TheKingdom Heartsseries is about to take a huge step forward as the Xehanort arc closes and the Ancient Masters arc begins, both in the mobile game and the most recent title in the series. However, whileMelody of Memorysets up the future, development on next-gen consoles might give Square Enix a new chance to explore the series' ancient past.
With the PS5 and Xbox Series X finally hitting store shelves and arriving in players' homes, more and more people are getting first hand experience with the power and capability of next-gen technology. Seeing what these new consoles are capable of, as well as similarly designed gaming PCs with rapid-speed SSDs and powerful Nvidia 3090s, the nextKingdom Hearts,whenever it does release,coming to these new systems could make a huge leap.
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It’s possible that the nextKingdom Heartsmight make use of this new technology to build up on previously established mechanics and staples of the series, but themes explored inUnion Xcould be a bold new move. WithSquare Enix wanting “drastic changes” inKingdom Heartsthen something established from before the Keyblade War could lead to a new unification that could fuse the series' many worlds into one. This is a new theme that next-gen consoles could better explore by giving players the freedom to move from world to world in real-time, possibly altering the gummi ship’s function, either in a new prequel title or in the new future.
Kingdom Hearts Remade Prequel
One of the opportunities that could be explored for the next era ofKingdom Heartsis to better establish everything that has taken place in theUnion Xstoryline, following the Master of Masters and his Foretellers. While the story is currently all freely available through the mobile game, there are mysteries that it doesn’t look like the title really cares to focus on, leaning more towards having players' questions answered in future games. To better explore some of what is still being hidden inUnion X, Square Enix may want to explore a new game from the perspective of the Master of Masters, the man pulling the strings from the beginning.
What’s most interesting about an origin story for the Master of Masters is the fact that the familiar Disney andFinal Fantasythemed worlds scattered across theKingdom Heartsseries used to be a single, infinite world. This could lead to players traveling through an open world that blends between tons of early versions of previously explored areas without the seems created by space exploration in the main series. However, even without going into the backstory of the new villain/secret hero/antihero, moving straight intoKingdom Hearts 4’s storycould still make great use of next-gen technology.
No Man’s Gummi Ship
The gummi ship has easily become one of the most widelycriticized feature ofKingdom Hearts, with some players supporting both the original and evolving mechanic in numbered titles, but most disliking it from the beginning. One way thatKingdom Hearts 3made the gummi ship the most well received in the series was to give players free control through space and make both traversal and missions more optional than they had been in the past. It’s a great step forward, but next-gen consoles could push it a step further by blending gummi space more seamlessly withKingdom Hearts' worlds.
Taking a feature from an unexpected source, Square Enix can look toNo Man’s Skyfor ways to let players blast off from the surface of a world and head out to space in real-time. The effect inNo Man’s Skyis currently hidden behind a hyperspace looking loading screen, but with the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s impressive loading speeds, this could be stripped down to a much more realistic launch intoKingdom Hearts' Paths Between. This could be one of the best solutions forKingdom Hearts' longest standing problemof forcing players out of the gameplay loop when travelling between worlds, keeping the experience cohesive from start to finish.
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A Reunified World
Another option for Square Enix to take with thefuture ofKingdom Heartsis to actually look back at the history within the series lore and bring it into the modern era. As mentioned before, in the time of the Master of Masters and the Foretellers, the world was all one giant land that seemingly stretched out forever before being ripped apart by the Keyblade War. While this doesn’t seem to have been reversed just yet, it is possible that future titles are setting up to pull the worlds back together into this shape.
This is where the next-gen technology comes into play again, being newly capable of making stunning open worlds that can be travelled across faster than ever, as shown bySquare Enix’s own upcomingProject Athia. For a series known for fast-paced gameplay likeKingdom Hearts, making the transition from one world to the next happen even more quickly and fluidly could pushKingdom Hearts 4well past its predecessors. It’s also possible that the developer is planning to test the waters of this type of gameplay mechanic and doing away with the current format of the worlds/space divide with the series' next title.
Open-World Quadratum
The recent lore dump that came with the ending ofMelody of Memoryhas opened up a bit of a can of worms for the series, as Square Enix sets up for aRiku helmedKingdom Heartsin Quadratum. There are a number of theories already spreading among fans for what this could mean, with most players fixated on Quadratum’s name translating from Latin to mean “square” to imply that this will be theFinal Fantasyworld. However, regardless of what exactly this new Fictional World really is and what it all means, this new realm on the flip side of light and dark is completely unexplored and is left open for all new possibilities.
One key possibility is that since the Fictional World is so separate from the Realms of Light and Darkness, it may have been unaffected by the Keyblade War that tore the world apart into multiple, separate worlds. This could mean that while players are exploring the new world of Quadratum, there might not be a need to jump between worlds and will instead explore one expansive world. It’s still difficult to say what Square Enix has planned forRiku in the nextKingdom Hearts, but this could be a huge opportunity to test out the developer’s ability to craft a new open world, and fan’s reaction to an open world in the series.
Kingdom Hearts: Memory of Melodyis available now for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
