News ► KINGDOM HEARTS Melody of Memory game announced, releasing worldwide in 2020

[AdrianXXII]

Not really sure how I feel about this game.

Like I'd have been happy with a rhythm game, that's not part of the canon story, even if it's not my thing I'd most likely eventually pick it up. But I feel like combining Kairi's story with this rhythm game makes me less excited than having a seperate rhythm game and Kairi focus game would have.

I loved playing as Kairi in Re:Mind and I was really hoping that the game Nomura teased at would let us get more of that. I'm also a bit annoyed by the fact that the Kairi story centric game will most likely not even let us play as Kairi, or at least not more than we got to play as Riku in Limit Cut's "Episode Riku".

I'm cool with them reusing assets. I'm curious about the gameplay. But I'm not thrilled about them putting the story line I was excited and waiting for in it and making it feel secondary.

That said the Kairi story segments in the Trailer were all hitting the right notes for me. Kairi and Riku doing stuff together, Kairi's character being expanded upon through interactions with other characters, her holding the guy behind her lot responsible & Kairi's backstory being explored and expanded upon, all these where the things of my dreams. If nothing else I might come away from this happy with the story, if not the entire game.

Part of me hopes that while the rhythm game is the main gameplay that the regular KH combat will be the mini game for this one, so we still get some cool fight with Kairi. I'd also really think it cool if you could swap out Sora for other playable MC characters.

 

[SuperSaiyanSora]

Kairi was never experimented on, just kidnapped and ejected into space.

Kid's seen some shit. Hard to believe that nine years later, she'd be a goofy kid trying to build a raft to explore the world.

I don't get why anyone is surprised that they're pairing the Kairi game with a spinoff. Like, this is the same man that turned relevant a PC browser game, turned its mobile port into something a bit different a repurposed its plot as another season.

And like Sign said, Kairi as we know her cannot carry a standalone KH game. Not as you think you know her, but as the writers know her.

This is honestly no surprise. And if you're being a Betty Downer, good, that's okay. But I'm here excited to finally get some more of the most abandoned iteration of Xehanort: Apprentice 'not

---


Like Spock said in another thread: Melody = hearts in tune

And that's if Kairi's separate scenario isn't Melody of Memories itself. Nomura made KH0.2 (which is basically a KH3 demo) and put it in 2.8 along with Back Cover because Square couldn't justify shipping out DDD on its own for PS4. There's a precedence for this now, so it's free real estate.

Plus yeah, Kairi on her own, with the character she has, won't get a full game yet. Melody of Memories probably will set the bar for that, and I don't exactly get why people are writing it off as this being the one-and-done Kairi game when they're putting THIS much effort into Kairi's backstory. She's been saying how she regrets being weak (I CALLED IT!) and now she's being proactive, so I really doubt Kairi's just gonna be on the sidelines again after all of this. There'd be no point.

Idk Nomura is a wild man. I can easily imagine an short action combat game ala 0.2’s length within a rhythm game.

That's all they'd really need to do. After all, the assets are there. We wondered why Square bothered to even make Merlin's House in ReMind, but maybe this is why. Limit Cut even had a newly done Radiant Garden theme, and the only thing you could do is talk to four NPCs and go to a computer.

Data Greeting too, they made Radiant Garden as a location, as well as Destiny Islands and the rooftop of the 104 building in Shibuya.

Also, I think Nomura said he wanted to add a world into ReMind, but held back and decided to wait until the next game. Well... What if this is it? There's so much potential to this game that we don't know about.

Throwing it out there but earlier it was said Kairi wasn't experimented on, but that's not necessarily true. Read Xehanort's experiment lists he was planning. One of them is him going to test and see if you can create darkness in a pure heart of light. Unless Xehanort had some OTHER pure heart of light at his disposal I think it's pretty safe to say he probably used Kairi in that experiment.

Anyway what a confusing mish mash...why would Kairi even have those Sora memories inside her? Like you want to stretch KH1, CoM, and Days I can see it...but KH2 and BBS really?

That's what I'm confused about too, because BBS you could argue that Ven's heart being inside Sora during KH1 and Kairi's heart also being inside Sora, there could be a memory crossover of sorts. But that's a really big stretch. KH2 is straight up weird because Kairi had her heart freed from Sora for at least a year by this point, so Sora's memories of his KH2 journey shouldn't be accessible to her.

...Unless, this is also where Namine comes into play, and she somehow is allowing Kairi to trace the threads in order to find Sora.

I mean, he ain't the first to do it.

Persona did it before him.

Persona 4 Golden, in particular, has its story mode as canon. Same with Persona 4 Arena and Ultimax. This is a new frontier for Kingdom Hearts, but it's been done in other franchises.

