AfterMelody of Memoryreleases this November,Kingdom Heartsfans are probably expecting a nice and long silence from Square Enix about the next project in the franchise. Considering series director Tetsuya Nomura already let it slip that the next mainline entry is releasing in 2022 forKingdom Hearts' 20th anniversary, that’s probably as much as fans are going to get from now until the end of next year. That being said, this means the wait betweenKingdom Hearts 3and the next potential game may not be as long as before.
With the nextKingdom Heartsmainline game potentially coming in 2022, assuming it truly isKingdom Hearts 4instead of yet another spin-off title, there’s a few things that needs to be done to recapture the spirit of the franchise. WhileKingdom Hearts 3did tie up some loose ends over the ever-enduring Xehanort Saga, there’s a whole lot that was left behind in the third game thatKingdom Hearts 4should bring back. Not only that, but there’s a ton of new potential threads for the game to go basedKingdom Hearts 3’s several secret endings.
Bringing Final Fantasy Back To Kingdom Hearts
One thing in particular that irked fans upon finishingKingdom Hearts 3was the total lack ofFinal Fantasycharacters. One of the premier defining factors of the Disney-Square Enix team up was the mixing and matching of Disney andFinal Fantasycharacters. Even if it was relegated to just a few worlds, this strange mixture of properties was what initially madeKingdom Heartsunique. EventuallyFinal Fantasycharacters did return inKingdom Hearts 3, butonly after the main game in theReMindDLC, and only for the additional Data Battles. They held little to no impact on the story, unlike in previous games where they were central characters in both the main and side conflicts.
For the next mainline game,Final Fantasycharacters should absolutely return in a major way forKingdom Hearts 4. One of the defining aspects ofKingdom Heartsis the inclusion ofFinal Fantasycharacters, so without them, the game is just a Disney RPG.Final Fantasycharacters could theoretically come to the game with their own isolated world, like if Verum Rex (or Yozora’s World) becomes a fully playable world inKingdom Hearts 4. Or otherwise, at least spend some time in Hollow Bastion, or insert moreFinal Fantasycharacters in other Disney worlds.
Exploring New and Different Disney Worlds
Along those lines, there’s still a plethora of new/recent Disney worlds thatKingdom Heartshas yet to explore. BetweenKingdom Hearts 2andKingdom Hearts 3, there’s about 30 different Disney franchises and movies represented in the series so far. There’s still tons of big fan requests for worlds likeTreasure Planet,Jungle Book,Wreck-It Ralph, among plenty of other Disney favorites. That’s without even mentioning some of the more recently acquired properties like Marvel’sAvengersorStar Wars, whichwould absolutely be insane to see in aKingdom Heartsgame.
However, even if there’s more brand new Disney worlds added toKingdom Heartsor a majority of them are returning worlds, there’s one important thing thatKingdom Hearts 4needs to do either way. Another big gripe withKingdom Hearts 3is that the journeying between different Disney worlds rarely feels like it’s sufficiently justified by theKingdom Hearts 3narrative. Sure, previous games haven’t had the strongest reasonsfor Sora and team to explore the Disney worlds, but at least the reasoning made some semblance of sense. A lot of the reasons why Sora explored the worlds inKingdom Hearts 3seemed awfully too convenient for the game’s story.
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A Chance To Simplify Kingdom Hearts' Narrative
Speaking of the narrative, the overarching story ofKingdom Heartsfinds itself in a very interesting place. Wrapping up the Xehanort Saga has presented a lot of big “ifs” for the future ofKingdom Hearts, as there’s a lot of melding between the old and new happening. Upon the ending ofKingdom Hearts 3andReMind, there’s a lot that’s been confirmed for the future ofKingdom Hearts: the Foretellers fromKingdom Hearts Union Crosshave made it into the current timeline alongside the Master of Masters, as well as a wholenew narrative thread seems to be stemming from Yozoraand the world of Verum Rex.
Merging these two story threads means there’s a whole lot of uncertainty on how everything connects, especially inthe absence of a central antagonist like Xehanort. It’s possible that Xigbar/Braig/Luxu (whatever name he uses inKingdom Hearts 4) may be the main villain, as he’s the sole survivor of the organization who doesn’t have a “normal self” to return to. However, it’s unclear if Yozora is truly a villain or simply a misunderstood ally. Not to mention the Master of Masters, whose role is just as vexing (if not more confusing) in comparison.
Kingdom Hearts 4certainly has a lot of explaining to do, buthopefully a 2022 release date means the story is on track. The best thing thatKingdom Hearts 4can do is reduce some of the complexities in its story by bringing some of these confusing high lore aspects to the forefront of the series' story. Among the other obvious things like new worlds and bringing back its iconic partnership withFinal Fantasy,Kingdom Hearts 4has an opportunity to simplify the story (as much as it can) after finally finishing the Xehanort Saga.
A newKingdom Heartsproject is reportedly in development for 2022.
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