberus, and the Hydra as solo battles in each one, with a final 50+ match tournament with a last match that includes all of them together. Could also use Nessus the Centaur, the Medusa, the Harpy, the Nemean Lion, various god characters like Zeus as boss battles. (I still like the idea of Hades summoning "dead" villains like Jafar, Ursula, Shan-Yu, etc. Especially since some in the past didn't get great battles, tbh--Jafar especially deserved better.) And for party members--Judy and Nick, Merida and Bear!Elinor, Miguel and Hector, WALL E and EVE, Joy and Sadness (maybe the make-believe friend), Louis with Tiana and Naveen riding atop perhaps for TP&TF, Moana and Maui, Bob and Helen. Would be nice if they brought back the whole trend of FF characters in Olympus and someone like Lightning was a party member. Wouldn't mind Noctis at all, but Nomura is way too bitter to use anything from FFXV. There are others potentially--Clive or Cid from XVI, Snow maybe. Perhaps have Yuna, Rikku, and Paine appear in Moana where the treasure around Tamatoa is, the world is a similar environment to FFX. Naturally, Sora will transform in Zootopia and Coco, not sure where else.
Anyway, turned out I was right to expect KH4 in 2026--at the earliest. I ended up almost right on the dot, it looks like..
This series is slow as molasses. Unfortunately, Nomura (the director) is getting closer and closer to retirement. I wonder if he really will close off the story at some point as he mentioned. Obviously Disney and Square won't allow the series to end when it's so successful, but maybe they might at least let him write the ending of his original characters, with any new installment after he retires starting over with new, unrelated characters.EDIT: Hope springs eternal that they bring things back from the past that were better like trinities and Hidden Mickeys, tech points that made battles more interesting, some kind of mushroom side quest, and a summon that functions like Tinker Bell in KH1. I miss the way Cure functioned in 1, too, where you had more control over how it's used and on who. Of course, that includes tournaments and FF characters, but I had already mentioned them above.
EDIT x2: Of course, the list is supposedly from the earliest phase of what Square was asking for before discussion with Disney, so it's possible Disney could've later demanded Frozen's inclusion. I hope so, since Elsa could be a party member with the II story. We'll, she could have in 3, too, they just didn't. And I couldn't help noticing as I was looking at the list again that it's a 50:50 split of PIXAR and WDAS properties aside from the original worlds and Star Wars, which is another thing that has me leaning toward it being real.
