Everything We Know About 'Kingdom Hearts IV'

The Kingdom Hearts IV announcement came bundled with a striking look at a new vision for the series, including a much more grown-up, less cartoonish version of Sora. The official trailer establishes the Lost Master Arc before showing off a new world that looks like modern-day Tokyo. But this isn't new territory for the popular Disney-inspired series. This is the city of Quadratum, which we saw for a fleeting moment in Kingdom Hearts III's secret ending.

Immediately, a voice takes over, apparently speaking to Sora, urging him to leave if he's full of despair. After a brief look at a lush, forested area, we finally see Sora, who's snoozing away on a sofa. He's sporting a much more realistic look, with a different outfit. He's joined by a young woman named Strelitzia, who fans will recognize from Kingdom Hearts Union χ. According to her, Sora has been sleeping for an entire week while in "Quadratum," which is something of an "afterworld."

Eventually, we see Sora scramble into battle to fight off a strange, shadowy mass accompanied by figures in black coats that look like "Organization XIII." They inform Sora that if he wants to leave this world, he'll never be able to go back to the one he came from. Cue the title card, and then a swap to Donald and Goofy, our first look at Sora's buddies since the trailer began. There's not much beyond that aside from a single sentence: "Magic in the Making."

It's likely Sora remains in the "afterworld" of Quadratum in a bid to reunite with Kairi, or at least someone he's lost. It's all very vague on purpose, but you can bet as we near some semblance of a release date at some point, we'll learn a lot more about the plot points that unfold in the trailer. For now, we've got this bit of footage to ruminate over, and its implications are certainly a doozy.

Kingdom Hearts IV isn't the only game that's on the horizon. During the anniversary event, Square Enix let another revelation fly: Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link is on its way. It's a new title for iOS and Android that will have players embarking on missions from the realm of "Scala ad Caelum" into the real world. That means they'll get to battle against the Heartless while unraveling a new story that runs in tandem with the core Kingdom Hearts adventures. There's a closed beta scheduled for 2022, but no concrete release date just yet. But it should be enough to help players eager to get their hands on Kingdom Hearts IV tide themselves over until, well, we don't know when. There's a lot of just playing the waiting game for Kingdom Hearts fans.