Everything We Can Expect From the New Kingdom Hearts Game

Oh great, Sora is hot now. He’s always been pretty, but he’s grown into a handsome young man! Sorry is that too real for you? Well hang on to your mouse ears because we’re in for a big dose of reality in the world’s most unreal game series. Publisher Square Enix has announced the next major title in the Kingdom Hearts series: Kingdom Hearts IV. Here’s what’s known, and what you can expect to see in the months ahead.

Kingdom Hearts is a wild, wild series. It combines Disney mainstays like Donald Duck, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse with pure anime goodness. A young man named Sora is tasked with wielding a key blade and saving the universe from the Heartless. (Someone hand me an award for trying to sum up the franchise lore in one sentence.) If you know any KH fans, then you know they are some of the most earnest, fantastic people in the world. You also know they are hardcore. Fans of the series were understandably losing their minds when Square Enix announced the new game. 

Setting: It’s going to have a realistic setting. The trailer shows Sora waking up in a world called Quadratum. It looks a lot like our world, except there’s an uncanny valley plot device girl there and the city quickly gets messed up by a creature of darkness. You can bet things won’t stay realistic for too long though. Fans noticed a tiny Star Wars reference in the trailer, so I’m calling it: we’re going to a Star Wars world. We can count on seeing other Disney IP of course, maybe even some Marvel characters? Are we finally gonna talk about Bruno and have an Encanto level?

Release Date: Kingdom Hearts III was first announced in 2013, but not released until 2019. Now don’t stab yourself in the heart with a keyblade just yet. That was an unusually long gap, odds are very, very good the game will be out before 2028. 

Systems: Nothing official has been announced, but unless there’s some major corporate shenanigans that shake out before the game’s release, it’s a safe bet that the game will be playable on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on release. It might not be right away, but if KH4 patterns its release after other games in the series, we’ll get the games on PC and Switch sometime after that. 

Story: Sora is going to have to fight the heartless and save the world. If I’m wrong about this one, I’ll eat my keyblade. It also seems like Donald and Goofy will be in the mix, although that blue light they see at the end of the trailer looked a lot like Hades' flame from Hercules?!