‘Kingdom Hearts’ series celebrates its 19th anniversary

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Sora as he appears in the first “Kingdom Hearts” game.

Margaret Troup

Creators Shinji Hashimoto and Tetsuya Nomura’s video game series “Kingdom Hearts” celebrated its 19th anniversary this week.

“Kingdom Hearts” is a unique game that follows Sora, the main character, along with his friends from classic Disney franchises such as Donald Duck and Goofy as they must save the world from being overcome by darkness through the power of light and friendship. 

There have been a total of 10 games in the series so far. The three main games, “Kingdom Hearts” 1-3, hold the main plotlines of the games while downloadable content (DLC) such as “Re Mind” expands on the previous plot with mostly boss-battle-based gameplay. 

The gameplay within these role-playing games consist of leveling up playable characters, boosting characters’ health, magic and ability points and engaging in combat in order to progress the plot. 

The most recent games in the “Kingdom Hearts” franchise to be released were “Kingdom Hearts III” in 2019 and the spinoff game “Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.” 2019’s “Kingdom Hearts” game garnered positive reviews overall, and fans wanted a fourth official installment in the games’ main plotlines right away.

According to Nomura, “Kingdom Hearts IV” seems to be something that may or may not happen at all. 

“Nothing has been officially decided yet, so at this point in time, I can’t say anything,” Nomura said in an interview with “Ultimania.” “Right now, the top priority is making DLC for ‘Kingdom Hearts III’ and a huge update that’s coming to [Kingdom Hearts Unixon Cross].”

With no official confirmation of a fourth entry into the main series, fans appear to only have additional DLC to “Kingdom Hearts III” to look forward to in the near future.