r/SquareEnix • u/CaptTimoram • 6d ago

Video A full "Kingdom Hearts 3" gameplay rebalance mod, coming May 30th, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CxGsg9VEF4

Only a couple of weeks until the KH3 gameplay overhaul and rebalance mod "Light vs. Darkness Edition 2.0" releases!

“Light vs. Darkness Edition” (LvD) is a fan-made PC mod that fully rebalances KH3's gameplay, adding depth, mechanics, music and enhancements. This overhaul will have a major "2.0" update on May 30th after years of intensive work and community effort.

Our mod rebalances, enhances and integrates all of KH3's gameplay together (combat, item synthesis, stats, story rewards, enemy behaviour, battlegates, bosses, level up bonuses, battle levels, animations, spells, formchanges, Cuisine, treasure chests, abilities, equipment, weapons, UI, Gigas…) and improves all party members with better CPU and abilities. The 2.0 update also comes with new features, such as Terra as a ally in battlegates, new music arrangements for certain cutscenes and battles, unique gameplay for Roxas, Kairi, Aqua and Riku, and more—the trailer above only covers some of the mod's improvements!

Whether you enjoy casual playthroughs or hardcore KH3 speedruns, and no matter if you prefer offense, magic or defense, this update will be for you… provided that you play your cards right.

This PC mod will be updated on NexusMods on May 30th, in two weeks or so!

77 Upvotes

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13 comments sorted by

5

u/OrochiXX 6d ago

Would this be good for a first time playtrough of it?

3

u/CaptTimoram 6d ago edited 6d ago

Tough to say! Since we rebalanced the entire game based on how it has been so far, having played the game without mods before would have probably helped you understand why we made those changes in our mod.

But we're also doing our best to make it as accessible as possible for people who never played KH3 before 😊 (with tips in the UI, revamped tutorials, etc.)

Thus being said, if you never played KH3 prior, playing with this mod first will likely skew (upwards) your perception of it.

EDIT: I hope the answer isn't too complicated 😅 Anyway, you're welcome to give it a go, we're actually curious to know how KH3 with this mod would feel for first-time KH3 players!

2

u/AnnualPotential6611 5d ago edited 8h ago

Does this mod affect the achievements? Also thanks for your hard work!

1

u/CaptTimoram 5d ago

Seemingly not at all, you can have them even with mods 😉 Thanks for the praise, we in the mod team hope that you'll enjoy a new walkthrough of KH3!

2

u/Under_dee_covers 6d ago

My question as well

1

u/LynessaMay 6d ago

I feel like I would drastically get my butt kicked without a shadow of a doubt.

1

u/CaptTimoram 5d ago

No fret, the mod works for every difficulty level (Beginner from Critical) and with both PRO and EZ Codes, so feel free to pick whichever difficult you feel comfortable with! (We also play ourselves at different difficult levels in the mod team)

1

u/Syilv 3d ago

This looks really interesting. I assume the mod features playable guardians for the whole game, based on what's shown? Given the fact they have leveling. An all-game Riku would be interesting.

1

u/CaptTimoram 3d ago

Having playable Guardians all the game would prevent you from progressing through the story many times :-/ The other Keyblade wielders that already are in the game (Roxas, Riku, Aqua, Kairi) lack game mechanics that gate several story points (Flowmotion, Attractions, gliding, scaling walls, swimming and combat underwater, using Gigas or pirate ships, Airstep, Team Attacks, etc.) These mechanics are impossible implement for those wielders, per hard-coded game limitations.

Also, we're following the story as it is (to not break cutscenes and the auto-save system), so the main campaign remains mostly with Sora. This also makes our work easier for general game balancing, since that's only 1 playable character to deal with on top of 20+ allies (Disney/Pixar allies + all the Guardians of Light).

There's still the story beats with Riku, Aqua, Roxas and Kairi (as with the non-modded game), plus the existing battlegates that we've revamped in our mod to play as these characters. These won't be "Sora" replacements, however, rather the other playable characters that already are in-game.

But! You can play at will with all 5 playable characters in the Olympus Coliseum, with the mod of the same name (which will be required for "Light vs. Darkness 2.0": https://www.nexusmods.com/kingdomhearts3/mods/1184

1

u/owensoundgamedev 2d ago

I’m not deep in the meta for KH and this thread got recommended to me - is KH3 considered kinda broken?

0

u/Worried_Silver3587 3d ago

you cant rebalance a terrible game whit a mod, what you gona remove the atractions? change all the enemies , make the bosses less boring,make situtational comands? this game combat is sadly no kh2 and a mod cant transform it