Kingdom Hearts 3 Critical Mode Release Date Announced

Keyblade warriors may need to pick up their weapons one more time. The highly-anticipated Critical Mode, which is the highest difficulty in the Kingdom Hearts games, is coming to Kingdom Hearts III sooner than you may think. Tetsuya Nomura himself (by way of Twitter) confirmed that the new mode will be introduced via free update on April 23, 2019.

Greetings, it’s been a while since I last posted. Spring is here, and I hope everyone is doing well. #KingdomHearts III’s long-awaited Critical Mode is available as a free update tomorrow (PT).

We’ve changed things up from the previous games, so I hope you enjoy – Nomura pic.twitter.com/Npz8FeKmCK

— KINGDOM HEARTS (@KINGDOMHEARTS) April 22, 2019

Many players lamented the lack of Critical Mode when Kingdom Hearts III first released. Critical was first introduced in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, and usually isn’t included with the launch version of the games. While Critical Mode is normally introduced in future editions of each game, there will be no Final Mix for Kingdom Hearts III, and will instead be part of a patch for all players.

While being billed as different from other Kingdom Hearts games, we’ll have to wait and see what exactly this version is made up of. Previous comments from director Tai Yasue mentioned that Kingdom Hearts III’s Critical Mode will be more offense-based than previous games.

Critical Mode is just one of many updates Kingdom Hearts III will be seeing throughout 2019. While it hasn’t been formally announced yet, we do know that paid DLC will be released later in the year. It’s expected to focus on Xion and detail her story prior to showing up in Kingdom Hearts III.

Kingdom Hearts III is available now for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Do you think you’re going to take on the challenge of Critical Mode? Let us know!