Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory Review

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 Pro
Available on: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch

Ever since the Kingdom Hearts franchise started all the way back in 2002, the series has spawned a number of entries with varying styles of gameplay and levels of importance. It should come as no surprise then that we would eventually get a rhythm game with some important developments to the main plot of the franchise, in the form of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. What is surprising is that the game is actually a pretty fun time, even if there’s not too much here.

Melody of Memory takes place after Kingdom Hearts III and its Re:Mind DLC. Kairi is sleeping and searching through her memories for clues as to where Sora could be and how our heroes can reach him. The game does progress the overall plot in some pretty big ways that are sure to excite (or further confuse) fans and get them theorizing about what’s to come. The catch is that all of this plot progression happens in the final 30-45 minutes of the eight-hour World Tour campaign. Everything prior to this is just Kairi recapping the events of the series. This can make the game feel as if it’s cheating you out of a more thorough plot experience if the trailers made you think that there was going to be a lot of new story stuff in the game. And honestly, it’s not too bad an idea for someone who’s not really into rhythm games to just look up the ending online if they only want the story, since they wouldn’t be missing out an anything else too substantial.

Thankfully for those who don’t mind the idea of a Kingdom Hearts rhythm game, you’ll walk away from Melody of Memory having enjoyed yourself. This isn’t like the Atlantica music mini-game from Kingdom Hearts II. Things are more action oriented and exciting here in a way that keeps the game from ever getting stale. There are three main ways in which songs are played in Melody of Memory: Field Battles, Memory Dives, and then Boss Battles.

Field Battles are the majority of the tracks. They have you running down a track with your selected team as you fight enemies and dodge their attacks to the rhythm of the music. Memory Dives follow the same premise, except instead of fighting enemies, you’re playing to the rhythm as a video related the song plays in the background. Boss Battles combine those two, removing the enemies from the main track as your team fights a boss in the background while you go through the song.

Gameplay is simple on paper, but there’s a shocking amount of complexity hiding beneath the surface. Pressing either X, L1, or R1 in time with the music will attack whichever enemy is next. Hitting Triangle at certain points will perform a special ability and holding Circle has you glide. These are easy enough on their own, but things can get hectic when you have to put them together in quick succession. And that’s not even mentioning the times you’ll have to hold notes while still hitting others, or move the analog stick in any given direction to hit a slide note at the same time as one of the other notes. Things remain fun throughout though, and it is immensely satisfying to get through a particularly complicated part of a song that requires you to juggle multiple different tasks consecutively.

Each song has three difficulty levels: Beginner, Standard, and Proud. I played every song in World Tour on Proud difficulty, and with the exception of the final song where I had to bring the difficulty down to Standard, I didn’t find any of them to be too tough. Proud mode offers a nice amount of challenge and complexity that anyone can manage pretty well once they get the hang of it. There’s also a Standard and Beginner mode for each song which lower the complexity of the tracks. If you want to change the difficulty even further, you can alter your play style by turning on an option that requires you to only press one button to perform any action, or turn on Performer mode which adds extra button inputs for you to do during songs if you choose for extra points.

Part of the fun in Melody of Memory also comes from the ranking and challenge system that’s in place for each song. You’re given a rank for each song once you complete it, encouraging you to try again and again to achieve the highest rank possible. Completing songs without missing a beat or hitting every note perfectly also earns you more points which increases your completion rank, and emblems that highlight your accomplishment for the song. There are different challenges that each song has as well. You may be asked to complete the song with no less than half of your health, or to finish it on Proud difficulty without using any items. Doing these challenges rewards you with stars that unlock new songs for you to play, as well as items for the Museum that highlight different aspects of the franchise such as the characters, enemies, and promotional art.

Taking all of that into account, there are a number of reasons to replay songs on multiple difficulties to try and get everything you can from them. Since you will have unlocked the vast majority of the game’s playable songs just by going through the main campaign, a lot of your time will be spent replaying songs to get higher scores or unlock Museum items. For some, this will be more than enough to keep them entertained, but I don’t see myself staying around for much longer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if others are done after finishing just the World Tour campaign.

If you want to play with a friend, there’s an option for local co-op, but if you want to compete against others and earn some rewards at the same time, you can do so in the game’s versus mode. Here you can go up against computer opponents that start off easy and get gradually more difficult, or real people in online battles. Playing against computer opponents is very annoying due to things called Tricks that happen throughout songs. These trigger a random status effect for the other player such as making enemies on the track invisible or causing them to fly into the screen Super Smash Bros. style when you hit them. These Tricks end up being more annoying than fun, and as far as I could tell, there’s no way to turn them off against computer opponents. When playing against real people, you at least get the choice of whether or not you want them on so that matches can be more of a fair competition.

As for the music itself, it’s all great. Kingdom Hearts is known for having an amazing score, so the selection of songs here are all a blast to play through and reminisce on. It even gave me an appreciation for songs that I had previously overlooked or hadn’t thought much of in the past. There are some notable omissions though. There aren’t any songs from the Pirates of the Caribbean worlds, the songs from the Gummi Ship are absent, and there are surprisingly not many songs from Kingdom Hearts III present either. These are just the ones that I noticed, and I’m sure that there are a lot of others that didn’t make the cut either. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means since the songs that are present are great to hear and play through, but it would’ve been nice if these were here as well.

Final Thoughts:

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a nostalgic trip down memory lane through the music of the franchise. Due to the main campaign’s short length and minimal story content, as well as the relatively small amount of things to do once it’s complete, it understandably may not be enough to warrant a purchase for some, especially at a full $60. The game is clearly aimed at the most dedicated fans who have enjoyed everything that the series has offered so far and want to celebrate it. If you fall in that category and you’re happy with a fun romp that celebrates the series through its fantastic music, you’ll find a game that’s backed up with some fun and surprisingly complex gameplay, and challenges that offer some solid replay value.