Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced to much fanfare over the weekend. The new trailer showed off a visually stunning graphics style that is unlike anything seen in the series before. Internet sleuths have been trying to figure out why the change is so drastic. The prevailing theory is that Kingdom Hearts 4 will introduce Star Wars and perhaps Marvel characters into the mix. Although as good as the trailer looked, it now seems like that is just the beginning.
A new report from Famitsu claims that the trailer shown off over the weekend is running in Unreal Engine 4. However, the game is being developed in Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5 in parallel. Famitsu claims that the Unreal Engine 5 version of the game will have much better lighting and the detail will be several levels above what has already been shown. Here’s the quote from Famitsu translated via DeepL Translate.
Continuing from “KHIII,” “KHIV” was developed by Square Enix’s Osaka Studio, led by Yasushi Yasue (Co. Director). The trailer video was created using real-time rendering with Unreal Engine 4, but as a result of parallel testing with Unreal Engine 5, the full game will be created with Unreal Engine 5, and the quality of lighting and detailing will be several levels higher. The company says it will improve the quality of the product.
Famitsu via DeepL Translate
Kingdom Hearts 4 doesn’t have a release date just yet. 2023 is the earliest gamers could hope to get their hands on the game. Any later than that and the game will likely be a PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X/S game without being released on last-gen systems. If that ends up being the case, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a much better-looking game that utilizes everything Unreal Engine 5 has to offer.