News ► KINGDOM HEARTS 20th anniversary trailer + event announced

[Zackarix]

We’re nitpicking at this point

This whole argument is nitpicking. We both agree that the next big KH game will be a Quadratum game with Yozora, we just can't see eye-to-eye on whether it makes more sense for a "IV" to be in the title or not.

I don’t know that I see a justification for diverging from Kingdom Hearts’ currently very strong brand

Assuming that Verum Rex is Versus XIII with the serial numbers filed off and it's successful enough to launch its own series that follows Nomura's original vision it wouldn't be enough to dramatically change the formula, it would have to be thrown out entirely. When you get down to it the brand of Kingdom Hearts is characters who wield giant keys fighting their way through Disney movies. Take those elements out and it's not KH anymore.

In general it's actually common to trade a successful brand for a new one if the concept is different enough. For example, Square's own Mana series had its first entry published as "Final Fantasy Gaiden" but the other games as firmly part of their own brand. Separate brands can also happen when different audiences are being targeted or there's hope that the spin-off will grow beyond its origins. Once upon a time Bandai had a successful toy brand called Tamagotchi with an audience that was almost entirely girls. They saw the gap in their audience, so in order to sell a similar product to boys they added fighting and called it Digimon. The new brand grew to the point that even most fans are unaware of its origins. Would it have achieved the same success if it had remained a part of the origin brand and been called something like Tamagotchi Warriors? Impossible to know without the ability to view alternate timeline, but clearly diverging from a strong brand can work out.

 

[DraceEmpressa]

Everyone seems to agree next game is the Yozora/Quadratum game, but I wonder if the game where Isa looks for Skuld/Lauriam for Strelitzia will be part of the same game, or the spin off game BEFORE the Yozora game....That looking for someone is the very theme of the game?

 

[2 quid is good]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say there will be no real Quadratum game, or a game with a playable Subject X plotline, instead it'll probably be a normal KH game and Quadratum will just be the last world.

I'd love to be proven wrong if it would be something interesting but the only thing I can realistically see is a Versus rip off, which I'm absolutely not interested in. It feels a little disrespectful to KH honestly. On the other hand it would provide me with a lot of ammunition against the FF in KH naysayers.....

 

[KingdomKurdistan]

When thinking about the narrative and how it can be nest served going forward, I imagine lots of strategies and almost all of them are narrative and storytelling risks that I don't see them brave enough to commit to.

If it's a small scale game set in Quadradum with the protagonists trying to escape back "home", it would provide scope for a lot of thematic richness and opportunity to put narrative depth within a small location over breadth and dozens of worlds. But it comes at the risk of alienating players wishing for more familiar haunts. Alienation would be the point, but are they brave enough to challenge their fans like that?

If it's the last level in the next mainline game then something would be missing the rest of the game, surely? Most likely Sora. Could be intriguing if it allows for the exploration of these characters and the mythology (much of it we've created) surrounding them. But I doubt it. Quadradum is a fully realised and constructed 3D level that will be used in an upcomping game. The effort that went into designing it suggests an upcoming console game. Upcoming console game suggests a mainline, not sideline, entry.

If it's a dual narrative that switches between the two universes then I really worry about the team's ability to tell a coherent and taut story that way without it going out of control very quickly.

If it's just the prologue for KH4 like Twilight Town in KH2 then that's the safest and most underwhelming retread of the same thing they've done before.

And this is where I feel it will land when the dust settles. A few hours of tutorials in Quadradum before the gang comes to the rescue only to get trapped underneath a building at the last, on the verge of death, until Sora comes and fights off the monsters and rescues his rescuers.

He then monologues about the heart's power of friendship before everyone has an epiphany and they all thank Sora for getting them back to Yen Sid's Tower for a 10 minute stilted debrief punctured by a few hearty cries of WHAAAAAAAAAAT? and a set-up for why the heartless, nobodies, antibodies, unversed, reversed, unsung, unborn, unloved and undercooked are back – stronger than ever.

Cut to Ansem, Seeker of Darkness laughing maniacally before the title KINGDOM HEARTS IV - (2.954² × 5) + 3.33333 Recurring shows up.

Fade to black.



I'm just kidding. I'm actually very excited.

 

[MATGSY]

When thinking about the narrative and how it can be nest served going forward, I imagine lots of strategies and almost all of them are narrative and storytelling risks that I don't see them brave enough to commit to.

If it's a small scale game set in Quadradum with the protagonists trying to escape back "home", it would provide scope for a lot of thematic richness and opportunity to put narrative depth within a small location over breadth and dozens of worlds. But it comes at the risk of alienating players wishing for more familiar haunts. Alienation would be the point, but are they brave enough to challenge their fans like that?

I can't see a game with just Quadradum. Someone higher up at S-E is gonna be very insistent that there's at least some Disney worlds, especially if it's a bigger budget console title. They're not gonna wanna risk losing out on sales due to gamers not getting their Disney.

