Kingdom Hearts 3 launched in 2019, bringing with it a feeling of uncertainty as to what the next full Kingdom Hearts game will be. The ending of 3, and extended ending of the ReMind DLC, threw the doors of possibility wide open for Kingdom Hearts 4. There’s no telling what could happen next, but one thing that seems certain is that Sora and co.’s adventures are far from over. There are plenty of things for the extended cast to do, and for the first time in the franchise, it seems like the entire KH roster is moving with purpose, even if some of that purpose is to figure out where they need to be moving to.
The big reason for this is that, above all else, Kingdom Hearts 3 was a celebration of Kingdom Hearts. Basically every living character, and a few that were either dead or mysteriously vanished, was brought back to cap off the Xehanort saga. The entire Organization XIII, the main villains from every past game, and even characters and locations from the mobile entries were all present for the insane fever dream that was Kingdom Hearts 3. However, in the midst of all this celebrating, fans couldn’t help but notice a few important characters from past entries who were missing. While it would be best for Kingdom Hearts 4 to execute on whatever new thing it’s trying to do, it would also be nice to get some closure on these characters.
Final Fantasy 7's Side Story
One of the loudest outcries surrounding Kingdom Hearts 3’s launch was around the lack of Final Fantasy characters. The Kingdom Hearts franchise had always been predicated on an original character exploring a hybrid of Final Fantasy and Disney worlds. While the Disney worlds often took precedence, there was always a core group of Final Fantasy characters populating a sort of hub world and backing Sora up. There were also a couple others spread out across a handful of worlds, most notably Cloud, Zack, Auron, and Sephiroth in the Olympus Coliseum.
However, Kingdom Hearts 3 made the controversial decision to focus on Disney worlds and original characters at the total expense of all Final Fantasy characters. In the base game, only shop Moogles appeared to represent FF. ReMind remedied this a little by having the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, staffed by Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith, make a brief appearance, but many didn’t think that was enough. In particular, the running plot throughout the rest of the series regarding the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth, with Tifa trying to follow them, has remained in stasis since Kingdom Hearts 2. With any luck, the Final Fantasy crew is waiting for Sora and friends wherever Kingdom Hearts 4 will take place.
The World Ends With You And Its Charm
Counting Kingdom Hearts 3 and its DLC, there aren’t any other characters who feel left out in quite the same way Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth do. There were Union X characters missing, but that may have been a deliberate storytelling choice. However, The World Ends With You cast from Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is also noticeably absent. This crew, consisting of the playable characters from the first The World Ends With You, serves as the replacement for the usual Traverse Town/Hollow Bastion crew. They aren’t terribly important in the larger context of Kingdom Hearts’ plot, but they’re cool to have around.
While The World Ends With You’s cast didn’t add a lot to DDD, there’s still plenty of room for them and other Square Enix characters — perhaps even ones who have not appeared in Kingdom Hearts yet — to appear in Kingdom Hearts 4. Each new series featured in the Kingdom Hearts series brings its own unique charm and potential for storytelling and combat to the series. It would be great to see more variety, possibly including the new and returning cast members of NEO: The World Ends With You, in a future Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts 4 has yet to be confirmed for development.