Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link Trailer and Closed Beta. Late last night (or in the middle of the afternoon in Japan), Square Enix dropped a new trailer for the next entry in the Kingdom Hearts series, Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link.
This entry was originally announced at last year’s 20th anniversary event alongside Kingdom Hearts IV. Missing Link is the successor to the series’ previous duo of mobile games, Kingdom Hearts Union χ and Kingdom Hearts Dark Road.
Related: New Kingdom Hearts Disney Pin Celebrates 2023 Video Game Day
The game will follow a customized keyblade wielder going on a new adventure in a new era between the Age of Fairytales (the Kingdom Hearts series’ High Republic era equivalent) as seen in Union χ and the present era much of the series has taken place in. The most interesting element of the game however is the Pokemon Go-esque GPS gameplay, finding treasure and getting into battles as your character runs around your local area alongside you.
The trailer gives us some further glimpses of story and gameplay, with the player running around the world of Scala ad Caelum (the home of much of keyblade-wielding society as introduced in Kingdom Hearts III) in areas modeled after presumably real locations. There were treasure chests and boss-level Heartless dotted around neighborhoods, as well as what we speculate to be Pokestop equivalents with Disney characters such as Belle and Roo, and even zooming out to show the entire globe littered with treasure chests and points of interest.
We also see multiple cutscenes, the most interesting of which shows new environments around Scala ad Caelum, the character Brain from Union χ, a new redheaded keyblade-wielding ally, and the player’s Station of Awakening showing the principle cast of Union χ.
The trailer came with the announcement that the full game would be released sometime in 2024 and that there would be a closed beta test for players in the EU and Australia. Sign-ups begin today, 10/30/2023, and last until 11/19/2023, with the closed beta testing for iOS beginning on 29th November 2023 and ending on 8th December 2023. The closed beta testing for Android is currently planned for January 2024. If you’re in the appropriate regions, you can sign up for the closed beta test at https://www.kingdomhearts.com/missinglink/en-us/.
