Over the weekend, Kingdom Hearts IV was officially announced at the Kingdom Hearts 20th anniversary event in Tokyo, Japan. Since the event was held privately with only so many people in attendance, news regarding the latest entry in the series that wasn’t shown in the trailer released to the public has been trickling in. This includes the point that Kingdom Hearts IV will be moving development over to Unreal Engine 5. One of those topics was regarding the highly theorized title, Verum Rex, and why it was shelved in favor of Kingdom Hearts IV.
During the 20th anniversary event, Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura shared that he was stuck between choosing whether he wanted to develop Kingdom Hearts IV or Verum Rex and eventually decided on the former. According to a rough translation, the creative explained that the reason he picked Kingdom Hearts IV was that he “would be worried about Sora”
Verum Rex is an in-world video game from the Toy Box level in Kingdom Hearts III. The game stars a boy named Yozora which you learn through Kingdom Hearts III’s secret boss is a part of the Kingdom Hearts story. Quadratum, the city depicted in the Kingdom Hearts IV reveal trailer, is the titular location we see Yozora in, which made fans think of the possibility of a Verum Rex game once Sora and Riku end up there after the events of Kingdom Hearts III and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.
The Japanese publication Famitsu also shared that Kingdom Hearts co-director Tai Yasue said that the team decided to “give priority to KHIV,” as it would be too difficult to develop both Kingdom Hearts IV and a hypothetical Verum Rex game at the same time.
With this all in mind, Nomura did not say that the potential of a Verum Rex game staring Yozora is out of the cards. There still may even be an opportunity to play as him at some point in Kingdom Hearts IV, but looks as though it will be some time until we see Yozora possibly get a game of his own.
