Kingdom Hearts’ Handheld History Makes One Switch 2 Release Inevitable

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 19, 2025 18 Views 7 Min Read
Kingdom Hearts' Handheld History Makes One Switch 2 Release Inevitable



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Ever since its inception, the Kingdom Hearts franchise has consistently been released on handheld systems. Although the mainline entries in the series have primarily been made for home consoles, most of its spin-offs have been created specifically with handhelds in mind. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the second Kingdom Hearts game ever made, for example, was initially released on the Game Boy Advance before later being ported to the PS2. Other entries in the franchise, including Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and the confusingly-named Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, were also developed exclusively for handhelds.

Recently, however, Kingdom Hearts hasn’t been as present on handheld consoles as it once was. In the last decade, the only entry in the franchise that received a native port for a portable system was the rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, which came out on the Nintendo Switch in 2020. Outside of that, there’s been a limited number of Kingdom Hearts titles on handhelds. Sure, there are mobile games like Kingdom Hearts X and the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, but they don’t exactly provide the same experience that the series’ offline-only, singleplayer spin-offs once offered. That’s why, when more Kingdom Hearts games — spin-offs or otherwise — do come out, they should be launched on the Nintendo Switch 2.

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Kingdom Hearts Will Probably Have a Presence On the Switch 2 in Some Form

The Switch 2 Will Be a Big Upgrade Over the Current Switch

As many may know by now, the Nintendo Switch 2 was finally announced earlier this week. The Switch 2, as its name suggests, is basically just a bigger and better version of the original Switch. It has a larger screen, a few extra buttons and USB-C ports, some improved Joy-Con functionality, and, above all, significantly more powerful hardware under the hood. The console is considerably different from the kind of hardware Nintendo usually designs. Most of Nintendo’s systems have weird gimmicks that, in some cases, can make the user experience inconvenient, but the Switch 2 appears to be a surprisingly straight-forward upgrade, which makes it perfect for traditional console games.

Kingdom Hearts 4 and Future Kingdom Hearts Spin-Offs Could Come to the Switch 2

Since the Switch 2 is apparently quite powerful, it will likely get far better third-party support than its predecessor. Games that would never be playable on the original Switch will probably be able to run just fine on Nintendo’s new console, and that includes upcoming titles like Kingdom Hearts 4. Of course, Square Enix hasn’t confirmed what platforms the next numbered entry in the Kingdom Hearts franchise will be released on yet, but it seems likely that the Switch 2 will be listed among them. Kingdom Hearts 4 may be a visually intensive game, but it doesn’t look too demanding that it wouldn’t be able to work on a next-generation handheld.

If Square Enix isn’t able to get Kingdom Hearts 4 running on the Switch 2, then at the very least, it should make some kind of spin-off for the console. Such a title shouldn’t just be a Melody of Memories-style rhythm game, though. It should instead have a heavier focus on narrative, much like Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance. Melody of Memories, as good as it was, was basically just a recap of the entire Kingdom Hearts series and barely contributed anything new to the franchise’s lore. A future Kingdom Hearts spin-off for the Switch 2 should try to avoid that and be a more integral part of the franchise’s overarching story.

Though They May Not Be Exclusive, Kingdom Hearts Games on the Switch 2 Seems Inevitable

Square Enix has repeatedly expressed that it wants to become a more multi-platform publisher in the future, so even if it does make a Kingdom Hearts spin-off for the Switch 2, it’s unlikely that it’ll be permanently exclusive to the console. Nonetheless, releasing a Kingdom Hearts game of some kind on the platform seems inevitable. Whether it’s with Kingdom Hearts 4, a new Kingdom Hearts spin-off, or a native Kingdom Hearts HD Collections port (something that the original Switch oddly didn’t get), it would be wise for Square Enix to capitalize on the success of the Nintendo Switch 2 with some Kingdom Hearts releases.

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