As Kingdom Hearts 3 and ReMind come to a close, so too does the "Dark Seeker Saga" and Xehanort's schemes conclude. Despite Sora and the gang defeating Xehanort one last time, the franchise will be taking one more dive into Xehanort's life in a new spin-off game.
Initially announced as "Project Xehanort," Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will look to explore Young Xehanort's life and how he was seduced by the darkness. Throughout the series, players have received vague tidbits of information through research notes and journal entries, as well as some hints from the man himself, but Xehanort's origin story is still shrouded in mystery.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will be another mobile game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, helmed by the same development team behind Kingdom Hearts Union X[Cross]. There's not much known about Dark Road at this point, other than it's centered on Xehanort's origin story. The defining difference between Dark Road and Union X will be that players won't be assuming the role of their own custom avatar, but rather experiencing the game through young Xehanort's perspective. Gameplay mechanics will probably function similarly to Union X, but it's hard to expect the community aspects of it will carry over with a more centralized plot structure.
What We Already Know About Kingdom Hearts Dark Road
Very recently, it was revealed that several new Kingdom Hearts titles were in development, and undoubtedly, Dark Road is one of those titles. In terms of what to expect from the story of Dark Road, it's going to be specifically centered around one question: Why did Xehanort become the Seeker of Darkness? Xehanort was originally trained alongside fellow Keyblade Master Eraqus, who was the Master of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. Master Eraqus was never evil, only manipulated by Xehanort's schemes to commit evil acts against his better judgement. This means Dark Road will almost certainly depict Xehanort's separation from the principles Eraqus was taught in favor of darkness.
From Birth By Sleep, players already know that he was a pre-destined keyblade wielder born on his homeworld of the familiar Destiny Islands. Xehanort eventually leaves the islands to Scala Ad Caelum, where he meets Young Master Eraqus and trains to become a Keyblade wielder. Other than that, not much is known about Eraqus and Xehanort's time in Scala Ad Caelum, but the Union X twitter account seems to be hinting at these details possibly being fleshed out in Dark Road.
What We Don't Know About KH Dark Road
Even if fans try to recap the full Kingdom Hearts story prior to Xehanort's finale, there's still a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions in Xehanort's timeline. There is a specifically large time gap in between when younger Eraqus and Xehanort are first beginning their training to when we first learn of Young Xehanort's dark efforts. Dark Road, based off this teaser, will be emphasizing what happened during Young Xehanort's journey that allowed him to be influenced by the darkness. All that's currently known is that somewhere during Xehanort's visits to other worlds, he was tainted by darkness.
Eventually, Xehanort's Heartless (Ansem, Seeker of Darkness) visits Young Xehanort and officially pushes him towards the path of darkness, granting him the power of time travel and sending him to gather hearts from those connected to his own to create the several vessels for the 13 Seekers of Darkness.
In some way, Xehanort and Eraqus' Keyblade Master(s) will be related to Kingdom Hearts Union X, since Dark Road takes place in a peculiar spot in the beginning of the Kingdom Hearts timeline. Dark Road will be set after the events of Union X and the Keyblade War, but before the events of Birth by Sleep when Eraqus and Xehanort are much older. While the bulk of Dark Road will be Xehanort's origins, there will be characters from Union X from the Foreteller's era who will bridge the gap and play a pivotal role in Xehanort's upbringing, like the Master of Masters.
Thanks to a scene in the Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind DLC, it's already known that Xehanort met with the Master of Masters during his teenage years at the Keyblade Graveyard. The Master of Masters spoke with Xehanort after his time-travelling journey from Dream Drop Distance, having lost any semblance of memories from the future. The Master of Masters encourages Xehanort to continue learning and mastering the ability to control the darkness. At this point, Young Xehanort had already collected most of the 13 vessels he needed to summon the X-Blade, so the Master of Masters was simply tasking him to become stronger.
What's To Come for the Kingdom Hearts Franchise
From there, we know next to nothing until the events of Birth by Sleep, when we return to current-era Xehanort putting in motion the rest of his known schemes in the "Dark Seeker Saga." Dark Road should fill in the gaps as to what Xehanort discovered when travelling to different worlds that turned him to darkness. It'll also be interesting to see how Xehanort also manages to hide all of his plans from Eraqus, who is completely oblivious in Birth By Sleep until he is defeated.
Much like any Kingdom Hearts entry, Dark Road will probably create as many new questions as it does answering existing ones. That being said, learning of Xehanort's origin story will be a solid cap to the "Dark Seeker Saga" to tide us over until Kingdom Hearts returns.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will be releasing Spring 2020 for iOS and Android.