Two more Kingdom Hearts titles on the way

Two decades of Square Enix’s Disney crossover series are clearly not enough as the publisher revealed that there will be two more Kingdom Hearts titles coming soon. 

At the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary event, the Japanese video game company bared their future plans for the franchise, exciting fans all over the world with the announcement of Kingdom Hearts IV and a new Kingdom Hearts mobile game. 

Graced by game series director Tetsuya Nomura, composer Yoko Shimomura, and other development team members, the celebration event launched a 7-minute trailer teasing both titles and their gameplays.

Dubbed as Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, the new mobile game is set to feature a new, original story set in the familiar world of Scala ad Caelum. Unlike previous mobile games, Square Enix opted to use 3D graphics and real-time combat for Missing-Link. (Read: Square Enix developing Guardians of the Galaxy game)

Throughout the story, players will be able to explore the busy city which was first introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3. Returning playable characters were not shown in the teaser, but reports say it will be tied to the Kingdom Hearts IV story. 

While Missing-Link offers a lot of potential in the franchise’s mobile gaming venture, the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 4 stole the spotlight from the show. According to a blog post released by Square Enix shortly after the event, the next mainline title is now in development and it packs a punch with the new features it offers. 

“After the climactic events of Kingdom Hearts 3 and its Re Mind DLC, fans have wanted to know: ‘What’s next for Sora?’ As the trailer reveals, the Keyblade wielder is back – and in a new setting we’re all excited to learn,” the blog exclaimed. 

The new setting the blog mentioned is the “new epic storyline” dubbed Lost Masters Arc set in the world of Quadratum, “a large, expansive city set in a gorgeous, realistic world unlike anything ever seen before in the Kingdom Hearts series.”

After seemingly sacrificing himself in the previous game, Sora makes a triumphant return in the story, with all-new threads to go with his ever-trusty Kingdom Key keyblade. Unlike in the previous three main Kingdom Hearts releases, Sora is no longer wearing his big footwear. As he engages in battle, he now wears normal and stylish shoes coinciding with his red-and-black coat. His overall appearance also gets a realistic anime-esque look. 

Although as much as it looks like Sora has resurrected from the dead, the trailer explained that Quadratum is far from the real world, but is similar to an afterworld. Nomura confirmed this in an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu. 

“From Sora’s perspective, Quadratum is an underworld, a fictional world that is different from reality. But from the point of view of the inhabitants on the Quadratum side, the world of Quadratum is reality, and the world where Sora and the others were is the other side, the fictional world,” he said in the interview translated from Japanese. 

As teased in the trailer, Donald and Goofy will return in the fourth main installment of the franchise. Other characters like Riku and King Mickey are yet to be confirmed to make an appearance.

Both titles do not have a release date as of the moment yet, but a closed beta test for Missing-Link is scheduled at a later date this year albeit in “specific regions”. For Kingdom Hearts IV, on the other hand, everything mentioned above is all the details Square Enix has released as of the moment.

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