Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance is one of my favorite entries in the series. I don’t know if that’s a divisive choice, but in the early days of the franchise, mashing up the known with the unknown was how it made a name for itself. So to see the series that brought Disney and Square Enix together with a new cast of characters upend its combat by throwing in a deck-based battle system feels in line with the spirit of the franchise.
Now that the initial surprise of
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory’s announcement as the next game in the series following Kingdom Hearts 3 has worn off, I’ve grown more and more fond of the idea of Kingdom Hearts trying its hand at rhythm games. And, given my time with the demo build, it certainly seems the developers have married the world, combat, and wonderful soundtracks of the series with familiar yet fun rhythm gameplay that features enough Kingdom Hearts touches to keep me trying for a high score run.
Simple and Clean
It’s worth pointing out that my Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory demo featured almost nothing in the way of story details. While the trailers for the upcoming game indicate it will
address some of where Kingdom Hearts 3 left the series’ universe, this demo specifically focused on the rhythm gameplay, and, thus, so will this preview.
Developed in part by the team behind Square Enix’s Theatrhythm rhythm game franchise, the core of Melody of Memory should be familiar to anyone who’s tried their beat-keeping in those games, or even a Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Sora, along with a party of two others (in this case, Donald and Goofy), each represent one of three lanes scrolling toward the screen on which you’ll have to maintain rhythm. And to keep that beat you’ll attack enemies or items in your way, jump over attacks, glide into note paths, or cast spells on hard-to-reach foes.
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The beat-matching mechanics are actually a pretty solid approximation of Kingdom Hearts’ combat. Playing on PS4, the X, L1, or R1 buttons can all be used to attack, Circle is jump (and holding it down lets Sora glide), while you hit Triangle to employ context-sensitive spell attacks, similar to Situation Commands in KH3.
And in that regard, Melody of Memory really works well — the swing of Sora’s keyblade takes the time that it should, his jump and glide have the right weight and speed, and the timing of it all felt true to both the series’ main combat and the beats I was trying to match.
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That said, I do hope the full game has a bit more of a calibration option. There’s a slider you can adjust in the menu, but I wish it had a matching example to showcase where the calibration was on your respective TV.
Proud to Try Higher Difficulties
For the most part, though, the base setting worked well for me, especially as I quickly bumped the difficulty up from Beginner to Standard or even Proud. I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit playing Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and other music games, so I actually find myself wanting to fill in the gaps between notes on Melody’s easiest difficulty. If you have much rhythm gaming background, I recommend starting with Standard for a fun but still rewarding challenge.
And I was by no means an expert by the time I finished each of the demo’s four tracks, which range from Traverse Town to Alice in Wonderland, and selections from Kingdom hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 0.2. The easiest thing to say about Melody of Memory is that, unsurprisingly, the score is phenomenal. Yoko Shimomura’s fantastic soundtrack work is a perfect fit for the music genre, with the Kingdom Hearts’ scores combining iconic Disney and Square Enix sounds, while delivering new indelible tracks all their own. Hell, the first thought I had while playing was “How did it take this long to get a Kingdom Hearts music game,” because it just makes so much sense. And the score itself does a lot of heavy lifting in making these levels fun to tap along to.
But the developers have also made some smart choices in adapting the Kingdom Hearts bestiary to be beaten by beats. Some enemies will die after one attack, but some, like the Large Body Heartless, may require multiple hits to take down. (I was a little bothered by the fact that Sora could hit the Large Body on the stomach after years of having to run around behind them to attack, but, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes.) Sora’s jump can be used both to reach floating enemies, as well as to dodge attacks of foes, and you’ll want to keep your consecutive-hit streak up by making sure not to miss crates and barrels in your way.
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Melody of Memory employs some fun ways to make its core mechanic more complex as the difficulty amps up. Aside from the greater volume of foes, you’ll have to contend with attacking enemies simultaneously (hence the three attack buttons), and more. One particular monkey wrench I enjoyed mastering was the addition of launching Sora in the air to maintain a glide through a chain of notes, while also having to attack enemies on the ground with Donald and Goofy.
It all makes for an intriguing rhythm game format. Melody treads on familiar rhythm-game ground while imbuing it with enough Kingdom Hearts touches, and of course the franchise’s phenomenal score, that I’m intrigued to play through the whole adventure. I still have questions about the full scope of the game, as items were turned off for the demo, and I obviously haven't seen every twist and turn to the combat given that not every KH era is represented in the demo. And while this isn’t the first time the series has tried its hand at music game mashups — the infamous Atlantica level of Kingdom Hearts 2 may still loom large for some — the demo hints at a more robust, thought-through package that could potentially be the trip down musical memory lane the series’ wonderful scores deserve.
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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and generally the person on staff who has to answer everyone's Kingdom Hearts questions. Talk to him on twitter @jmdornbush.