Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link's Loss May Be KH4's Gain

After years of radio silence on Kingdom Hearts 4, Square Enix recently announced the unfortunate news that the mobile spin-off title, Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, has been canceled. Although the hype around Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link wasn't near that of the next mainline game, its cancellation is still disappointing for those anticipating any new Kingdom Hearts content. For as disappointing as it may be, Missing-Link being canceled may not be the end for some of the ideas and lore contained within the game, as they could still make their way into Kingdom Hearts 4.

Missing-Link had already been shaping up to be a controversial title well before its cancellation, with its location-based, Pokemon GO-esque gameplay marking a drastic break from the series' traditional formula. To add to this, reports from the game's beta testers painted a messy picture that would likely have caused the game to need even more time in the oven than it had already gotten, potentially pushing the launch of Kingdom Hearts 4 out even further. Even with the potential flaws of Missing-Link written on the wall, Kingdom Hearts mobile games are nothing if not important sources of lore, which will need to make their way into the franchise one way or another.

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By Liam Ferguson

Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link's Cancellation May Have a Silver Lining

All Attention is Now of Kingdom Hearts 4

With Missing-Link no longer in the pipeline, Kingdom Hearts 4 is the sole entry in the franchise on the horizon for the foreseeable future. This puts all the pressure on Kingdom Hearts 4 to live up to the expectations of being the first game in the Lost Masters arc without the support of Missing-Link to fill in the gaps of the Blank Era. Originally, Missing-Link was supposed to depict this era of Scala ad Caelum set between the events of Kingdom Hearts Union X and Dark Road, two stories foundational for understanding the Lost Masters arc.

Heading into Kingdom Hearts 4 without supplementary lore from Missing-Link means that the game will have to find a way to catch players up on important events they would have seen in the canceled mobile game. No entry in the Kingdom Hearts series is skippable when it comes to getting a complete picture of the franchise, as each one includes important details about the series' greater lore, despite how small they may seem. So, even though Missing-Link may have appeared to be a simple mobile spin-off, it was likely more crucial to the story of Kingdom Hearts 4 than many may have assumed.

Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link was said to feature certain figures who would appear in Kingdom Hearts 4, potentially setting up more backstory for characters like Strelitzia, who is set to play an important role in the upcoming game.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Could Still Weave in Lore from Missing-Link

Without Missing-Link setting the stage for certain Kingdom Hearts 4 characters and events, the game itself will have to manage this task on its own. As such, it's likely that important parts of Missing-Link's story will be incorporated into Kingdom Hearts 4. This could mean that Kingdom Hearts 4 could end up with even more content than originally planned, which could be a huge win for players wanting to jump into Kingdom Hearts 4 without having to invest in a live-service mobile game to get tidbits of lore.

The Kingdom Hearts series already has the perfect in-universe device to inject these important pieces of lore into Kingdom Hearts 4, too. Ansem's Reports, or the Secret Reports in Kingdom Hearts 3, chronicle important elements of the history and mythos of the Kingdom Hearts world framed as journal entries from Ansem, Xehanort, or other members of Organization 13. It's easy to see how a similar collectible could be used to flesh out the background lore of Kingdom Hearts 4 that would otherwise have been delivered through Missing-Link using journal entries of a new major character within the Lost Masters arc.