It's still a while off, but Kingdom Hearts 4 is finally on its way. After stalling between Kingdom Hearts 2 and 3 for over a decade, the series is finally looking forward again. While there is a bit left to cover in Kingdom Hearts Dark Road and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, Kingdom Hearts’ distant past and present eras are largely cleared up. The Lost Master Arc is coming, and what it's bringing to the table is already beginning to crop up. Kingdom Hearts 4 will bring with it a number of new characters and locales with the intent to shake things up.
One such example is Sora's goal, which has commonly been to find or rescue his friends in past games. In Kingdom Hearts 4, Sora is instead the one who finds himself stranded and alone in the mysterious world of Quadratum. This modern-looking city is coming under attack by the forces of darkness, and whatever the Foretellers are planning will leave Sora with plenty to deal with. In the meantime, his friends are busy looking for a way to bring him home, but one series regular may find it harder than the rest to stay in the action.
Kairi's Time in Kingdom Hearts Hasn't Been Fruitful
The Kingdom Hearts fanbase is all too familiar with the trials and tribulations of Kairi, Sora's friend from Destiny Islands and implied love interest. She has spent most of the series either as a distressed damsel or stuck in offscreen training. Before the Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind DLC, Kairi was easy to pick out as the least relevant member of the Guardians of Light, and after Sora altered the timeline, was the only ally that died. Xehanort killing Kairi is the reason why Sora needed to sacrifice himself in the ending, which feels like another failure to let Kairi act.
Kairi has routinely been forced to sit on the bench, even as other female Kingdom Hearts characters surpassed her in impact. Namine propelled almost two games worth of story by extracting Sora's memories, Xion tied Roxas and Axel's story together, and Master Aqua has too many feats to list. Sadly, even Kairi's moments in the spotlight during the final fight of the ReMind DLC and the Melody of Memory campaign are potentially upstaged by Sora once again. With her best showings are all bolstered by Sora or Riku’s interventions, Kairi constantly feels misused in Kingdom Hearts’ story.
Chances of Kairi Helping in Kingdom Hearts 4 Are Low
Sora is now busy adventuring in unreality, and most of the named cast is working to rescue him. King Mickey has traveled to Scala ad Caelum to scrounge for information, Donald and Goofy are both trying to round up help, and the other friendly faces are helping where they can. After emerging from her memory-analyzing coma, Kairi decided that she needed more training, and sought Aqua for tutoring. While this may mean Kairi's next appearance will show her accomplishing something solo for once, her chances of doing that in Kingdom Hearts 4 don't look good.
Even though everyone is buzzing around trying to help Sora, Kingdom Hearts 4 will focus on Sora's efforts in helping himself. The player will join him on a trip around the new locale he finds himself in, and will likely make fresh friends along the way. Even though the reveal trailer implies there will be some time spent addressing the old cast, it's still mostly focused on Sora. Sadly, this leaves Kairi once again unable to make up for past failures. She's been continuously set up to fail, and is about to spend another main entry training in private when she could be developing through her own journey. It would be poetic to see Kairi help rescue Sora after he rescued her, and the ending of KH3 implies that their relationship still has room to grow. Unfortunately, with Riku and potentially Yozora closing in on Sora, it seems like she'll be stuck at home preparing for a fight that may never come.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is in development.