Kingdom Hearts III's Critical Mode will feature new abilities geared towards 'technical' players

[vestan]

Tai Yasue talks KH3, Critical Mode and the positive reception the game has received

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So Tai Yasue (co-director on KH3) conducted an interview with GameReactor at GDC 2019 which was only published recently. In it, he talks about KH3's upcoming Critical Mode and mentioned that they wanted to do everything the 'right way' instead of just simply changing HP and damage values.

What stands out to me though is that Yasue mentioned that KH3's critical mode has new abilities that will "resonate with a more technical playstyle, and also focus on making players think about their actions both inside and outside of battle." Furthermore, critical mode will feature AI adjustments to prevent it from feeling unfair, but it will still push players to their limits and encourage them to utilize the game's full array of options, such as cooking meals to gain stat benefits.

"It is balanced in a way that you could clear it without leveling up, for example, but you really have to think it through. For example, you have to think about the timing of your guarding and using your counter in order to make battles easier to clear."

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I'm really excited for this. Critical Mode is seriously starting to sound like a completely different game at this point with what they've been talking about these past few months and I'm down for that.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

sounds pretty good

though i doubt i'll have the time to go through the game again

 

[Lnds500]

Well, smack my ass and call me Judy!! drools

 

[Brazil]

Hell yeah. I hope the mode comes with new Trophies as well, but I can't wait to go back to the game either way.

 

[Chaserjoey]

Sounds good. Hopefully they add abilities that can increase the actual time you are in formchange rather than just increasing the amount of time you have the situational command for.

 

[badcrumble]

I hope they add some more (visually/mechanically) interesting combo starters/finishers too - that was always a big part of what made KH1FM/2FM enjoyable for me.

Also, Finishing Plus and Negative Combo and stuff plz.

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

Wow, I haven't really gone through KH3 yet - just the first hour or so.

This might be worth waiting for so I can dive deep

 

[Farrac]

Playing Critical Mode after LV 1 Proud is going to be a bit awkward but I'm so excited to see what they're cooking up. Might do a LV1 Critical even! Hurt me, Mr Yasue.

 

[vestan]

From the sound of it, it looks like they're really aiming for a more challenging KH2FM style Critical Mode instead of 0.2 which is dope. Now, I'm just wondering when they'll release it. Yasue said three weeks ago that it'll come soon so maybe May?

 

[BadWolf]

Well, smack my ass and call me Judy!! drools

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Well that escalated quickly.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Sounds good, I need this plus extra content like the one that we got for 2FM and the game will be so good.

 

[Falchion]

Kind of glad I never started playing this so I can just play through on Critical the first time.

 

[Kawngi]

I dropped the game as it wasn't enjoyable due to the crazy easy difficulty. I'll try it again once this comes out.

 

[InfinitePotat0]

I wish they had just put this in the game the first time so my first playthrough would feel more memorable.... KH3 was my most anticipated game of all time yet the game that won't leave my mind is Sekiro

 

[Luigi87]

Very glad to hear they really are putting the time in to make this a true Critical Mode ala 2FM, and not minor balance changes.

 

[Mediking]

I will skip almost every cutscene when I replay this on Critical Mode

 

[Apollo]

Sounds great. I've wanted to replay this since the moment I finished my first run, but I'm glad I've held off for this.

 

[DNAbro]

Really hope this will be worth the wait.

 

[jorgejjvr]

i wish games were completed at launch, i had a bad experience with kh3 due to the difficulty

i guess i was supposed to wait months

 

[Deleted member 9971]

Sounds like they are really putting that kh2 critical mode effort into this. Neato!

 

[Indelible]

I have had this since launch but I have been waiting for critical mode to start my first play through, I still can't believe how stupidly easy proud mode is.

 

[The Last One]

i wish games were completed at launch, i had a bad experience with kh3 due to the difficulty

i guess i was supposed to wait months

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The game was complete. I don't get this kind of posts.

 

[Macca]

Hmmm I'll remain doubtful, mostly because Team Osaka sucks at balancing their games.

 

[dabs furiously]

the quote about not leveling up just seems like they're going to do what they usually do for crit mode and give you some good abilities to beat the game on 0/not get fucked by early game

 

[Richietto]

Ayy sounds good. Hopefully they also go the route of having less heartless appear during battles because there is far to many in this game during each encounter. It was way to hard to react to attacks when there were soooo many enemies on screen. Its one of the biggest issues with the combat. Tons of heartless? Just use the most effected crowd control spam to remove all the weak shit because blocking and dodging about 20 heartless is a chore. If they make it take longer but don't lower the amount the game will just be a slog to get through.

