The Case For a Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 2

The Case For a Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 2

• Kingdom Hearts fans eagerly await The Missing Link in 2024, with KH4 news still quiet.
• Kingdom Hearts Story So Far compilation eases access to Dark Seeker Saga for players.
• Birth by Sleep protagonists could shine in a potential new game, offering fresh character arcs.

The wait for Kingdom Hearts news continues, with the upcoming mobile game Kingdom Hearts: The Missing Link set for an unspecified 2024 release date, and Kingdom Hearts 4 remaining quiet. It appears the Square Enix and Disney crossover series is taking its time to prepare the new Lost Master Arc, with the results hopefully being worth the wait. Kingdom Hearts Dark Road’s final offline update in August 2022 was the last addition to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, a far cry from the many spin-offs and collections bridging the long gap between KH2 and KH3.

At least revisiting or getting into Kingdom Hearts’ backlog has never been easier. Thanks to the Story So Far compilation, players can easily experience the entirety of Kingdom Hearts’ Dark Seeker Saga. How much of it will be necessary for Kingdom Hearts 4, as well as how much of a reboot it will be for Kingdom Hearts, is still unknown, but it should be worth playing regardless. Going back through the series will also bring a lot of extra plot threads to light, and while KH3 tried to wrap some up before Kingdom Hearts 4, there’s at least one with enough material left for a whole other game.

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How Terra Compares to Riku in Kingdom Hearts

The similarities between the protagonists of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and the numbered titles goes surprisingly deeper than names and keyblades.

Kingdom Hearts 4 Won’t Show Birth by Sleep Much Love

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Several questions are tied into the lead-up to Kingdom Hearts 4, including how Sora will return from Quadratum, who Subject X and the Nameless Star are, and what the resurfaced Foretellers are doing. These could all be answered within the scope of Kingdom Hearts 4, but there’s one outstanding detail that might not make the cut. Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind’s extended epilogue shows Riku seeing off the Wayfinder Trio of Aqua, Terra, and Ventus as they depart to look for Sora. However, it isn’t clear what the Birth by Sleep protagonists could add to KH4, as Kingdom Hearts’ mainline regulars are already doing everything from researching Scala ad Caelum to traveling to Quadratum themselves.

A New Birth by Sleep Would Be The Wayfinder Trio’s Ideal Destination

While efforts to limit Kingdom Hearts 4’s cast and focus on its new setting are understandable, Birth by Sleep’s playable leads have enough untapped potential to head up another game by themselves. As this would technically be the third one following the PSP original and Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage, it probably wouldn’t just be called Birth by Sleep 2, but it could serve a similar setting-building function. Aqua, Terra, and Ventus’ experiences after their original game would justifiably leave all three of them at level one again, while also giving them new character arcs to tackle.

How A Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep 2 Could Work

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Ventus is the easiest to build around, to the point where he could be the Sora to Aqua and Terra’s Donald and Goofy. He is the only member of the Wayfinder Trio to not have even attempted a Mark of Mastery exam, and reuniting with his Chirithy from the Kingdom Hearts Union Cross era points to a storyline involving that game’s various time travelers. It could do anything from reveal when Skuld or Ava ended up, to expose the true nature of Vanitas, and the present Foretellers could easily get involved as villains.

Kingdom Hearts Has Already Laid Out Directions For BBS’ Characters

Meanwhile, Terra still technically needs to finish his Mastery exam, make sure his inner darkness is under control like his successor Riku, and generally try to patch things up with his friends. All of this would coincide with Aqua dealing with any lingering trauma from her years in the Realm of Darkness, and her duties as a Master, specifically teaching Kairi post-Melody of Memory, changing her dynamic in the group. This transitional period holds the perfect setup for a new Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep game, and hopefully that’s what Kingdom Hearts has in store for these wandering heroes.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

Platform(s)PSP, PS3ReleasedJanuary 9, 2010Developer(s) Square EnixPublisher(s) Square EnixGenre(s)Action-Adventure, Fighting, Action RPGEngineUnreal Engine 4ESRBeHow Long To Beat29 hours See at Amazon