Well, this one made my week. Square Enix finally gave Kingdom Hearts IV a real release window at D23 2026, and it's late 2027. After years of watching fans ask "but when?" at every single showcase, we finally have an answer. According to the report from Herzindagi, the announcement came packed with new details, and some of them genuinely surprised me.

The headline grabber for me is the Coco world. Pixar's Coco is a lovely fit for this series, all music and memory and family, which is basically Kingdom Hearts' whole heart wrapped in sugar skulls. Sora swinging a Keyblade through the Land of the Dead sounds like something that shouldn't work on paper and then absolutely does once you see it moving. I remember when the first Kingdom Hearts dropped in 2002 and everybody thought mixing Disney with Final Fantasy was a strange gamble. Twenty-some years later, here we still are.

And yes, you read that right: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are playable. Actually playable, not just showing up for a cutscene and a pep talk before disappearing. For long-time fans who've followed these three since the very first game, that matters. My granddaughter Jess grew up on these games, and I already know she's going to have opinions about which of the three she mains first. My money's on Donald, out of pure loyalty.

The new combat footage shows Sora fighting in Quadratum, the Tokyo-inspired world introduced in the original reveal back in 2022. It's returning, and it looks sharper than ever. There was also a new "Paper Mickey" section, which appears to be a stylized paper-craft take on the classic cartoon mouse. Think of the hand-drawn and toy-themed worlds from Kingdom Hearts III, where each world got its own visual personality instead of everything looking the same. It's a small touch, but it's the kind of detail that makes these games feel lovingly made rather than stamped out on an assembly line.

Now, a word of patience, because someone has to say it. Late 2027 is more than a year away, and if the last few years have taught us anything about big game releases, it's that windows slide. I'd rather Square Enix take its time and ship something finished than rush it out the door buggy. We've all bought a game at launch that clearly needed another six months in the oven, and I don't wish that on anyone, especially not for a game people have waited this long for.

My usual advice applies here too: don't pre-order the moment a listing appears, and don't let a retailer talk you into a "guaranteed launch edition" this far out. Games should work for you when you sit down to play them, and that includes not paying full price for a promise two years in advance. Wait for real gameplay reviews, wait for the inevitable Digital Foundry breakdown of the performance, and then decide with your wallet.

Still, none of that dampens my excitement. Kingdom Hearts IV with a Coco world, playable Disney's classic trio, and a fresh look at Quadratum is exactly the kind of reveal that makes an event like D23 worth watching. Late 2027 it is. I'll be keeping an eye out for a firm release date and, knowing this series, at least one more trailer with a remix of a song that will live in my head for months.