After 22 years and a whopping 18 games, Kingdom Hearts 4 will finally move the franchise's story towards its conclusion.
Speaking to Young Jump and translated by Automaton, co-director, co-writer, and lead artist on Kingdom Hearts 4 Tetsuya Nomura said the game works as a jumping on point for new players following the events of Kingdom Hearts 3 but will also shift the overall series narrative towards its end.
Kingdom Hearts, which was co-created by Nomura alongside Shinji Hashimoto, began in 2002, and though he didn't have every intricate detail planned out at that time, Nomura said he had a general idea of the series' story and themes from the beginning. He was also thinking about the story of Kingdom Hearts 4 and beyond while working on Kingdom Hearts 3.
The series is somewhat infamous for having a hard to follow narrative spread across myriad games and consoles, themselves already pulling from the ever expanding worlds of Final Fantasy and Disney. Nomura even admitted he's the only one who understands the game's underlying themes, and some aren't explicitly depicted in the games.
He has a collection of secret notes and other materials pointing to different characters, eras, and developments that haven't yet appeared, and uses this (alongside lore and gameplay videos online) to figure the story out.
No actual details on Kingdom Hearts 4's story were shared by Nomura, nor did he say if any of these themes will be apparent in the game.
Kingdom Hearts fans have once again been left pining for updates on the entry as it was revealed more than two years ago with a full trailer but has gone completely silent since.
The trailer showed flashy gameplay with protagonist Sora but Square Enix said this was from an Unreal Engine 4 demo, whereas the actual game will be made in Unreal Engine 5.
Only time will tell when Square Enix shares more about Kingdom Hearts 4, but fans will continue to wait patiently in the meantime. Its reveal trailer has already been analyzed completely, and some even think there's evidence of a Star Wars section.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
