Square Enix updates Kingdom Hearts Collection cover art: cleaner retail image appears

Square Enix seems to have quietly updated the North American cover art for the Kingdom Hearts Collection. A cleaner retail image has started appearing in some North American materials after fans called out what looked like traces of AI-assisted editing in the earlier version.

Fans picked apart several odd details on the original image, including Donald Duck appearing to have five fingers, parts of Sora’s design not lining up, and background buildings that looked bent or warped. The revised Kingdom Hearts Collection cover now appearing in some North American materials seems to soften or cover up a number of those issues, at least on first look.

Square Enix still hasn’t said whether the Kingdom Hearts Collection artwork was rebuilt from scratch, lightly retouched, or just reformatted, so there’s no official explanation yet for how the image was made. Some critics think a few suspect details are still visible, while others believe the underlying image may still be real Kingdom Hearts artwork in Tetsuya Nomura’s style, with automated rearrangement or touch-up work added over it.

If you follow Kingdom Hearts, or you pay attention to how generative tools are being used in games, this update deserves a closer look. Square Enix has already shown interest in the technology before, and the wider games industry is under more pressure as questions around AI in promotional art keep piling up.

The revised cover is already showing up in some North American retail listings. Japan, meanwhile, still appears to be using the original version.

Author: Jesús Bosque

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