Kingdom Hearts 4director Tetsuya Nomura has revealed that the next game in the series won’t be a direct sequel so much as it will be a total story reboot. TheKingdom Heartsseries has, especially since recent entries, become notorious for its convoluted lore. Its impenetrable naming conventions and willingness to hop between aclashing collection of Disney moviesdon’t help - not to mention its penchant forFinal Fantasycameos.Kingdom Hearts 4doesn’t have an official release windowjust yet, but the earliest details of its story have been revealed in a new interview with series creator Tetsuya Nomura.
In an interview with Japanese-language magazineYoung Jump, as summarized by @thegamersjointon X (formerly Twitter),Nomura explained that the story ofKingdom Hearts 4represents a universal reset, or the beginning of a new saga. That might have something to do with another of Nomura’s stated goals for the sequel: he wants to make it easily accessible for newcomers.
Although the previous title,Kingdom Hearts 3, did end with something of a sequel setup, it was considered the conclusion of the “Dark Seeker Saga,” a story arc that began in the very firstKingdom Heartsgame.It appears that the next game will begin a story arc all its own, although exactly what that’ll look like remains to be seen.
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Quadratum & The “Lost Master” Arc
Frankly, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise thatKingdom Hearts 4represents a partial story reset:it was previously confirmed, in the very first frames of its very first trailer, to be the beginning of a new storyline called the “Lost Master Arc.“What exactly that means is still unclear, but it does seem to suggest that Sora, Donald, and Goofy will go off in search of someone or something that has been lost during the next chapters of theKingdom Heartssaga. This will likely mean a new villain, too, although the Heartless certainly still seem to be present.
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Pursuant to making the series' next installment accessible to newcomers, it is known thatother series main characters, like Terra, Ventus, Aqua, and Roxas, will play a diminished role inKingdom Hearts 4compared to their appearances in the original trilogy. Whether they’ll appear at all seems open to speculation; none of them appear in the first trailer, or have been confirmed for cameos in the game as of yet. However, Strelitzia, a major character from the mobile gameKingdom Hearts Union χ, does play a pretty big role in the initial teaser.
Kingdom Hearts 4is set in the city of Quadratum, which looks to be a recreation of modern, urban Tokyo. Quadratum, particularly Sora’s apartment, will serve as a sort of hub world, from which Sora will travel to the various crossover worlds he must visit as part of the game’s campaign. However, Nomura explains in the latestYoung Jumpinterview, it’s not so much a perfect recreation of Tokyo, but an “unreality in reality” - perhaps a somewhat dreamlike recreation of it.
This unreality may have something to do with Sora’s opening lines from the firstKingdom Heartsgame: “Is any of this for real or not?” Nomura confirms that there will be a deeper meaning to that phrase revealed eventually in the series, but whether it’s connected to Quadratum - or even intended to be fleshed out inKingdom Hearts 4- remains to be seen.
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So, like many majorKingdom Heartsreveals, the latest details shared by Nomura seem to provoke more questions than they provide answers. With a new saga beginning, it seems like almost anything’s on the table forKingdom Hearts 4- only time will tell how much of the rumors and conjecture are real.
Sources: @thegamersjoint/X,IGN/YouTube
