Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, the preview
Theatrhyche? The first Theatrhythm Final Fantasy dates back to 2012 and was published for Nintendo 3DS and then for iOS systems. The intuitive and basic rhythm game gameplay, intertwined with simple JRPG dynamics, immediately conquered the fans of the popular franchise and Square Enix, but it was not the stylized and adorable character design of Atsuhiro Tsuchiya, or the intuitions of the director Masanobu Suzui. The real protagonist could only be music, a boundless soundtrack that fished in the various Final Fantasy published so far with a total of 130 songs. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, in 2014, further perfected the formula with an even more fun campaign, many characters to unlock, grow and enhance, a strategic depth over the top and, above all, a simply exaggerated quantity of songs: 321 in total, including the numerous DLC packages.
At that point, the series has taken a small step back with Theatrhythm Dragon Quest in 2015, that in the west we have never seen and which proposed to the fans, only 85 songs. Then Theatrhythm is sunk into oblivion, the Nintendo 3DS has been superseded by the Switch, and all we feared that we would not have played to the rhythm of the music to Square Enix. Because the charm of Theatrhythm was, especially in those songs that made us dream for years, and in the melodies that we have heard and listened to while our heroes stylized fighting monsters or crossed vast plains, reminding us of the best moments of these adventures. The mechanical, as we have said, were simple. Basically you were pressing the keys or touching the screen, in time with the music, respecting the visual cues that they became more intricate as increased the level of difficulty . In a short time, Theatrhythm as source the player in a loop colorful music, statistics and memories: bringing back the series in the spotlight with sora may not be a choice of mathematics.
The adventure of the Wrong Memory of a Melody seems to follow the same road taken by Theatrhythm, while taking a bit more seriously. Square Enix has preferred the solution of 3D to represent the different stage in which Sora, Goofy, Donald duck, and the various heroes Disney like Hercules or Aladdin will fight the Heartless in time to the music. The game dynamics seem clear enough. The protagonists follow automatically a sort of trail of music, and the player presses the buttons that appear on the screen to hit enemies, or perform other actions. In the bottom left we can see an indicator that marks our progress to the stage, while in the lower right is the indicator of the vital energy of Sora that you download every time we mistake the input. It seems that there are at least three types of different stage: those in which Sora and company fight the Heartless through the various scenarios, the ones where you fight a boss-specific, and those in which the trio flies above kinematics the most memorable of the series.
we have Not seen even smear the dynamics of RPG, is always that we are, but we noticed a couple of screenshots that suggest a component of multiplayer that also worked very well in the Curtain Call. Seems to be confirmed, however, the possibility to move freely from one world to the other, and therefore between the various stages, piloting the Gummi Ship : it is likely that each world represents a specific set of music on which it is useless to even just to waste time in conjectures. A game with such a concentrated Yoko Shimomura - over 140 pieces! - can only be music to our ears, in all the senses.
The second half of the trailer is the one that took us most by surprise. Up to that point we were firmly convinced that the Melody of Memory was a sort of spin-off one-off, focused only on the music and on the various mini-games. Instead, it seems that the Melody of Memory tell an important story that fits in the space and in the time between Kingdom Hearts III and the potential for Kingdom Hearts IV. We do not want to anticipate anything to those who has yet to complete the third chapter of the series, but it seems that the Melody of Memory will explore especially the memories of Kairi in the period in which Ienzo and the others have taken care of her to the Garden is Radiant. Maybe this story will reveal something more about the biggest mystery of the entire saga, the identity of the Master of the Masters, and this may make the Melody of Memory a piece that is necessary to understand the complicated mosaic that has become the story of Kingdom Hearts.
Perhaps it is not exactly the Kingdom Hearts series with which many fans believed that the story would have continued, but we had fun too with the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy to not catch a glimpse of the potential of what could be a real gem of music. And the fact that it leans to a storyline focused on Kairi makes us even more curious. We can not deny, however, that Tetsuya Nomura is really putting to the test the patience of the fandom: how many players will be willing to play a rhythm game just for a few crumbs of story?
CERTAINTIES Theathryhtm Final Fantasy is a previous distinguished The music of Yoko Shimomura and company CONCERNS Gameplay and variety of situations to test How it will be important to the storyline of Kairi?
