What is the latest Kingdom Hearts 4 news? Kingdom Hearts fans know the pain of having to wait what feels like a lifetime for developer Square Enix’s next major console release in the beloved action RPG series. So when we first saw Sora awaken in Quadratum at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event, the one thing we all wanted to know was when Kingdom Hearts 4 would arrive.
Fortunately, we shouldn’t be waiting quite as long for the Kingdom Hearts 4 release date as we did with KH3. By the looks of things, developer Square Enix is sticking to Unreal Engine – the engine it switched to from its in-house Luminous Engine part-way through KH3’s development. With a bit of luck, then, it shouldn’t be over half a decade before we see more of Sora and friends in what we hope will be one of the best RPG games of this generation.
Kingdom Hearts 4 news
The Kingdom Hearts 4 news cycle has been slow to say the least, though this is unsurprising considering how reluctant Square has been to share series news in the past – at least, until there are comprehensive enough updates to share. Naturally, it’s good to avoid overpromising and underdelivering, but as fans, it makes for an agonizing wait.
Many anticipated Kingdom Hearts 4 would show up at Summer Game Fest 2024, seeing as it’s been a whole two years since the game was first revealed. However, rumors were quickly debunked by host Geoff Keighley, leaving us empty-handed.
Last year, UK-based retailer GAME added a pre-order listing for the game with a ‘TBC-2023’ launch date, sparking rumors that it would arrive sooner than we first thought. However, this has since been updated to ‘TBC-2024,’ indicating that it’s a simple placeholder that will shift each year until at least a window has been confirmed.
During the series’ 20th Anniversary celebrations, Famitsu published an interview with Tetsuya Nomura himself in April 2022. Community translator ‘Audrey’ took to Twitter to post highlights from the Kingdom Hearts 4 segment, which include comments from Nomura on Quadtratum and how it will operate as Sora’s base at the start of the game.
Nomura also said KH4 will explore the concept of Quadratum being a fictional world to Sora and his friends, and Sora’s world a fictional one to the inhabitants of Quadratum. He also confirmed the return of KH2’s reaction commands as part of a new ‘scrap and build’ system coming to the game’s combat loop.
It later transpired that the ‘male narrator’ mentioned in the interview is Sigurd, who we first met in Kingdom Hearts Union X. His identity was revealed through a secret message left during the 20th Anniversary event.
Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer
So far the only trailer we have for Kingdom Hearts 4 is the reveal trailer shown at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event in April 2022.
The trailer seems to take place a short time after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, as Sora awakens in a world called Quadratum. Early in the trailer, we are reintroduced to Strelitzia, who was killed off in Kingdom Hearts Union Cross. As such, it looks like both Sora and Strelitzia are in some form of afterworld.
Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy appear to be trying to find clues that could lead them back to their thought-to-be-deceased friend. It looks like this leads them to the Underworld, and what could transpire to be a less-than-friendly run-in with Hades.
From what we’ve seen so far of the first installment of The Lost Master Arc, Square has really upped the fidelity of, well, everything – at least in its pre-rendered footage. We’ve also finally received confirmation that, yes, Sora actually has normal-sized feet (at least, in Quadratum).
And that’s all we have on Kingdom Hearts 4 and its latest beats so far. While you’re patiently waiting for the next smatterings of information on Sora and Co’s next adventure, check out some of the other best PS5 games or best Xbox Series X games to tide you over.