There’s more Kingdom Hearts III content coming this year. Series director Tetsuya Nomura told Japanese outlet Dengeki Online that a combination of free updates and premium DLC will be added to the game.
This includes Critical Mode, a series tradition that challenges fans to demonstrate their combat skills with restricted health, strength and abilities. It will be added for free in the coming months and confirms suspicions generated from data mining of the game’s code and assets.
As for the premium DLC, Nomura said it would address story gaps, of which there are plenty in the already dense series lore. We shouldn’t expect definitive answers to some of the series’ most pressing questions, but added backstory will deepen some of the finale’s most climactic moments.
In the past, Nomura and the rest of the Kingdom Hearts team would plug in backstory elements to the series via re-releases, but Nomura said that releasing content piecemeal is his preferred solution this time around. And that’s fine with us, as I doubt anyone really wants to buy another ‘Final Mix’ in who knows how many years.
All of this being said, Square Enix has yet to confirm these talking points, so we’ll have to wait for an official announcement from them to really be certain about Nomura’s plans.
Kingdom Hearts was released on January 25, 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. I’m currently playing the game for our official review, but in the meantime you can check out my thoughts on the professional challenges of reviewing videogames.
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