Square Enix denies claims its Kingdom Hearts Collection artwork was AI-generated, blames ‘human error’

Square Enix has denied claims that the artwork used for its Kingdom Hearts Collection was AI-generated.

The publisher announced in June that all three games are coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in a bundle called the Kingdom Hearts Collection, set for release on October 8.

The compilation consists of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind, giving Switch 2 players access to all currently available Kingdom Hearts games and spin-offs.

The news was slightly offset, however, by allegations from some players that the collection’s main artwork may have been created using generative AI.

The image contained some unusual discrepancies, including irregular designs on Sora’s belt and shoes, but the most notable issue pointed out by most was that Donald Duck had four fingers on one hand and five on the other.

Since then, versions of the image have been spotted online, such as on the Xbox Store, which give Donald four fingers on both hands, suggesting the art has been ‘fixed’ at some point.

Square Enix has now denied that the artwork was AI-generated, however, and instead says the issue was down to a genuine mistake by the artist.

“We’re aware of feedback regarding recent Kingdom Hearts visuals,” a Square Enix PR rep told Gamespot. “These assets were created by our development team without the use of generative AI, and the issues resulted from human error.”

They added: “Quality is extremely important to us, and updated assets have been implemented where appropriate.”

Square Enix previously released the Kingdom Hearts games on the original Nintendo Switch, but due to the system’s relative lack of power these were cloud editions that could only be streamed.

Players who bought these cloud versions can carry over their save data to the native Switch 2 editions.

During the same announcement as the Kingdom Hearts Collection, Square Enix also revealed new gameplay from Kingdom Hearts 4, along with confirmation that the game will be available on Switch 2 on day one.