Despite the rather surprising ending of Kingdom Hearts III, a sequel was inevitable—series creator / director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed as much even before III came out. But now it’s officially official: during a Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event overnight, Square Enix unveiled Kingdom Hearts IV with an intriguing-looking new trailer. You can watch it from the 4:06 mark in the video below.
Kingdom Hearts IV is the start of a new storyline, dubbed the “Lost Master Arc”. Unlike the Disney-inspired fantasy settings of previous games, this one brings Sora, Donald, and Goofy to the Quadratum: “a large, expansive city set in a gorgeous, realistic world unlike anything ever seen before in the Kingdom Hearts series.” In the snippet shown in the trailer, Sora wakes up in a highrise in Shibuya, before a giant Heartless attacks the city. The trailer also shows a brief glimpse of Kingdom Hearts IV gameplay, with Sora using the urban landscape to fend off said Heartless.
Additionally, Square Enix announced Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, a new game for Android and iOS. It tells a new, original story, as players “embark on adventures from the realm of Scala ad Caelum into the real world.” A closed beta test is planned for later this year.
Square Enix also used the anniversary presentation to announce that the final chapter of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will be released in August 2022, as a free update to the Kingdom Hearts Union χ Dark Road app.
The Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link trailer starts at 1:53 in the video above, while the Kingdom Hearts IV trailer starts at 4:06.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary with the announcement of two new Kingdom Hearts titles,” said Kingdom Hearts series Brand Manager, Ichiro Hazama. “We’d like to thank the fans for all of their support over the years, and we can’t wait for them to experience all that’s to come for Sora.”
There’s no release information yet for Kingdom Hearts IV, though the footage in the trailer does suggest that development is reasonably far along.