'Kingdom Hearts 4' Announced In Trailer Showing Sora In The Real World With Regular Human Shoes

Square Enix dropped a massive surprise trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV yesterday, both confirming that the game is in development and showcasing an intriguing new setting for Sora — the real world.

The trailer finds Sora, looking a bit more weathered than he seemed in the game's original trilogy, waking up in a cold, modern apartment complex. The world is called "Quadratum," though it looks very much like a take on Tokyo, complete with cars and people on smartphones.

A mysterious young girl (named Strelitzia) explains that Quadratum is something like an afterlife for herself and Sora. An Organization XIII member then says that if Sora decides to leave Quadrtatum, he shouldn't expect to return to the world from which he came. Sora then gets to fighting a giant Heartless in Quadtratum, and the trailer shows some gameplay action, with Sora zipping between floating cars and getting into more traditional Kingdom Hearts-style combat. And yes, Donald and Goofy, Sora's longtime companions, appear at the end of the trailer in a scene where they seem to be searching for him.

True to the series' history, the trailer is cryptic and appears to be adding more wrinkles to its legendarily convoluted plot instead of showcasing the new Disney IP worlds Sora will probably be visiting on his next adventure.

Nevertheless, the trailer did excite fans, because A) it confirmed that Kingdom Hearts IV is officially in development, and B) it showed Sora as a real human boy. Compared to the Sora we know from the previous Kingdom Hearts games, the Sora shown in the trailer appears to be in his late teens with a less relentlessly buoyant personality. He also is wearing shoes fit for a normal person instead of a malformed clown Basically, he looks like a shonen anime protagonist, which was not lost on the excited fanbase.

kingdom hearts 4 mcdonalds arc pic.twitter.com/dwfullmE6a

— mio (@cryptidconduit) April 10, 2022

Kingdom hearts 4 was announced and Sora is seen wearing normal-sized shoes. Apologies if you to had to find this out this way. pic.twitter.com/ipfDKInlIE

— Saved You A Click Video Games (@SYACVG) April 10, 2022

the boss fights in kingdom hearts 4 look so real pic.twitter.com/9o32Txv9s0

— day 3: no microplastics (@adifying) April 10, 2022

Meanwhile, fans have also begun speculating on which universes Sora may travel to in his new adventure. One community of fans believes it's spotted the foot of a Star Wars AT-ST in the trailer, and that Endor may be on the horizon. Others pondered if the MCU could make it into the game.

YO, THIS LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE THE FOREST IN ENDOR??? KH4 IS GOING TO HAVE STAR WARS I S2G… (left is from the KH4 trailer, right is Endor) pic.twitter.com/IJDQmWxcK2

— ☆オードリーAudrey☆ (@aitaikimochi) April 10, 2022

if they put marvel worlds in kingdom hearts i think these two would get along pic.twitter.com/NcBFVxKBpQ

— 🌺 sara (@pinkxcharm) April 10, 2022

Whatever the case may be, fans can expect a lengthy wait until any more news about Kingdom Hearts IV comes out. The trailer offers no hint of a release date, so those who sat through the decade-plus wait time between Kingdom Hearts II and III are likely primed to buckle down for another lengthy development cycle.