Was surprised with how much I enjoyed this game. I love the soundtracks of Kingdom Hearts, but rhythm games aren't my forte. However, the implementation of them both works really well for me I would say. It might not be for everyone, especially for non-Kingdom Hearts fans. But, the enjoyment when you get a Full Chain (hit every note in a song) is pretty great, especially for difficult songs. The story overall is a recap, until the end. Nothing too crazy. I really enjoyed my time with Melody of Memory! Lots of dopamine!

Man, I like Kingdom Hearts music as much as the next weirdo but this game is kind of like getting spit in your coffee.

It's a rhythm game that "develops" the plot further after Kingdom Hearts III, by forcing you to re-listen to the entire Kingdom Hearts Youtube playlist with work attached to it and sending you straight to the hospital with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. For all of this you get 1 measly cutscene and even worse representation for the one character that needs the most development in the entire series. This is supposed to be "Kairi's game" yet you still play as everyone else who gets to have all the fun instead.

As a rhytmn game it works mostly fine, but I found myself needing to play this game on Proud Mode because Normal mode was simply too easy and it felt as though a lot of the tracking was watered down. This made the game have more of a challenge for me, with some of the songs becoming absolute wrist destroying gauntlets.

All the visual noise gets annoying after a while. Sometimes there is so much going on in the background and on screen that it's hard to focus on the task at hand, especially during the movie and boss levels where they just show cutscenes and loads of particle effects until the song ends.

It's great if you like Kingdom Hearts music and if you want to celebrate how far the series has come to this point, but aside from that I'd honestly just look up the ending and move on.

Pretty standard rhythm that takes advantage of the OST being one of the best parts of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Playing some of these songs is a total delight. H

However, some of the more calm songs and the vast majority of the Disney songs don't mesh well with the gameplay, which makes some of the tracks kinda awkard.

The minimal story added here is, as always nonsensical, and you are better off watching that part outside of the game unless you are a big mega fan of the franchise.

Kingdom Hearts is a franchise dear to me. It was one of the first games I ever got for my PS2 and I’ve followed the franchise ever since. From the Playstation 2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, Playstation 4, and even mobile, the Kingdom Hearts franchise has seen several releases and several different genres across its 20+ year existence. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, the first rhythm game for the franchise, is the most recent installment and is nothing short of a celebration of the last two decades and a love letter to fans.

If you have followed along with every release in the Kingdom Hearts series since 2002 or paid attention and understood any of those 3+ hour story recap videos on YouTube, then you know the story of this game as well. The “story” of Melody of Memory is really just a rehash of all the important plot points from every Kingdom Hearts game. There is added narration by Kairi to go along with cutscenes from the prior games, since this game takes place entirely within her memories of the events of every game in the timeline, but there is little new for veteran players to get excited about. While there is an added chapter at the end of the game that sees Kairi and Riku attempt to uncover clues on Sora whereabouts due to his disappearance after the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, this does very little to move the plot along past the end of the Dark Seeker Saga.

Despite what little it adds to Kingdom Hearts storywise, Melody of Memory does provide a concise and fun way to relive a story that’s been ongoing for two decades and spans several different games and consoles. The game's ability to do this so effortlessly is one of its main selling points for longtime fans and newcomers alike. The Kingdom Hearts story, as complicated as it is, needed an official avenue for fans to experience a condensed version of its events. Melody of Memory provides this in spades. It not only gives veteran players something to do during the long wait for Kingdom Hearts 4, but also provides newcomers a means to get easily acquainted with an ever growing amount of characters, ideas, and plot threads. Does Melody of Memory give the player as much detail as playing every Kingdom Hearts game would? No, but it does provide an easily digestible and fun experience for players who can’t sink the time into playing 9 different games or watching 58 hours of cutscenes on YouTube.

As for gameplay, people who enjoyed games like Guitar Hero, will find themselves right at home here. Just replace the multicolor buttons of the Guitar Hero guitar with the X, Circle, Triangle, and L1 and R1 buttons on a PlayStation controller, and you have Melody of Memory’s control scheme. It isn’t a complicated system to understand after playing a song or two, but it is a complicated system to master. This is especially true when you get near the endgame or play the harder songs on the highest difficulties, i.e. Wave of Darkness I from Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage.

Overall, Melody of Memory is a welcome addition to the already over half-dozen Kingdom Hearts games. It provides a fun reminder of all the adventures Sora has taken and gives us a slight glimpse at the adventures to come.