Given the widely praised music of Kingdom Hearts, you might be surprised we haven’t been given a rhythm-action game until now. However with the end of the “1st phase” of the Kingdom Hearts storyline it feels like the perfect time to release Melody of Memory. In 18 years 13 games have come to our consoles and series director Tetsuya Nomura shows no sign of stopping. Critics of the games often attack its rather convoluted storyline and wacky style but the truth is, this unlikely collaboration between Square Enix and Disney has captured many peoples hearts and Yoko Shimomura’s incredible soundtracks have been a big part of that. Melody of Memory is a joyous celebration of the series and the incredible music behind it.
Let’s talk about mechanics
Melody of Memory is as smooth and as satisfying as you’d hope a rhythm action game would be whilst still paying homage to the Kingdom Hearts aesthetic. On most tracks you are presented with a three lane battle-field where you control three characters walking forward and hitting classic enemies from the games in time to the music. With a maximum of three attack buttons being hit at the same time you might be forgiven for thinking the game is a little simple, however with three difficulties (beginner, standard and proud) and an additional “performer mode” with added button prompts you can make the levels as difficult as you want making this a game which will appeal to casual players and rhythm action veterans alike. In addition to these “field-battle” tracks there are “boss battles” where you actually watch your characters fighting a classic boss from the games, a successful note hit will result in one of your characters landing a hit on the boss. Finally you have “memory dives” which sees you playing to a backdrop of cutscenes from the games, these are usually celebrating a particular character and their journey. They’re beautifully done and a great celebration of some of the best themes in video game music.
I suppose we should talk about the story…
You progress through the game on a world map, completing stages and working your way through the history of the games. At the end of certain sections you will be given flashbacks to past events narrated by Kairi. For die hard fans this will likely serve as a rather simple but nice little look back at previous games, for newcomers however these little recaps will likely produce a lot more questions than answers. The Kingdom Hearts plot is famously difficult to understand and even a series veteran like me would struggle to explain it in simple terms, attempting to condense what is already a very convoluted story down into 30 second segments has done it no favours, so feel free to ignore these if you don’t have the time to scrawl through a dozen wiki pages trying to piece together what exactly Mickey Mouse is doing in the same world as Cloud Strife.
After completing the world tour (which takes a rather short 10 hours on average) you will also be greeted by a few minutes of brand new cutscenes which builds up the premise for the future of the series. This little addition of plot has been controversial among fans, some criticising the game for not having enough new content and others criticising it for daring to have any in the first place. I personally think they’ve struck the balance pretty perfectly, this is a rhythm action game gameplay has to be the focus, and with over 140 tracks you can’t suggest there isn’t enough content there, but in typical Nomura fashion there’s got to be a little bit of plot sprinkled in, something new to keep fans excited. If you’re just here for the story however this is probably a game you can skip and read about on the wiki.
Opportunities missed
I will say that Melody of Memory does have some rather glaring absences in its song list. There are only 8 tracks listed from Kingdom Hearts III, and they’re arguably not the most exciting choices either. Most notably missing are probably “Face my Fears” the title song and the newest iteration of Dearly Beloved. It was nice to see “Don’t think Twice” in there least but there could’ve been so much more. That being said with such a large library of music to choose from you can’t please everyone and at the end of the day the track list is still packed with fan favourites. Another thing I would’ve liked to have seen more of are the boss battles, these were really fun but there’s so few of them, seeing Lingering Will or Sephiroth as a boss battle would’ve been fantastic but again it’s hard to cater to everyones wants in a fan orientated game such as this.
My conclusion…
All in all, despite a few absences here and there Melody of Memory is a fantastic rhythm action game which has kept me coming back on an almost daily basis, completing challenges and setting new high scores. It perfectly merges together that Kingdom Hearts aesthetic with traditional action rhythm mechanics, it’s an unapologetic celebration of a sensational soundtrack and a successful franchise which has captured peoples hearts for almost two decades.
Melody of Memory is out now on PS4/Switch for £49.99/$59.99
Armada Gaming 