Square Enix Shares Details on Kingdom Hearts IV and a Controversial Compromise

Kingdom Hearts IV will feature significantly more detailed worlds and a sweeping story, although Square Enix decided to reduce the total number of worlds compared to previous entries in the series.

Tetsuya Nomura told Famitsu magazine that the high level of detail in the locations required a compromise: the new installment will have fewer worlds, but each one will receive much more detail.

The scale of the game is also evident in the script, which was originally nearly twice as long as the text used for Kingdom Hearts IV. There was so much material that even Nomura could not fit all the planned elements into the game. Japanese voice recording is already complete, while the English voiceover is roughly 60 to 70 percent done. The recently shown world based on the animated film Coco is only a small portion of the content that will be presented later.

Kingdom Hearts IV is expected to release in late 2027. The game has already entered its final stage of development. Tai Yasue stated that work is progressing better than on any previous installment. Fans will have to wait for the next showcase, as the team has focused on completing the project.