The first look at Kingdom Hearts 4 in three years isn’t a trailer, but a JPEG of Mickey Mouse is better than nothing
At least Sora and a, uh, rotary phone are there too
Image credit: Square Enix
You know what got announced a little over three years ago now? Kingdom Hearts 4. You know what hasn’t had a single new trailer in that time? Ding ding ding! If you said Kingdom Hearts 4, you don’t win anything because the direction of this bit was pretty obvious. The game still doesn’t have a new trailer, by the way, but the series’ official Blue Sky account did oh so generously offer up a handful of screenshots today which do show off some new bits (mostly).
In the pair of posts, Square Enix wrote that they’re “currently working hard on Kingdom Hearts IV and will continue pouring ourselves into the gameâs development. Weâre dedicated to making this an experience that lives up to your expectations! Weâve seen how excited you are, and we are truly grateful from the bottom of our hearts. We are equally excited and canât wait to share more about Kingdom Hearts IV when the time is right. Until then, we appreciate your patience. Thank you for your continued support.”
To our Kingdom Hearts community,âŁ
âŁ
Weâre currently working hard on Kingdom Hearts IV and will continue pouring ourselves into the gameâs development. Weâre dedicated to making this an experience that lives up to your expectations!âŁ
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â Square Enix (@square-enix-games.com) May 15, 2025 at 2:12 AM
In terms of the screenshots themselves, there’s best boy Sora in his real-world look skating along some chains in a city, with some Heartless-like enemies beneath him. There’s Strelitzia, the girl you would have seen in the first trailer, and a character that will mean absolutely nothing to you if you haven’t played the mobile game. There’s a couple more shots of Sora just⊠standing around. All in all, there’s two actually notable screenshots.
One is the fact that you get to play as Mickey Mouse again, who’s cheekily hanging out on top of a chandelier in a library. This’ll likely be Scala ad Caelum, the last world you visit in Kingdom Hearts 3, as Mr. Michael Mouse was sent there at the end of Melody of Memory (that’s right, even the rhythm game has important cutscenes).
The other screenshot, interestingly, is of an old rotary phone. A few people believe this might be something akin to a wind phone. These are often disconnected rotary phones found in the middle of nowhere, where people have one-way conversations with a loved one that’s passed on. The trend of using them started in Japan too, and considering what happens to Sora at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, I’m inclined to buy into this one.
If you’re wondering why Square Enix showed off these new screenshots on a random Wednesday in May, it’ll likely be to do with the fact the developer cancelled the series’ next entry Missing Link just yesterday. This one was set to be a Pokemon Go-like mobile RPG where you could make your own character. I imagine this cancellation has something to do with Square Enix’s multiplatform plan they established last year, a point it doubled down on during its latest financial results.
Any which way, I’ll take a JPEG of a rotary phone and Mickey Mouse over silence. Thanks Nomura/ Square Enix’s social team who probably stressed that they needed something to placate people!
