After all the D23 reveals, we’re finally starting to get a sense of what Kingdom Hearts 4 will look like, and series lead Tetsuya Nomura is already teasing further mysteries to be revealed. Apparently, the devs had an idea during the development of Kingdom Hearts 3 that’s gone unrealized since that game launched in 2019, and they’re finally getting to bring it to life in Kingdom Hearts 4. Personally? My money’s on Star Wars.
During the Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts panel at D23, which has been archived by YouTube channels like SpottinGames, the developers discussed the advantages of creating worlds based on general concepts rather than specific movie stories. Disney Town, for example, was an opportunity for the devs to build a world around the vibes of Toontown in Disneyland, with more freedom to define in-game world’s layout and flow.
“Imagining something new based off of, solely, a certain type of concept certainly is something that’s very fun and enjoyable,” Nomura says. “It’s also, in some ways, less daunting because there’s no expectation of having to replicate something exactly as it is. It also gives us more freedom to incorporate a variety of gimmicks that we’re thinking about. It’s also a lot easier to incorporate from a narrative perspective, too. So it’s a very versatile approach with many advantages.”
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Nomura took this opportunity to jump into a further tease for fans: “When it comes to the overall game design, for Kingdom Hearts 4 there’s actually an idea that we had since Kingdom Hearts 3, that we weren’t able to realize just because of certain difficulties. But we were able to realize that with this installment. For us, we think it’s a very, very exciting idea and so I do hope people look forward to it.”
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m convinced that this idea is one for a Star Wars world. The timing makes sense, as Kingdom Hearts 3 was the first major entry in the series to be released after Disney’s acquisition of the property. Those hints at “certain difficulties” also line up, as Disney may have been a little more protective of Star Wars’ image before 2019, when the franchise hadn’t yet been the subject of multiple Fortnite collabs and other crossovers. Star Wars also presents a wide array of possibilities for unique in-game worlds that don’t have to be tied to a specific set of characters from the films.
That, of course, is pure speculation on my part, but rumors of a Star Wars world have persisted since some of our earliest glimpses of Kingdom Hearts 4 in 2022, when a teaser appeared to show the foot of an AT-ST on the forest moon of Endor. I guess we’ve still got to wait a little bit longer to find out whether Sora is heading to that galaxy far, far away.
