This article contains spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III, Re:Mind, and Melody of Memory.
Another Kingdom Hearts game, another somewhat confusing ending that makes more new questions than it answers. It’s standard fare for series fans at this point, but getting half an hour of nonsensical exposition out of nowhere could make anyone confused. Read on if you’re curious as to how the ending of Melody of Memory will affect the inevitable Kingdom Hearts 4.
Dreams and Memories
So the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella comes to Riku and Kairi once Kairi wakes up, and says that three things are needed to find Sora. Kairi’s memories, which have been thoroughly explored through Melody of Memory’s gameplay, are the first thing. Riku’s dreams, which are seen in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts III, are the second. If you don’t remember, Riku dreams of an alternate reality’s Shibuya in the secret ending, which is implied to be where Sora may be. Finally, the Fairy Godmother says one more thing is needed.
She Who Shall Not Be Named
The Nameless Star is the third thing needed to find Sora, which you may remember from Kingdom Hearts III. Nameless Star met Sora in The Final World, where Sora was reassembling his body. The Star told Sora that it was waiting for someone to find her, which is heavily implied to be Verum Rex’s Yozora, the secret boss of the Re:Mind DLC. We learn that the Nameless Star was originally from the fictional world of Quadratum and that through Riku’s power of waking, the Star can open a portal to Quadratum itself. We also learn that Quadratum was the city Riku dreamt of and the place where Sora fought Yozora. Riku goes there, while Kairi stays behind to train, leading into the next game.
The Meaning of Quadratum
Now here’s where things get wild. A Quadratum is a square, meaning the city is also called Square. While it’s not confirmed, it sure feels like this is a reference to Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest developer Square Enix. The implication here is that other Square Enix games may play a large part in Kingdom Hearts 4. As I said in an older speculative article, it seems like we may be visiting Square Enix-based worlds in Kingdom Hearts 4, like The World Ends With You and Final Fantasy settings. Maybe we’ll even get a world based on The Bouncer, whose character looks uncomfortably similar to Sora. I think the most likely “game” we’ll visit, though, is Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
To Versus and Beyond
The fight with Yozora in Re:Mind has quite a few allusions to Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the original version of Final Fantasy XV. Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura was in charge of Versus XIII, but after years of minimal announcements and information on the game, it was shifted to another team and retitled as Final Fantasy XV. Yozora’s similarity to Noctis (their names even both mean variants of “night sky”,) combined with the aesthetic similarity of Versus XIII trailers and Quadratum, has me thinking that we’ll be experiencing Nomura’s original vision of Versus XIII in some way through the next Kingdom Hearts game. How meta it will get is up in the air, but it sure seems like this is Nomura’s way of creating Versus XIII— one way or another.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions about Melody of Memory, and stay tuned to MonsterVine for more Kingdom Hearts content.
