Summary

• Kingdom Hearts 4 will reset the story, possibly causing Sora to lose his memories, making it more digestible for newcomers.
• Despite the reset, previous plotlines will likely continue, evident in how Sora may have already forgotten key events.
• Significant moments involving Riku and Namine's unfulfilled promises hint at potential memory loss for Sora in Kingdom Hearts 4.

In a recent interview with Young Jump magazine, Tetsuya Nomura revealed that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kingdom💜 Hearts 4 will act as a story reset for the series. My initial reaction to this🅷 was fear - Kingdom Hearts has an extensive plot, and, as it​​​​​​​ stands right now, that plot has plenty of unanswered questions. Will all of these loose threads be left hanging, in favour of making the next game more palatable to newcomers?

The 2022 reveal trailer for shows Strelitzia, a character from the mobile game Kingdom Hearts Union X, in Quadratum with Sora, so it’s obviously not going to be a completely new story. There’s also Donald, Goofy, and Riku actively looking for Sora since he disappeared at the end of the Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind DLC. But the new aesthetic, font, and gameplay mechanics all point to 🐟some sort of new beginning.

For these existing plotl🧜ines to continue despite a ‘reset’, th🅘e avenue that makes the most sense is for Sora to lose his memories, so he can relearn the context of the previous games along with the player when the fourth main entry comes around.

Sora is no stranger to losing his memories. He spent all of💖 Chain of Memories forgetting Riku and K✤airi, and then had his memory 🍒of being in Castle Oblivion wiped after that. It’s possible that something similar could be at play in Kingdom Hearts 4, especially with Quadratum being a strange ‘fake reality’ and Castle Oblivion being a similar liminal space.

On top of that, Kingdom Hearts 3 and its DLC also allude to Sora already having lost some memories. This boy s🐠ure does love a spot of amnesia.

Sora May Have Already Forgotten Riku’s Sacrifice

During the Keyblade Graveyard segment of Kingdom Hearts 3, Riku sacrifices himself by shielding Sora from the Demon Tide when everyone else has already been taken by the darkness. The moment is given a lot of focus; after the chaos and Sora🥂’s desperate scrܫeam, everything quietens down.

Riku clenches his fist, tells Sora he believes in him (if you go by the original Japanese line), and takes a deep breath before raising his Keyblade against the Demon Tide and sta💛nding firm as the darkn🏅ess swallows him too.

But a few t🔴hings following this scene are odd, implying that Sora may have fo𓂃rgotten it happened entirely.

Sora Has No Reaction To Seeing Riku Again

After Sora finds Kairi’s heart and they both return to the Keyblade Graveyard, he has no reaction to seeing Riku after what has just happened, when he’s normally pretty open about how he’s feeling, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:especially about Riku.

Their reunion in KH2 is extremely heartfelt, and when Riku returns after saving Sora’s heart in ๊Dream Drop Distance, Sora doesn’t hide his excitement at seeing him again. This makes it all the more odd that Sora doesn’t acknowledge what’s happꦬened - surely he’s grateful that Riku is even still alive?

Sora also tells Riku earlier in KH3, “Be safe. No reckless🍌 stunts.” Using yourself as a human shield is pretty much the definition of a reckless stunt… So why wouldn’t Sora acknowledge this if he remembers what happened?

ReMind Cuts Out The Sacrifice Entirely

KH3’s ReMind DLC sees Sora head back to the Keyblade Graveyard to recover Kairi’s heart, with the cutscene from the main game of everyone being taken by the De🀅mon Tide being shown again. However, rather th💝an showing Riku’s sacrifice, it instead lingers on a black screen for a few moments.

It could have simply been cut for time, but why show the rest of the cutscene up until this exact moment? Why have the black screen linger for just a moment too long for it 𓂃to be a regular transition, if not to imply that this is a blank spot in Sora’𝓰s memory?

When Sora regains consciousness on his Station of Awakening, his eyes are glazed over, as if he was zoned out. As we’re seeing all of this from Sora’s perspective, it’s possible the sacrifice is cut because Sora simply doesn’t remember 𝓡it ever taking place.

Sora Misremembers How Many Hearts He Saved

When in The Final World in ReMin🌟dꦉ, Sora tells Chirithy he’s confident about saving Kairi’s heart: “Hey, I’ve already saved six hearts. What’s one more?”

But… he saved seven hearts. After saving Riku’s heart, Sora travels to six worlds and saves a h꧟eart in each one.

Aqua, Ventus, Axel, King Mickꦜey, Donald, Goofy… Are you forgetting someone, Sora?

It is a common joke that Sora can’t ✃count, but it’s not played for laughs here. Donald and Goofy aren’t there to point out that Sora miscounted, so why bother setting up the joke with no punchline?

But How Would Sora Have Forgotten?

Sora could have easily forgotten about Riku sacrificing himself because his subconscious blocked it ou🌃t: it was a traumatising event, so his subconscious just decided to wipe it away entirely.…

But there’s a mo♏re convincing explanation for this. After Sora rescues Axel’s heart in San Fransokyo, Young Xehanort appears and warns Sora that he’s misused the Power of Waking. It’s for traversing hearts to reach worlds; not traversing worlds to reach hearts. The latter of which is what Sorꦯa has been doing to rescue his friends already.

Young Xehanort then tells Sora that he’s “already paid the price.” Bearing in mind that this conversation happens well before Sora fully saves Kairi, it suggests that he’s already lost something prior to his disappearance.

Sora Still Hasn’t Thanked Namine

As well as the possibility of Sora already having lost an important memory, a significant plot thr🔴ead regarding Namine remains open.

Back in Chain of Memories, Sora made a promise to thank Namine for what she did for him - risking her life for him and🐼 returning his true memories, even if she might have preferred Sora to keep the altered ones.

Sora makes it clear in KH3 that he’s not fulfilled that ‘thank you’ yet. While he thanked her in the datascape, he wants to thank her properly in the real world. He even accidentally thanks her again while talking to her and makes it doubly clear that’s not the real thank you.

Thanks Namine. O🦹ops! That’s not the official thank you.

Namine’s whole deal is being able to alter Sora’s memories, so it seems particularly fi꧙tting that her storyline with Sora has been left open, despite KH3 being an easy place for this to have been resolved. Namine may yet have a part to play in piecing Sora’s memories together once more, as she may be the only one who c🌃an relink the chains of his memories.

The seeds of Sora having forgotten at least something important have already been so🙈wn, and ‘Thank Namine’ has purposefully been left open, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if Sora lost even more of his memory upon entering Quadratum.

Sora having to recover his previous memories would allow him to have some seriously overdue self-reflection too - I’m notℱ convinced he’s worked on his “alone, I’m worthless” mindset in ꦦthe slightest - and it would work perfectly in conjunction with making sure newcomers aren’t completely lost jumping into KH4.