Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memoryutilizes a gameplay style that’s never appeared in theKingdom Heartsseries before. Instead of being the usual action-RPG installment,Melody of Memorywill be a rhythm game. Players will battle Heartless, Nobodies, and otherKHenemies by timing button-presses to the beat ofKingdom HeartsBGM tracks.
As one can imagine, this initially surprised most players following the series, but in a recent interview with IGN,Kingdom Hearts: Melody of MemoryCo-director Masanobu Suzui cleared up how the game ended up the way it did. According to him, the game takes inspiration fromTheatrhythmDragon Quest.
RELATED:Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory’s Trophy List Has An Interesting Addition
For context, Suzui is the founder of Indieszero, the developer behindTheatrhythm Final Fantasy, another rhythm-based Square Enix title.Theatrhythm Final FantasyinspiredTheatrhythmDragon Quest, which sees the player battling enemies by playing outDragon Questmusic from across the series.
Suzui figured thatKingdom HeartsOSTs are just as influential to their series asDragon Quest’s are to theirs, so why not make aTheatrhythm-styledKingdom Hearts? Suzui pitched the idea toKingdom Heartsseries director Tetsuya Nomura, but Nomura shut it down. Sometime later, Disney joined in on the pitch, and by that time, Nomura felt the series was ready for it, and that’s how production for the game started.
According to Suzui,Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memorywill take players across and beyond the entireKingdom Heartsseries through the franchise’s music library, just likeTheatrhythm Dragon Questdid. The game won’t be able to use everyKingdom Heartstrack, but even those that don’t make the cut gameplay-wise will have some of their refrains included.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memoryreleases November 13 on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
MORE:Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory - Every Confirmed Music Track So Far
