Square Enix and Disney have released a new trailer for Kingdom Heart IV at the D23 Disney fan festival, and it’s a big one confirming both Coco as a new movie world to visit, and a ‘Late 2027’ release window.
After years repeatedly visiting the same real world-like, we finally get to see a new world that Kingdom Heart IV will visit, and it’s drawing upon Pixar’s 2017 film Coco, which is steeped in Mexican culture and the celebration of Day of the Dead. We get to see Sora blending in with skull-like face paint and a transformation of the Keyblade, while racing around to battle the Heartless once more.
But what of the real world styled city setting of Quadratum? After Coco, we get to see more snippets here and there. It seems that Sora has become separated and trapped in this world, with Mickey, Donald and Goofy questing to break through and reach him.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC in Late 2027, it’s now been announced.
Earlier this year, fresh ports and updates for the saga so far were released to bring all the games to these current platforms – most notably to Switch 2 – though you might not need to have played those games with their ludicrously convoluted narrative to be able to enjoy this new sequel. Labelled as the ‘Lost Master Arc’, this will kick off a new narrative arc for the series, which had wrapped up many of the loose ends in Kingdom Hearts 3.
For this new story arc, Sora arrives on a new world of Quadratum – also described as the ‘afterworld’ – a place that has a tone similar to the real world…. just with a horrifying black shape hanging in the sky above the Japan-like cityscape that morphs into a shadowy demonic figure and goes on a bit of a rampage. Of course, Sora leaps into action to try and save the day, his iconic Keyblade and all, grappling with world objects, running up buildings, launching midair attacks and more.