Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory will land on consoles later this year

By

Square Enix shared details on its latest entry into Kingdom Hearts franchise after data miners recently uncovered the new game inside the Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road mobile game.

Recommended Videos

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory will launch later this year, according to a Square Enix trailer published to YouTube on Tuesday. The game will be available on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, making it the first Kingdom Hearts game to land on the Switch. The developer didn’t say whether it would also be available on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X when they launch this holiday season.

The game’s trailer shows several prominent figures from the franchise, including Sora, Goofy, Aladdin, and Donald Duck. And while it’s difficult to say precisely what players can expect from the title, gameplay footage shows a series of rhythm minigames similar to the gameplay in Square Enix’s Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy.

Square Enix shared very little about what to expect from Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Even a new website shares little aside from the game’s trailer and gameplay images, and the company did not immediately respond to Digital Trends’ request for more details on the upcoming game.

But that hasn’t stopped speculation from running rampant about the developer’s plans for the future of the Kingdom Hearts franchise after the successful launch of Kingdom Hearts III last year.

Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura said in an interview published to the Square Enix website earlier this year that the company is working on two new entries for the franchise, including one that would release “earlier than you would think.” It’s unclear whether he was referring to Melody of Memory.

What is clear, however, is that Kingdom Hearts 4, which rumors suggest will continue the franchise’s main storyline from Kingdom Hearts 3, won’t be available anytime soon.

“We will need some more time to make another traditional, main-series style Kingdom Hearts game,” Nomura said in the interview.

In addition to the Melody of Memory trailer, Square Enix published a Kingdom Hearts 2020 video to YouTube, where it showcases what the company calls “Kingdom Hearts series second phase.” It includes footage of the Kingdom Hearts 3: Re:Mind DLC and the Kingdom Hearts Dark Road mobile game launching on June 22, in addition to Melody of Memory.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger is a freelance technology, video game, and entertainment journalist. He has been writing about the world of…
Watch Hikaru Utada play Kingdom Hearts hits at Coachella
From left: Goofy, Sora, and Donald Duck about to fight in Kingdom Hearts

Hikaru Utada answered the prayers of millions of Kingdom Hearts fans this Easter weekend. The 39-year-old J-Pop superstar performed series themes Simple and Clean and Face My Fears at Coachella, the first American music festival in her 26-year career.

Utada announced on Instagram on Friday that she would be performing at Coachella the next evening as part of the Head In The Clouds Forever showcase hosted by 88rising, a multinational record label that represents Asian and Asian American artists in the U.S. Come Saturday, fans who attended the festival, live as well as those who watched from home, jumped to their feet as the singer opened the performance with Simple and Clean, the theme song from Kingdom Hearts.

Read more
6 Disney worlds we need to see in Kingdom Hearts 4
Moana and Maui riding a boat.

The trailer for Kingdom Hearts 4 introduced fans to the world of Quadratum, which bears a striking resemblance to the real world ( hence Sora's realistic-looking, Final Fantasy-esque makeover). Strelitzia, the girl who resides there and in the Tokyo apartment Sora wakes up in, tells Sora that Quadratum is like an afterworld for people like them, but it's full of life for everyone else. As series creator Tetsuya Nomura pointed out in a recent interview with Famitsu, it's a different reality than the one Sora came from, therefore he won't stay there forever, nor will he keep his new look once he leaves and gets back to his universe.

That being said, there will be plenty of other worlds for Sora and company (once Donald and Goofy find him, of course) to travel to where he'll maintain his original look -- spiky hair, clown shoes and all (or whatever outfit he wears in accordance to the motif of the world he finds himself in). Nomura did confirm that multiple worlds are in development but did not reveal what they are.

Read more
4 big Kingdom Hearts 4 details emerge in new interview
Sora lying down on a couch in Kingdom Hearts 4.

In Kingdom Hearts 4, our Keyblade hero Sora has a brand new look that finally makes him resemble a realistic-looking Final Fantasy character and a swanky new apartment to go with it. It's an impressive feat for a 15-year-old, assuming he didn't time skip a few years after leaving Donald Duck, Goofy, and all of his friends at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. According to series creator Tetsuya Nomura, however, Sora's new makeover and pad may not last as long as we thought it would.

In a recent interview with Famitsu (with translation courtesy of VGC), Nomura divulged some new details about Kingdom Hearts 4, which he suddenly announced at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event in Tokyo last Sunday -- and on Palm Sunday, no less. He shares the new world that Sora will be roaming around in for most of the game and demystified any misconceptions fans may have about the world of Quadratum. Here are some important revelations from the interview.
Quadratum is an underworld

Read more