A year has passed since Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced, though thankfully that's been a packed year for Square Enix fans. Final Fantasy 16 just came out, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion was released at the end of 2022, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth should usher in 2024. There is no shortage of action-RPGs Kingdom Hearts fans can use to stave off the wait for Kingdom Hearts 4. It's unfortunate that the game was announced so early, but hopefully it won't take nearly as long as KH3 did.
In the meantime, speculation based on the Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal trailer is still ongoing. After sacrificing himself to save Kairi at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, series protagonist Sora now finds himself in the unfamiliar modern city of Quadratum. This drastic shift in setting opens the door for a lot of new opportunities, but one of them has already appeared and taken fans off guard. Strelitzia, a minor character once thought dead, appears to be alive and seemingly playing a major role in Kingdom Hearts' latest saga. How she got there will be revealed in time, but it's interesting to observe her strange life story.
Strelitzia's Beginning and Ending Came in Union Cross
Strelitzia's introduction is quite odd in retrospect. In the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union Cross, the Organization XIII member Marluxia was revealed to be an ancient Keyblade wielder by the name of Lauriam. He and Larxene’s original self Elrena were both recurring characters in the game, with Lauriam even being one of the five Union leaders in the virtual Daybreak Town. Early in Union Cross, players meet his shy sister Strelitzia, who is supposed to be another Union leader. Unfortunately, Strelitzia doesn't have much time to interact with the player, as she is lured into a trap by a Darkness-possessed Ventus.
This event seemingly kills her, though she isn't quite gone from the story. Lauriam is driven to find his sister and her killer throughout the rest of Union Cross, dreaming about and seemingly imagining her spirit all the while. In one of those dreams, Strelitzia is seen putting up a white hood that resembles the reaper Marluxia summons in his Chain of Memories. Aside from some suspicions of a scene where Luxu sends someone clad in white to the future via an escape pod, fans didn’t expect to see more of Strelitzia after that.
Kingdom Hearts 4 Will Give Strelitzia New Relevance
All of that changed with the advent of Kingdom Hearts 4. The orange-haired girl who appears in the trailer is almost certainly Strelitzia thanks to a similar design and having appeared alongside Sora, who shares some circumstances with her. Both died under unusual circumstances, with Strelitzia having been done in by an enigmatic force in a virtual setting. This might have rendered the non-data Strelitzia an amnesiac, and another candidate for the mystery girl introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3 who was also last seen with Luxu. Sora, meanwhile, deliberately misused the Power of Waking to revive Kairi, causing him to fade out of reality.
Although Strelitzia does not look any older than her previous appearance, it can be assumed that she reached Quadratum some time ago and has carved out a life for Sora to share. Her appearance isn’t entirely unexpected either, as Kingdom Hearts 3 set up that the ancient Keyblade wielder members of Organization XIII would become relevant again, and this would bring Lauriam and Elrena back into the fold. There's a lot that fans have yet to learn about how traveling to and from Quadratum actually works, but at least some will be able to ease into the new world alongside a familiar face.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently in development.