Square Enix Answers 7 Questions of Light On Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind

Iyane Agossah January 21, 2020 7:39 AM EST

The Japanese Kingdom Hearts Twitter account published a summary of everything we know about the Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind DLC.

The Japanese Kingdom Hearts 3 Twitter published a Q&A about the Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind DLC, with Kingdom Hearts 3 Co-director Tai Yasue. He summarized everything we know about the DLC so far, explaining the reasoning behind the additions of features such as the Data Greeting, the Slideshow, and the Premium Menu, and he chatted about the Limit Cut Bosses and the Secret Boss.

Nearly everything Tai Yasue said covers information Square Enix already revealed and that we’ve already covered. But it can work as a refresher of sorts. Square Enix probably did this in case some Japanese players are confused about the DLC’s contents.

Note that certain English terms I’m using in my translation are from the Japanese version of the game, some terms are named differently in the English version.

1/ Free update version 1.07 launches alongside the Remind paid DLC. What does it contain?

“The free update 1.07 adds the Keyblades Oathkeeper and Oblivion. You can change to Light Form with Oathkeeper and Dark Form with Oblivion, each with their own combo actions. Moreover, the two Keyblades can be dual-wielded with the Double Form. 6 new Combo Action Abilities were also added. Certain cutscenes in the main story have been corrected. Restrictions on Share functions will be greatly reduced.”

2/ Why did you decide to increase the number of photo-related possibilities by adding the Data Greeting feature and the Slideshow feature?

“Since Kingdom Hearts III‘s release, many players created really cool screenshots and videos, which really impressed us. We decided to support these endeavors and give you even more possibilities. With the Slideshow feature, you can now pick themes and BGMs to your liking to make any album and video you want. After we developed these features, all the development team participated in a photo contest to test them out. You can create heartwarming situations that never happen in the story with certain characters, or create unique and unexpected situations, so we’re convinced many players will enjoy this feature.”

3/ Why did you decide to create the Premium Menu and the Black Code? What’s the point of these challenges?

“The Premium Menu allows you to customize many elements in the game. The Premium Menu can be accessed right from the start of a New Game. There’s the Fast Pass Code, which includes functions such as “Auto Guard”, making the game easier for those who wish to go through it quickly. And then there’s the Black Code, which includes high difficulty challenges such as the HP Slip function, which makes your HP decrease at regular intervals. This is for players who want to enjoy a highly difficult challenge. Moreover, the Fast Pass Code and the Black Code each have a set of achievements you can try to unlock after changing certain settings in each. For example in Fast Pass Code, there’s an obtainable achievement if you manage to go from the top of Rapunzel’s tower to the town of Corona while only touching the ground a selected number of times.”

4/ Are the Limit Cut Boss battles against the Real Organization XIII characters different from the Real Organization XIII boss fights in the main story? Or are they simply stronger versions? Which Limit Cut Boss is the hardest one to defeat?

“The Limit Cut Bosses are completely different. Their AI and action patterns have been completely reworked. Certain bosses can only be beaten if you’ve mastered offense or defense, certain bosses have completely unpredictable movements, etc. Each boss has different strengths and weaknesses, so which one turns out to be the hardest to defeat will vary from each player. However, Xion and Master Xehanort are overall much harder to defeat than all the others. After I managed to beat one of them, my hands kept shaking for a good 15 minutes, showing how tense their battles are, and how great the feeling of accomplishment is.”

5/ Tetsuya Nomura previously said that he asked the development team to make the Secret Boss “hard enough to make you cry”. Did the Secret Boss really turn out like this?

“We asked through a poll all the developers and testers who managed to defeat all the Secret Bosses of the Kingdom Hearts series, and they did answer “it’s strong enough to make you cry”. The Secret Boss has a high amount of different attack patterns, so you will need a lot of time to understand it and defeat it. But just like the Limit Cut Bosses, each of the Secret Boss’ movements have specific counter-strategies, so the boss isn’t unfairly strong, and if you play perfectly, you can defeat it without taking damage.”

6/ What else is included in the Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind DLC?

There’s an additional story that completes the game’s ending, and an additional scenario where you can control other characters such as Kairi, Roxas, Riku, and Aqua. Also, you can switch between English and Japanese voices. Lastly, there’s a bonus version of the DLC containing videos of an orchestral concert.

Note that the switch between English and Japanese voices will only be possible in the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts 3. The DLC won’t add Japanese voiceovers to the non-Japanese versions of the game. And as a seiyuu fan, I think that’s a huge shame, if you wished to hear my unneeded opinion.

The seventh and final question is unimportant. It asked Tai Yasue to share some final words for the fans awaiting Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind. Long story short he said to look forward to it like any Japanese developer does when they’re asked this.

As a reminder, Limit Cut Bosses were named this way by Square Enix to represent the meta fact that the powerlevels of boss characters in the main story aren’t truly reflected, so that way they aren’t too hard to defeat. Limit Cut literally means their power limit was removed. They just named it this way to be cool.

You can read more about the DLC’s content with our previous coverage here, here. and here. We also translated the previous details on playable characters Square Enix published when the KH3 Remind official site got previously updated. You can also check out the story hints Tetsuya Nomura shared in the past through interviews we translated.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind launches in two days on January 23 on PlayStation 4. The DLC will be available a month later on February 25 on Xbox One.

A similar Q&A titled “13 Questions of Darkness” or something will probably be published tomorrow by Square Enix.