 

[Bitanator]

Happy to start up a new game when this drops

 

[Metto]

Gee it sucks Kingdom Hearts 3 wasn't complete at launch. This series has totally been known for knocking it out of the part with their first versions and have never offered completed versions about a year later. How did Square let them release a Kingdom Hearts game in a suboptimal launch experience.

 

[LordofPwn]

This seems like old news? i thought there was a thread on it but maybe i just imagined it.

Very excited for Critical mode though

 

[vestan]

This seems like old news? i thought there was a thread on it but maybe i just imagined it.

Very excited for Critical mode though

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Different interview. The one I posted a few weeks back was with Game Informer. He didn't talk about Crit Mode details then, only said that it's coming 'soon'.

 

[claussm]

I wish games just shipped feature complete lol.

 

[IMBCIT]

Only put a few hours into the game before I decided to put it down and wait for a critical mode to launch first.

Glad to hear its coming sooner than later and that they are really putting time into at least trying to balance it accordingly.

Hopefully some performance upgrades are made to the mid gen consoles to get closer to 60.

 

[badcrumble]

Ayy sounds good. Hopefully they also go the route of having less heartless appear during battles because there is far to many in this game during each encounter. Its one of the biggest issues with the combat. Tons of heartless? Just use the most effected crowd control spam to remove all the weak shit. If they make it take longer but don't lower the amount the game will just be a slog to get through.

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KH2's Critical Mode lets you do as much damage as you do on Beginner difficulty (and although the Osaka team didn't do this with BBS/DDD, they correctly did it with BBS 0.2's Critical Difficulty). Clearing away weak enemies is actually going to be fairly easy, I'm guessing (since KH3 has plenty of big AoE attacks).

 

[DNAbro]

Hmmm I'll remain doubtful, mostly because Team Osaka sucks at balancing their games.

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Well they never put in effort to balance it. I would hope this delay means that they will.

 

[FiXalaS]

Never seen a dev hype up an upcoming free difficulty update

 

[Metto]

Honestly considering how much they're talking about Critical Mode this time around and the work they want to put on it I'm a little bit hopeful it will be good.

I think Osaka could do good stuff if they're dedicated to the task. Like they've talked multiple times pre launch that the focus on KH3 was providing bigger meatier worlds to play in KH3 and they've definitely delivered on that end. If they can finally make good worlds to explore and experience by making that the focus then I have high hopes for what they want to accomplish on Crit

 

[LordofPwn]

Different interview. The one I posted a few weeks back was with Game Informer. He didn't talk about Crit Mode details then, only said that it's coming 'soon'.

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i guess i was just thinking of this interview from The Gamer from a couple weeks ago:

So it wasn't like a really superficial thing with just like the parameters changed a bit. We really want to adjust things, add things as well to make it more technical and more offensive. I think you're going to see new types of ways of playing the game. It's not just difficult and we also wanted to assure lets our players clear it even if you're playing in level one.

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https://www.thegamer.com/critical-mode-kingdom-hearts-3/

either way it can't come soon enough

 

[Viale]

Because of, in large part, the difficulty, Kh2FM is still probably the tighter experience of the two. I'm ready to get fucked up by whatever they include in this new mode though. Please be good, and I'll gladly replay KH3 as soon as it comes out. And if KH2 is any indication, replay multiple times after that

 

[Deleted member 33533]

i wish games were completed at launch, i had a bad experience with kh3 due to the difficulty

i guess i was supposed to wait months

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I understand what you're getting at but just because the game didn't have a difficulty mode that satisfied you doesn't mean it was incomplete. Doesn't matter how finished your game is, you can always add a harder mode. This is just extra.

 

[Yata]

But adding more difficulty options would ruin the experience according to most users in Era.

 

[Richietto]

KH2's Critical Mode lets you do as much damage as you do on Beginner difficulty (and although the Osaka team didn't do this with BBS/DDD, they correctly did it with BBS 0.2's Critical Difficulty). Clearing away weak enemies is actually going to be fairly easy, I'm guessing (since KH3 has plenty of big AoE attacks).

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Yeah thats what im saying. Encounters end up being a magic spam fest because of the sheer amount of enemies and how effective that is in KH3. I imagine Critical will tweak magic damage to be lower and physical to be higher along with all the other changes, which ends up being a problem because the game is made with huge encounters in mind. They wanted you to use big magics to kill things in this and while you could also do that in KH2, it didn't feel like the best and only option all the time like in KH3. As it stands most encounters in KH3 have far to many heartless to feel like melee combat or summons are worth it. There's way to much of a focus on situation commands to take out these massive hoards and without changes to both damage/health values and heartless numbers Critical mode might just face the exact issues current KH3 has, just with a difficulty that isn't piss easy.

