The Kingdom Hearts 3 hype train just doesn’t stop. After years of waiting for Kingdom Hearts 3 to come out, you would expect the conversation to die down, but that just isn’t the case for Square Enix and Series Director Tetsuya Nomura. In an interview with Japanese website Dengeki Online, Nomura confirmed the plans for upcoming DLC that will come out in 2019.
In the interview, Nomura outlined a few of the key additions that will be made to the game. The highly sought after Critical Mode difficulty will be made available via free DLC in the form of a free patch. Nomura stated that it should not have been expected at the release of Kingdom Hearts 3 as it has often been made available in the Kingdom Hearts Final Mix versions of past titles. He went on to state that they wanted to not only crank up the difficulty but rather do it in such a way that made the challenge fun, not frustrating. This is extremely exciting news as many fans chief complaint with Kingdom Hearts 3 is its lack of difficulty.
As for the rest of the free DLC, we will have to wait and see what Nomura has up his sleeve. We could possibly see some cosmetics, new Keyblades, or fights as free DLC, but I wouldn’t expect much of anything massive as Square Enix plans to put out one large paid DLC for Kingdom Hearts 3. Nomura stated that in the past they did Final Mix versions of titles, adding in new story elements, new fights, and abilities into each iteration. Now with DLC, this doesn’t need to be done and can be given to fans at a much quicker pace. He promised story elements will be added to explain some of the games more ambiguous plot points and flesh out the overarching story. This is great news for those who were left scratching their heads by some character reveals and returns that take place during the game.
As for the future of the series, Nomura stated that he hopes to have a “blank sheet” going into the next Kingdom Hearts entry. He does seem passionate about starting the next title as he is looking to get all DLC out before the end of 2019 so he can move onto the next entry in the series.
