While the Kingdom Hearts series has entered 2025 with a whimper, it may go out with a bang. The Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link mobile game has been delayed to an unknown date, but with how long it’s been in production and playable, there’s a good chance it could be released this year. Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts 4 still has no news to report, but rumors of its own upcoming launch in a year or two suggest that it could finally get some trailers in 2025. Nothing’s set in stone, but Kingdom Hearts’ prospects are looking up.
In the meantime, fans have busied themselves with enjoying the new Kingdom Hearts Steam ports, playing like-minded games such as Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and theorizing about the direction of Kingdom Hearts’ story as they always have. Until further notice, which will likely either be in the spring with the Nintendo Switch 2 news cycle or after the summer conference season begins, things are quiet on Kingdom Hearts’ front. However, Kingdom Hearts’ future doesn’t need to limit itself to moving forward, and could be better spent looking backwards instead.
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Every Game That Takes Place Before Kingdom Hearts 1
The timeline of Kingdom Hearts is one of the most complex in gaming, and many of its most important events happened before the first game.
The Kingdom Hearts Series Could Use Another Fleshed-Out Prequel
Kingdom Hearts is no stranger to prequel side games, with a fairly large portion of its story having taken place before the original PS2 Kingdom Hearts even started. All the mobile KH titles are the most recent examples, but they take place in the distant past, and mostly cover plot threads that Kingdom Hearts 4’s Lost Master Arc plans to address. Comparatively, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is set just a few years before KH1, and takes full advantage of its placement to contextualize and lay out the following games’ narrative.
How Birth By Sleep Made The Best of Its Prequel Status
In essence, the Dark Seeker Saga, consisting of all the Kingdom Hearts titles up to Melody of Memory, wouldn’t be referred to as the Xehanort Saga without Birth By Sleep. Few prequels can claim that much influence, and the nature of Kingdom Hearts’ constantly-growing storyline means it could be done again. Kingdom Hearts 4 and Missing-Link are set to begin the series’ new Lost Master Arc, which may also be Kingdom Hearts’ last chapter, but they could get some help from a prequel. The mobile games will still hold some context, but Kingdom Hearts can tell its story best through another accessible, straightforward single-player game.
What A New Prequel Could Do For Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts Always Has More Tales To Tell
Providing a digestible format for major plot points is the main reason why a new Kingdom Hearts spin-off should take after Birth By Sleep instead of the mobile titles, but there are more motives to make another prequel in the first place. For one, it could cover what was happening in Quadratum before Sora’s arrival. Whether that means focusing on known characters like Strelitzia and the Master of Masters or a new cast, it could help establish the new setting as part of KH’s universe. Kingdom Hearts 4 is sure to tackle this, but should leave gaps for another title to fill.
Getting even more specific, a prequel to the Lost Master Arc could make a number of character and story threads that have been left hanging make more sense. Yozora needs a proper introduction, and this game could be the vessel for one, and that’s not all. The Nameless Star could have its original form revealed, the mysterious “Subject X” alluded to in Kingdom Hearts 3 could appear, and even other dangling threads like the Foretellers and Skuld’s whereabouts could be established. With a prequel laying the foundation for its new story arc, payoffs in future Kingdom Hearts titles could be all the sweeter.
