If you’ve been in the video game community in the past 20 years, chances are you’ve at least heard of Kingdom Hearts. The series quickly stole the hearts of RPG fans, offering a bizarre mashup of Final Fantasy and Disney. Though one might think this would be a terrible combination, the folks at Square Enix somehow managed to make a charming (albeit confusing) story full of memorable moments.
There are plenty of reasons to enjoy Kingdom Hearts, but one of the best aspects of the series is its music. Nearly every track in all of the games are absolutely amazing, ranging from soothing to intense to anywhere in between.
Now, we finally have the perfect way to experience all of Kingdom Hearts’ soundtrack while also aiming for high scores in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory serves as a retelling of the series, but also adds fire to the already confusing plotline. While there isn’t really any new story content until the end of the game, getting a semi-comprehensive recap of the previous games is fun for longtime fans and will give new players at least a small sense of what is going on.
Sadly, if you’re going into Melody of Memory looking for the next big dose of Kingdom Hearts lore, you won’t find much here. There are some interesting tidbits to be found at the end of the game’s campaign, but you’d be better off saving your time and watching a YouTube video about them instead of playing through this game.
As a rhythm game, Melody of Memory does a very good job standing out from its contemporaries. While many rhythm games simply see players respond to button combinations while characters dance or perform a song in the background, Melody of Memory tries to make the experience feel like an active battle.
Teams of three run down a long path with hoards of enemies headed their way. By hitting button prompts in time with the beat, your characters will take out the enemies in their way and hopefully survive the mission. Setting missions up this way, along with the intense boss battles scattered throughout the game, makes playing Melody of Memory feel like a much more active experience than most other rhythm games.
Another way that Melody of Memory sets itself apart is with its control scheme. Unlike most rhythm games, you can use three different buttons to hit the basic prompts. While this does make things simpler for those who may not be accustomed to rhythm games, its execution is a bit sloppy.
There were many times where, seemingly out of nowhere, button presses wouldn’t register. This cost more perfect scores on songs than we’d like to admit. This issue didn’t seem to be due to the fault of the player, it seemed like the game would just randomly reject button presses.
With a more precise control scheme, this kind of issue probably could have been avoided. Sadly, with the way things are now, it is almost guaranteed that you’ll end up missing at least one note in every song for no particular reason at all.
Outside of this weird quirk with button prompts, Melody of Memory is one of the most fun rhythm games on the market. Each song is obviously wonderfully composed and finally getting to play through a rhythm game featuring them is like a dream come true.
Melody of Memory is built for Kingdom Hearts fans. Every time you beat a song in story mode or get a high score in free play, you either unlock cool pieces of memorabilia from past games or items that can be used to fuse memorabilia. Unlocking tons of screenshots, special movies and art from past games is an absolute joy for longtime fans.
If you fancy yourself a rhythm game aficionado, you’ve got to play Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. It not only brings unique gameplay to the genre, it also features some of the best music in gaming.
Unfortunately, the unique control scheme seems to bring more problems than good, so if you are a stickler about getting perfect scores, you might want to pass on this one. If you’re a mega fan of the Kingdom Hearts series, Melody of Memory is made for you, and is definitely worth picking up.
3.5/5 Torches
Review code provided by Square Enix. Game reviewed on an Xbox Series S.
