Melody of Memory is a loving homage to the legacy of Kingdom Hearts, aiming to honour almost two decades of absurd excellence whilst also forging a new path forward. If any franchise is going to make a rhythm game an integral part of its overall plot, it's Kingdom Hearts, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Melody of Memory is a true love letter to the Kingdom Hearts series. Fans will adore the numerous callbacks to older titles in the franchise; newcomers won’t fully get what’s so special about it. This is worth taking into consideration.
Melody of Memory is a homage to the magical music crafted by Yoko Shimomura, which pays homage to the many beloved Disney and Pixar films that appear across the series. The music is now combined with rhythm-based game-play that is both enjoyable and difficult.
To a novice in the realm of rhythm games, it was very easy to get into the game-play loop, and simply playing the game felt rewarding due to the beautiful soundtrack and imagery that accompanied every level. As a veteran Kingdom Hearts player, I was also hit with frequent feelings of nostalgia, reminding me of my first experience with this amazing franchise.
This game even features a multiplayer mode, which is rather unpolished compared to typical co-op settings, but provides additional enjoyment after completion of the game. And as with every Kingdom Hearts entry, simply playing the game rewards you with a progression of the narrative, giving us insight of what to expect for the much awaited Kingdom Hearts 4.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is exactly what you would like a musical game in the Square Enix saga to be. A simple, direct, accessible and very funny title. It's so simple, the repeatability could take its toll soon, but if you commune with its extraordinary soundtrack, you won't mind too much. Still, it does not innovate anything within the genre and not all melodies offer the same rhythm with each beat.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is a great game for the fans of the series, plunging the player deep into nostalgia to refresh the events and immerse them in the beloved universe. However, it might not be the best game to begin your journey in the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Despite being a strong rhythm action game, the game’s biggest point is reliving memories that already have an emotional impact with its audience.
Melody of Memory succeeds as a fun, well-made rhythm game that successfully adapts Kingdom Hearts’ combat into the genre. The gameplay is fast, fluid and frantic, giving players a new way to experience the franchise’s excellent music. Though there isn’t much in the form of new worlds or music, it’s a one-stop-shop to listen to Yoko’s extraordinary music.
I knew Melody of Memory was a rhythm spin-off before I started it, so I kept my expectations fairly low, but it didn’t even clear that bar. The music isn’t awful and the visuals are beautiful, but it gives players almost nothing substantial in the main story. In light of this, I can only recommend it to those who really love rhythm games or the music from Kingdom Hearts.
As an huge Kingdom Hearts fan, I knew this was a must-buy for me. What I didn't yet know is it would be -- by far -- my favorite rhythm game of all time.
First off, only you can decide the monetary worth of anything, however, to me, no Melody of Memory is not worth full price, it offers far less story development than most other games, side games included, and the game itself has a lot of issues and would have been far more appropriately priced at £30. Admittedly I'm biased because I love both KH and rhythm games, however this game has many undeniable flaws, first of all, on the Battle Stages, the most common type of stage, it can be very disorienting to play when the enemies are moving about so much, the path curves and bends, making certain obstacles hard to see, and your characters move around a lot too, these can make it incredibly hard to actually hit notes and can make playing certain stages on Hard an absolute nightmare. Another kind of Stage, a boss fight, can be just as bad if not worse, in these fights an in game recreation of a boss fight from a previous game will play out while you hit notes in the foreground, this is made very difficult by the fact the notes come from the left side of the screen and the bar to hit them is at the right leaning centre, meaning you have very little time to read and press the buttons accordingly. Another issue I've found in boss fights is how the battle can feel very random compared to your rating with the notes, for example. during one stage, I hit all the notes most with an Excellent rating, the second highest rating in the game, yet I got hit a number of times and got a "good" rating, whereas the next time, I missed quite a few notes yet didn't get hit at all and received an "excellent" rating, so it seems totally arbitrary whether you do good or bad. The final kind of stage consists of you hitting notes over an FMV, these are the most traditional kind of songs and much more closely resemble something like Guitar Hero, I have found minimal issue with this stage and think it's the best, apart from getting stars, they're the only stages I play.
The story itself can be beat in less than 10 hours and about 30 minutes of that is dedicated to story development, the other 9 and a half hours is Kairi recapping the series up to this point, ReMind included. As a Kingdom Hearts fan, this is incredibly disappointing, I know the series, I don't need to be retold the series, especially after the ps4 releases, this is unnecessary, it's really one of the only games in KH worth calling a "side game" much like Coded this can be skipped and the cutscene (singular) can be viewed on youtube with nothing of value lost.
I can only really recommend KHMoM at a discounted price, IF you love KH Music as much as I do, I think this game could really benefit from some DLC, because as it stands, there are very few Disney songs and no Final Fantasy songs, there's also some glaring omissions like Face My Fears and ANY Pirates of The Caribbean song. While disappointing, I still enjoy this game and have 18 hours on it, and I intend to play more, but I do wish I could have at least £20 back
Mediocre game full of recicled assets. Confused gameplay only enjoyable in proud mode. 60€ for a game that has no story at all in it. Only in the end, you have a 25 minutes cutscene that tells you pretty much nothing more than a good trailer.
Guys this game is like paying 60€ for a single episode of Lost, and not a good one like "The Constant", no. A cheep one. A "meanwhile" one.
This **** so much I'm thinking of throwing my 18 years collection in the garbage.
SummaryExperience the music of kingdom hearts like never before. Melody of memory features 20+ characters, 140+ music tracks, and online vs multiplayer mode. Explore the music and memories from the kingdom hearts series! Play as familiar faces from the kingdom hearts series, including Disney guest characters who will appear to Lend you a hand. ...