With there no new Kingdom Hearts games announced yet, fans are desperate to know where director Tetsuya Nomura will take the series next, especially after those cliffhanger endings in Kingdom Hearts 3 and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. But while the future is still a mystery, more of the series' past has been fleshed out thanks to the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union X Dark Road. But now even that is set to conclude very soon.
Earlier today, Square Enix announced that the Union X portion of the game will end this April, likely with one final story update, before the service ends on May 30th. This means that players can no longer purchase Jewels, but any Jewels still owned can be spent until the game is shut down.
This doesn't mean the game is completely going away. An offline version is planned for release at the very end of May. However, it will only contain all the story content like cutscenes. Playable parts like story quests and events will not be available, with the exception of the Classic Kingdom mini-games. It will then receive an update in September for the Dark Road portion, which will remain playable but only the story sections. Things like missions and PvE won't be available.
Originally, this game began simply as a Japan-only web browser game called Kingdom Hearts chi in 2013, before being re-released as a mobile title a few years later. It served as a prequel to the entire Kingdom Hearts series, covering the events of the legendary and infamous Keyblade War. Fans have been slowly digesting its story updates for years, trying to unravel its many mysteries and how they relate to the rest of the series, so to see it finally come to an end is rather bittersweet.
The announcement still comes as quite a shock, though, since Dark Road was only added to the game last summer and, so far, has only had three story episodes. Considering it introduced a bevy of new characters and acts as an origin story for major antagonist Xehanort, it feels like it should have more story to tell. Nomura has said that its story will continue for a bit longer so it doesn't sound like it's being abruptly wrapped up early, which is only further evidenced by the fact that it will be playable even offline.
It's good to know, at least, that players will be able to experience Union X's story even after it goes offline. With the entire series coming to PC via the Epic Games Store soon, new players can experience the entire story up until Melody of Memory. The series is notorious within certain circles for being incredibly confusing and certain story elements in Kingdom Hearts 3 won't make much sense without knowledge of Union X's story.
Kingdom Hearts Union X Dark Road is available on Android and iOS devices.