Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory


Game'scover

About the Game

Kingdom Hearts Melody of memory (MOM) is the twelveth entry of the Legendary Series Kingom Hearts. The game was developed by Square Enix and IndieZero and it was released in 2020 for all available consoles during its era. It is the first Kingdom Hearts entry that is taking place after the ending of the Xehanort Dark Daga which was the main plot of the past 11 games. In other words, the first game that starts the journey for what ever course the series will take the players.However, Melody of memory is NOT a main title, but more or less a love letter for all the fans. The game is not the traditional action RPG( Which almost all the prior entries were) but for the first time it's a Rythm Base Game.Kingdom hearts is a series who is not afraid on experimenting with Its Ip as seen in the past. There's a card base system game for the game boy advanced, there android and Ios games that are team base rpg fights, and others. In japan rythm games seemed to be popping everywhere with games such as persona 5,vocaloid hatsune Miku, final fantasy and others so kingdom hearts took on the same challenge.

Whats is Kingdom Hearts?(no spoilers)

Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix employee who is known for working on final fantasy vii. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover between Square Enix and Disney based in a fictional universe. The main character Sora, and his friends Donald Duck and Goofy journey around various Disney , Pixar and originally designed worlds.They battle the heartless and various creatures of darkness in order to save the world from the darkness. Throughout their Journey they make new friends along the way, characters from the disney world they visit and various final fantasy heroes. The series consists of thirteen games , and with the release of Kingdom hearts III in 2019 and The Remind DLC 2020, the game finaly concluded it's first saga known as the Xehanort Dark arc. The series are well received from the public although sometimes its beeing critisize for its bizzare story telling. The main issue of the series was the fact that all the games add to one story, however they re split to multiple platoforms such as Ps2,psp,ps4,Android,gba and the Ds. Square Enix though realised the mess they made and the remastered the games and released them as collections for ps4 and xbox. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including Cds with the soundtracks of the series,multiple figurines,plushies,clothing ,companion books(guides,artbooks), light novels, a collectible card game, manga series(by Akira Amano) and potentially an upcoming TV series.

Story of the Game (Spoiler's for the end of Kingdom Hearts iii)

Game screenshot
The story of the Game is simple, since this is side game and a love letter from the series to the fans. To elaborate, Kingdom hearts III ended the darc arc which consisted of eleven games, so this game's goal is to sum up the entire story in relaxing form. Before the game there were only a few ways of learning the story, these were:

  1. Playing The game Collection.
  2. Reading the Novels and the Manga.
  3. Researching online through Online websites and Youtube videos.
  4. Reading the story Logs, provided from Square Enix
As a result this rythm game tackle this challenge very efficiently. It allows the player to consume the entire kingdom heart story in an enjoyable and memorable way. Following the events of kindom hearts 3, everybody has been trying to find where Sora ended up. At the end of the remind dlc , Riku mentions how they may have found a lead inside of Kairi's heart. The scientist found a way that allows them to travel inside Kairi's heart and search for clues whilst she is in a comma. This is where the game basicaly focusses on. The game dives in all the worlds that Sora has been during his adventures . As a whole, Kingdom hearts has plenty of amazing Sountracks and as a result there were plenty of concerts dedicated to this franchise which had and still have success. Melody of memory allows the player to listen to all this songs while he is rewarded with cutscenes that showcase events of the past games with Kairi's voice explaining the plot of the given title. You venture to all the worlds and play the tracks in order to obtain stars that can unlock even more maps. Nothing major happendns plot wise,since it's just retelling the events of past games, up until the very end. The last three songs of the campaign are the ones that givethe player new Lore. The first thing, is a glimpse of Kairi's past lore and then new and interesting stuff that set the stage for the next entry to come and take all the player to the next chapter as Riku moves forward to find and rescue Sora.


Gameplay

The gameplay of Melody of Memory comes in four forms and three difficulties. Begginer, Normal and Expert are the three different difficulties and the difference is on the amount of enemies appearing and the ammount of life the player lose when missing a note. The players controls a pre existing team of three heroes, and they can choose to add items and start the tracks. The heroes will always move forward on a pentagram and there are enemies waiting on the players way. The enemies are always placed in a position where when following the rythm of the song can tell the players when to press their buttons.

