The latest Nintendo Direct included two big Kingdom Hearts announcements - our best look yet at Kingdom Hearts 4, and the reveal of plans to make the series playable natively on Switch 2. The latter includes a new Kingdom Hearts 1-3 Collection, the reveal of which was tainted in a couple of ways, including accusations that AI was used to create its artwork.

There were a few elements in the collection's cover art that had Kingdom Hearts fans' AI alarm bells ringing. The most egregious of all, however, was Donald Duck's left hand. The Disney mascot has one too many fingers. Not only an odd mistake for an official artist to make, but despite how advanced people claim it continues to get, AI still can't seem to get its head around fingers.

Donald's Hand Is Hidden In Alternate Kingdom Hearts Cover Art

Square Enix hasn't officially addressed the accusations, but it does appear to have heard them. Spotted by Nintendeal, some retailers are now using alternate cover art for the physical version of the Kingdom Hearts Collection on Switch 2. It hasn't removed Donald's five-fingered hand, but the offending appendage is now obscured behind the Sora in the middle.

The new artwork being showcased at select retailers doesn't actually seem to be new. It's just an alternate piece of key art that was revealed at the same time as the other cover. However, Square seems to be pushing this alternate version harder than it was this time last week, potentially because it doesn't have the allegedly AI-generated Donald Duck on it.

Well, it does, but the part of him that makes people assume he has been created by AI is obscured.

There Are Currently Two Kingdom Hearts Collection Covers Out There

That means there is now a mix of both covers out there, and which one you see depends on the retailer you visit. Amazon appears to have switched out the original for the one that hides Donald's hand at some point in the last three days, further leaning into the conspiracy that Square has asked for the featured art to be changed across the board.

The thing is, the newer version doesn't address all of the AI accusations. The thing that sticks out most, to me at least, even more than five-fingered Donald, is the Sora hand on the right. It looks far too big, and the fingers look unnatural. That remains the same on both versions of the cover. Focusing on a version of the cover that already exists and hides some of the problems is far easier than creating and distributing a whole new cover. Maybe one where we can't see Donald's extra finger is the best we can hope for.

Kingdom Hearts Like Follow Followed Action RPG Systems Released September 17, 2002 ESRB E for Everyone: Violence Developer(s) Square Enix Publisher(s) Square Enix Engine Unreal Engine 4 Cross-Platform Play android, ios Cross Save yes Franchise Kingdom Hearts Steam Deck Compatibility yes Genre(s) Action RPG Powered by Expand Collapse