The last thing I expected to see in last week's Nintendo Direct was Kingdom Hearts 4. It's as if a long-lost friend walks into the room and we immediately lock eyes with fear and excitement. What on earth are you doing here? Why aren't Donald and Goofy together?
I expected it to be a 'last thing' mic drop in a future State of Play if an RPG sequel were to appear. If not, I expected it to show up at the Xbox Showcase as the company continues to attract large Japanese franchises for the platform. You already have Persona 6, so why not add this adorable crossover to the mix? But no, it also showed up in presentations introducing Xenoblade Genesis and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. JRPG fans are eating really well these days.
But what exactly have we seen from Kingdom Hearts 4, and is there enough new information or footage to figure out where exactly the game is going? However, you may want to correct any mobile gaming knowledge that was lost before this game was released.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is already full of familiar faces
We already know that Kingdom Hearts 4 is the first chapter of a new story, part of which will take place in the fictional city of Quadratum ('Afterworld' to some residents). This city is conveniently identical to the real-world city of Tokyo. We even see Sora fighting the Heartless on the streets of Shinjuku and Shibuya, proving that Square Enix wanted to bring Sora into the real world with just the right level of detachment. According to the trailer, dark forces follow Sora and friends into this new world. It's up to them to find out why and stop it.
I think Quadratum will serve as a major hub world of sorts, something players will return to multiple times throughout the narrative. So there's a more realistic graphical style and many of the existing characters featured in the latest trailer.
We get a glimpse of who we're pretty sure is Ava, Luxord (or his actual version, considering there's no chance of him being None in this setting) in his Organization 13 cape, and Strelitzia, a character first introduced in a Japan-only browser game in 2013. Kingdom Hearts is a mostly nonsense game and I don't mind not having all the lore figured out before telling the story. But that's part of the charm, and exactly why I already find this next chapter so fascinating.
Rounding out the cast of characters seen in the trailer is Young Xehanort holding an umbrella and reaching out to Sora, while the other two are Sigurd and Vali (from the same Japan-only browser game). Xehanort's appearance here is a direct reference to the anniversary art shared by Tetsuya Nomura a few months ago. That means we got an amazing teaser and didn't even know it.
I wonder if these characters will remain within the Quadratum, similar to other areas like Hollow Bastion, or if they will become more important to the overall narrative. The reason the Heartless appears here is because there are Keyblade wielders nearby, and I wonder if Yozora will be able to make herself known. Did you know that the last part of the Re:Mind DLC ends up being an almost scene-by-scene remake of the old Final Fantasy Versus 13 trailer? Damn, I just opened a whole new can of worms.
Wait, is Kingdom Hearts 4 just Final Fantasy Vs 13?
Looking very closely at the background in the most recent trailer, an object similar to the military aircraft from Final Fantasy Versus 13 and 15 is visible in the sky just before Darkside crashes into the building. This cannot be a coincidence. Following the final events of Re:Mind, which directly referenced the ill-fated project, it seems that Nomura is working to tell a kind of meta-retelling of Kingdom Hearts 4's original story, as Yozora adopts the role of Noctis within the Quadratum realm.
At least the vast elements of Versus 13 are already part of the game's DNA. The music, atmosphere, and trailer, which primarily focus on unfamiliar urban environments across the myriad Disney worlds, all feel intentional.
I wish Yozora was portrayed as a villain on the battlefield at first. Because his story, or potentially his heart, has been taken away and replaced with a lie, leaving the most important part of his being feeling empty and unfinished. He was left to rot on the cutting room floor like Versus 13, and it will be Sora and company's responsibility to help him see the light and get his story back where it belongs. Saying goodbye to a part of yourself that never existed fits very well with the theme of Kingdom Hearts. So why wouldn't Nomura incorporate elements of his unreleased work into something like this?
Other than fans zooming in on the Keyblade used by Sora in the trailer, we don't know anything about the Disney world that will be featured in Kingdom Hearts. Donald and Goofy are briefly surrounded by a blue hell, a dead ringer from Hades. I wonder if Disney wants Square Enix to focus on new properties instead of going back to old classics. But I really hope some of my favorites come back so I can hang out with the characters.
Time will tell, but one of the things I love about Kingdom Hearts 4 is that, despite being so deeply into the series now, it continues to inspire and surprise me, despite how ridiculous it feels. I and millions of other people will invest and dig deeper into every single theory we stumble upon, hoping it will come true as we obsess over every bit of information we can. I hope Final Fantasy Versus is not only reborn in this game, but finds new meaning in the process.
