After only a few years of waiting, Kingdom Hearts 4 has been announced. This news comes as part of the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary celebration in Tokyo behind trailers for the final Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road update, and the announcement of a new mobile game called Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link. It feels like the franchise has wasted no time in embracing a new era after Kingdom Hearts 3, and this will hopefully result in a much shorter waiting period.
Roughly half of the compilation trailer is devoted to Kingdom Hearts 4. Even if it can’t reveal too much due to the game’s early state, Square Enix knows fans want to see as much of the upcoming Kingdom Hearts as possible. There are plenty of secrets and mysteries contained within this trailer, so fans will have something to tide them over as they wait for more substantial news.
The Kingdom Hearts 4 Reveal Opens With A Revelation
Right from the beginning of the trailer, viewers are greeted with the words “The Lost Master Arc,” which will serve as the new saga’s name. This arc succeeds the Dark Seeker Saga and will be marked by a different, more subdued title font for its logos. Throughout the trailer, narration challenges someone - presumably Sora - to leave for another world if they don’t like their ending. The statement that “Your options are endless” is likely about Kingdom Hearts’ typical multi-world structure, and possibly Sora’s ability to find other worlds with his heart. More text appears discussing the nature of the soul, which is a rare sight in Kingdom Hearts. It seems to refer to how hearts are drawn to Kingdom Hearts, or how Sora was destined to arrive in Quadratum.
The next part of the trailer is taken up by four nature shots. These seem like graphical showcases at first, but fans have noticed that the waterfall looks similar to a particular area in the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Endor map. Something in the background of the third shot also looks like a round, metal foot akin to the back of an AT-ST from Star Wars, though the scale may be a little off. Still, this could be the sly confirmation of a Star Wars world. An Endor world opens the door to a Death Star segment and battle against Darth Vader, plus if Star Wars made it into Kingdom Hearts, there's no reason Marvel worlds can't appear either.
Kingdom Hearts 4 Reveals Its Protagonists
Sora’s new look is close to his KH3 design, but the Quadratum world may have streamlined his appearance. Sora’s clothes are straightforward, and his hair spikes are less pronounced. Sora is seen waking up and opening his apartment door to find a young girl who appears to be Strelitzia, Lauriam/Marluxia’s dead sister from Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. She claims that Quadratum is a sort of “afterworld,” and that Sora has been sleeping for seven days. As Strelitzia died during the ancient Union Cross era, this raises the question of how long she’s been here, and what the flow of time is like between reality and the realm of fiction.
Sora and Strelitzia look over Quadratum from a balcony. Based on the quick camera pan over the city, fans were able to determine that Sora’s apartment is based on Aoyama, one of the most expensive residential areas in Tokyo. Much of the playable Quadratum may take place in the nearby Shibuya district if a visible Shibuya Stream building is any indication. Some street-level shots follow this, and while most of the advertisements and names are either original or rendered in a cipher language, a building with “D-EATER” and “D-DREAM” is visible. Having a direct reference to Kingdom Hearts’ Dream Eaters seems odd, but it may have something to do with how Quadratum's fictional reality reflects the normal one.
Combat in Kingdom Hearts 4 is Given a Brief Preview
A new form of Heartless resembling a Darkside crossed with an Invisible coalesces above the street, terrifying civilians. This Heartless' head resembles that of a Behemoth, which early trailers indicated may have been Final Fantasy Versus 13’s first boss. A gameplay mock-up soon follows, and Sora leaps into action with the latest iteration of Flowmotion. Sora’s Kingdom Key in KH3 transformed his abilities, so its new Formchanges here may be a sign of Sora's growth. Sora can use his keychain as a grappling hook, replacing KH3’s airstep and possibly serving other combat functions. The current HUD is mostly the same as in KH3’s earliest trailers. An “EX” bar and a bottom-left menu option called “Build” might be placeholders, but could also tie into Sora's new innate Formchange abilities.
Sora is seen running up a skyscraper and then sliding through a floating building, again bearing resemblance to similar moments in Final Fantasy Versus 13 trailers. The whole Heartless battle sequence felt akin to the scope and interactivity of KH3’s giant boss battles, so that style could be pushed further in KH4. Sora prepares a magic sigil to defend against an attack, which contains the signature Kingdom Hearts crown and a placeholder button for a quick-time event. Sora blocks the dark giant’s fist through his Keyblade spinning into a drill shape, which grows and shoots at the Heartless. These Formchanges may be more organically integrated into regular gameplay than they were in KH3, which should please those who wanted the alternative weapon movesets to be more accessible.
Kingdom Hearts 4 Leaves a Few More Teases
As the battle between Sora and the giant Heartless rages on, two hooded figures step onto a nearby building. These may be the Master of Masters and Luxu, but their actual identities are unclear. After the KH4 logo reveal, the final scene of the trailer shows Donald and Goofy in their Kingdom Hearts 3 looks. They are searching for someone, and judging by the blue flame that shifts to a raging red behind them, it seems they are being waylaid by Hades in Olympus Coliseum’s Underworld. They may have intended to ask Hades if Sora’s soul had passed through that world, but doing so won't be as easy as they had hoped.
The trailer ends with the text “Magic in the Making,” which is seemingly an allusion to Kingdom Hearts 4 being early in development. Very little of the game was shown, but this trailer reveals Strelitzia’s presence in Quadratum and that some of KH3's gameplay will be inherited by KH4. The possibility of a Star Wars world is also an exciting one, and opens the door to other Disney-acquired franchises. There are a lot of outstanding questions, but fans will have to wait until Kingdom Hearts 4 is ready to provide answers.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is in development.