The Normal gameplay has the player press multiple buttons. X, L1 and R1 are buttons that have the heroes attack, Triangle is a quick time event that appear once in a while, and circle is used for jumping. Holding circle allows the player to hover up in the air. These are the buttons the player has to press whilst in normal. Keep in mind that if the main character attacks with X and there are more enemies that follows, the player will have to press either L1 or R1. Basically the three attack buttons,(x.L1,R1) cannot be pressed at the same time. For example when two enemies are near the hero, double pressing X wont hit the enemies the second time. The secondnd gamestyle is called the one button press. Basically the entire gameplay changes for the player to only use 1 button, most common being X. Its up to the players to choose which button they press from the ones mentioned above. Commands that use Jump or triangle or double press are simply done with that 1 button of their choise . Even in the case of floating, the players dont have to manuver left and right as this is done automaticaly, and in the case of having mobs for the party to attack, they will do so since the button is still being held down. If they stop holding it down in order to repress it, they will most likely gonna be hit or quarantee a miss. Certain songs have a very different gameplay. Instead of wlaking in on a pentagram, the team instead floats in the sky. While the team floats, there is a video in the background playing . The Pentagram is instead replaced with a single line that has various of buttons that are approaching the player. These songs are usually character development, the Oppening intros of the past games, and special songs that took place within their respective titles such as Kingdom Hearts III: Frozen:Let it Go and Little Marmaids:Under the sea. During the main story campaign the option available is the normal gameplay, but the difficulty it's up to the player. They can control whichever team they wish, given the fact that they have unlocked them all , however keep in mind that if they players use One team, the experienced gained is only for that one team alone. If they clean eleven worlds with one team and then swap teams, the new team will be lvl 1. These teams are the classic trio, the twilight gang, the BBS team and riku with the dream eaters. They all play the same though but use their own unique animations and skills. During a level the players can use items such as, potions, mega potion, exp boost and last but not least a Mickey summon, which allows Micky to join the team and earn more points when he is the one hitting the enemies. In certain maps, one of the three heroes(NOT the team Character) will be replaced with a Disney hero. For example, playing the Olympus song might replace Donald or Goofy (given the player uses the main team) with Hercules. Game's collectable

Style Mode:

The last playstyle of the game is the Style Mode. It translates to having the normal difficulty with all those buttons along side additional buttons added these being, L2,R2 and Square. Style mode allows the players to flex their reflexes. Not only do they have to focus on the enemies given to the players but also they have to focuss on the style points.

Boss Battles:

Also while in story mode the game has boss batlles. Boss battles are the same as the other games, basically the players have to make sure they won't miss or drop a note. The players should keep in mind the graphical surface, when the pentagram has a purple aura, it means that the enemy will attack , missing a note when the purple aura is available will cause for a fatal blow.

Versus Mode/ Multiplayer

The game also has a battle mode where the player can challenge the Ai or a player Online and Local. The gamemmode begins by having the player to choose a team. Once a team is selected, the players are tasked to choose a track. In versus mode, there are tracks available and the player chooses which one he wishes in order to proceed. On the other hand, online and local mode has the player to choose their own song, or the song of their preference. When the song is selected, both the players appear on a split screen and play their track. The better one does, the more items become available for them to sabotage the enemy. Sabotaging the enemy player, will have them lose points instead of gainning. When the track is over, the player or bot with the most points win.
These power ups are:
  1. Removal of Aim Assist
  2. Invisible Enemies that appear before the hit
  3. Enemy size reduction, smaller window hit
  4. Bigger Point reduction when missing
  5. Interfierence: Defeated enemies smash the screen
  6. False Targets: Making false targets appear everywhere on screen
The more the points a player gets the more they can use combo abilities. For example miss target and bigger points reduction. None of the players control what power up they get, it's all random. It should be stated that nothing can be be fatal if the players play the game based on their hearing sense. However, if the players are focussing more on the visual aspect of the game, then this game mode will mess with the players alot.

Collectables

Game's collectable The game is unique to each genre and series and thus all the collectables acquired are based on Sora's journey. There is an option available known as museum where the players can see their unlockables. The first option available in the museum is the Collection. Collection is an archive that on it's own is seperated in various categories. The first option available is Key Art Cards. These are arts that were used as covers for the games, and art designed to advertise the game. There's more than 60 Arts to be collected and they all look amazing, with the design of Tetsuya Nomura. The second type of art is Story scene Cards. These are pictures taken directlt from within the games themselves. Whether they re rented CGI cutscenes or scenes within the games engine. There's approximately 130 pictures. The next set of collectables are Character Cards. These are cards that depictions all the characters met within the game in all of their forms. With a quick glance everyone can see the changes the main Hero Sora and his group went from Kingdom Hearts(2002) all the way to kingdom Hearts III:Remind (2020). There is a total of 321 cards for the players to acquire. The last type of collectables that can be found within Collection is the Keyblade Cards. As the name Suggests these cards all depiction a keyblade transformation. To elaborate in each adventure Sora goes, a type of unlockable usually is a keyblade that resembles the world he had just visited. These 125 cards showcases each one of these blades.

The second option available within the Museum is the Story Archive. The more the players proceed with the main campaign of the game, the players unlocked cutscenes of the worlds and the story of events of certain games given that the final level of the given entry is finished. For example, beating Anem who was the final boss of Kingdom hearts 1 will give the entire sum up of the game. In every cutscene Kairi describes the story as she knew them. This section also includes the moments from this entry as well. To sum up, Story arvives are all the cutscenes triggered within the game itself.

The third option available within the museum is the Theatre. As mention above, there are certain songs that also consist of background animation. For example playing the theme of Sora, instead of walking on the pentagram, the heroes fly while theres a video of Soras Journey throughout the games. Most likely not everyone can enjoy the video when there are quick events happening. Theatre mode allows the players to spectate that video without having to worry about missing timing a note, as there are no notes to begin with.

The fourth otpion available within the museum is the Jukebox.Very similar to the theatre mode, this option allows the player to listen to the song, without having to play. There are no enemies attacking the players so they can sit Back select a track and enjoy the music. Theres a total of 143 Songs.

This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game

This is a video showcasing and reviewing the Game

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