To say that the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 4 was a shock is an understatement. True, many fans felt that the games would continue given the VERY divisive ending to Kingdom Hearts 3, and the title that followed in Melody of Memory (which further implied that things weren’t done yet), but to get the announcement for KH4 just two years after the arrival of the last main title? That was a shock. And it was even more of a shock when Sora was revealed to be “alive” and in a hyper-realistic world known as Quadratum.
But what was revealed afterward is what we’re talking about now. Because the creator of the Kingdom Hearts series, Tetsuya Nomura talked about what this new world is, and isn’t. According to him, Quadratum isn’t the real world (aka the actual Earth and Tokyo, Japan) but is “similar to an afterworld”.
“That room will be the base for the early part of the game,” he revealed. Then revealed that to Sora, this new place is very much an “afterlife” of sorts, even though it is indeed set (somehow) within a part of Japan…one that happens to be near Shibuya…which Nomura called out by name…
“From Sora’s perspective, Quadratum is an underworld, a fictional world that is different from reality. But from the point of view of the inhabitants on the Quadratum side, the world of Quadratum is reality, and the world where Sora and the others were is the other side, the fictional world.”
Nomura also noted that Kingdom Hearts 4 would be a title that embraced the theme of “perspectives”, in how the way we live our lives influences how we see things.
Finally, the question of Sora’s “new look” was also addressed, and Nomura noted that it won’t be like that throughout the game. As proven by how Donald and Goofy looked in their part of the reveal trailer.
Source: Video Game Chronicle
