It’s a story clearly centered around reliving those nostalgic moments rather than establishing many new ones. In fact, little is added at all – save for a section at the very end which explicitly tells us where developer Square Enix plans to set the next Kingdom Hearts game and includes a little bit of interesting lore about Kairi, but not much else. Given its simple controls and on-rails levels, very little of it feels remarkable or unique in practice compared to other rhythm games, and you may find yourself mindlessly breezing through it.Make no mistake: This is not a new Kingdom Hearts roleplaying game, nor a deep franchise recap, and while some of the story is touched on, only the broadest strokes are covered. It does, however, end up feeling shallow after several solid hours of play. One of the best parts about this rhythm-based game is you don’t have to be a huge Kingdom Hearts fan to drop in and enjoy bite-sized chunks thanks to the plethora of iconic Disney music and easy-to-learn gameplay.
Taking influences from musical spinoff Theatrhythm, Melody of Memory grabs your hand and gleefully parades you through some of the most heartfelt moments in the long-running Kingdom Hearts series, which is now spread across over 14 games (if you also include minor entries like Re:Coded and Kingdom Hearts 0.2).
At long last, diehard Kingdom Hearts fans have received the musical love letter to their beloved series that they’ve long awaited.