Plus, players can now carry over unlocked Keyblades to a new game.
Kingdom Hearts 3 was released in early 2019 and fans of the action role-playing series immediately fell in love (that includes us, too). The Kingdom Hearts franchise follows a young boy named Sora, who teams up with Donald Duck and Goofy to embark on an epic world-hopping adventure that takes them to many different worlds, with most being based on Disney and Pixar films such as Frozen and Big Hero 6.
In our review, we noted that Kingdom Hearts 3 was an easier game than some of its predecessors. If players were looking for a more challenging experience, a free update that launched for the game today should do the trick.
The update adds Critical Mode as a difficulty option for players to choose from. Critical Mode is a high-difficulty option that tweaks the gameplay to make it purposefully challenging. In Critical Mode, the maximum amount of health and magic points players can earn is cut in half, and the frequency of situation commands and magic is decreased (these can help players take down enemies during battles).
To help players out, Critical Mode gives Sora new abilities that are exclusive to this particular difficulty setting.
In addition to the introduction of Critical Mode, the game’s latest update also adds the optional ability for players to carry over any Keyblades they’ve unlocked to a new game if and when they decide to start over. The Keyblades that players carry over will lose any upgrades they might have purchased. This reverts the Keyblades to their default stats, but it will at least give players early access to Keyblades they may not normally unlock until later in the game.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is available on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Check out our guide for everything you need to know about the game before deciding to make a purchase.
Brandy Berthelson has been writing about video games and technology since 2006, with her work appearing on sites including AOL Games, Digital Spy, and Adweek. When she’s not gaming, Brandy enjoys crafting, baking, and traveling with her husband.
