Found Proud Mode in Square Enix’s long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 to be little wanting? Don’t worry, because it seems Critical Mode will be filling that gap soon. In fact, a free update adding the mode will be going live tomorrow. Over on the game’s official Twitter, director Tetsuya Nomura added a brief note, stating, “We’ve changed things up from the previous games, so I hope you enjoy.”
Earlier this month, co-director Tai Yasue talked about how Critical Mode would require better understanding of mechanics like blocking. You’ll also have to make use of cooking food for buffs. It may even be required to overcome certain situations and battles. If that wasn’t enough, there will be some new abilities for players to mess around with.
Regarding those abilities, Yasue said, “We wanted to do it the right way so it’s not just superficial. We wanted a new experience there, and we realized there was a lot we could really actually do. We added new abilities for example, for the critical mode, so you have a more technical based offensive battle style that you can enjoy.”
Whether this brings a more organic challenge to the game that emphasizes player skill remains to be seen. This won’t be the only free update for Kingdom Hearts 3 though. Nomura previously confirmed that free DLC would be released this year itself. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.