If Final Fantasy characters aren’t going to appear in Kingdom Hearts 4, Square Enix has other properties that would make wonderful additions to Kingdom Hearts. In fact, some characters from their other games have already been introduced in previous Kingdom Hearts titles.
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Kingdom Hearts Precedent for The World Ends With You
The World Ends With You is an underrated series by Square Enix that currently only has two games. However, the main characters of the original installment replaced Final Fantasy characters in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance when Sora and Riku went to Traverse Town. The World Ends With You characters helped Sora and Riku out during their appearances in the game, and they all became good friends with each other throughout the story.
In The World Ends With You, Neku, Shiki, Beat, Rhyme, and Joshua are from Shibuya, a part of Tokyo that Kingdom Hearts 4’s Quadratum may be inspired by. In fact, Sora fought Yozora on the 104 Building, an iconic location in Shibuya, which could potentially hint that Neku, Joshua, Rhyme, Shiki, and Beat will return in Kingdom Hearts 4, along with the characters that were introduced in Neo: The World Ends With You.
Einhander’s Schwarzgeist Was A Secret Boss In Kingdom Hearts 3
Long before Kingdom Hearts became one of Square Enix’s most popular franchises, Square developed a game called Einhander, which released in 1997 on the PlayStation. It was a sci-fi shoot em up inspired by Greek mythology in which players attack spaceships. In Kingdom Hearts 3, players could fight Einhander’s Schwarzgeist during a Gummi Ship segment.
Schwarzgeist is not the type of boss battle that Kingdom Hearts fans would have expected to go up against, especially as this was the first time that there was a Gummi Ship secret boss. Perhaps this encounter wasn’t as random as some many have initially believed if Einhander becomes relevant to the series in Kingdom Hearts 4.
Dragon Quest Could Fit Kingdom Hearts
While Dragon Quest has never appeared in Kingdom Hearts, unlike Einhander and The World Ends With You, it would be wonderful to see another one of Square Enix’s popular franchises cross over with Kingdom Hearts. As there are so many Dragon Quest games, the series offers a lot of locations that could inspire worlds for Sora and other Kingdom Hearts characters to go to.
There are also many characters that Kingdom Hearts’ protagonists could easily become friends with and bosses that would be amazing to fight against. However, seeing as how playable characters in Dragon Quest are usually created by the players or are silent protagonists, the supporting cast would likely join the Kingdom Hearts heroes on their journey, rather than the player characters.
NieR’s Similarities With Kingdom Hearts
While the NieR/Drakengard series was another underrated Square Enix franchise when it first began, NieR Replicant and NieR Automata have become very popular titles, both of which share a lot in common with the Kingdom Hearts games. Certain NieR characters, as well as enemies known as Shades, are rather similar to the Heartless and Nobodies from Kingdom Hearts.
Some fans consider NieR to be a more mature version of Kingdom Hearts, so it would very interesting to see the characters from each series interact with one another. Sora could instantly befriend the main characters of NieR Replicant, while a character like Riku or Axel would easily fit in NieR Automata. There are so many Square Enix franchises that should crossover into Kingdom Hearts, and it will hopefully happen in Kingdom Hearts 4, whether Final Fantasy is in it or not.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is currently in development.
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