It's the end of an era for Kingdom Hearts as the mobile tie-in title Kingdom Hearts Union X begins to wind down and bring its lore-heavy story to a close. This comes after Square Enix's announcement from February that Union X's servers will shutting down at the end of May, which has pushed the rollout of the game's final chapters into high gear.
However, the modern story is begins to turn away from the Xehanort saga and more towards the mysteries surrounding the ancient Keyblade Masters and a much less ambiguous Darkness. The result is that the next Kingdom Hearts, whether it's a numbered title or another mobile spin-off or side story, will be relying heavily on what the upcoming finale of Union X leaves behind before going offline.
The Pre-Finale
Stepping into Spoiler Warning territory here to quickly recap the most recent update to Kingdom Hearts Union X and the setup that's being done to lead into the finale of the over five-year old story. The major takeaway with this latest update is that it has started deciding who is leaving the Data World and who stayed behind for some amount of time. Of course, some of these reveals have still kept plenty of the major questions players have had or developed since the game first launched.
For the most part, the latest updated has finally indicated which characters were able to use the Arks, one of the latest retcons to give new importance to set design from all the way back to the first game. However, there is clearly more to those who stayed behind, as an important Keyblade wielded by both Aqua and her master Eraqus has been determined to be stuck in the Data World as some of the other masters escape to the real world. Most importantly, Union X's latest scenes have finally shown exactly what the Master of Masters is planning and where he stands on the conflict between the Light and the Darkness.
Where the Master of Masters Stands
The charismatic Master of Masters was introduced back when the mobile title first launched as Kingdom Hearts X [Chi], and has been re-examined during each new naming of the game over the years. Since then, a popular theory among fans has been that this character has been the secret villain pulling the strings behind everything from both the ancient storyline and the modern Xehanort narrative. While the theory is a fun twist on the way so many characters hold him in such high esteem and has previously been hinted at in the Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind DLC, it looks like his ultimate goal is more in-line with what his name implies.
This doesn't necessarily mean that the Master of Masters won't be going the false-altruism route that was made into Xehanort's motivation in Kingdom Hearts 3, especially considering that the ancient master seems to have influenced the previous antagonist. So, while it's possible that Sora and friends will be facing off against the Master of Masters in the next Kingdom Hearts title, he has been clearly stated to be an enemy of the Darkness. On top of these revelations also comes a series of new truths about the Darkness, which had almost entirely been trapped inside of the Data World.
Darkness in the Data World
One of the biggest revelations from the first part of the Union X finale is that there isn't a single Darkness entity, as previous scenes had implied, but that there are actually six in total. While one of them escaped with Maleficent in an earlier scene, the other five appear to be trapped in the Data World, at least that's where they've been left off at what's been shown so far in a conversation with the Master of Masters' apprentice Luxu. It's unclear if the other five will be able to escape before the end of this two part finale, but it's likely that this Data World will be visited again in a future title in one way or another.
Considering that fans still maintain the theory that the Darkness that had used Ventus as a puppet to kill Strelitzia in Union X is the same one that would later become Vanitas, it's likely that more of these beings eventually escaped. Of course, as mentioned before with the Master of Masters being evil, fan theories aren't exactly much to go by with the constantly twisting narratives of Kingdom Hearts, no matter how popular they might be. So, this could be setting up one of many ways for Kingdom Hearts 4 to progress with the both exploring the Data Worlds as well as whatever this new World of Fiction teased in Melody of Memory is supposed to be.
Setting up for Kingdom Hearts 4
It's difficult to say exactly what new direction Kingdom Hearts 4 is going to take, or if the next game to release will even be a numbered title instead of another mobile or spin-off. However, the key players have been set into motion and fans do have a slight framework of what to expect to be explored in the next title, even if it's unclear exactly where the whole story will take place. Naturally characters like the Master of Master and Luxu/Xigbar will be taking center stage for the majority of the narrative moving forward, with both generations of union leaders working towards similar goals.
All of that being said, the full finale of Union X has the entire future of the series on its shoulders, keeping players enticed to come back for more, but also answering some of the questions the game has risen for so long. Looking at the "mystery box" method that Kingdom Hearts likes to use to make sure there is always another question to be answered, the conclusion of Union X might not be as final as players might hope or that the original Keyblade War had already seen. Regardless, as long as Union X helps lay the groundwork for Kingdom Hearts 4, fans are already fully invested at this point and anyone who's stuck with the series this long will just be happy to see whatever comes next finally be announced.
Kingdom Hearts Union X is available now for Mobile and PC.