After the long gaps between the initial announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3 and the proceeding drip-feed of information over the following years, fans have been hesitant to raise their excitement for the recently revealed Kingdom Hearts 4. However, a recent interview has started to shed some light on what characters might appear in Kingdom Hearts 4, and even what Disney worlds might start appearing.
In a recent interview conducted by Game Informer, Kingdom Hearts 4 Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura sat down to speak on what players can expect from the newest game in the series and how this title might improve. Considering that Nomura is has continued to lead the development of the entire Kingdom Hearts series, his direct word is one that holds the most weight at Square Enix.
When asked about how much Disney content will be integral to future titles, Nomura commented that Kingdom Hearts 4 will feel different than previous entries in the series on this front. One cause for this change, according to Nomura, is that the increased graphical fidelity of the newer titles has become a deciding factor for which Disney properties might be able to visually fit in the latest Kingdom Hearts games. Specifically, Nomura comments that "As far as the graphic qualities ... since with each new title, the specs have been really increasing and there's so much more we can do in terms of graphics, it kind of limits the number of worlds that we can create in a sense." So, this doesn't necessarily mean that there is no place for Disney worlds in the next Kingdom Hearts, just that the selection is shorter.
While this could sound like Nomura is preparing fans for a phasing out of Disney content, the developer does confirm that these iconic worlds will continue to be a part of the series. It does leave the specifics about which Disney worlds will be in Kingdom Hearts 4, but doesn't completely discount the use of these worlds in the next step of the story. So, there will at least be some amount of Disney representation in the series, even if this same assurance might not extend to Final Fantasy characters coming to Kingdom Hearts 4.
Considering how iconic the Disney worlds have become for the Kingdom Hearts series, it would be strange to see the worlds begin to phase out of the games altogether. However, on the other end of that read, the graphics that were already updated in Kingdom Hearts 3 can make for an uncanny appearance when adapting Disney's stylized 2D artwork into Unreal Engine 4 or 5. So, keeping this limiting factor of graphic fidelity in mind could possibly be best in order to make sure that Kingdom Hearts continues to keep up modern game development.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently in development.
Source: Game Informer