Summary
Clive Rosfield has quickly become a popularFinal Fantasyprotagonist, with many Square Enix fans hoping to see him make an appearance in the upcomingKingdom Hearts 4. However, following the trends of actualFinal Fantasyrepresentation inKingdom Heartsmight suggest that fans are unfortunately in for some disappointment if they are looking for Sora and Clive to jump into the fight together.
This likelihood of Clive being skipped forKingdom Hearts 4comes primarily from the way that every title afterFinal Fantasy 10has been treated throughout the crossover series. Namely, it is the way that even the most successful titles have been pushed aside for the sake of the PS One and Nintendo-era classicFinal Fantasycharacters.
RELATED:If Clive Appears in Kingdom Hearts 4, Square Enix Has to Get One Thing Right
Final Fantasy 16’s Release During Kingdom Hearts 4’s Development
While it can be difficult to pinpoint whenKingdom Hearts 4news is expected to drop, let alone a release date for the game, the trailer from 2022 is proof that this title is currently in development. This means that Square Enix was not sure of how popularFinal Fantasy 16would be when the planning stages ofKingdom Hearts 4started, with the basic outline for the game likely already being finalized. Of course, it is possible for direction to change at any point before release, but with how long development has already taken onKingdom Heartstitles in the past, this type of needless redirect might not be the best choice for the series.
A key example of this crossover of development leading to characters being left out or their appearances being made minor comes fromDestiny Islands in the originalKingdom Hearts. It is in this starting location that Tidus and Wakka fromFinal Fantasy 10can be found, having been made children and missing most of their unique designs. This was becauseFinal Fantasy 10andKingdom Heartslaunched only a year apart, and Square Enix wasn’t confident in the popularity of new characters like Tidus and Wakka during development of the crossover.
This is likely very similar to whereKingdom Hearts 4andFinal Fantasy 16land, with the crossover having been planned before finding out that Clive would quickly become a fan favorite protagonist. WhileClive has a lot to teach Sorawere he to appear as an older mentor figure in the next game, he likely hadn’t been planned for leading up throughKingdom Hearts 4development. That is also ignoring the reverence theKingdom Heartsseries only seems to have for classic titles, and the distance it makes between the games from more than a decade and a half ago.
No Country for New Final Fantasy
To callFinal Fantasy 12"new" after 17 years might seem strange, but that is where the cutoff is for the latest inclusion of “recent” titles from the series intoKingdom Hearts. The last game to manage a reference wasFinal Fantasy 10-2, with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine appearing as unexplained pixies/treasure hunters inKingdom Hearts 2. Since then, the majority of the referential characters have mostly come from the PS One era, or taken the form ofFinal Fantasymascots like Moogles.
Oddly enough,The World Ends With Youhas managed to make an appearance inKingdom Heartssince release, but no otherFinal Fantasyhas been given the same treatment. This is regardless of the popularity of games likeFinal Fantasy 13in Japan, which was a big enough hit domestically for protagonist Lightning to have a crossover with Louis Vuitton. So, whileClive makes sense to join theKingdom Heartsrosterof guest characters, that just doesn’t seem to be the direction that the series is looking to go moving forward.
