What appears to be nearly finished footage of the intro for canceled mobile game Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link has leaked online.
Kingdom Hearts fans were taken aback over the weekend when clips from a never-released game found their way online through 4chan (via Vice). The project in question is Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, an iOS and Android title that was announced in 2022, worked on for years, and eventually canceled in 2025.
Things heated up today when what seems to be the full, nearly five-minute intro sequence was published and quickly shared across YouTube, X/Twitter, Reddit, and other sites. Without intervention from Square Enix, it’s still unclear if this video truly originated from Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, but if it is a fake leak, it’s a really convincing one.
THE ENTIRE KINGDOM HEARTS MISSINK LINK INTRO HAS LEAKED OH MY GOOOOOOOOD pic.twitter.com/2zvF4dCC8P
— kij (@kijuler) July 20, 2026
The first moments of the supposedly leaked footage look more like Death Stranding than Kingdom Hearts. It begins with a team of spacesuit-wearing individuals descending into a dark, watery abyss with only a little light to guide them forward. Then, the Heartless – and the Keyblades – come out.
“The era missing from history’s cycle,” subtitles featured in the footage said. “As people and Heartless endlessly emerged from the distortions, it was the third generation of the founded city that faced the true nature of this phenomenon.
“Light and darkness brought about the beginning, and hearts nurtured it. One generation succeeded another as time flowed on — until the world that came to be was filled with thriving people. This is a city of light and darkness, kindred and kinless, dreams and distortions — the metropolis Scala ad Caelum. On the night that you opened your eyes in this world, the stars — beautifully distorted — rained down from the pitch-black sky.”
It looks more like Kingdom Hearts 4 than a canceled mobile spinoff, with the footage shown today depicting a project that may have been relatively far along before its cancelation. Naturally, fans are having mixed feelings about the whole ordeal as they try to piece together what exactly is happening.
“I guess this fully confirms that the dude in the recent KH4 trailer is 100% Sigurd,” one fan on Reddit said. “It was highly speculated from the similar colour scheme of the clothes, but wasn’t confirmed.”
“Everything about this, from the Keyblade astronauts to the design of the Scala ad Caelum inhabitants scratches a very specific Final Fantasy itch for me,” another added. “I hope they absorb most of this into KH4.”
“Dude, I thought I was watching footage from Pragmata until the freaking Starlight Keyblades came out,” another fan joked.
“The fact that we’re getting Kingdom Hearts leaks in 2026 is somehow very on brand for this franchise,” one fan on X said.
We lost something truly special. https://t.co/yCiQLvcFof
— Clint (@Daedraform101) July 20, 2026
Square really looked at this and said shut it down pic.twitter.com/di4OcYOY0R
— 𝑴𝑨𝑱𝑼𝑼𝑩 (@imajinbuub) July 20, 2026
— Alexandre T. 🔺 (@Narualex04) July 20, 2026
scientists in kh only have one fit pic.twitter.com/GGEE3p2ok8
— olu (@officiallyolu) July 20, 2026
Square Enix may never release the ironically named Missing-Link, but there’s always the chance we could see its connections to the wider universe picked up in Kingdom Hearts 4. You can see the latest footage for that long-awaited follow-up here.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).