Nintendo Direct saved Summer Games Fest with its Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer… wait, what do you mean we still don’t have a release date? He

• After four years, we finally have a second Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer
• Disney characters were rare, but two worlds were evoked
• We also didn’t have a release date

It’s hard to be one Hearts of the Kingdom fan. The series is an all-time great, but if its platform origins weren’t frustrating enough – with entries exclusive to different consoles and even different regions for a while – we now have to deal with the fact that Square Enix likes to take its time between entries and between the announcement and release of a new game.

Kingdom hearts 3 was first shown about five and a half years before its release, and it seemed Kingdom Hearts 4 could take just as long between its first and second trailers. That is, until we got a whole new look at the game on Nintendo Direct, saving me this year’s Summer Game Fest event, just as I admitted that the Disney meets Final Fantasy crossover would once again be absent.

The minute and a half of footage mixed combat gameplay with cutscenes of black-robed characters, protagonist Sora facing off against a heartless monster on the streets of Tokyo, and some new and familiar faces, including several from the now-defunct Kingdom Hearts mobile and browser games.

Despite these more obscure inclusions, Square has stated that KH4 was intended as a jumping-off point for the series, with game director Tetsuya Nomura describing the end of KH3 in an interview as a “reset” – which “should make it even easier for newcomers to join the story from KH4 onwards”.

Disney who?

I’m not convinced the latest trailer supports Nomura’s claims, however, as a long-time fan who loved the series’ weird spinoffs, I’m not complaining.

The only other interesting detail in the trailer for me is how short it is on the Disney characters. We only get a brief glimpse of Donald and Goofy surrounded by blue flames.

Although we got hints at two possible Disney worlds, we will get to visit in some capacity. The first comes from these blue flames, which strongly allude to the return of Hades, the god of the underworld, from Hercules. The world of Hercules has appeared in almost every entry in the series thus far, so its inclusion in 4 makes a lot of sense.

Additionally, while Sora’s fate at the end of Kingdom hearts 3 It’s a bit strange, it seems he died in some way, so a god of death would probably be involved in his friend’s quest to find him. Additionally, the Hades voice actor has since teased his involvement online, saying “I might have a little inside knowledge on this” and sharing the latest trailer.

The other clue comes from Sora’s keyblade: a whirlwind of fire and water combined into a single weapon. While we don’t get the best glimpse of him as he moves around in combat, it looks like a clear reference to the 2023 one. Elementaryespecially since the keyblade creates a flower effect when it hits enemies, which looks a bit like the vivisteria flowers from the film.

Interestingly, Sora possesses this keyblade when he fights in the realistic version of Tokyo, suggesting that he will travel the world while remaining trapped in this alternate reality – one that did not experience the visceral conflict of light and dark before his arrival, we learn in this new clip.

A missing detail

The only thing missing is a release date, or even a release year. Four years after its first appearance, one would hope that Square Enix would be able to give us some sort of timeline for this game’s release.

My guess is late 2027 at the earliest, maybe early 2028. This is based on a new Hearts of the Kingdom collection which arrives in October, and we have the last part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake the trilogy will be released in the spring of next year (it will be between March and May).

It’s certainly frustrating. I can’t tell you how desperate I am to get back into the Hearts of the Kingdom world, but I hope the wait will be worth it.

Admittedly, this trailer worries me a little. It may be the wide open space of Tokyo’s streets, but the combat seemed a little sparse, and something seemed a little off about Sora’s fight against the giant Heartless. Images, so maybe things will change in the future Kingdom Hearts 4′s a possible complete exit.

At least we found out that it will be another cross-platform launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

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Hamish is a senior writer for TechRadar and you’ll see his name pop up on articles on almost every topic on the site, from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his wide range of knowledge to explain the latest gadgets and determine whether they’re a must-buy or a hype-fueled fad. Although his specialty is writing about everything that happens in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.