I don't need to do a story summary - this entire game is a story summary of the major Kingdom Hearts games unto itself.
Through the premise of probing Kairi's memories for new information, players are treated to a run through of all of the classic music that has accompanied the Kingdom Hearts games over its two decade history. It covers the original trilogy as well as Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, and even has like two?? songs from Re: Coded.
The structure is simple: you are tasked with clearing out the many worlds of the Kingdom Hearts franchise by completing rhythm game sequences set to the wonderful world and battle music that's been implanted in my brain since 2002. Each song has 3 distinct goals that you must hit by completing different tasks and each one has three distinct difficulties that you can work through to appropriately challenge yourself. Progress is gated by how many goals you clear which grant stars for progression, and a boss battle is plopped onto the tail end of each of the main 3 games.
The rhythm game component of Melody of Memory, designed by the team who develops the Theatrhythm titles, attempts to approximate the combat of Kingdom Hearts by sending Sora, Donald, and Goofy down a track that tasks them with pressing the A or shoulder buttons to hit enemies, the B button to jump upwards and occasionally glide, and the Y button to activate special abilities to....also attack enemies. Instead of the clean UI and track design of Theatrhythm, you just charge onwards into countless heartless from the franchise to....mixed success. This main game mode feels imprecise, and the use of enemy models instead of button prompts can make it difficult to determine what speed you need to hit the heartless at. There isn't very much in terms to feedback to help guide you when you've missed enemies, and on proud mode this can lead to utter disaster. It works, but it doesn't feel spectacular in terms of precision even with game mode enabled on my LG C1 OLED television.
Man. They should have just made a normal Theatrhythm game with these tunes.
There are also boss battle sequences that switch things up by having notes move at you in more or a pseudo 2D perspective and cutscene sequences in which you do more traditional Theatrhythm-like game play, but there's like 3 boss battles are 5 cutscene sequences in total, which feels like too little, too late. The lack of boss battles in a game celebrating Kingdom Hearts, which is chocked full of bosses, also feels like a huge omission, especially since those sequences are a big step up in terms of clarity and responsiveness.
It's a great premise, but the execution is middling at best. Thank god we have Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line to wash away the taste.
Through the premise of probing Kairi's memories for new information, players are treated to a run through of all of the classic music that has accompanied the Kingdom Hearts games over its two decade history. It covers the original trilogy as well as Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, and even has like two?? songs from Re: Coded.
The structure is simple: you are tasked with clearing out the many worlds of the Kingdom Hearts franchise by completing rhythm game sequences set to the wonderful world and battle music that's been implanted in my brain since 2002. Each song has 3 distinct goals that you must hit by completing different tasks and each one has three distinct difficulties that you can work through to appropriately challenge yourself. Progress is gated by how many goals you clear which grant stars for progression, and a boss battle is plopped onto the tail end of each of the main 3 games.
The rhythm game component of Melody of Memory, designed by the team who develops the Theatrhythm titles, attempts to approximate the combat of Kingdom Hearts by sending Sora, Donald, and Goofy down a track that tasks them with pressing the A or shoulder buttons to hit enemies, the B button to jump upwards and occasionally glide, and the Y button to activate special abilities to....also attack enemies. Instead of the clean UI and track design of Theatrhythm, you just charge onwards into countless heartless from the franchise to....mixed success. This main game mode feels imprecise, and the use of enemy models instead of button prompts can make it difficult to determine what speed you need to hit the heartless at. There isn't very much in terms to feedback to help guide you when you've missed enemies, and on proud mode this can lead to utter disaster. It works, but it doesn't feel spectacular in terms of precision even with game mode enabled on my LG C1 OLED television.
Man. They should have just made a normal Theatrhythm game with these tunes.
There are also boss battle sequences that switch things up by having notes move at you in more or a pseudo 2D perspective and cutscene sequences in which you do more traditional Theatrhythm-like game play, but there's like 3 boss battles are 5 cutscene sequences in total, which feels like too little, too late. The lack of boss battles in a game celebrating Kingdom Hearts, which is chocked full of bosses, also feels like a huge omission, especially since those sequences are a big step up in terms of clarity and responsiveness.
It's a great premise, but the execution is middling at best. Thank god we have Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line to wash away the taste.