It’s the idea of Kingdom Hearts that keeps the franchise going. Through the mobile spin-offs and convoluted plotting, the ability to see all these Disney characters interacting in a complex RPG really appeals to a wide swath of people. When you’re building out such a game, you want to bring in the most recognizable names and worlds. Especially now that Disney has greatly expanded, there are plenty of choices. This wasn’t always the case.
Before Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars made half of all fictional characters into Disney property, Kingdom Hearts was painting with a much smaller palate. There are plenty of characters that we forget about now, but they graced Square’s RPG mix-up with the same importance as Mickey Mouse or Maleficent. So, on the eve of Kingdom Hearts 3‘s epic unveiling to the world, let’s take a look at the friends we’ve forgotten about along the way.
Looking to the future, what other weird side characters could show up in Kingdom Hearts? It’s almost a shame that there isn’t a game that coincided with the time of Disney Infinity. We may have seen introductions of Spot from The Good Dinosaur or the cast of Mars Needs Moms! Maybe even Johnny Depp’s less than stellar representation of Tonto from The Lone Ranger! After all, they are about as likely as Chicken Little appearing as a summon.
At least it’s probably safe to say that we won’t see most of these characters return in Kingdom Hearts 3. Unless you’re a wizard of some kind, then you’re vital to recovering the hearts of some main character. Said character needs 10 princesses to wake them from an alternate dimension so they can rescue Basil of Baker Street. Or something like that. Call me heartless, but I still can’t sort through the weaving web of storylines in this series. Not even for a level-length Tron cameo.
Kingdom Hearts Cameos
-
Obscure Kingdom Hearts Cameos
Not every character can be Mickey Mouse. Kingdom Hearts doesn't usually cut deep with its references, which is why it's so noticeable when it does. Will players in a decade recognize some of these already unfamiliar faces? This list will give you an advantage should you ever be in a very specific trivia challenge. -
Auron
Ripped straight out of Final Fantasy X, Auron appears in the underworld as a minion of Hades. After a fight in the Coliseum, you make friends and take on a boss fight. If you win, you get a Keyblade out of the deal, so the whole ordeal is worth it. -
Beagle Boys
Generally, the Beagle Boys are associated with the world of Scrooge McDuck and DuckTales. This version of the dastardly goons come from a direct to video feature where Mickey is a musketeer. While their hoods are fitting, it's certainly not their signature look, especially with the new iteration of DuckTales airing now. -
Chicken Little
Kingdom Hearts 3 is lucky. They have the entire universe of Pixar to call upon if they want to reference something new and magical by Disney. When Kingdom Hearts 2 was in development, they had to call upon such things as Chicken Little, a genuinely awful feature that has been rightfully forgotten. -
Horace Horsecollar
Horace and his friends Clara Cluck and Clarabelle Cow are the default answer when you need to think of an obscure Disney character. They're associated with Mickey cartoons but definitely separated from the Goofys and Donalds of the world. Appearing in Kingdom Hearts in association with Steamboat Willie only further cements this. -
Merlin
Kingdom Hearts is a safe haven for any Disney character associated with magic since they fit in so well with that these games call plot. Merlin, the legendary magician that appears in low-tier Disney canon film The Sword in the Stone, arguably has a bigger role here than he does anywhere else. -
Neku Sakuraba
Neku appears with all the characters from The World Ends With You, a Square RPG that was pretty under the radar before its Switch rerelease this past year. Our gut tells us that the game will go back under the radar in the near future, but here's hoping for a surprise sequel. -
Sparky
Sparky is one of the 625 characters that the poor souls at Disney had to come up with when expanding the lore of Lilo and Stitch into several films. He has only appeared in direct to video movies and TV shows, and he's very popular in Japan. -
Tron
As much as we like Tron, it's not the most popular of Disney worlds, especially after that sequel failed to restart the franchise. Still, at least we got to see Sora and friends team up to take on the Master Control Program in a main entry in the Kingdom Hearts series. -
Yen Sid
Here's another obscure Disney wizard to go with Merlin. Yen Sid (it's Disney spelled backwards) is the master wizard who solves the whole marching broom problem in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. In that film, he's foreboding and menacing. In Kingdom Hearts, he's less so, which is probably why they didn't give him much dialogue originally. -
Zack Fair
The main character of Final Fantasy 7 spinoff Crisis Core, Zack pretty much looks like a palette swap of Cloud if you're not familiar with the games. He's another FF warrior who battles in the Coliseum, taking on a younger Hercules in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep with his original sword.
