Kingdom Hearts 3: How to Unlock Proud/Critical Mode

How to Unlock Proud/Critical Mode in Kingdom Hearts 3

Update: It has now been announced that Critical Mode will make its way to Kingdom Hearts 3 on April 22 as part of a free update. Nomura-san also mentions that things have been changed up from previous installments of the series, though exactly what has changed remains to be seen at the time of writing.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is now officially released worldwide, and fans are working their way through this Final fantasy Disney team up. If you’re here, you’re likely looking for more of a challenge. Here’s how to unlock Proud/Critical Mode in Kingdom Hearts 3.

When you boot up a new save file the game will prompt you to select a difficulty setting. Your options include Beginner, Standard, and Proud. Proud mode is the highest difficulty setting in the base game. Just select Proud, and away you go.

With the Critical Mode update to Kingdom Hearts 3, you can also start a new game and select the mode, right from the get-go. You just need to make sure your game is updated to the latest version, and you’ll be good to go.

In an interview with Famitsu, Kingdom Hearts 3 director Tetsuya Nomura had this to say on the matter.

“We made the focal point of the battle gameplay the fun in the variety of things you can do, such as Keyblade transformations. Even though boss battles can be tough, we did our best to design levels that players wouldn’t get stuck on.

We did, however, include our customary ‘Proud’ mode, as well as an ability that stops you gaining XP from the start, so I think people who like to do different kinds of runs will be satisfied. By the way, you can also change the settings of your party AI and stop them from healing you.”

It seems this time around Nomura decided to allow players to have customization options for their run in Proud mode to make to as difficult as they want. Critical mode is not currently in the game but could be seen down the line potentially in a patch.

So as of right now Proud is essentially the stand-in for Critical as the hardest difficulty in the game.

That’s it for how to unlock Proud/Critical mode in Kingdom Hearts 3. For more tips, tricks, and guides, be sure to check out our Kingdom Hearts 3 Wiki.

TL;DR

Question: How do you unlock Proud and Critical difficulty modes in Kingdom Hearts 3?

Answer: Proud difficulty is unlocked from the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 3. However, currently, it seems as though Critical mode isn’t in the game. This could always come via a post-launch patch, but for now nothing has been confirmed by Square Enix.