A new trailer for Kingdom Hearts: Memory of Melody dropped last week! Square Enix announced a November 13, 2020 release date, as well as some details of the content in the game. Kingdom Hearts: Memory of Melody is a rhythm game, a new type of game for the series. Despite the overtly spin-offish nature of the game, it appears that the narrative is directly tied to the Kingdom Hearts canon; seeming to take place after the events of Kingdom Hearts III.
Personally, when this game was announced a few months ago, I was not excited. In fact, I was a little upset with Square and Tetsuya Nomura, the director of the Kingdom Hearts series. For the first time I understood what others felt when they complained about “spin-off” games Birth by Sleep, or Chain of Memories, being important to the main plot but being released on handheld consoles.
It doesn’t help that Kingdom Hearts III was the most disappointing game I’ve played in a while. Arguably and sadly being one of the worst games I’ve ever played. “What are you doing adding important story content to a spin-off rhythm game!” I thought to myself. Now that I’ve watched the new trailer, the game kind of looks fun. Maybe that’s my inner Kingdom Hearts fanboy talking. I am actually excited. After the trailer, I started to think of what I want to see come out of this entry in the series. So here are the top 5 things we want to see in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.
Check out our previous post about Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.
This article contains spoilers for Kingdom Hearts II and III.
5. Good Writing
Sora, Riku, and Kairi Together From The Kingdom Hearts II opening.
I want to see good writing in this game, because Kingdom Hearts III didn’t have it. Okay, I know that good writing is a bit subjective. A lot of people think Kingdom Hearts III had great writing. I did not, in fact I feel like the series’ writing has gone downhill since Kingdom Hearts II. At least since Kingdom Hearts 365/2 Days. There are also the people who think Kingdom Hearts never had good writing to begin with. I disagree, but to each their own.
I hope that there is less fan service in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory; stuff like trying to give bring Roxas back in his own body or whatever. That to me just spits in the face of the great moment at the end of Kingdom Hearts II where Roxas and Namine meet, but through Sora and Kairi. That was a great scene because not only did it call back to the opening of the game, where Namine tells Roxas they will meet again, but they might not look the same, or something along those lines. This moment shows that Roxas and Namine are a part of Sora and Kairi, and that anytime they are together so is Roxas and Namine. I digress, I have low expectations for the game’s story, but who knows? Maybe it will be good.
4. The Ability To Change Keyblades
Sora using Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keyblades
Being able to change your key-chain and alter the attributes of the keyblade is one of the best parts of the game. Maybe the different keyblade’s affect how many points you get for having good rhythm. Maybe they give you different effects, like making it easier to have perfect timing. Heck, even if it’s just an aesthetic thing I hope they add it to the game. Give players the option of what keyblade they use. But I imagine there will be plenty of interesting ways they could implement the different keyblades.
It would be a shame to not see some of the fan favorites. Keyblades like the Oathkeeper and Oblivion, or the Ultima keyblade. Heck if they do include it, maybe they will give it its own unique design for this game. And hopefully we will see some new keyblades as well, even if it’s just in a cut-scene.
3. New Music (or at least some new arrangements of old music)
This is a game all about music, and luckily Kingdom Hearts is known for having great music. I hope that a game all about music will have some new tracks created by series composer Yoko Shimomura. Kingdom Hearts III didn’t really have many new tracks, so it would be nice to see a few be created. If Melody Maker is going to have main story content, it would be nice to hear some new music behind the cut scenes. If we can’t get new music, then hopefully we can see some new arrangements of the current tracks.
I don’t expect entirely new music; at this point certain tracks are staples of the series. Tracks like Dearly Beloved are loved by many fans. It would feel like less of a Kingdom Hearts game without them. I do hope that they at least change it up a bit, so we aren’t always hearing the same arrangements that we’ve been hearing since 2009 or maybe even earlier. Also, a new remix of one of the openings for this game would be cool. Maybe a remix of Sanctuary?
2. Final Fantasy Characters
Cloud From Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy characters have been in almost every game; it was originally a selling point for the series. Final Fantasy meets Disney. When Kingdom Hearts III came along, they decided that they weren’t going to put any of the Final Fantasy characters fans had grown to love in the game. Obviously fans were upset, including myself. Kingdom Hearts was what got me into Final Fantasy. Now that I had played most of the games they came from, it made the appearance even better. Sure, they didn’t act exactly like they did in the games they starred in, but that didn’t matter. In fact, I think it helped justify their existence in the games aside from just being cameos.
A lot of folks say Kingdom Hearts has outgrown Final Fantasy. Its inclusion in the games was just a marketing tactic, one that Kingdom Hearts doesn’t need any more. They’ll say that Kingdom Hearts is popular enough to stand on its own now. Sure, some of that is true. The diffierence is that a lot of the Final Fantasy characters had become active players in the story. Leon (Squall from FFVIII), Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith were all ingrained in the story. They spent all of Kingdom Hearts II trying to restore Hollow Bastion, the place that they grew up in, to its former glory, only to be cut out almost completely from the story until the DLC for Kingdom Hearts III.
Now I will acknowledge that Kingdom Hearts doesn’t need Final Fantasy anymore to help with its marketing, and if they decided to ditch all of the old worlds that we had known like Hollow Bastion with the conclusion of the Xehanort saga, then that’s totally fine. It would suck a bit, because it was always fun to see the Final Fantasy characters appear, but it wouldn’t be so bad because they would be starting fresh. But because they aren’t ditching all of that stuff yet, I still want to see Leon and the gang trying to help find Sora, or whatever this Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is about.
1. No more Xehanort
Xehanort From Kingdom Hearts
I don’t want to see him. Nor do I want to see him old, or his young form. Please don’t make me see Ansem, or Xemnas ether. When I say I don’t what to see them, I mean in any new content. Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory seems like a game where you are going through what seems to be Kairi’s memories of things, I guess. So if they show up in those involving the past games, then that’s fine. Ideally it just expands on stuff we already know. As long as it makes sense; don’t leave even longtime fans, deep in Kingdom Hearts lore, super confused. Then it’s okay.
What I do not want to see is a complete disregard for anything that happened in Kingdom Hearts III. Because Xehanort is dead, boys and girls. Not only did he die in Kingdom Hearts III, he was redeemed! In a ham-fisted way, that wasn’t earned at all. In my opinion, of course. And I don’t want to play this game and find out that that was all part of Xehanort’s plan and he’s still the bad guy or whatever. That any form of him is still a main bad guy still.
There were some things in the trailer that made me afraid that’s where we are going. However, with Kingdom Hearts‘ track record of bad writing, that in my opinion is out to undo any good writing the previous games had just for meaningless fan service, I’m worried. I don’t want to see him as a spectral entity, chillin’ and trying to help the characters with Sakaguchi, either.
Final Thoughts
What do you think, do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments. If you have anything you want to see in Melody of Memory, throw that in the comments too; it will be neat to see what you think.
