Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link Canceled

After years of development and in the middle of the longest drought of Kingdom Hearts titles since the franchise launched, Square Enix announced that the long-gestating mobile tie-in game Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link has been canceled. Focus will instead be be placed on development on Kingdom Hearts 4 which was announced several years ago with minimal updates since.

Like Kingdom Hearts X and Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road (later re-released as Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X in one app with the microtransactions removed), Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link was meant to be a live service mobile game that would bridge the gap between Kingdom Hearts 3/Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 4. This game would also include key backstory elements integral to understand the plot of Kingdom Hearts 4.

As someone who never really got into Unchained X, both during the release of either game while the services were live or after the fact when the services were dead and it was sold as a more "complete" experience, I don't necessarily see this as a major loss. The gameplay loop of mobile games never really appealed to me and, even if the game has a Kingdom Hearts skin, it still wouldn't be enough to make me interested. These games always felt like trend chasing in the most cynical way because fans of the franchise will feel committed to understand what's happening in the next mainline or even spin-off entry.

The announcement ends off on the note that focus will now be placed on Kingdom Hearts 4, which begs a few questions. For starters, were Missing Link and Kingdom Hearts 4 sharing a development team? Second, is this also a tacit announcement of a "delay" (not really because we don't have a confirmed release window) of Kingdom Hearts 4? If not, the promise of this game being integral to the overall plot is inaccurate, and if so, how much of the plot of Kingdom Hearts 4 has to be reworked to accommodate this cancellation?

I don't think Kingdom Hearts 4 will be the next time we see the franchise. I would not be surprised if there's another remake, possibly of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days bundled with a Fragmentary Passage-style tech demo/small narrative advancement, comes out before Kingdom Hearts 4, but we will wait and see until there is a formal announcement.