Summary
- Kingdom Hearts 4 will retain the series' signature command menu aesthetic that's unique to each world, which enhances the immersion.
- Players can combine Sora's builds with flowmotion, expanding their combat options strategically.
- New humanoid Heartless enemies and playable King Mickey add depth and excitement to this upcoming game.
May 14, 2025 will always be remembered as a bittersweet day for fans of the Kingdom Hearts series. The same day that Square Enix announced it had canceled Kingdom Hearts Missing Link, the company also released a collage with seven brand-new screenshots of the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 4 in order to reassure fans that its development was going well.
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Needless to say, this was quite a big deal because this anticipated sequel was announced back in 2022, and Square Enix hadn’t shown anything new about it for three whole years. Naturally, eagle-eyed fans immediately noticed that these images revealed never-before-seen information about the game that’s as interesting as they’re exciting. The new Kingdom Hearts 4 screenshots hide some secrets, and the following are the most fascinating ones so far.
1 The Command Menu
Kingdom Hearts 4 Will Keep The Series’ Signature Presentation
Back when Square Enix revealed the first Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer, fans noticed that Sora’s command menu looked relatively bland and generic, but most of them were sure that the one in the final release was going to have a lot more style, like the command menus from previous entries in the series, and they were completely right.
One of the new Kingdom Hearts 4 screenshots shows Sora fighting a bunch of Heartless in the streets of Quadratum, and the game’s wonderful command menu can be seen in the bottom left corner of the screen. Since it has a silhouette of the world's buildings on the top, and another screenshot of King Mickey in Scala ad Caelum has a completely different command menu, this pretty much confirms that the aesthetic of the HUD will change depending on the world Sora and the other characters are currently visiting. This is a small but crucial artistic detail that was already present in Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3, and it always helps to give each new world its own sense of identity.
2 How Sora’s Builds Will Work During Gameplay
The Player Will Be Able To Combine Builds With Flowmotion
In the original Kingdom Hearts 4 reveal trailer, fans got a glimpse of the game’s new gameplay mechanic, which will allow Sora to create giant objects with his keyblade, like a whip or a drill, that he can use to either move around or take down enemies. Even the game’s director, Tetsuya Nomura, later confirmed in an interview that Kingdom Hearts 4 will feature a “scrap and build” element in its core gameplay.
However, these new images gave fans a much clearer idea of how this Build mechanic is going to work. For starters, there’s a Build command in the menu, and while it was also present in the reveal trailer, the fact that it also appears when Sora is fighting regular enemies confirms that it's not situational and that players will be able to use it whenever they want. On top of that, Sora can be seen sliding through a long chain that he has seemingly built, which confirms that builds can be combined with flowmotion, similarly to how magic worked in Kingdom Hearts 3 and in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage.
3 A New Type Of Heartless
What Are Those Creepy, Human-Looking Enemies?
While the Kingdom Hearts franchise has introduced a variety of different enemy types, there’s no denying that the shadow-lurking Heartless are the most iconic ones. Kingdom Hearts 4’s reveal trailer confirmed that they’re still going to appear in Quadratum, in the form of giant bosses that will try to destroy the city. However, one of the new screenshots also confirmed their presence as regular enemies, since Sora can be seen fighting what seems to be a brand-new type of Heartless that looks like nothing he has faced in any of his previous adventures.
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The designs of these enemies are way more humanoid and disturbing than usual, not to mention that some of them are even able to summon giant hands to protect themselves from Sora’s attacks. On top of that, another type of Heartless with a more surreal appearance can be seen in the background of the Japanese version of this screenshot. Of course, there’s always a small possibility that they may be a completely new enemy species instead, but they’re likely just Heartless that have been affected by the specific conditions of Quadratum.
4 Something Will Happen To The Darkside
Someone Else May Be Helping Sora Take Down This Giant Boss
The original Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer concluded with an exciting battle between Sora and a giant Darkside boss in the middle of Quadratum. This not only looked really cool and fun, but it also confirmed that players will be tasked with taking down this new type of enemy at some point in the game. However, one of the new screenshots revealed something interesting about this encounter that has gone unnoticed by most fans.
There's an image that shows the same giant Darkside in the middle of Quadratum being hit by two beams of light. While they could be some sort of magic projectiles summoned by Sora himself, it’s also important to point out that, whenever a character in the Kingdom Hearts series had to travel quickly between two worlds, they were launched through the air in the form of a projectile that leaves a trail of light behind. For example, this happened when Roxas suddenly arrived at the Keyblade Graveyard at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. This means that those two lights may actually be two characters suddenly arriving at Quadratum to assist Sora with his battle, like Sora, Donald, Riku, or Kairi.
5 The Graphics Have Gotten Better
Sora And Strelitzia’s Models Are Even More Detailed Now
Tetsuya Nomura has stated that the Kingdom Hearts 4 announcement trailer was rendered in real time with Unreal Engine 4, which explained why the game looked so good from the get-go. However, he also confirmed that the development switched to Unreal Engine 5 shortly after completing the trailer, so fans were sure that the game was going to look even better, and these new screenshots quickly confirmed that.
The new 3D models of Sora and Strelitzia were already quite solid in the original trailer, but now they look absolutely incredible, with a lot more detail in their skin, hair, and clothes. Switching from UE4 to UE5 was a good decision by the development team, and fans can’t wait to see other human characters in Quadratum to find out how detailed their Kingdom Hearts 4 models are going to be.
6 Playable King Mickey
Fans Will Be Able To Control Mickey Mouse As He Explores A Familiar World
The fact that King Mickey is going to be playable was possibly the most unexpected but exciting revelation in these new Kingdom Hearts 4 screenshots. After all, this is the first time that Square Enix showcased gameplay footage from an area that isn’t in Quadratum, and with a character that is currently not present in that world.
At the very end of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, Yen Sid tasked Mickey with going back to Scala ad Caelum to find out more information about Sora’s whereabouts. This new screenshot shows Mickey exploring what seems to be the library of that same world, and since he’s standing on top of a chandelier, it pretty much confirms that his gameplay will involve a lot of platforming. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time in the series that players get to control Mickey – he was briefly playable in both Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3 Re Mind – but this screenshot is especially intriguing because it may be hinting that Kingdom Hearts 4 is going to feature a prologue/special episode in which they will have to control Mickey (and maybe other characters) while he’s trying to find Sora.
7 A Rotary Phone Will Be Important
What’s The Significance Of This Old-School Device?
It is not uncommon for the Kingdom Hearts series to sometimes leave its fans with more questions than answers, and these new screenshots were no exception. Among the images of Sora, Strelitzia, King Mickey, and Quadratum, there’s a small but noteworthy screenshot that simply shows a rotary phone and nothing more. Naturally, fans immediately began wondering why Square Enix decided to point out this specific item and what role it may have in the story.
It has already been confirmed that Kingdom Hearts 4 will have a more grounded and realistic tone (at least when Sora is in Quadratum), and the previous trailer had already shown him living in an apartment alongside Strelitzia. So, while it does make sense for them to have a rotary phone in their apartment, its presence in this collage implies that it will have some big significance for the plot. Sora will likely be able to use this old-school device to communicate with characters on other worlds, but he may also use it to travel to other worlds, instead of needing to get on the Gummi Ship like in previous entries.
- ESRB
- e
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Kingdom Hearts
