Sora gets his own Pikachu partner Pokémon in this brand new Kingdom Hearts 3 mod. The Kingdom Hearts series was released on PC back in March 2021 and was exclusive to the Epic Games Store. Since then, it has had a healthy mod community, especially for Kingdom Hearts 3. Some of the other Kingdom Hearts games have received mods, but Kingdom Hearts 3 has been the friendliest game in the series for the modding community because it was developed using Unreal Engine 4. The switch to the Unreal Engine was surprising when it was announced that the long-awaited threequel (as well as a prologue, named 0.2 Birth by Sleep -Final Chapter Prologue-) would transition from the in-house Square Enix engine, but the decision to change engines was a good one in hindsight.
This year, the Kingdom Hearts series celebrates the 20th anniversary of the original PlayStation 2 game. Several announcements for the Disney and Final Fantasy crossover have already been revealed. The rest of the Kingdom Hearts series arrived on Nintendo Switch on February 10, albeit only in cloud streaming versions, after the rhythm game, Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, made the series debut on the console back in 2020. A 20th-anniversary event is taking place in the Shibuya district of Tokyo (a subtle nod to the secret boss fight at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3’s ReMind DLC) and will feature a mini-concert and a Q&A with the development team.
A Kingdom Hearts 3 mod released today on the Nexus Mods portal partners Sora with Pokémon’s golden boy, Pikachu. The mod was uploaded by the user SilverAidan and is in “early beta” for people to test. SilverAidan left a detailed set of instructions as to how to implement and remove the mod in the game and gave thanks to those who helped them with the mod. A picture of the mod in use shows Sora in his Kingdom Hearts 2 outfit with Pikachu on his head. The partnered pair is posing in Garden of Assemblage where players can fight data versions of the Master Xehanort’s New Organization XIII in the Limit Cut episode of Kingdom Hearts 3’s ReMind DLC.
The mod community for Kingdom Hearts 3 has created some S-tier content for the game since it was released on PC. A fully functional version of the Olympus Colosseum a la Disney’s Hercules brought back the much-loved tournaments that were sadly missing from the original game. Another more recent mod alters Sora’s looks, keyblade, and the game’s menu to match the aesthetic of the series’s 20th-anniversary marketing. There are also some more silly Kingdom Hearts 3 mods, like one that turns Luxord’s cards into Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Other similar mods turn the same cards into PlayStation, Roblox, Disney store, and Fortnite gift cards.
Kingdom Hearts 3 modders are keeping the game fresh for PC players even two years after the game’s most recent update. There’s no word on any future content planned for the game, but it would be nice to have a Final Mix version of the game released for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X⏐S consoles. While they’re at it, it would be cool to see mods added to the console versions of the game like what Bethesda did with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Skyrim. Hopefully, more Kingdom Hearts news will come out of the 20th-anniversary event in April such as a Verum Rex title or even the recently-leaked Kingdom Hearts 4.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
Source: SilverAidan/Nexus Mods