Kingdom Hearts 4 Gameplay Will Look Even Better in the FInal Version

Kingdom Hearts 4's impressive gameplay introduction was made using Unreal Engine 4 – but the final game is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, and will see improved visuals when it's released.

A lengthy reveal yesterday showed off a more realistic visual look in the game's Quadratum area, as well as shots that may hint at a Star Wars section of the game. It seems this is only a taster of how the final game will look, as a Famitsu article (translated by IGN) points out.

Kingdom Hearts 4 - Official Announcement Images 6 Images

Speaking at the Kingdom Hearts anniversary event where the game was revealed, co-director Yasushi Yasue explained that the trailer was made using Unreal Engine 4, but the game itself is being developed using Unreal Engine 5. Yasue pointed out that the final game will see better lighting and visual detail in particular.

However, it seems it'll be a little while before we see any of the fruit of that work – the game has no release date, and Famitsu indicates that there won't be any more information released in June, the usual timeframe for E3 and other major game reveal events.

Unreal Engine 5 was officially released last week, and creator Epic has shown off some extremely impressive creations already – it bodes well for Kingdom Hearts, which tends to skip between multiple visual styles, so could benefit hugely from the more advanced engine.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].