Thanks to a fan project made inDreams, Shrek is the newest character to (unofficially) join theKingdom Heartsmultiverse. While the project is still in its early stages, it is exciting to imagine where fans could take Sora and friends in the future.
TheKingdom Heartsseries tends to incorporate pre-existing films into its story in a modular way, which is a good fit for fan projects. Namely, Sora and his allies fight their way through retellings of each film over the course of a couple of hours. Along the way, the party often gains a guest party member from the film, and when the day is saved, Sora flies off to another world. While this formula has producedsome incredibleKingdom Heartslevels, they have all been drawn from Square Enix properties, Disney properties, or created specifically forKingdom Hearts.
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Reddit user lions_in_09 shared aDreamsscreenshot of Sora exploring a world based on Duloc, the realm featured in the iconic 2001 filmShrek. Excitingly, Shrek appears to serve as a party member, replacing Donald. Unfortunately, lions_in_09 gives no indication of how Shrek fights, or how he would help Sora. Given that many ofthe best-lovedKingdom Heartscharacter cameosare valued because of their contributions to combat, Shrek will hopefully have some interesting tricks up his sleeve.
Still, it’s hard to imagine how Shrek’s trademark crude humor and pop culture references could co-exist withKingdom Hearts' tone. In pre-existing Disney worlds, the game creators circumvent pop culture references even when they were a major part of the corresponding films. For example, Aladdin’s Genie references other franchises and actors constantly in the film, but doesn’t do so inKingdom Hearts. Of course, setting their approaches to humor aside,ShrekandKingdom Heartsare both offbeat and weird. While Shrek might not attack enemies with flatulence when aiding Sora, Duloc could still be a weird place filled with satirical depictions of classic fairy tale characters.
While DreamWorks films likeShrekare still off-limits for theKingdom Heartsdevelopers, Disney’s recent acquisitions mean some iconic animated properties are fair game. This includes Fox films likeIce Age,Rio, andRobots, each of which could make for an interesting world for Sora to explore. AsDisney+ expands its offerings to include Fox content, it is only appropriate thatKingdom Heartsconsider doing so as well.
While the fan-madeShrekscenario isn’t an official part of the franchise, there are signs that futureKingdom Heartsworlds could be very different than what came before. Namely,Kingdom Hearts 4will likely take place inQuadratum, a mysterious Tokyo-like realmthat could blend elements from many famous Square Enix titles. This suggests that Kingdom Hearts 4 will shift almost entirely away from Disney holdings to instead concentrate on Square Enix properties.
Dreamsis now available exclusively for the PlayStation 4.
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