Kingdom Hearts 3 spent nearly an entire decade in development, and it gave plenty of time for fans to speculate on the fate of one of gaming’s most teased couples, Sora and Kairi. After several spin-offs to convolute the Kingdom Hearts storyline, the third installment finally released and fans were expecting to get closure on the series and many open-ended plot points. Now, it looks like the franchise has even more future titles planned to continue Sora’s story.
And to fans’ initial surprise, Kingdom Hearts 3 released a DLC titled ReMind to unravel the timeline even further. In it, Sora is looking to restore Kairi’s heart after it was fractured by Xehanort, and by doing so, he explores a different timeline that split from the consequences of his actions. The story takes a slightly darker twist than it had in the past and focused largely on Sora’s relationship with Kairi, but it still didn’t release all the tension built between them. Kingdom Hearts 4 could be a perfect opportunity for the series to grow up and finally see this relationship solidified.
It’s not an easy task to unravel the history of Sora and Kairi’s origins, but simply speaking, they’re tied together through destiny, a main theme throughout the Kingdom Hearts franchise. When Destiny Islands was being swallowed up in Kingdom Hearts, her heart sought refuge and clung to Sora’s, but she’s also tied to him through Destiny’s Embrace after giving the keychain to Aqua in Birth By Sleep. After Kairi spends most of Kingdom Hearts as a lifeless husk, Sora returns her heart to her body to save her, and as a result, turns himself into a Heartless. Though Sora spent most of the game searching for her, the ending has them split apart once again and Kairi waits around for him on Destiny Islands.
Eventually, Kairi decides that waiting “isn’t good enough” and goes to look for him herself. Not only is this romantic, but it gave the series an opportunity to introduce the love-interest lady as either a playable character or simply as a warrior. After reuniting with a jaded Riku in her search for Sora, the pair share their own emotional reunion (though Sora doesn’t cry for her as he does for Riku). But after the three return to Destiny Islands following the final battle, Sora and Riku are once again called away by the King. And even though the meeting at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2 was sweet, Sora and Kairi’s relationship is still not proved canon.
This means throughout Kingdom Hearts 3, while Sora is off attempting to prevent the start of the second Keyblade War, they once again spend the majority of the game separated as Kairi is training to use the Keyblade. It was expected for Sora to continue his adventures with Donald and Goofy in the classic trio, however, many fans were disappointed in how little Kairi actually appears in the game due to all the lead-up to her being a Keyblade Warrior. Furthermore, Kingdom Hearts 3 shows her wielding the weapon barely more than she does in 2 after Riku conjured it for a makeshift weapon. She ends up being the redundant damsel in distress that Sora is trying to save, in the ReMind DLC as well, she’s never not by a man’s side or being babysat.
And despite being the princess in need of saving time and time again, the couple is still never renounced as canon. Sora and Kairi are approximately sixteen years old, and the boy had previously noted that he has a lot of growing up to do and love to learn about. Still, after all the tension that’s built between the two of them, it’s surprising that they don’t even get to share a simple smooch. Through all of it, Kairi has always seemed like she cares about Sora as more than a friend, and Sora has confirmed his feelings for her, but Kingdom Hearts is notorious for teasing couples that never fully follow through.
Fans were expecting Kingdom Hearts 3 to be the end of the light and dark saga and would turn its focus to another group of characters with the next installment, but teasers suggest that Sora’s story may not be over after all. Prior to the release of ReMind, KH 3 featured a secret ending that showed Sora seemingly ending up with Shibuya, the main setting of The World Ends With You. This implies that the next Kingdom Hearts title will dive into another Square Enix franchise, but it also looks darker than most KH titles. Although, this wouldn’t be the first time the franchise uses an edgy teaser for its next installment.
But the ending of ReMind showed important context for a next possible installment, which director Tetsuya Nomura has stated is in consideration. When Sora and Kairi are finally (once again) reunited at the end of the DLC, Sora is seen fading away, possibly right before the couple shares a kiss on the iconic Paopu fruit tree branch. Again, this leaves another opportunity for Kairi to become a playable Keyblade Warrior as she searches for Sora, or it could simply mean that Sora will again spend another game away from his damsel.
Sora is still aging and if this trend will continue in this direction, perhaps Kingdom Hearts will take a bit more of an adult turn into the franchise. Some consider Final Fantasy to be a more mature version of the Square Enix’s Disney-themed series, and there’s a lot of material for writers to work with if they wanted to follow in FF‘s footsteps in terms of audience sophistication. As Sora grows further towards adulthood, there will be a more likely chance that Sora and Kairi may get the closure on their relationship that fans are looking for. Or perhaps the franchise will continue the same trend of breeding tension and never seeing it through.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is not confirmed to be in development.
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