After 22 years of Kingdom Hearts games, the series is finally available on Steam. Many old and new fans are falling in love with Sora, Donald, and Goofy's adventures through various Disney worlds as if the series were brand new again. However, as Square Enix continues to publish twists on the Kingdom Hearts formula, including a Pokémon GO-style mobile game, rhythm games, and more, there is a notable lack of VR titles in the franchise’s strange world.
As the list of best VR headsets grows each year, with more powerful hardware replacing older models, it feels truly heartless that Kingdom Hearts hasn't arrived in virtual reality as a full experience. Admittedly, there is the Kingdom Hearts VR Experience for PSVR, but it is more of a lengthy music video than an actual game, and it doesn't expand on the series' best features.
However, there was a potential timeline where a Kingdom Hearts VR game could have topped the best PCVR games and best Meta Quest 3 games lists. A few weeks ago, YouTuber lowkeymatt accessed a Kingdom Hearts VR tech demo from a developer at a VR gaming company. The pitch clearly wasn’t successful, but we wish it had been.
The once-lost Kingdom Hearts VR game lets potential players visit Traverse Town, wielding Sora's iconic Keyblade, with some very basic test dummy hands. Lowkeymatt then travels to the Olympus Coliseum, where he fights basic Heartless alongside our beloved Donald Duck and Goofy. Despite the demo’s small scale, we still imagine that Donald doesn't heal the player.
And... that's about it. There’s not much to the tech demo, but while it may be a quick experience, the level of detail shows that a lot of passion went into the pitch. Both locations look very faithful to the series, and it’s great to see the Keyblade in its true form.
However, let's be honest: a Kingdom Hearts VR game would likely include some major plot points and threads that most of the fanbase wouldn't be able to experience. But, as the release date for Kingdom Hearts 4 is still unknown, we’d love a full-scale VR game to enjoy before Sora’s adventure continues.
Interestingly, there were also two Final Fantasy VR projects pitched to Square Enix. While the idea of wielding Cloud’s Buster Sword in virtual reality sounds amazing, we can't imagine playing a full 60+ hour JRPG in VR would be very fun—at least not until the technology advances further.