Haley Joel Osment, who you might have seen on screen in The Sixth Sense and Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence, is better know in these parts as the voice behind Kingdom Hearts' endlessly optimistic protag Sora. But after playing the beloved character in 12 different games, Osment reckons that sometimes what's best is to hang up the gloves.
Speaking to IGN, Osment wasn't actually aware that Kingdom Hearts 4 had been officially unveiled. "I hope that we hear something about it sometime soon," he said, "I guess it's rumored that there's going to be another one. I'm always the last to know, because I'm the last step in the process. So hopefully, sometime soon, I'll be back in the studio finding out what happened to everybody."
IGN then informed him that Square Enix announced the fourquel some time ago, and also asked him about series creator Tetsuya Nomura's recent comments about moving the story towards its final conclusion. The Sora steward said he's sure Nomura "has great plans to wrap it up in a satisfying way" - and, perhaps, "that's the best thing to do, even if you have something that you love and you feel like you want to play it forever."
Osment reckons it's better to say goodbye to a beloved series rather than let it drag "beyond where the creator wants it to go. I think that's the best way to go." And, hey, if you find yourself missing a version of Donald Duck that is canonically stronger than any other single black mage in Final Fantasy history, then there's still "many, many hours of gameplay for people to go back and revisit."
Kingdom Hearts 4 has been radio silent for 1,005 days, but don’t worry - Tetsuya Nomura teases he has the story planned out
The original Kingdom Hearts was initially "more hardcore" until Square Enix toned it down: "We had some puzzles in there that would make you go, 'what is this, Takeshi's Challenge?'"
