Kingdom Hearts IV will lead the video game franchise towards its end —developer

Sora and his friends will soon lay down their keyblades for a final journey as developer Tetsuya Nomura announces that the Kingdom Hearts franchise will be concluding soon.

According to an article by IGN Southeast Asia on Thursday, Nomura said in an interview that the events of the next installment of the series, Kingdom Hearts IV, will eventually move the storyline of the franchise towards its end.

Moreover, he was already contemplating retirement but said that he would like to finish Sora’s story before he retires.

“I only have a few years left until I retire, so it's like I have to decide whether to retire first or finish the series first. However, I'm making Kingdom Hearts IV now with the intention of it being a story that will be completed,” he said.

Nomura said that he developed the fourth installment of the game as a direct jump-off from Kingdom Hearts III, but will still implement a “reset” for new gamers to easily grasp the game.

“Those who know the ending of 'III' will understand that the reason Sora ended like that was to reset the story up to that point, so 'IV' should be easier to get into than previous games. I think that if people who like Kingdom Hearts touch it, they'll feel like 'this is it,' but we're making it with the hope that as many new people as possible will play it,” he said.

Nomura shared that while he had no solid details on the plot of the story when he began the project with co-developer Shinji Hashimoto, he had a general idea for the story and themes and had the fourth installment in mind as he created "Kingdom Hearts III."

The trailer released on the franchise’s 20th anniversary also revealed that Kingdom Hearts 4 will be made in Unreal Engine 5 and was in its early phases of development.

Kingdom Hearts is well-known in the gaming industry for its hard-to-follow plotline, which followed Sora as he travels through worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy characters to fight “darkness” that consumed and destroyed worlds and hearts.

Since the launch of its first installment in 2002, the franchise has released a total of three main games and a multitude of spin-offs tied to the main storyline for the past 22 years.

Nomura is well-known for developing some of the most iconic video games such as the Final Fantasy series, The World Ends with You, and Parasite Eve. —Jiselle Anne Casucian/JCB, GMA Integrated News