Kingdom Hearts 3 released at the beginning of 2019 to conclude an iconic gaming franchise. Released fourteen years after Kingdom Hearts 2, the trilogy's finale entry was one of the most anticipated video games for a long time coming. Many installments in the franchise were released between Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3, however, and each played a vital role in developing the lore. Whereas these titles may have been “spin-offs” in the hands of other game studios, Square Enix has treated each unnumbered entry as a legitimate continuation of the Kingdom Hearts universe.
Now, two years after KH3 and five months after Kingdom Hearts Union Cross’s end of service, fans are wondering what's next for the series. Naturally, players are curious as to when – or even if – they might expect a Kingdom Hearts 4.
New Final Fantasy Titles from Square Enix
The release of another installment may come later than expected, though. Square Enix's current pipeline is chock-full of unreleased games, but not a single one of them is anything Kingdom Hearts related. On both console and mobile platforms, it seems Square is doubling down on their Final Fantasy 7 property. Between Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier, and the Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis compilation, there’s only so much room for other titles. Tetsuya Nomura, in addition to directing Kingdom Hearts, is the creative director for all three of these games. Despite his humble beginnings at Square as a debugger in the 90's, Nomura is now one of the company's busiest developers.
It’s no wonder then that he recently went on record stating that he is responsible for what he calls “an unprecedented number of projects.” For those who watched Square Enix's 2021 E3 presentation, those projects will sound familiar; NEO: The World Ends with You and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin will both see Nomura as creative producer and character designer. He's also listed as the concept producer of the latter. As a result of this large workload, Nomura recently announced that he is stepping down from his role as director of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sequel. He remains the game's creative director, however, and will continue to be involved in its development. All in all, Nomura is working on a ton right now, but there's been no mention of a new Kingdom Hearts game beyond what he’s passively mentioned in the odd interview.
The Next Kingdom Hearts Might Not Be Numbered
Notwithstanding these brief references to a new game, though, it isn’t clear whether the title would be a numbered entry or not. The Kingdom Hearts timeline has gained a reputation for its complexity, but the seemingly conclusive secret ending of Kingdom Hearts 3 left very few directions for the story to move in. It’s also uncertain which group will be handling such a project since Square Enix has developed Kingdom Hearts titles with four different teams: their main team in Osaka, their team for developing mobile games (games like Kingdom Hearts Union Cross), their team for musical rhythm games (also known as Indieszero), and an unnamed team that was briefly mentioned in the 7 Questions of Light and 13 Questions of Darkness Q&A.
One of the biggest factors in Kingdom Hearts 3’s delayed release was the growing pains of next-gen consoles. By the time KH4 is officially announced, developers may have completely moved on from last-gen hardware. A fourteen-year waiting period, therefore, seems pretty unlikely. What’s more, Kingdom Hearts will celebrate its twentieth anniversary next year, and there are already leaks suggesting something titled “Project Oath” is planned for early that year. The fact remains, though, that there’s nothing concrete for the immediate future. Until then, fans can only speculate as to what the nature of the next game will be.
A Kingdom Hearts project is confirmed to be in development.