Enjoy Eshaan M.'s review of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
7Enjoy Eshaan M.'s review of Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. Another much-awaited video game from the Kingdom Hearts series, Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory has crisp, simple graphics and is easy to jump into, but struggles to live up to the hype. Melody is, at its heart, a rhythm game; it makes good use of old Kingdom Hearts and Disney songs and attempts to string together events from prior games in its cut-scenes, but the overall package comes across as relatively disconnected.
The Kingdom Hearts (KH) series is an action RPG (role-playing-game) where you press various buttons to confront villains; many games add a level of complexity to the concept, like battle systems or intricate story details. In that respect, Melody of Memory is refreshing; it is a rhythm game. Three characters, Sora and two friends, run along a moving sheaf of sheet music with monsters as notes. The objective is to smite the monsters (by smashing L, R, X, B and A on the Nintendo Switch again and again) to the beat of the music... which by the way is actually pretty good - I’ll talk about that later. A negative point is that the game gets really, really, monotonous at times. The songs change, sure, but the characters don’t; the map has little variation, and the same monsters crop up in similar patterns.
KH lovers have been eagerly awaiting the release of Melody of Memory; 20+ characters, 140+ music tracks, and online VS multiplayer mode sounds incredibly appealing. And indeed, the game mostly delivers. There are countless levels, which are sewn together well; absolutely no lag even on online mode, which is great, and many characters. As far as ease of use goes, this might be one of the easiest games to play from the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Nothing seems clunky or awkward and it’s perfect for a novice gamer. The game saves your place automatically, except if you're in the middle of a level; in that case, pausing the game would be wise. For audiophiles, Kingdom Hearts’ music is absolutely at the top of the charts - though the tracks in Melody of Memory are repetitive (they come from previous games or are derived, rarely, from Disney); they will get stuck in your head. I wish there were more Disney songs, though. Also, between levels, there are sometimes randomly thrown-in cut-scenes, which make little to no sense out of context. From a battle to a love scene to a long odyssey back to a battle - trying to follow the cut-scenes might make your head spin. Nonetheless, they are high-quality animations, as is the case with all the levels and with all the characters. And those cut-scenes are a good 30 to 50-second rest between killing monsters!
Melody of Memory is a great game for all ages, as it promotes a positive message of good prevailing over evil. There are also elements of teamwork, though not as active for this to be a solid moral. There is an element of “unrealistic” violence in the game.
I give Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 9 to 12. Adults will enjoy this as well. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
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