Spoilers for this game will be marked as usual. However, every previous Kingdom Hearts game will have spoilers unmarked on this page. You Have Been Warned!
Welcome to the other side of reality…
The heart resides within the soul,
which in turn is guided by fate to its rightful place.
The choice is yours once more.
which in turn is guided by fate to its rightful place.
The choice is yours once more.
Kingdom Hearts IV is an upcoming Action RPG video game and the third numbered sequel/15th overall game in the Kingdom Hearts series from Disney and Square Enix, as well as the second installment of the Lost Master Arc, the second phase of the series, picking up directly from the end of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Announced alongside Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link as part of the series' 20th anniversary Milestone Celebration, the game is currently in development, with no release window or planned consoles announced as of yet.
Following Master Xehanort's final defeat and Kairi's restoration, Sora has vanished from the Realm of Light for his repeated misuse of the Power of Waking. While Donald Duck, Goofy, and the rest of Sora's friends continue to search for ways to bring him back, Sora finds himself in the city of Quadratum—a world closely resembling our own on the "other side" of reality—in the company of Strelitzia, a Keyblade wielder from a bygone era. Can Sora return to the worlds he knows and the people he loves? Or is return even possible for someone who has already paid the ultimate price?
Previews: 20th Anniversary announcement and gameplay concept
Tropes:
- Art Shift: The trailer shows characters in Quadratum, Sora included, rendered more realistically in a style akin to Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XV. Notably, his trademark large shoes have been replaced by a normal-sized pair of sneakers. The Darkside is also more detailed, looking like a bizarre construct made of shadowy wires instead of its traditionally solid black appearance. Averted with Donald and Goofy, who still closely resemble their appearances in III.
- Asleep for Days: In the trailer, Strelitzia tells Sora that he had slept for seven days following his arrival to Quadratum.
- The Bus Came Back: As seen in the trailer, Strelitzia is reintroduced after her untimely demise in Union χ, having taken Sora in after he entered Quadratum.
- Call-Back:
- The gameplay footage shows Sora fighting against what appears to be a Darkside Heartless with demonic-looking wings.
- The trailer also has a brief glimpse of the chess set used by Young Xehanort and Eraqus.
- The trailer even shows mysterious figures wearing the signature black coats of Organization XIII.
- Car Fu: The Darkside picks up some cars to fight Sora with during their fight in the trailer.
- Company Cameo: The trailer establishes the return of the world of Quadratum, whose name means "Square" in Latin.
- Dead to Begin With: The reveal trailer has Sora waking up in Strelitzia's apartment in Quadratum. Strelitzia immediately informs Sora that he and herself are in something akin to the afterlife, despite all the seemingly alive citizens in Quadratum.
- Dramatic High Perching: During Sora's fight with the Darkside in the trailer, a pair of characters in familiar black coats watch him from the top of a nearby building.
- Four Is Death: Quadratum contains "Quad", which is Latin for Four. In the trailer, the world is described as an "Afterlife" for people like Sora and Strelitzia.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: The pre-rendered gameplay concept shown in the reveal trailer includes scenes of Sora using the Keyblade to create wires of light and hook onto floating objects.
- Kaiju: The announcement trailer sees Sora battling a skyscraper-sized new variant of the Darkside in the middle of Shibuya, making it one of the largest Heartless seen in the entire franchise along with Groundshaker, who's still much smaller than this new Darkside.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- The reveal trailer immediately states that Sora and Strelitzia are, for all intents and purposes, in the afterlife (and are thus dead). Their deaths are supposed to be twists in Kingdom Hearts III and Kingdom Hearts χ respectively.
- Quadratum is also named by Strelitiza in the trailer. The realm's name and its nature were originally revealed in the ending of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory after being previously teased in III.
- Real-Place Background: Quadratum, seen in the trailer and in previous games, is a fictionalized Kingdom Hearts version of Shibuya. The apartment that Sora and Strelitzia reside in is located in Minami-Aoyama, a relatively upscale and expensive residential district in Aoyama, Tokyo. The battle against the Darkside takes place outside Shibuya Hikarie, the venue where the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary Expo was held in.
- Shaping Your Attacks: The gameplay concept in the trailer shows Sora using the light energy from his Keyblade to form a gigantic drill, which he shoots at the Darkside to inflict damage.
- Show Within a Show: The world shown in the trailer, Quadratum, is the world of the Verum Rex video game Rex was playing in Kingdom Hearts III. It's revealed in the ending of Melody of Memory that Quadratum is just one of the innumerable worlds making up "The realm of fiction".
- Social Media Before Reason: The trailer shows civilians recording the Darkside attacking Quadratum on their cell phones instead of running away from the mayhem.
- Trapped in TV Land: Quadratum is the world of the fictional video game Verum Rex from Toy Box in Kingdom Hearts III. It was revealed at the end of Melody of Memory to exist in what is known as "The realm of fiction". Sora and Strelitzia are trapped there.
- Variable-Length Chain: The announcement trailer sees Sora extending a chain made out of light from the hilt-end of his Keyblade. This chain attaches onto objects like the cars floating in mid-air and pulls Sora towards them. Both times, the chain is of a different length, and it whips out even longer before retracting into his Keyblade.
- You Can't Go Home Again: A hooded figure wearing a black coat in the trailer cryptically claims that Sora won't be able to return to his home world, even with the option to leave behind Quadratum for a different world.
If this isn't the ending you desired... If it brings your despair... Then leave this world for another. Your options are endless. However... If you do leave this world behind, don’t expect to return to the one from which you came.
