News ► Kingdom Hearts IV and Missing-Link officially announced!

[Sakuraba Neku]

I'm a grown up man and I don't remember the last time I was so excited for this franchise.

- Kingdom Hearts 4 is announced with a proper trailer. In-game cutscenes, gameplay and good length. Much better than a CGI trailer.

- A new arc after all these years gives them the chance to start anew. Love the artistic direction and the unknown possibilities we have.

- Unreal Engine. An engine that the KH staff already knows well and can always count with Epic to help them. No more years of development lost because of engine problems.

- PS5 capacities. After Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart showing the power of SSD, imagine going through different worlds near instantly during a boss battle or something else.

- After the reception of KH3, Square should be aware of what fans expect from a numbered KH title. ReMind was incredible and hopefully they will improve from there.

 

[Squood!]

Would be a huge freaking stretch, but what if Sora visited live action worlds via inserting a BD disc of the movie, and entering the TV to enter the unreality worlds like Endor. Something so meta and crazy that Nomura would dare boldly do? Too silly, or maybe a possibility? IDK, Toy Story was kinda meta with the Verum Rex video game, and now Yozora brought Sora to reality, so it could go counterclockwise and we see Disney properties being the sold properties like Verum Rex now.

You mean like Gex Enter the Gecko but with DVDs

 

[BluePikmin11]

You mean like Gex Enter the Gecko but with DVDs

something like that, yeah. would love to see nomura go that route.

 

[kaseykockroach]

Post-CoM, I enjoy KH from an emotional distance.
As long as I get to run around with Donald and Goofy looking for treasure chests, I’m game for whatever KH4’s gonna be.

 

[bambii (aka foreteller)]

Three questions still remain for me:

1. What of the KHUX Remake from the Nvidia leak? It’s possible something like that is in the works, though with Missing-Link the mystery dev team has been accounted for. Really hope we at least get a movie version before KH4 releases.
2. I was holding out hopes for the Disney+ series but with no word of it at the 20th Anniversary Event, I’m beginning to think the project likely failed to be greenlit. Aw well. I’ll keep a small ember of hope burning for it.
3. No nextgen KH3 upgrade?

 

[Unusual1290]

Can Donald and Goofy get new outfits already???? Why does Mickey always get to, when D&G are more relevant than he is?

 

[Squood!]

Ok hear me out

what if D&G aren't looking for Hades, but instead they're looking for Auron?

Like, I get Hades is lord of the underworld, but why would D&G trust him to help?

 

[NemesisSP]

Alright, so I checked to make sure, but I found something curious and I can't see if anyone else noticed either.



Isn't this outfit a little different than what we see in the trailer? https://images.khinsider.com/2022 Uploads/04/Announcement Screenshots/KH4_01_legal.jpg

I mean, could just be me, but I don't think so Could it be possible that Sora is actually getting *two* main outfits?

I also admittedly rechecked the official announcement stuff, but I didn't see them mentioning anything about the outfits. If so, please let me know so I know I'm not crazy.

 

[Squood!]

Alright, so I checked to make sure, but I found something curious and I can't see if anyone else noticed either.

View attachment 15107

Isn't this outfit a little different than what we see in the trailer? https://images.khinsider.com/2022 Uploads/04/Announcement Screenshots/KH4_01_legal.jpg

I mean, could just be me, but I don't think so Could it be possible that Sora is actually getting *two* main outfits?

I also admittedly rechecked the official announcement stuff, but I didn't see them mentioning anything about the outfits. If so, please let me know so I know I'm not crazy.

That's from a fan interpretation

 

[Henryp]

Excited for KH4, really liked the trailer. Showing UltraRealistic!Sora at the beggining and D&G at the end in a more Disney environment was a really wise decision to both keep up the hype and shut down theorists that think KH can be anything without Disney.

Missing Link is a game that looks more fun than what I expected from a mobile game. Still dissappointed it'll be a gatcha, but I prefer it over a Switch exclusive tbh. Maybe it'll port to home consoles later on, either way, it'll be feeding us until KH4 release (it's so weird talking about KH4 as a real thing).

Dark Road intrigues me, but at the same time I'm not entirely sold on it. Too many characters exclusive to that game. I liked how the original X was full of new characters in a completly different setting, but look how that turned out. I don't want to keep an eye on 40 characters moving forward, seeing as the whole UX cast, plus Luxord, plus TAV/RXA/... are staying in some form.

 

[Zettaflare]

I'm curious what the heroes have to offer in exchange for Hades' help. Cause even if he does provide assistance I doubt it will be for free

 

[NemesisSP]

That's from a fan interpretation

Is it? Looks like Nomura to me.

