Kingdom Hearts 4

Is this the way to the door to Darkness?

I'm always one to give into nostalgia, but never did I think I'd be struck with a wave powerful enough to wet the ol' eyelids from a series I've barely known for 2 years. That just doesn't feel like a decent enough chunk of time for the memories to burrow deep enough into my core processors that they can then tap into the 'pleasant emotions' cortex. But I suppose that just goes to show how deeply and how much I truly loved the Kingdom Hearts games. (Except for 'Chain of Memories'.) These games have entered by subconsciousness so fully that a bastardised rendition of 'Dearly Beloved' gave me deep chills all up my spinal column and had me holding by breath taut. Perhaps that is why I felt so warm when Sora received that, all important, final invitation to Smash; and why Kingdom Hearts IV gets me so very excited even when I haven't had to time to even get around to III yet. (Or the fifteen games you have to endure beforehand. Man, this series is sprawling.)

First I have to offer my sincere most congratulation to Sora for hailing from a franchise with the balls to stick to it's number system when things get dicey. Time and time again we've seen roman numerals adorn subtitles for series' because the creators think it makes them look all cool and sophisticated, only for those same creative to subsequently drop the concept once they hit the Vs and the Xs; probably for fear of confusing that most easily bedazzled people: toddlers. (Seriously, it's not that hard; games like Assassin's Creed!) Of course, given the Final Fantasy connection I suppose that's not entirely a shocker, because that series has been rocking the Roman numericals for so long that they're seriously toying with putting 'Final Fantasy XVI' on a box and selling it to people not expecting them to have brain haemorrhages in the store. (They have way more trust in the average consumer than I do.)

Second, my goodness they have done an absolute one-eighty on the art direction of this series, and I'm pretty on the fence about how I feel about it. Okay, that's not entirely true: I'm decently sure that I don't like it. Previously, Kingdom Hearts boasted this very cartoonish look, with overly exaggerated body parts, big oversized eyes, even more oversized hairspikes, and a leg-to-body ratio that makes one question the gravitational forces at work on The Destiny Islands. Any character that wasn't from a Disney movie sported these wacky visuals, presumably in an effort to match the animated stylings of our favourite Disney movies which also featured, lovingly recreated, in this series. As the games have moved on they're stepped away from that and made Sora and his fellow human stars, 'Roxas, Namine, Riku etc.' look less absurd and more realistic. Kingdom Hearts 2 saw the removal of the clown shoes, 3 saw the reduction of the hair spikes, and 4 seems to have completed the transition from fun kid's character to boyband wannabe teenager who just happens to wield a Keyblade.

Now to be fair there's actually a pretty decent reason for this. Sora, coming from a world and art style somewhat adjacent to Final Fantasy, has always sort of progressed his visual style to keep in step with the latest Final Fantasy game of the time. Kingdom Hearts 1 came around a year after Final Fantasy X, which introduced the big hands and feet of their art design, so those were features that Sora would borrow. In fact, it's actually somewhat out-of-step that Sora held onto his big cartoon eyes and still decently unrealistic hair in Kingdom Hearts 3, given that Final Fantasy XV had come out three years earlier and that game had pursued a totally sanitised art style. Now in line with Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy XVI, Sora has to be as fidelity-driven as possible in design; and though I may think it robs some of the fantastical charm of the boy-who-rarely-ages, I can't pretend this isn't without precedent.

Those who were waiting around excited to see which Disney property Kingdom Hearts had managed to snatch up this time need not waste their time with this reveal; Square Enix knows the development of their games well enough to avoid any topical Disney universe collaboration promises today so that they can keep themselves free for the Disney movie line-up of 2035: which is when this game is most likely to launch. Still, I think it's fair to say we'll probably see Moana up there, because god-knows we need to not have Ariel be the custodian for our water levels again. Maybe Encanto will make an appearance, but Turning Red will probably be skipped as it's just not vibrant and distinct enough. I dream of bright and colourful worlds, because anything would be more interesting than the boring city-scape that this trailer dropped us into! (Give is a cool name all you want: this place looks dull) Although I understand- this is a tech demo and thus the scene probably won't even show up in the final release; I just miss having proper eye-popping colours and appropriately head-scratch-worthy architecture, ya know?

What his tech demo did manage to show off, however, was a one-on-one battle with a Titan-sized heartless in the middle of a metropolitan city which may have been overly scripted to hell and back, but if this flow of cinematics into and out of gameplay carries over to the finished product then we could be looking at some seriously badass setpeices coming from KH4. Final Fantasy XV had a couple moments of god-sized boss fights where player control took over the action for brief moments, but they felt sort of clunky and required a full transition before they got into and out of the actual fighting gameplay. What this demo proposed here today was something more dynamic feeling than that, particularly with the moment when Sora has a building thrown at him and has to slide through it and out the otherside in order to make his shot. Pack a boss fight with moments like that; and make them meaningful, and this game could be one of the most fun Kingdom Hearts battlers to date.

Of course, some people have raised eyebrows over some of the awkward, antiquated, animations that we're seeing on display projected atop to this otherwise 'Unreal Engine 5'-level showcase. Seeing that weird run cycle where Sora holds his Keyblade upright as though waiting for a pitcher to slug a fast one at him any second now, really jars against the rest of the presentation here, as does the stiff transitions through the grappling hook pulls and jumping. Although I think we can tentatively chalk this up to reused assets from Kingdom Hearts 3. Remember this isn't a release trailer, this is basically just a proof-of-concept for where the team are going with the direction of the gameplay. I know we take the label 'gameplay is not indicative of the final product' with a bit of an eyebrow; but just take a look at the tech demo for Final Fantasy XV, or Kingdom Hearts 3, and compare them with their final products, and you'll see yourself the world of difference in the fabric of everything the game has to offer from visual themes to character design to basic movement.

The question that still lingers over the heads of every Kingdom Hearts fan yet persists; is this too soon for a Kingdom Hearts mainline sequel? Of course not! Don't let the embarrassingly prolonged wait period between 2 and 3 fool you into thinking that's the norm of game development. If every sequel took 14 years to come out, Final Fantasy would still be in the single digits! Time off doesn't make a great game, great ideas and talented developers make great games, and they can pull it off in 5 or so years just as well as they can with a decade behind them. Although, I do wonder if Tetsuya Nomura will manage to find time off from his self-inflicted FF7R purgatory in order to direct this game, or if we're going to have to suffer the whims of an all-new director. I don't know if any-mind is as warped enough to helm this adventure for another baffling outing; so my hopes really on on Tetsuya to get pumping on his overtime. All and around; this is a great treat to look forward to on our gaming horizon: I can't wait.