A day after Kingdom Hearts IV received its late 2027 release window at D23, Square Enix has followed up with an extended version of the trailer, and the accompanying details confirm some notable gameplay elements. Chief among them: the game features action scenes where you control Donald and Goofy, along with an exploration segment where King Mickey searches for clues about the missing Sora. Both were teased visually in the original trailer, but Square Enix has now confirmed they’re playable rather than cutscenes.
The official story setup fills in some blanks as well. Sora awakens in an unfamiliar world called Quadratum, which Square Enix describes as resembling modern-day Tokyo, and spends the game trying to return to his own world while Donald and Goofy visit the Underworld in search of clues about their missing friend. That matches what the original trailer showed, with the pair paying Hades a visit, and the world of Disney and Pixar’s Coco returns as the confirmed new setting for the journey.
On the combat side, Square Enix is promising fast-paced, dynamic battles built on simple controls, with magic available depending on the situation and a newly added Build system that expands the range of combat styles. Keyblades also behave differently depending on their type, so the way you fight changes based on which one you bring and how you strategize around it. It’s the most concrete the publisher has been about how Kingdom Hearts IV actually plays since the game resurfaced at June’s Nintendo Direct.
The extended trailer arrived the same day as the Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts panel at D23, the 25th anniversary retrospective we covered last month featuring Kingdom Hearts IV co-director Tai Yasue and series voice actors Haley Joel Osment and David Gallagher. Square Enix also shared updated series numbers, noting the franchise spans 13 titles, or 20 counting Final Mix versions, with more than 39 million copies shipped and sold worldwide as of the end of December 2025. Kingdom Hearts IV is headed to PlayStation 5, XBOX Series X|S, and Switch 2, with PC versions on XBOX on PC, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, and for anyone starting from scratch, Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III] arrives October 8, leaving a full year to untangle the story before Sora wakes up in Quadratum.
