Kingdom Hearts 4
I've been having these weird thought's lately. . .
Like, is any of this for real, or not?
These thoughts are exactly what the Kingdom Hearts community is thinking during the aftermath of the Kingdom Hearts 4 announcement trailer. The 20th Anniversary event left nothing to be desired. For those dedicated Kingdom Hearts fans who pulled an all-nighter to keep up with the news as it was being posted live on Twitter, they were not disappointed with photos of banners, statues of a dual-wielding Sora and merch from dishware to suitcases and plushies that lined the walls of the venue. On the morning of April 10th around 6am Central Time, the 8-minute Kingdom Hearts trailer dropped leaving everyone on the edge of their seat.
For the sake of time, I will only be analyzing the Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer.
Time Stamp: 4:10 The Lost Master Arc
Notice: At exactly 4 minutes and 10 seconds into the trailer, Kingdom Hearts 4 is revealed!
As the camera pans over a polished apartment in Quadratum, a voice reveals a warning, "If this isn't the ending you desired--if it brings you despair, then leave this world for another. Your options are endless." The camera moves across some stairs and peers out the window where we see a black ball of mist gathering in the sky. The black tendrils of darkness curl together forming a dark ball of energy that as PaulCastroJr. the VA of Rindo from Neo: TWEWY mentions, is not unlike the noise found in The World Ends with You.
Just like previous Kingdom Hearts introductions, upon a black screen, gold letters reveal the words, The heart resides within the soul, which in turn is guided by fate to it's rightful place. This statement is significant since the game states that "the heart is within the soul". So looking back to previous games, when Yen Sid states that "Sora's heart is asleep", that truly means that his soul is sleeping as well.
The scene opens with sunlight streaming through lush foliage over a place that fans speculate to be Endor from Star Wars. Some have even gone so far as to say they recognise an AT-ST Walker's foot. Whether Sora ends up weilding a light-saber keyblade in battle is yet to be seen.
Next onscreen we see, The choice is yours once more, hovering over a single chess piece with the pendant from his necklace (representative of Sora). Curtains drift through an open window as the camera pans over someone lying on the sofa whom is later revealed to be a seemingly older and mature Sora.
Sora is modeling a new outfit--one that was previously teased to Kingdom Hearts fans in the SuperGroopies artwork.
Sora's outfit consists of
-a red hoodie
-black jacket with folded cuffs pinned back by silver buttons
-black capris
Sora seems to have woken up from a deep sleep and when he opens the door of his room, he is greeted by none other than Strelitzia who takes Sora on a tour informing viewers that Sora has been asleep since his arrival to Quadratum seven days prior.
One might note the timing of Sora's slumber. He has been asleep for 7 Days. 7 days is exactly how long Neku and Rindo have to last in order to survive the game in The World Ends with You. Not to mention that Sora is in what is now known as the afterworld which could be similiar to the Realground which is a parallel plane that hovers above the Underground in The World Ends with You. So Quadratum in KH4 could possibly be equivalent to the Realground in TWEWY. There might not be any significance in this coincidence, however seeing as how TWEWY has shown up before in a Kingdom Hearts game i.e (Dream Drop Distance), the possibilities are endless.
PaulCastroJr. brings up an interesting observation when he points out, "Here's the question, at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, his clothes do not look the same as this right now right? We're saying that those 7 days between the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3 and this bit right here, (Sora awakening in an apartment in Quadratum wearing an entirely new outfit), "that is the change".
As Sora emerges out on the balcony, Strelitzia, narrates, "It's a world full of life." The camera zooms across a busy street with cars whizzing past and people on the sidewalk look up from their phones at the sky where the ball of dark energy seems to have grown and now unfurls itself upon them.
"but for you and I," Strelitzia tells Sora, it's similiar to an afterworld/afterlife I suppose."
That's when the noise-like ball of energy unravels itself revealing a very intimidating Dark Side.
As Dark Side proceeds to lift cars let them hover in mid-air, chaos ensues and Sora leaps into action.
One may take note that this fight-scene mirrors that of Doc Oc and Spiderman in Spiderman Far From Home. Dark Side, carries off cars into the air similar to the way Doc Oc, uses his legs to hold up cars over the edge of a bridge and lets them dangle precariously. In response, Sora--not unlike Spiderman uses his keychain which now extends like a grappling hook which winds around a pole, then a car as he leaps over bridges and buildings in his battle against Darkside. With this new ability, it's possible that Kingdom Hearts may have elements of Marvel show up in-game in the future. This is entirely possible given the fact that Disney now owns the rights to Marvel and as PaulCastroJr. states, "He's got a grappling hook. They're turning Sora into Spiderman! Marvel! I mean, I really would not doubt it at this point. Why not use (Marvel) to bring in a bigger fanbase to Kingdom Hearts? I'm all for it."
One may notice as Sora runs towards DarkSide, that a part of his outfit has changed drastically--that of his shoes. Sora no longer wears the iconic yellow clown-like shoes and instead wears shoes similiar to those worn in the "real-world". This, may be due to the change in scenery in which the story takes place in the "real-world" or afterworld/afterlife as Strelitzia calls it.
As Sora continues to fight Darkside with his immpressive new abilities, a voice narrates, "
However, if you do leave this world behind, don't expect to return to the one from which you came."
This gives the audience food for thought in that as players near the end of the game, perhaps Sora will never return to Destiny Islands or be reunited with his old friends--at least not in the first game of Phase 2 for Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts fans will just have to wait and see how Sora lets his heart be his guiding key.
