After half a decade since the last game in the series, fans are eagerly waiting to hear more Kingdom Hearts 4‘s (KH4) release.
The fourth main series in Square Enix’s hit RPG series that mixes Final Fantasy With worlds and characters from The Walt Disney Company announced in April 2022 with a mysterious reveal trailer.
However, two years later, information about the game is scarce.
When will Kingdom Hearts 4 be released?
The date of the public release has not been announced Kingdom Hearts 4.
The title was first announced in conjunction with Square Enix’s 20th anniversary of the series in April 2022, along with numerous new ones. Kingdom Hearts notifications.
However, the announcement came and went with no indication of when fans can expect to see the game.
According to a press release published in April 2022, the game was running “early development” at the time of its reveal (via Square Enix):
“Today, as part of the Kingdom Hearts franchise’s 20th anniversary, Square Enix and Disney announced that ‘Kingdom Hearts IV,’ the latest installment in the beloved RPG series, is in the early stages, and also revealed a brand new mobile game, Kingdom hearts Missing-Link.”
English goofy voice actor Bill Farmer didn’t even know the game was happening at the time of its announcement, telling fans at Momoco 2022, “You know, they never tell me these things, I only find out from the fans at the convention. At least I know I’ve got work coming.” (via Games Radar).
This may mean that it may still take some time for the game to hit store shelves.
Kingdom Hearts 3 famously spent just over six years in development (it was first confirmed in 2013). But don’t worry, Kingdom Hearts 4 probably won’t last nearly as long.
Square Enix – a company that had become synonymous with long development times – has spent the last few years trying to curb those long development cycles.
This has resulted in games coming out faster and more efficiently. Although the headlines do Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy 15 took nearly a decade to finally see the light of day, their sequels (Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16) has been brought to a much accelerated production schedule (taking six and four years).
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth just finished its development cycle when the game arrived on PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide. That would make sense Kingdom Hearts 4 to be Square Enix’s next tentpole to kick off the promotional cycle.
If the game got a new look sometime in 2024, launch the game Kingdom Hearts 4 marketing machine, a release in either 2025 or 2026 sounds about right.
This would be between six and seven years Kingdom Hearts 3 and 4.
What happens in the story of Kingdom Hearts 4?
![Goofy and Donald Duck in Kingdom Hearts 4](https://images.thedirect.com/media/photos/2kh.png)
As part of an official Kingdom Hearts 4 following the announcement, fans were given a brief tease of what will happen in the game’s overarching RPG story.
Although the series is known for its incredible cross-section clearly Final Fantasy-characteristic storytelling and Disney worlds/characters, starter Book Kingdom Hearts 4 the trailer only focused on one of them.
Instead of the animated colorful realms of the Disney universe, the game’s first tease took place in a hyper-realistic cityscape powered by the Unreal Engine 5 engine.
While Square offered a small glimpse of characters like Donald Duck and Goofy, the biggest first trailer avoided these iconic Disney personalities.
According to the press release accompanying the reveal trailer, this new world will be known as Quadratum.
It remains to be seen how this new world will affect the game’s story, but series protagonist Sora will be joined by a new companion known as Strelitzia (a warrior wielding one of the series’ iconic Keyblades).
Otherwise it is confirmed Kingdom Hearts 4 ends for director Tetsuya Nomura’s The Lost Master Arc. Kingdom Hearts The story following The Dark Seeker Saga (which formed all the games that came before KH4).
Will Marvel & Star Wars be included in Kingdom Hearts 4?
![Iron Man and Han Solo in Disney: Infinity](https://images.thedirect.com/media/photos/3disneyinfinity.png)
One of the biggest rumors going around Kingdom Hearts 4 has made possible the inclusion of potential Marvel and Star Wars worlds and characters alongside the numerous Disney territories the franchise is known for.
Up to this point Kingdom Hearts has largely drawn on Disney’s animated legacy of 100 years of creation – with a few minor exceptions for live-action franchises Tron and Pirates of the Caribbean.
However, with Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios falling under the Disney umbrella, fans are clamoring to see those franchises represented in the upcoming sequel.
While nothing has been confirmed on the Marvel or Star Wars fronts, Kingdom Hearts 4‘s reveal trailer might hold the key (blade) to what’s yet to come.
The beginning of the trailer features an incredibly high-quality forest that looks unlike anything in the franchise before.
Some have speculated that this could be the forest moon of Endor, as seen in the image Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. In one particular frame of this sequence, one can even see what appears to be an AT-ST Walker – a vehicle that featured prominently in the Star Wars films.
Fans have also speculated that the game’s main character Sora is getting a bit of a visual update for the sequel, could this be an indication that the traditionally rather animated Sora will interact with more characters that fans are used to seeing in live-action (e.g. MCU superheroes and Star Wars icons).
What other Disney worlds could appear in Kingdom Hearts 4?
![Mirabel from Encanto and Jake Sully in Avatar: The Way of Water](https://images.thedirect.com/media/photos/4disney.png)
Except for the potential of Marvel and Star Wars characters and locations Kingdom Hearts 4several other new Disney worlds may appear.
Another major Disney property, the franchise has yet to be touched by James Cameron character movies. Although this may be a bit of a stretch, character is a huge name in the entertainment industry, and Square Enix might want to capitalize on that.
A modern Disney hit Charm could be a fun place KH crew travels in the upcoming sequel. Charm has been a huge hit at Disney with kids worldwide singing along to songs like “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”
Charm has only been around for a couple of years, but has made an incredible impact since then, cementing itself among the Disney greats Kingdom Hearts has riffed before.
Another modern Disney classic Square Enix would be smart to get Kingdom Hearts 4 would be Motunui (ie the world Moana).
Moana may be Disney’s biggest original IP of the past decade, and the company is banking on the franchise with an upcoming sequel, a live-action remake, and a Disney Parks experience at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
If there is one new Disney world Kingdom Hearts 4 will almost certainly visit, it must be Moana.
Other sensible worlds are e.g A bug’s life, The Emperor’s New Careerand Zootopia.
Kingdom Hearts 4 there is currently no public release date.