Latest Kingdom Hearts 4 Report Shows A Release Date That's Soon

Summary Kingdom Hearts 4 may be coming sooner than expected, with a reported release year of 2025.

Despite past delays, the game's development seems to be on track for a timely release.

The new installment will focus on the "Lost Master" saga, featuring Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy.

While Square Enix may remain quiet when it comes to the development of Kingdom Hearts 4, a new report alleges that the highly-anticipated sequel could be out sooner than expected. Despite its massive fanbase and passionate community, Kingdom Hearts isn't exactly known for maintaining a consistent release schedule given that over a decade passed between the launch of the second and third games. Smaller titles have been released for handheld systems and mobile devices in that time span, but the mainline franchise has always suffered when it comes to consistent releases.

According to reputable leaker DanielRPK over on his Patreon, and later posted to X (formerly Twitter), the fourth Kingdom Hearts game is scheduled to release in 2025.

No other information on the launch was specified but the community was quick to taper its expectations regarding the window given the franchise's history. While the title was formally unveiled to the world in early 2022, Square Enix insisted that the project was still in the very early stages of development, suggesting that that there was still a large portion of production that still needed to take place before it was ready to ship.

Related Why Kingdom Hearts 4 Won't Have Many Final Fantasy Characters Kingdom Hearts 4 creator Tetsuya Nomura recently explained why there have been fewer Final Fantasy characters and what this means for the future.

Kingdom Hearts 4 In 2025 Seems Doubtful

But Fans Shouldn't Give Up Hope

Fans are skeptical due to the incredibly lengthy development cycle undertaken by Kingdom Hearts 3, a game that was originally announced for PlayStation 3 before later showing up 10 years later on PlayStation 4 and Xbox consoles in 2019. This kind of lengthy schedule has left the community questioning how the timeline surrounding the reports regarding the fourth game, which would have been in development for significantly less time than its predecessor. Having said that, it's not impossible that the team behind the game managed to figure out a way to streamline the process.

It's widely believed that Kingdom Hearts 3 took such a long time to make because Square Enix focused too heavily on creating various spin-off titles for other platforms, pulling attention away from the mainline project. Times have changed since then as the only game in the franchise to release after KH3 was Melody of Memory, a rhythm-based celebration of the series' music. With more resources funneled into the fourth game, it's entirely possible that it could end up meeting its rumored 2025 debut.

As for what fans know about Kindom Hearts 4, Square Enix has revealed precious little. The publisher has confirmed that it will mark the beginning of the "Lost Master" saga, a new story arc starring Sora and his two companions Donald Duck and Goofy. The teaser trailer shown off in 2022 depicted a more realistic version of the protagonist fighting what appears to be a gigantic heartless in an oddly realistic version of Tokyo built with Unreal Engine 5.

Source: Daniel Richtman/Patreon, X