They could try spinning VR off as it's own IP, but after the lukewarm sales of NEO, I doubt Square's itching to pull the trigger on a very similar looking game that requires a bigger investment.

If it's a dual narrative that switches between the two universes then I really worry about the team's ability to tell a coherent and taut story that way without it going out of control very quickly.

Plus Quadradum is shaping up to have 3 playable characters: Sora, Riku, Yozora (there's no way they don't make Yozora playable after giving him such distinctive weapons/abilities). That's cramming a lot into half a game.

Thus, I stick to the idea of altverse Disney worlds, be it Lightyear as another fictional unreality thing, live action remakes to show how different they are from the standard universe, or some previously untapped category of IP like tv shows; Quadradum's universe is gonna hafta have its own Disney worlds to stand as a game.

 

[Violet Pluto]

And please no Star Wars unless it's just little references or based on Legends.

This. KH is already Star Wars enough, I don't need actual Star Wars to add to it (Unless Legends because that usually is different enough but eh)

Don’t get me wrong, I like Star Wars and Marvel as much as the next guy, but I’d just prefer if KH just stuck to the main Disney and Pixar stuff.

We already have Big Hero 6 as a Marvel world even if it is the Disney-fied version of the characters. They probably fit the best in KH instead of another Marvel Property anyway.

 

[MATGSY]

This. KH is already Star Wars enough, I don't need actual Star Wars to add to it (Unless Legends because that usually is different enough but eh)

We already have Big Hero 6 as a Marvel world even if it is the Disney-fied version of the characters. They probably fit the best in KH instead of another Marvel Property anyway.

In a way, MCU would be the live action remake counterpart to BH6 in the VR universe.

 

[Zackarix]

It's way too soon for a Lightyear word, the movie isn't even out yet.

 

[SuperNova]

Yozora might just end up being an ally/party member for all we know, but its clear that Quadratum is gonna play a big part in the next KH game. I doubt we are going to get anything playable related to Lea/Isa/Subject X anytime soon. And there is no way its going to be just Quadratum, there is going to be some disney involved since this is KH we are talking about. Even if its just B budget movies or sequel movies this time around.

 

[Face My Fears]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say there will be no real Quadratum game, or a game with a playable Subject X plotline, instead it'll probably be a normal KH game and Quadratum will just be the last world.

I'd love to be proven wrong if it would be something interesting but the only thing I can realistically see is a Versus rip off, which I'm absolutely not interested in. It feels a little disrespectful to KH honestly. On the other hand it would provide me with a lot of ammunition against the FF in KH naysayers.....

This kind of makes sense.

They wouldn't have mentioned what each team was doing for nothing... right? Maybe the next game will be playing as each team, collecting clues that will help with Quadratum and Subject X's plot, then the last portion of the game will be Riku in Quadratum?

It would be kind of weird if Quadratum was just one world instead of a whole universe or whatever, but in all teasers of "new locations" they've always been just one world. The World That Never Was, The Realm of Darkness, The Keyblade Graveyard were all in teaser trailers and just one world. The only reason The Realm of Darkness was even more than just the beach and the area from KH1 was because they included corrupted Disney worlds in 0.2.

Now that I'm thinking about it more, what can possibly come out of a Quadratum game if that universe is explored more? Nomura did his best to clean up the series for post-KH3, by getting all the key players back into one realm and timeline, spent tons of time on exposition to explain all these new concepts, basically giving us what we need to start as fresh as possible (for KH standards) for the new saga. Just imagine actually exploring the Quadratum "universe", meeting new characters there, and getting more lore about that universe... only to never visit it again. Knowing Nomura, even if he intended to use Quadratum only once in a limited capacity, I feel like if he were to expand on it in a full fledged game, he wouldn't be able to resist and will load up the main story with Quadratum which I think will just make it go beyond comprehendible. Not only that, but it will just seem really bizarre and convenient that only now characters are jumping back and forth (constantly) between Quadratum and the "real world", when it was supposedly so difficult, near impossible, to do before.

 

[HakaishinChampa]

I had another idea for another 20th Anniversary Collection, don't know what they would call it though.

It will include 1.5+2.5 & 2.8 with big improvements.

All Games:

• Optional Japanese Voice DLC
• Final Mix enemy colors can be toggled to Vanilla in config
• Unlockable Concept Art w/ never before seen Concept Art drawn by Nomura

Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix:

• Theater Mode DLC integrated into the game

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories (GBA) can be played, has it's own Trophies/Achievements

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is now playable, it is remastered like DDD

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded will either stay a cinematic or it will be remastered like DDD

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix:

• The trophies/achievements that require you to 100% the Journal as all characters is changed so you only have to do it for one character
• Online Play is added back in to the Mirage Arena

Kingdom Hearts 0.2:

• Updated to be like the Epic Games version

 

[HotGarbage]

They will announce KINGDOM HEARTS 4 with Sora Donald and Goofy traveling through Disney worlds and...

