Resurfaced concept art for Kingdom Hearts 2 suggests that, at one point in development, Sora almost wielded a double-bladed Keyblade as part of his Final Form or Wisdom Form transformations.
Despite being more than a year since Kingdom Hearts 4 and Missing Link were announced at the series' 20th-anniversary event, it's been a pretty dry season for fans. Although there might not be much official news to report, that hasn't stopped the community from digging through some of the old games and finding some interesting discoveries, which is exactly what's happened this week with Kingdom Hearts 2.
Over on Twitter, Blorp325 shared a piece of concept art from Kingdom Hearts 2 as part of their "fun facts about Kingdom Hearts" tweet series. The concept art shows a polygonal model of Sora in his base KH2 outfit holding a conjoined Keyblade behind his back, which appears to be made up of his own Kingdom Key and Mickey's Kingdom Key D.
Along with the image, Blorp325 said, "Early Concept art for Kingdom Hearts 2 suggests that double-bladed Keyblades were considered at some point". This has started fan discussion on why the idea was cut and what it was originally meant for, with many theorising that it's part of Sora's Wisdom Form due to the way that he's standing, or as part of Final Form, which notably features Sora using more than one Keyblade.
As reported by Noisy Pixel, this concept art can actually be found in the Kingdom Hearts 2 Ultimania. According to them, the concept art featured in the tweet can be found towards the end of the Ultimania on a page that discusses concepts for Final Form that didn't make it into the final game, confirming that it was meant for that and not Wisdom Form, despite the similar stance. Another piece of concept art for Final Form shows Sora holding two Keyblades up in the air, with one of them coursing with lightning.
Noisy Pixel team member Ryuji translated the text that's featured on the page, which reads, "The left side shows two Keyblades thrust into the ground, with Sora’s model leaning forward. On the right side, a bolt of lightning courses between the Keyblades’ tips as Sora holds them in both hands. Next is a proposal in which the two Keyblades, which are conjoined, are held in the back of Sora’s hand".
Although Kingdom Hearts 2's final iteration of Final Form is pretty legendary now, it's a shame that neither of these concepts was used in the game, as conjoined Keyblades are still something that we've never seen (unless you count the X-blade). Let's hope that the idea makes a return at some point in Kingdom Hearts 4.