There was a lot to be excited about in this morning’s mammoth, 50-minute Nintendo Direct showcase, but easily one of the biggest reveals was a brand-new trailer for a game that was beginning to feel like it’d been lost to time – Kingdom Hearts 4.
Yes, Nomura and team have seemingly regained access to their work computers and are ready to show us a fresh glimpse of the next mainline Kingdom Hearts title with a short-ish trailer that even includes some short bits of gameplay. The game still doesn’t have a release date or even a general window, but we now know it’s a fully-multiplatform release for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 and PC.
Take a look:
What does this new Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer mean?
So, a few things we can glean from the above. Firstly, this is the same pseudo-realistic world we’ve seen or heard about in previous teases, Quadratum. The Organisation XIII member narrating at the beginning (well, we can assume that’s what they are by the cloak), is implying that this world was free of the manifestations of darkness and light prior to their arrival, so it seems as though we’re seeing the magical invade the mundane.
In terms of other characters shown off in this trailer, we’ve got Sora (obviously), Strelitzia, Sigurd, Vali, Luxord, Donald, Goofy and… Xehanort? So some deep cuts, and some curious ones
In the combat sections, we see Sora beating up a few different types Heartless, including at one point an enormous Darkside. It’s tough to get the full picture with these quick cuts of a lot of what look like special moves/combo enders, but there’s a lot here that’s quite different to what we’ve seen before. There are some moments where Sora wields some kind of fire and frost keyblade, there’s a lot of summoning golden chains and swarms of shiny keys to attack enemies with.
It also looks like the stakes will be made quite high in this more “real” world with Darkside nearly murdering some folks towards the end, if not for Sora’s intervention.
Kingdom Hearts Collection has been [I~III] announced for all platforms on October 8
Along with this news, Square Enix also revealed in the Direct that the Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] is launching on October 8 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2 and PC, and collates together all of the previously-released series collections (Kingdom Hearts -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX-, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind DLC).
It’s the first time these games will appear on the Switch 2, and the first proper PS5 versions as well, with Square Enix ending sales of the Nintendo Switch Cloud versions of the Kingdom Hearts games as of today. Those who already “own” the Cloud versions on Switch will get a discount on the Switch 2 versions, and still be able to play the existing ones until June 9, 2027.
What do you think of this new Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer? Let us know in the comments or on our social pages!