What better time than an anniversary for some exciting announcements and releases? Square Enix has announced that Kingdom Hearts IV is now in development and also announced a brand-new mobile game called Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link.
The announcement was made at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event in Tokyo, Japan, which was part of a trailer that gave a look at the future of the series. The nearly eight-minute trailer included the announcement of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, a new upcoming mobile game that is set to have a closed beta sometime in 2022. This new story will see players embarking on adventures from the realm of Scala ad Caelum into the real world. Additionally, the Kingdom Hearts team announced that the highly anticipated final chapter of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will be released in August 2022 as a free update to the Kingdom Hearts Union χ Dark Road app.
The trailer was capped off by the debut trailer Kingdom Hearts IV, which gave players the first look for the new art direction for the series, falling more realistic look compared to the series' cartoonish roots, as well as a look at the new design of series protagonist, Sora, as well as the returns of his trusted companions, Donald Duck and Goofy. The long-running series leads make their return in what marks the start of an all-new storyline being called the “Lost Master Arc.” The trailer depicts a boss fight between Sora and a giant Heartless-looking enemy, all of which takes place in a location called Quadratum, a large, expansive city set in a realistic world that, like the game's new visuals, departs drastically from the game's in the past.
Along with the familiar faces, the trailer also introduced Strelitzia, a "mysterious new character" that will be a part of this new journey with Sora. “We’re thrilled to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary with the announcement of two new Kingdom Hearts titles,” said Kingdom Hearts series Brand Manager, Ichiro Hazama. “We’d like to thank the fans for all of their support over the years, and we can’t wait for them to experience all that’s to come for Sora.”
The event also featured many different things to celebrate the two-decade legacy of the beloved Kingdom Hearts franchise. These included a live music performance, a showcase of stained-glass artworks, and on-stage appearances from Series Director, Tetsuya Nomura, series’ composer, Yoko Shimomura, and other development members. “Sora is an original Disney video game hero like no other, beloved by our team, and fans across the world. We’ve been honored to work with Tetsuya Nomura and his team for two decades to introduce these original stories of discovery, courage, and friendship,” said Nana Gadd, Director of Walt Disney Games. “This glimpse into Sora’s next adventure is just the beginning – we can’t wait to show more when the time is right.”
Kingdom Hearts is an action-RPG series that first debuted in 2002, bringing together the fantastical worlds of Square Enix's Final Fantasy and Disney along with its own unique story. The series sees Sora traveling to many different worlds and meeting characters from both companies' expansive catalogs. Despite this being labeled "IV," the currently series has nine mainline entries in the series, which include multiple spin-offs and mobile games. The last number entry of the series was Kingdom Hearts III, which was released in 2019. The last game released in the series was the mobile rhythm game Kingdom Heart Melody of Memory in 2020.
Kingdom Hearts IV is currently in development with Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link arriving on mobile devices in the future with a beta set to be available in August 2022. You can see the announcement trailer for the future of Kingdom Hearts including the first look at Kingdom Hearts IV and Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link down below. And check out more images from Kingdom Hearts IV.