 

[DraceEmpressa]

They will announce KINGDOM HEARTS 4 with Sora Donald and Goofy traveling through Disney worlds and...
View attachment 14521

me, a YX simp:

Do you want to see my possible theory about his return? it might have something to do with his past life as player and his subtle "help" to Sora as YX

In all seriousness, we know KH have an IT theme in naming non-numbered titles. like Birth by Sleep=BBS=Bulletin Board System or Unchained X/Union Cross=UX=User Experience, anybody care to guess the possible IT-theme or new game if it's not KH4? Also have we make a thread about this before?

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

In all seriousness, we know KH have an IT theme in naming non-numbered titles. like Birth by Sleep=BBS=Bulletin Board System or Unchained X/Union Cross=UX=User Experience, anybody care to guess the possible IT-theme or new game if it's not KH4? Also have we make a thread about this before?

I came up with a few. They're all basically gibberish but maybe that's the point. So here goes.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) = Kingdom Hearts: Friendship's True Purpose, a Free To Play mobile game.

GPS (Global Positioning System) = Kingdom Hearts: Guilty Princess Separation, a Pokemon GO style mobile game.

PDA (Personal Digital Assistant, bonus points for Public Display of Affection) = Kingdom Hearts: Paradise Dimension Artifact, honestly I don't know what this one would be.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

They will announce KINGDOM HEARTS 4 with Sora Donald and Goofy traveling through Disney worlds and...
View attachment 14521

I mean sure why not at this point ahaha

 

[Chie]

They wouldn't have mentioned what each team was doing for nothing... right?

Sadly I think that's exactly what they did. Between the use of it in ReMind and MoM, and arguably even going back to Kairi/Axel in KH3, I think it's just a way to nominally "use" these characters. You can point to statements like that and say, "see! the character was doing something!", even if that something is as meaningless as "looking in someone's memories arbitrarily". Personally I wouldn't mind if we could just assume what the characters were up to or catch up with them later, but I suspect like many KH3-and-after writing-isms that it was done to misguidedly respond to criticism. I don't like to be cynical about it but clearly everyone's jobs mentioned in ReMind didn't find Sora or anything...

 

[Face My Fears]

Sadly I think that's exactly what they did. Between the use of it in ReMind and MoM, and arguably even going back to Kairi/Axel in KH3, I think it's just a way to nominally "use" these characters. You can point to statements like that and say, "see! the character was doing something!", even if that something is as meaningless as "looking in someone's memories arbitrarily". Personally I wouldn't mind if we could just assume what the characters were up to or catch up with them later, but I suspect like many KH3-and-after writing-isms that it was done to misguidedly respond to criticism. I don't like to be cynical about it but clearly everyone's jobs mentioned in ReMind didn't find Sora or anything...

Well Kairi was the least active of all the characters at the end of ReMIND (in terms of looking for Sora) and we ended up getting a few cutscenes of her actually doing what they said she was doing.

I don't think that each group will get a game or significant focus on what they were doing, but I do feel like Nomura has taken criticism/suggestions to heart and may give us something (most likely something tiny, but still something) to show what those groups were doing. I say this simply from what Nomura provided in ReMIND. People's complaints about KH3 were that characters didn't interact, he ended up giving us that fight with everyone interacting (albeit very briefly). So by splitting up the groups, we may actually get a glimpse of them all together and NOT surrounded in drama/life threatening/end of the world situations - which would be nice to see especially for Roxas/Xion/Axel and Terra/Aqua/Ven.

Even if it were just one cutscene each, I can imagine powerful/emotional scenes of Roxas/Xion/Axel executing a "mission" together like in Days, except they talk about how they're not puppets in someone's game anymore and discuss their freedom (maybe even Roxas/Xion wanting to retire from the keyblade life after saving Sora). While for Terra/Aqua/Ven, it can be Aqua facing her fears of returning to the Realm of Darkness, but this time with her friends and they have a sort of healing moment together.

 

[Zackarix]

Regardless of whether or not something comes of the efforts of the Wayfinders and Nobody group their post-KH3 developments really annoy me. These characters just got their lives back only for them to immediately be put on hold when they should be recovering! The fact that their efforts have been for naught so far because Riku is the designated savior is just the icing on the cake.

I guess I can sort of see what the intention is. Sora gave everything to save the lost characters and now they're trying to repay the favor. But still if nothing is going to come of these plot points they shouldn't have bothered with them.

 

[SuperNova]

I guess Nomura wanted to acknolwedge the BBS and Days trio in some way just so we know he hasn't forgotten about them. Riku being the one to find Sora does not surprise me considering he's essentially the deurotagonist of this entire series. Still wish it could've been a trio game we are getting instead of a Sora/Riku duo game. Because Kairi going to see Aqua while nice literally puts her on the backburner again so Nomura doesn't have to bother with her.