It's been a long while since Square Enix discussed Kingdom Hearts IV. The fourth mainline installment in the action RPG franchise developed in collaboration with Disney was announced on the series' 20th anniversary, which happened in April 2022. Since then, though, we haven't heard a peep from official sources.
Some in the vast Kingdom Hearts community are understandably getting antsy, especially with the no-show at The Game Awards 2024 earlier this month. However, KH focused YouTuber TheGamersJoint has recently shared a rumor about a potential Square Enix event taking place in just two months. Here's the relevant tidbit from his video:
Recently, I have actually heard a little tidbit of information. Take this with a grain of salt, but this has come from a source of mine. I'll keep them anonymous, but I have heard the reason why Square Enix were absent from Summer Games Fest along with The Game Awards is because they are planning to start doing their own showcases, with one happening in February.
At some point, Square Enix are going to need to step forward to say, hey, this is our roadmap for 2025. Looking at an event of their own in February does actually make a lot of sense. Now, of course, I'm not going to put all of my eggs in one basket. I'll believe it when I see it. But we should, if it is going to happen, get an official announcement maybe sometime in early February.
It's been a long time, though, since Square Enix have done their own presentation. Back in the day, these used to be known as Square Enix Presents, so maybe, possibly, they're bringing back Square Enix Presents.
He's definitely right on that count - the last Square Enix Presents was hosted on June 13, 2021, as part of E3 2021. As for the rest, the YouTuber himself tells his followers to keep their expectations in check. However, it has been a long time indeed since we heard anything new about Kingdom Hearts IV, and it's not the only upcoming title from the Japanese publisher that's been missing in action for a long time. That's certainly also the case for Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, which was originally announced in early January 2020. We later learned that DQXII is powered by Unreal Engine 5 and is co-developed by Orca, which also helped create the previous entry in the JRPG franchise. However, both news stories are from 2021. The game is certainly overdue for an update from Square Enix.
Returning to Kingdom Hearts IV, we do know a few tidbits of info from the original announcement:
- Like Dragon Quest XII, it's powered by Unreal Engine 5, delivering greatly improved visuals
- However, this will limit the amount of playable worlds, according to Square Enix Director Tetsuya Nomura
- The Keyblade can now transform into a grappling hook to help with traversal
- There will be a new 'scrap and build' gameplay mechanics
- The daily life of protagonist Sora will be explored in greater detail than before
A rumor from a few months ago also suggested that the final game will look different from the reveal trailer and that some sort of online functionality will be included. A potential port for the Nintendo Switch 2 was also part of that rumor.
Whether through the rumored February event or at the regular events later in the year, Square Enix are bound to share more about Kingdom Hearts IV and Dragon Quest XII throughout 2025. Stay tuned on Wccftech to get all the latest news and rumors on both titles.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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