Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory (2020)

Kingdom Hearts has one of the best soundtracks in gaming and this game lets you do something while listening to it. That honestly carries the game a long way but ultimately this game still feels like it had a lot of missing potential and the choice to put some canon narrative at the end of the game was certainly a choice, but that's Kingdom Hearts for you.

3 / 5 Stars

Okay, it's not exactly like Theatrhythm, but those who like those games will love this as I did.

The Kingdom Hearts series has been a guilty pleasure of mine since the beginning. Playing through the music of each game and having Kairi recap the story shows just how silly the plot is, but also how much I love the music. There's not as much customization with party members, but I think that's a welcome change from the Theatrhythm games. It definitely feels simpler.

My favorite addition? The boss battles. There are only I think 4 of them in the game, but they were so fun.

The story is actually my biggest problem with this game. When it's not just recapping the older games, there is actually new content that takes place after Kingdom Hearts III. For fans who didn't want to play a rhythm game and wanted an action RPG, this has got to be irritating. I personally like both genres, but I can understand those who never asked for this. I don't think anything is really missed as people can just look up the ending on YouTube (admittedly, console restrictions and such have always been a barrier for this series with continuity). However, my criticism still stands - too much recapping and the new content was not necessarily welcome.

I'm absolutely going to attempt getting the Platinum for this though!

I love the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack. It is in my opinion, the game series with the best and most magical soundtrack. And a game series like Kingdom Hearts deserves a rhythm game.

I looked forward to playing this game, but somehow I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I like playing rhythm games a lot, but somehow listening to this good soundtrack without any emotional or narrative meaning made the music feel very hollow.

I think I should stick to rhythm games that have their own original soundtrack that is not tied to a franchise.

Thank you for reading my review and may your heart be your guiding key. 💛

Ricci

I've always kinda seen the KH music as store-brand Final Fantasy music, so none of it's ever really stuck with me apart from Dearly Beloved and the Utada contributions, because I love her. So, I wasn't really hyped for this, but figured I'd at least give the demo a shot.

Mechanics aren't bad. You're auto-running forward and you basically just press one, two, or three buttons at once to attack enemies, depending on how many are in a line. You can jump or jump and glide for certain notes, and there are also some special boxes that make you auto-attack with magic or whatever.

I dunno, Theatrhythm was just too perfect and spoiled me. I like rhythm games, but I'm really picky about them. (Also, this game is $60. No fuckin' way.)

I really just want a rhythm game with a bunch of Tales music. :(