We got our most extensive deep dive into Kingdom Hearts 4 yet during the franchise’s D23 panel. The panel not only featured some great insights from the developers, but a longer version of the most recent trailer.
The panel began with Tetsuya Nomura, who did appear despite not being confirmed beforehand, and co-director Tai Yasue answering some questions about the history of the franchise and how the developers pick what Disney movies to adapt. They then showed off a four-minute extended version of the trailer that debuted yesterday. This longer version of the trailer showed more of the cutscenes from Coco’s world and Sora’s fight against the new version of the Heartless in Quadratum, in addition to some gameplay.
The extended trailer teases that there will be some segments of Kingdom Hearts 4 where players aren’t in control of Sora, as we see Donald and Goofy visit Coco’s world and fight enemies on their own, as well as some platforming gameplay with Mickey Mouse. Mickey explores a world of his own, which Yasue said has more of a “puzzle-based game design” where players can transform into large, small, and paper-thin versions of an origami Mickey. It’s like the more exploratory segments of Paper Mario games.
Of course, Sora remains playable, and fights retain the unique style of action-RPG combat the series is known for. His battles do now use characters other than Donald and Goofy, as the trailer briefly shows him fighting alongside Hector and Miguel from Coco. Sora also has access to some new traversal actions, which are shown off in the trailer. Nomura teased that Kingdom Hearts 4 also realizes a still-unrevealed idea that the team has had since the development of Kingdom Hearts 3.
Haley Joel Osment (Sora) and David Gallagher (Riku) also eventually came on stage to discuss their memories of voicing the franchise, while Sora’s Japanese voice actor, Miyu Irino, appeared in a video to share similar memories. Osment and Gallagher then performed the final scene from Kingdom Hearts 2, the first time they’ve voiced a Kingdom Hearts scene together in person.
Square Enix first teased Kingdom Hearts 4 in 2022, but it didn’t reveal much else about the game until earlier this year. It reemerged as the big closer to June’s Nintendo Direct and was the gaming centerpiece of Disney’s D23 showcase on Friday night. That event is where we learned about the game’s 2027 release window and first saw its world based on Pixar’s Coco, which we saw more of during this panel’s extended trailer.
Kingdom Hearts 4 will be released for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X sometime in late 2027, with Yasuo and Nomura confidently reaffirming and committing to that window during the panel. A Kingdom Hearts anime for Disney Plus is also in the works, but does not have a release window.
