Kingdom Hearts IV shows Mickey playable and still without a release date

After the cancellation of Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, Square Enix decided to break the silence around Kingdom Hearts IV, revealing seven new images of the project. The game, officially announced in 2022, remains without a release date and, so far, without trailers or concrete details about gameplay, plot, or platforms.

Among the images released, the most commented by fans shows Mickey Mouse as a playable character. The scene reveals the mascot wielding his Keyblade, something rare in the series, as he could only be controlled directly in specific moments of previous games, usually during boss battles. The setting of this image remains undefined: it does not seem to be a Disney world, as initially suggested with speculations about Beauty and the Beast, raising the possibility of being set in original locations of the franchise, such as Hollow Bastion or Scala ad Caelum

The other images are variations of environments and characters that had already appeared in the 2022 teaser, indicating that the development stage is still far from the final phase. None of them includes new Disney worlds or Final Fantasy characters, trademarks of the franchise since its debut.

In an official statement, Square Enix declared:

“We’re currently working hard on Kingdom Hearts IV and will continue pouring ourselves into the game’s development. We’re dedicated to making this an experience that lives up to your expectations!”

“We know how excited you are, and we are sincerely grateful for it. We are also excited and can’t wait to share more when the time is right. Until then, we appreciate your patience and continued support.”

The mention of “when the time is right” reinforces that a new wave of information is likely to take a while to come. Since the release of Kingdom Hearts III in 2019, the franchise has not been completely inactive. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory and Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road were released in 2020, and Kingdom Hearts III: Re Mind, an epilogue DLC, arrived about 11 months after the main game. In 2023, the saga was finally made available for Steam, expanding its reach on PC.

There is still no confirmation of platforms for Kingdom Hearts IV, although it is likely that the game will come to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The absence of any mention of a release window indicates that the project is still far from completion, consistent with the series' history of lengthy production.

The cancellation of Missing-Link, which would have been a mobile title with original narrative connecting the events of Dark Road and Kingdom Hearts III, was poorly received by the community, increasing the pressure on the success of Kingdom Hearts IV. For now, Mickey's return as a playable character is the most concrete technical highlight that fans have received in almost three years.