Kingdom Hearts AI art accusations hit Square Enix, and that sure looks like slop to me

A rush of Kingdom Hearts 4 news out of the Nintendo Direct June showcase has soured due to credible suspicions that generative AI was used in the lead art for the series' newly announced Nintendo Switch 2 collection.

A large illustration straight from Square Enix's official asset library has been picked apart online, and the more you look, the uglier it gets. Fans quickly clocked that Donald has an odd number of fingers – five on his left hand, four on his right. The layering in Sora's hair is also bizarrely inconsistent, and several background details carry the telltale meltiness of AI art.

The whole illustration is filled with clashing layers, wobbly lines, and strange proportions – not something you'd expect from a beloved series helmed by exacting creators, and especially one with a wealth of existing, readily referenced covers.

It looks like the left-most Sora's left hand was stung by a bee, while the right-most Sora has a truly gigantic left hand and his right seems to clip straight through a keyblade. We can see the bottom of the guard where the hilt should be.

The smokiest gun may be found in the background near Goofy. This cathedral-like building is a casserole of nonsense. Corners collapse in illogical waves, buttresses look like they've been microwaved for too long, and several sections of trim are both patternless and prone to vanishing into nothing.

Similar issues appear throughout, with more architectural oddities found on the building at the left border. Dividers between windows randomly spiral into themselves, stone detailing appears to have been bandaged together, and the line work on the neon lights is both incredibly fuzzy and inordinately high-contrast. Even the multi-layered screens at the top of this building seem to be haphazardly conjoined.

This is a pretty glaring instance of unusual art, but as is often the case, the perception and blowback here are just as important. This is incident number a billion of players vocally arguing that they will not accept AI-generated assets. And it's far from the first Summer Game Fest outcry. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis was made with AI, and Sega stuffed generative AI into Crazy Taxi: World Tour.

Indie devs behind viral fishing game say "AI slop" clones helped promote the real thing.