It’s pretty cool to see Kingdom Hearts 4 announced and confirmed. In my opinion the KH series spent way too much time meandering through spin-off adventures of varying importance and quality between its second and third entries – so to know the next numbered game is in development and on the distant horizon is great news for both series fans and the KH-curious who might not want to start out with a side story.
Sure, KH4 might be a long way away, but it’s exciting. Not just because it isn’t a spin-off – but because it’s a fresh start for the series. All of the games leading up to this point were part of the “Dark Seeker Arc”, one massive story that comes to a head in KH3. Much of that arc ends up wrapped up in that game, and so KH4 is an opportunity to have a relatively clean break. That’s even represented in the logo, which breaks several style traditions in every KH series logo up until now.
This opportunity to break free of some of the existing story is crucial. But, honestly, I’m worried that even if Tetsuya Nomura and the KH4 development team follow through on that, they might miss an even bigger, even more important opportunity to pivot and refocus this series.
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