 

[DatManOvaDer]

i wish games were completed at launch, i had a bad experience with kh3 due to the difficulty

i guess i was supposed to wait months

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I wish games just shipped feature complete lol.

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Game was finished at launch but go off I guess

 

[badcrumble]

Yeah thats what im saying. Encounters end up being a magic spam fest because of the sheer amount of enemies and how effective that is in KH3. I imagine Critical will tweak magic damage to be lower and physical to be higher along with all the other changes, which ends up being a problem because the game is made with huge encounters in mind. They wanted you to use big magics to kill things in this and while you could also do that in KH2, it didn't feel like the best and only option all the time like in KH3. As it stands most encounters in KH3 have far to many heartless to feel like melee combat or summons are worth it. There's way to much of a focus on situation commands to take out these massive hoards and without changes to both damage/health values and heartless numbers Critical mode might just face the exact issues current KH3 has, just with a difficulty that isn't piss easy.

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Maybe. I could see them cutting your maximum MP in half like BBS 0.2 does (so that magic spam becomes significantly more difficult even in the endgame).

Though that might just make players load up on accessories/keyblades that make -za Grand Magic randomly proc all the time.

Regardless, just like KH2FM Critical, I don't expect it to be particularly challenging if you just level grind, except against a couple of difficulty spike bosses and the postgame stuff.

 

[Revolsin]

INTRIGUING

Sounds like Dark Souls almost

 

[The Last One]

INTRIGUING

Sounds like Dark Souls almost

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Sounds like KH II Critical mode actually.

 

[Kamek]

Hoping for some new trophies since I got the plat. Was in love with the game, and excited for.more difficulty.

 

[Sleve McDichael]

I got my platinum trophy, but I've been waiting for crit mode for my next full play through.
Can't wait for this!

Crit mode in KH2:FM made it one of the best ARPGs of all time.

 

[deepFlaw]

This sounds appealing, but I don't know if I'd replay any amount of the game for it? I wasn't upset by Proud being easy by any means, because that's not what I play these games for, but it was surprising just how easy it was. The game certainly was "complete" for me even if I'd have been up for a little more of a challenge, so it's mainly that it was weird to observe.

I played almost every KH game on Standard, and don't really do hard postgame stuff. The only exception was BBS, both originally and when replaying in the past year, which I did on Proud for the lower secret requirements. I also do wish I did DDD on Proud for the easier Plat (I'd probably have gone for it if I had), but regardless... I often had trouble with various bosses even on Standard, and obviously BBS was extra trouble even with some normal rooms. But I found BBS's commands/abilities system very enjoyable so that made the challenge fine. And on that note, I really enjoyed fusing things and planning out commands/abilities in each game, and was down for spamming magic/summons in 1, so I'm fine with taking those advantages when I can get them.

Point is, I'm not someone who's ever sought out Critical or wanted the games to be very hard. But I heard Standard was easy this time, so I played 3 on Proud too. And like... I don't think it was just easy, was the thing? Because it was very easy, but...

More than anything I felt overpowered on a very basic level, without having to put much thought into it like with the other games. I very casually was able to build Ultima before most of the final world (which was surprising in itself), and at that point I found myself spending a lot of time guarding during all the final fights. Not to protect myself, but because if I attacked they would die before I got to see them in action. I accidentally used my shotlock and wiped out a boss phase in seconds. I didn't really do any grinding or anything, I just got lost looking for collectibles at times, and on that note I always got all of them before finishing past games too, so it's not like that'd be the deciding factor. It was kinda ridiculous.

I got the Plat after finishing, and that postgame boss wasn't exactly hard for me to steamroll. (I think it took me 2 tries, and the second even only had me using the Kupo Coin right before I killed it IIRC.)

So... I'm wondering how well this would address any of that, I guess?

 

[Soriku]

Sounds like a different game

 

[Deleted member 437]

Thank God they are really thinking about critical mode.

What KH3 is right now is NOT a good base to start from. There is so much easy win bullshit in it, that simply upping HP for enemies wouldn't actually make combat any more interesting, because you can just fall back on "spam triangle".

 

[Deleted member 679]

Sounds great. Can't wait for Critical Mode and the DLC.