Kingdom Hearts will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2022 and to mark the milestone, developer Square Enix has plans for a special event.
The event will take place at Shibuya Hikarie in Tokyo on April 10th, as announced on the official Square Enix Twitter. The music of the series will be celebrated with a mini-concert, plus several of the Japanese voice actors and members of the development team will be on hand for a special Q&A panel. Those in attendance will also have the chance to view an exclusive Kingdom Hearts exhibition. For anyone who can't make it to Tokyo for the event or are unable to get tickets, a video of the proceedings will be available to view at an as yet unknown future date.
The first Kingdom Hearts game was released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan on March 28th, 2002, with releases in the US and EU coming later in the year. Featuring a character known as Sora, the series is known for blending a variety of Disney properties and worlds with characters from the Final Fantasy franchise, as players battle to save multiple worlds from the unrelenting darkness.
Since 2002, Kingdom Hearts has received two direct console sequels and several other games over a variety of formats, covering prequel stories, spinoffs and even a rhythm action game. As part of the 20th anniversary of the series, ten of the Kingdom Hearts games are being released for the Nintendo Switch for the first time in February. They can be purchased in three separate bundles or all together in the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece bundle, which will retail at $89.99.
These Switch ports of Sora's journey will, however, only be available as Cloud Versions. Any Switch owners wanting to play the games will require a permanently online connection, as the games are not being released as either downloadable or physical copies. When asked about this decision, Kingdom Hearts III producer Ichiro Hazama explained, "We believe that the Cloud Version is currently the best way to deliver the Kingdom Hearts series to Nintendo Switch players, but we are always excited to hear to feedback from our fans and want to thank them for all their support."
Switch players who want to play as Sora do have one other option, as the keyblade-wielding hero was revealed as the final playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He brings a variety of costumes and special attacks with him from Kingdom Hearts to the Super Smash Bros. arena.
Source: Twitter, Square Enix