From Final Fantasy to Dragon Quest, Square Enix may be best known for its long-running franchises on consoles, but the company is no stranger to mobile, either. In fact, only last month we saw the release of Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis on mobile, bringing new content to VII’s legacy with a young Sephiroth included.
Also on the mobile front is the upcoming Kingdom Hearts Missing Link, which has been missing in action for some time – expected by many to have released by now. It will be a new entry in the series known for its collaborative efforts between Square Enix and Disney.
Now interest in the popular series has been reawakened with new imagery surfacing online.
What we know
Missing Link was first revealed alongside Kingdom Hearts 4 in April 2022, but any details on the game dried up after January 2023 – when beta testers got their hands on the game. Now Square Enix has finally acknowledged the new game again, even if only in a couple of ambiguous images on X (formerly Twitter)… Which ultimately reveal next to nothing about it.
Recent years have been full of flops for Square, with mobile games like Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights and Echoes of Mana closing after roughly a year each. And though lasting longer, SinoAlice Global is now closing down too, with Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light soon to follow.
Square has a habit of releasing mobile games in Japan only despite its open ambition to expand its brand awareness in the West. Perhaps then, despite so many months of silence, Kingdom Hearts Missing Link will serve as that all-important piece of the puzzle when it eventually launches – a piece Square will wish it had released earlier, instead of focusing on titles that didn’t last long at all.
Missing Link is believed to play like its mobile Kingdom Hearts predecessor Unchained X crossed with Niantic’s Pokémon Go, which could give it an extra boost considering the recent rise in geolocation gaming.
The timing of this update, however small it may be, is interesting. It’s believed that earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked to consider the acquisition of a major games publisher by senior members of the Disney team, which would imply that the entertainment brand intends to begin publishing its own games.
