The game’s story features a new writer and will look toward the end of the saga
Sora en Kingdom Hearts IV
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The announcement of Kingdom Hearts IV, which came early in April 2022 during the franchise’s anniversary to avoid leaks, is a long time coming. Now, its creator, Tetsuya Nomura, has given an interview to Young Jump where he explains that since the first game he had an idea of where to go with the saga. Although there have been adjustments over the years, since he didn’t have everything detailed since 2002, he did have plans up to the third or fourth game. “So, when I was making Kingdom Hearts III, I was already thinking about IV and beyond,” he begins in the interview.
As the new mobile game is being prepared, the series is looking ahead to a new story. Missing Link takes place in a much older timeline than the main console games, while “as people say, Kingdom Hearts IV is actually like Kingdom Hearts XIII, all the titles are connected. However, both Missing-Link and IV are trying to be new titles rather than sequels.”
In this way, Nomura explains that the series now has a new writer and, although he intervenes at the end, “the fact that a new writer is creating the base means that it is not a story that you should feel that you “have” to follow.” For its part, Missing-Link is about a “lost story”, so many familiar things will be absent. In fact, the creator of the series himself considers that both titles “are like a reboot. I felt that after Kingdom Hearts III the story was closed in some way, so I recruited new writers and we even renewed the logo, to make it more accessible to new players.”
Those who know the ending of Kingdom Hearts III will understand, but the way Sora ended was, in a way, to restart the story. So I think Kingdom Hearts IV will be more accessible than the previous ones. Fans will like it, but we also want new players to enjoy the game.
The “real” world of Kingdom Hearts IV
Nomura also talked about Quadratum, the only confirmed world in Kingdom Hearts IV that’s similar in style to Shibuya, without actually being the actual city. “I’m drawn to those settings that deviate slightly from reality. For me, that’s what defines my concept of fantasy: ‘unreality within reality.'” Interestingly, at the beginning of the first game, he said “I don’t understand this world, I don’t know if it’s real” in a monologue, leading Nomura to confess that although Quadratum didn’t exist at the time, it did remain as an idea within him.
Looking ahead, Nomura is realistic, “I’m almost reaching retirement age, and I wonder if retirement will come first or the end of the series,” he confesses, admitting that he is working on Kingdom Hearts IV with a story that is heading towards the end, with the direction it will take unknown. For now, it seems that the game is far from being released.
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