Kingdom Hearts 4 Announced and Looking Realer than Ever

During a showcase celebrating Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary, developer Square Enix revealed that the next mainline entry in the series, Kingdom Hearts 4, is now in development.

A new trailer showcases an older (and more realistic) Sora waking up in Quadratum, a Tokyo-esque “afterworld” that was introduced at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. The photorealism is a major departure for the series; it’s a little bizarre that there are name brand cars in a series that transformed Sora into a mermaid for a rhythm mini-game.

It’s not long until a Kaiju-sized Heartless wreaks havoc on the streets and forces Sora into action. He’s even equipped with a free flowing movement system, parkouring his way off rails, floating cars and hollow buildings to destroy the beast.

All thoughts of our world as a Heaven (or Hell) for Disney characters will have to wait a few years, as the game currently has no release date.

Square Enix also announced that a completely separate mobile-game, Kingdom Hearts Missing Link, is in development for iOS and Android devices. It will take players through the world of Scala ad Caelum from Kingdom Hearts 3 and, while featuring an original story, will most likely tie into Kingdom Hearts 4. The game has no release date yet, but has a closed beta test scheduled for 2022.

Kingdom Hearts 3, the most recent game within the Disney and Square Enix collaboration series, released back in 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One before coming to PC in 2021 and Nintendo Switch earlier this year. The game tried to tie up the ridiculous, long, and complicated storyline of this unique mash-up of Disney and Final Fantasy-style role-playing games—something that many would call an impossible task, given the massive amount of lore the series has built up.