Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a fun but non-essential recap of the franchise
We relived our past adventures with Sora, Donald and Goofy in this rhythm-based spin-off - but came away from it a little disappointed.
Image: Square Enix
Previously on Kingdom Hearts…
Kingdom Hearts 3 came out last year, and while most fans were expecting a climax to a story 18 years in the making, what they got instead was a strange cliffhanger and lots of dangling story threads. Sora was lost to a world that strangely looked a lot like Shibuya, as the game began to set up the franchise’s next phase of stories.
The first title in this new and mysterious phase? A rhythm game, go figure. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is developed by Indieszero, developers of the Theatrhythm games. This is the first rhythm action game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise, taking players through past titles while also revisiting the soundtracks that accompanied them.
In our interview with Indieszero, the team appeared to be confident that Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory would serve as a great introduction to the franchise for newcomers. Having played through it myself, I think that claim is a bit of a stretch.
You could say the gameplay is…simple and clean
Different Disney characters can pop in as guest characters in certain worlds.
Don’t expect Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory to look much like the Theatrhythm games - though you do get to see adorable chibi versions of the main characters during loading screens. Indieszero has gone to admirable lengths to ensure that this feels as Kingdom Hearts-y as a rhythm game possibly can. You’ll start the game in World Tour mode, where you’re introduced to a bunch of worlds and songs from the first Kingdom Hearts game.
Once you pop into the world, Sora, Donald and Goofy will begin drifting along a spiralling music track, accompanied by familiar visuals from earlier games. Enemies will arrive in great numbers, and you’ll have to time your attacks according to the music to beat them. This feels a little tricky at first, because there are three attack buttons for each character on the screen, as well as the option to glide, jump or use magic at random intervals during a song. Really obvious visual cues make timing your attacks easy though, such as a circle that grows smaller when it’s time to strike.
Certain worlds swap out one of your companions with ‘guest characters’, such as Aladdin in Agrabah or Hercules in Olympus Coliseum. It’s a nice gesture, especially for Disney fans like me, but it winds up being totally non-impactful to gameplay.They don’t bring any special moves or buffs, so it’s just a fun little visual treat. You can also swap out the Sora, Donald and Goofy trio for other teams you unlock later in the story, but again, the change is purely cosmetic. They might as well be skins.
A lot of items in this game don't do much, making a lot of the RPG elements feel unnecessary. You won't need to synthesise too many items with your Moogle for example, or even try to level the Moogle up. It just doesn't matter to gameplay.
Melody of Memory also tries to spruce up gameplay with some RPG elements akin to the mainline Kingdom Hearts games. Going into each song, you have the option of picking items to use - such as potions which heal you automatically if you miss too many attacks, or EXP boosters. Why EXP boosters, you ask? Well, each of your teams can earn experience and level up after playing through songs. Does this actually matter? No! Having played through the entire story, I truly don’t understand why levelling up is even a thing here. I’ve played late-game worlds with low-level teams, and completely breezed through them the same way I did with high-level teams.
You can even synthesise items with a Moogle, which is pretty much the only shred of Final Fantasy you’ll find in this game, by the way. There’s an item that summons King Mickey into battle with you - but he doesn’t do very much. You’ll notice a pattern forming here: almost all of these items are meaningless, except for the potions. The only items worth synthesising are collectibles, and only for completionists even then. These RPG mechanics are hamfisted at best, and some - like the levelling system - are just confusing.
A tour through Kingdom Hearts history
You'll unlock songs as you play through World Tour, after which you can play through them again in Track Selection mode.
World Tour mode is structured in a really strange way. This is essentially Melody of Memory’s story mode, serving as a recap of the entire franchise’s story to date. You’ll travel to worlds from most of the Kingdom Hearts games (including spin-offs), every so often getting treated to a short cutscene narrated by Kairi where she relives Sora’s past adventures. The World Tour map is huge, allowing you to progress through the series in chronological order until you hit Kingdom Hearts 3.
Each song features three ‘missions’, which are basically special objectives to achieve during a song. For example, missing a certain percentage of enemies or hitting all aerial targets. Every once in a while, your progress in World Tour will be hindered by a literal level gate, which tells you that you need to complete a certain number of missions to continue. At first, these numbers are small enough that you can just grind out a couple more songs to continue in the story.
However, they get absurdly grindy later on. From the moment you hit Kingdom Hearts 2 all the way to Kingdom Hearts 3, your progress slows down to a crawl. You’re forced to grind out almost every single world for every single song, so you can get every single mission and get past the level gates. It feels like a really forced way to pad out the game’s runtime. Kingdom Hearts spin-offs like Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance come with a gigantic amount of songs and worlds to grind through.
An overabundance of content is one thing, but why does Kingdom Hearts 3 get such awful treatment by comparison? Birth by Sleep gets around 15 songs across 10 worlds, but Kingdom Hearts 3 - the latest mainline game - gets… nine songs? Across a handful of worlds? It just makes no senser.
Kairi’s curse
Songs can come in different forms, such as the bossfights - which play out quite differently.
I’m just going to come out and say it: Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a terrible, awful introduction to the franchise for newcomers. Kairi’s narration throughout the game does recap the story so far, but not in any way that would be enticing for anyone who isn’t well-versed with the series. She’ll often tell these stories with the vaguest narration possible, saying things like, “Master Xehanort’s plan was revealed!” without actually explaining what that plan is.
The blame doesn’t entirely fall on her narration, though. I’m aware that this is a slightly hot take, but the lore of this entire franchise is confoundingly obtuse and mostly incomprehensible, especially in recent years. Distilling it all down to a few short snippets of narration might actually be impossible to pull off. This game certainly hasn’t. Melody of Memory is far better when you look at it as a celebration of Kingdom Hearts as a whole.
I had a lot of fun going back to older worlds and reminiscing on my adventures with Sora and the gang, and actually making sense of everything Kairi was saying. The music helped fuel that nostalgia, too. The soundtrack is full of absolute bangers, though some are better to play through than others. Hand to Hand is so much fun when translated to rhythm gameplay for example, because it’s upbeat and catchy. Other tracks in this game’s extensive soundtrack tend to be slower and more melancholic, which translates to really dull gameplay by comparison.
You can switch out the Sora-Donald-Goofy trio for other iconic teams in the franchise, which is a really nice touch.
Oh, and remember that bit of new story you were promised in Melody of Memory? It’s a 40-minute-long story that only becomes available at the very end of World Tour, focusing on Kairi and what she’s been up to since Kingdom Hearts 3. It’s not good. At all. If you were disappointed by the writing in Kingdom Hearts 3, just know that it can get much worse. This is basically one long exposition dump occasionally interrupted by boring rhythm gameplay, and it treats Kairi as a character pretty badly. There’s a little bit of meaningful plot advancement, but if you’re buying this game just to figure out where Sora is, you'll be sorely disappointed.
In summary
You'll have to grind through a lot of missions like these before making it to the new story content.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a fun walk down memory lane for fans of the franchise, but newcomers will likely find its exposition-laden narration borderline incomprehensible. The new bits of story that await players at the very end is totally awful, though it might pique the interest of diehard fans eager to see what’s next for the franchise.
Simply put: don’t buy this game for the story. The rhythm-based gameplay is plenty of fun on its own, and the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack is absolutely worth revisiting in this format. It really is a celebration of the franchise to date, and it mixes in rhythm gameplay with Kingdom Hearts' aesthetics well enough. It’s just a shame that the story and RPG mechanics were utterly botched.
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.