But it's a convincing fake if it is.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1513113014391951365

Seems like this is the real one. Good, I'm glad I'm NOT going crazy.

Also, I don't think Donald and Goofy would look for Auron. But I do think they might look for someone they think could help them get to Quadratum and it just so happens they have to sneak by Hades to find them.

 

[AR829038]

Is it? Looks like Nomura to me.

But it's a convincing fake if it is.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1513113014391951365

Seems like this is the real one. Good, I'm glad I'm NOT going crazy.

This boy's hair gets less and less spiky with each passing title. By KH5, it's just gonna be a bowl cut.

 

[SuperNova]

I come home from work just to see KH4 announced, I nearly screamed while working I was so exicted. Sora looks good but he looks way more like a FF protagonist now with that realisitc hairstyle, maybe its because he's in a more "realistic" world but I'm glad to see him back in the drivers seat.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Baggage that comes with numbered titles? After KH3, there should be no expectations. I always said that KH3 was always going to be damned if it did, damned if it didn't. KH3 was always going to take the heat and get crapped all over, no matter what it did. Ultimately, that was a good thing because now no one should have these crazy expectations. Not only that, we're starting from scratch, so people can't expect to see everyone in the game again which will be better for KH4 and the Lost Master arc's quality.

I'm not speaking of story-related baggage, that's bound to be there since the whole UX-Dark Road-Missing Link stuff has lots of hooks to the old games still, as well as many of the Q&A-questions still pointing towards there still being mysteries from the old games fans of the franchise are interested in.

If you think we're starting from scratch you're mistaken, the story-related baggage from the Dark Seeker-saga is still there as a groundwork for the new stuff.

The baggage is the expectation that numbered KH will always follow the same formula with barely any alteration.

That's exactly what I meant, there are certain formulas expected of a "numbered title" that get stale over time and also stand in the way of proper and useful pacing.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Alright, so I checked to make sure, but I found something curious and I can't see if anyone else noticed either.

View attachment 15107

Isn't this outfit a little different than what we see in the trailer? https://images.khinsider.com/2022 Uploads/04/Announcement Screenshots/KH4_01_legal.jpg

I mean, could just be me, but I don't think so Could it be possible that Sora is actually getting *two* main outfits?

I also admittedly rechecked the official announcement stuff, but I didn't see them mentioning anything about the outfits. If so, please let me know so I know I'm not crazy.

That was fan art by the talented hollypolllyy.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1513217466197024771

 

[NemesisSP]

That was fan art by the talented hollypolllyy.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1513217466197024771

Already established this, though I do like the clarification of who the artist was.

I'm not speaking of story-related baggage, that's bound to be there since the whole UX-Dark Road-Missing Link stuff has lots of hooks to the old games still, as well as many of the Q&A-questions still pointing towards there still being mysteries from the old games fans of the franchise are interested in.

If you think we're starting from scratch you're mistaken, the story-related baggage from the Dark Seeker-saga is still there as a groundwork for the new stuff.



That's exactly what I meant, there are certain formulas expected of a "numbered title" that get stale over time and also stand in the way of proper and useful pacing.

There's still gonna be major expectations for this game. They're just different than KH3's expectations, since KH3 took so long to get out the door.

Of course, the issue also was that KH3 clearly tried for a more ambitious story, but I think it was hampered by what I like to call "The Frozen Dilemma". The need to make sure to play things safe with the major Disney properties. So they can't be integrated into the story as well as they'd like to.

I don't care too much if the formula is there, so long as the writers of the Disney worlds are actually allowed to do something interesting with them that helps them tie better into the main stories of the game. KH3 did try to do so, but it was clear they were hampered in that regard. Formulas can evolve, after all. The best thing for KH4 would be to do so. It doesn't have to break formula. It just has to improve on it.

 

[SuperNova]

Does this mean we can finally put the entire "KH will no longer have Disney" to bed? Sure this game looks more grim and dark than KH3 but I doubt we are gonna be in Quadratum for the entire game. The idea of Donald and Goofy going to Hades for help is a good start to how it could be built going forward for Disney involvement.

 

[LostArtist]

what a morning, the 20th anniversary kh art and game reveals, STAR WARS in kh and
SORA GETTING DOXXED
Is this real life y’all???

https://twitter.com/x/status/1513163361571143684

 

[Elysium]

I'm curious what the heroes have to offer in exchange for Hades' help. Cause even if he does provide assistance I doubt it will be for free

Well, in-universe, they've went to Hades for help before in 2 and we saw how that turned out. Not sure why they'd think he'd help them, but it'll be fun just to have a cutscene of him laughing and celebrating that Sora is "dead," lol. Only to be disappointed to find he can't draw Sora out of the Underworld and torture him like the other souls there.