The Kingdom Hearts franchise has always been dear to my heart, ever since I first saw ads of it on TV back when I was just a little one. The infusion of Disney with Final Fantasy had be hooked. Mostly because of Disney. It was only later on that I fell in love with Final Fantasy. And the rest…well, as they say, is history. 

It should also not come as a surprise that I have great respect for the Goddess that is Yoko Shimomura. Since my early days of playing video games, she’s managed to capture the essence of the Disney worlds and bring them to life as Sora has traipsed through, destroying Heartless everywhere he went. I mean…look no further to my old posts about Final Fantasy XV and you will see that I basically worship anything that she throws out into the world.

So, though I was burned by re: Coded and its rehash of prior events, I still picked up Melody of Memory with the full knowledge that any relevant lore drops would most likely be at the end and just be enough to tide me over before the next bigger release (and honestly, after the dumpster fire that was Kairi’s entire character arc in Kingdom Hearts 3, I would have liked to see her uplifted a little in future instalments). And because the game is essentially a celebration of the work Shimomura has poured into the series.

As soon as gamers pick the game up, they are thrust into the ‘World Tour’. There’s little explanation for why the characters have ended up in a musically-themed game, but as soon as you unlock the first recap cutscene, it becomes clear that Kairi is summarising the series.

A lot of the music are top-notch and easily recognisable for anyone familiar with the series. Whether that was Bustin’ on the Beach, Destati or L’impeto Oscuro. Others were a little bit harder to pin down – mostly because they never truly impressed upon me during my initial playthrough, such as Access the Grid(which also did not seem to hit my beat centres so I felt as if I was too heavily reliant on the visuals to pull me through).

Melody of Memory only contains approximately 140 or so songs. That meant that not all of my favourite songs were present. In particular, Tears of the Light, which is my  go-to melancholy song to make sad things a hundred times sadder. Still, there was quite a bit of variety, though there were also quite a few remixes of songs, such as Traverse in Tranceand Scherzo di Notte. All of them brought a little something extra to the pieces on display, so it did not feel like I was playing through the exact same song, even if I thought that it was cheating. At least, a little.

I will admit, though, that the limit of one song for each world in the Kingdom Hearts 3 portion of the game was a little disappointing. Even if Let it Go is a bop, I would have preferred additional field and battle music. 

What came as a shock, though, were ACTUAL DISNEY SONGS that could be unlocked. Like: A Whole New World and Beauty and the Beast. All, of course, from the ACTUAL ANIMATED FILMS! 

I mean, I had expected Utada Hikaru – because the singer has become synonymous with the series, but one does not simply throw in Part of Your World, okay? At least warn a Disney geek!

The gameplay is reminiscent of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. However, as none of the consoles that can play it have the use of a stylus, it’s mostly button presses with the occasional flick of the thumbstick. The presentation is also vastly different – with the four different teams running towards enemies and hacking away at them to the rhythm of the music. This took me some adjustment as my natural inclination was to hammer away at X (or A, as I was playing on the Nintendo Switch) as soon as Heartless/ Nobodies/ Unversed or Nightmares appeared. Of course, that often resulted in a ‘bad’, hurting my poor characters and depleting my health bar.

The controls for the game keep it quite simple. There are three buttons that can be used to attack (which are helpful when the occasional simultaneous attack occurs, as you need to press either two or all three), one is for jump (and if you hold it down, you can glide) and a final button to use magic/ special move. At least, those are for the general tracks.

There are also two other different types of tracks that one can play through. Boss battles and movie tracks have singular hit notes (red), hold notes (green) and thumbstick flick notes (yellow). Most of these are to the left or right of the screen rather than centred, as with the general ones. But unless I was playing on beginner, most of my attention was focused on what combination of notes were coming up ahead – desperate to not miss a single one in my chain (particularly on Proud).

Once I had gone through all the worlds, I was rewarded with discovering that the entire game had been Kairi reliving her memories in a desperate bid to find Sora. How something like that would help in reality is questionable, but THIS is Kingdom Hearts. I’ve stopped trying to apply logic where the franchise is concerned. After remembering her traumatic childhood and being ‘rescued’ by Terra-nort, she is put into a machine to find a keyblade wielder. Researcher Terra-nort says a few obscure words and Kairi is back in THE FINAL WORLD. Where, of course, a phantom of Master Xehanort appears. They fight. Kairi, for some random reason, takes on the form of Sora, defeats Master Xehanort and then she wakes back in Radiant Garden with Diz, Ienzo and Even looking on.

It’s not too long before Riku appears and then THE FAIRY GODMOTHER! Some revelations are dropped and all three are whisked away to the Final World (which I thought was where hearts on the cusp of death went, but anyhow, they manage to travel there) to meet with the Nameless Star. She is revealed to come from the ‘Other’ world. A place of fiction and ‘unreality.’ It is then that she reveals a city called Quadratum, wherein resides Noctis Yozora of Verum Rex fame. Riku, as always, heads in to rescue his good old friend and Kairi stays behind to train with Master Aqua.

Thus ends Melody of Memory, paving the way for where the story will go next.

I’m not entirely sure how the Lost Masters will feature in Quadrutum or what role they’ll play in the inevitable sequel. The Re:Mind DLC seemed incredibly focused on Yozora and the unreleased ‘fantasy based on reality’ Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Somehow, though, I’m sure Nomura will make it all fit and still have fans scratching their heads. Hopefully, though, we’ll get to see more Riku AND have a proper strong story arc for Kairi. The poor girl needs to catch a break instead of being a walking plot device cliche that only serves to motivate the main protagonist.

Now, back to whether or not Melody of Memory is worth playing through and purchasing. If you’re a Kingdom Hearts aficionado that also loves the music and doesn’t mind rhythm games, pick it up. If you said no to any of the three, particularly if you hate rhythm games, then don’t. You might as well just YouTube the ending to get your daily fix of Kingdom Hearts lore that’ll keep you informed and give you a modicum of knowledge for what Kingdom Hearts 4 may bring. 

Ah! Who am I kidding? The next title after this won’t be Kingdom Hearts 4. It’ll probably be another indecipherable list of numbers or words that are just jammed together because it sounds cool. NOMURA! LOOK AT THE CHAOS YOU HAVE WROUGHT!