There are some interesting things from the other lines as well, a world without light or darkness what is that? Also "his final plan" probably refers to Xehanort but what is Xehanort's final plan? Is it possible Xehanort planned to use Kairi as a way to return incase he perished? Maybe not Xehanort specificial but a splinter of him not unlike how Ansem perished but set things up so a shadow of him persisted long after death through Riku. Bonus points if it's a shadow of sorts of specifically Apprentice Xehanort so he can get some screen time.

Actually, that reminds me of what Terra said in his Character File.

"It was dark. There was nothing but darkness. No, not even darkness... it was just nothing.

If the place Aqua fell was the Realm of Darkness, then where had I been? Had I even existed? Surely I… well, I probably had. I just have no idea where. I did exist as the being behind Xehanort, but my sense of self—my heart—was sealed away. My heart was somewhere in this realm. Perhaps it was a Realm of "Nothing," devoid of even darkness.

A realm without light or dark. Darkness cannot exist without light, nor light without darkness. That's what that place was like. I wasn't asleep like Ven. It wasn't the Realm of Sleep—or a dream—it was a realm that existed in “nothing.” And so, pain, sadness, and hatred all became an onslaught to oblivion. I was writhing in pain in the middle of it.

Perhaps that place is something like the realm of the Unversed. A void that swallows all, even sadness and pain. A realm where hope and joy never existed to begin with.

But despite their similarities, a void is not darkness. Nothing is born from it. And so in that world, I could do nothing but endure. I could no longer remember my actions, which had manifested in a lingering will. Well, maybe that proves that I wasn’t just waiting. I was believing, holding on to a promise."

Maybe there was more to what Terra was saying. According him, he pretty much was as good as dead.

 

[Deleted member 252753]

There are some interesting things from the other lines as well, a world without light or darkness what is that? Also "his final plan" probably refers to Xehanort but what is Xehanort's final plan? Is it possible Xehanort planned to use Kairi as a way to return incase he perished? Maybe not Xehanort specificial but a splinter of him not unlike how Ansem perished but set things up so a shadow of him persisted long after death through Riku. Bonus points if it's a shadow of sorts of specifically Apprentice Xehanort so he can get some screen time.

That's a cool idea. Another possibility is it could maybe be a Data version of Xehanort the Apprentice Xehanort had placed in Kairi's heart bearing data like Ansem's Code in Sora's heart.

 

[The_Echo]

Here are my thoughts regarding Kairi's story being in a rhythm game:
- This story likely isn't beefy enough to fill a 30+ hour RPG
- This would be another game based entirely around revisiting worlds from previous games, something the fanbase is surely sick of
- The workload for such a game is unreasonable given the aforementioned minor narrative
- If this story was combined with something else, it'd wind up just being B-plot and would result in even more whining from the fanbase because Kairi isn't getting the spotlight
I get the frustration, but I also do not see a way to deliver this story and have it be THE story of the game without angering fans in some other way.

Am I the only one that thinks Kairi should have been a playable character for this game? This is the first game that will focus on her backstory, this is the first game where she might play a bigger role, this is the first game where she might be more than just a price for Sora, so why isn't she the star?

They probably have an explanation for this why Sora together with Donald and Goofy are once again the playable main trio, but I really think that this would have been the opportunity to give her a big push as a character. I can't believe that such a key character like her, that has an interesting concept and background, is so underused in the KH series.

It'll be like Theathrythm: multiple "playable" characters you can swap in and out of the party
In reality it won't really change how the game is played. They might have special skills if there are RPG mechanics like in Theatrhythm, but ultimately the gameplay will be unchanged regardless of your party.

 

[AdrianXXII]

That's a cool idea. Another possibility is it could maybe be a Data version of Xehanort the Apprentice Xehanort had placed in Kairi's heart bearing data like Ansem's Code in Sora's heart.

That could work, especially seeing KH3 strongly implied Apprentice Xehanort was doing research on memories, he obviously had Kairi and could have planted something as another backup plan.

Think we'll get a novel of Melody of Memories at some point?

I'd be surprised if it didn't, i mean even CHI got a mini novel.

 

[Henryp]

The only thing that can bother me a bit is if this game doesn't have a Kairi own scenario, even if briefly, or a follow up with her.

People are taking it like this is some horrible direction for the KH franchise to go. It seems like a fun game and I picture having a lot of fun with the online mode. And it isn't like the rest of the series will go into that direction, we will get an action RPG eventually in 2021/22 as expected.

 

[AdrianXXII]

The only thing that can bother me a bit is if this game doesn't have a Kairi own scenario, even if briefly, or a follow up with her.

People are taking it like this is some horrible direction for the KH franchise to go. It seems like a fun game and I picture having a lot of fun with the online mode. And it isn't like the rest of the series will go into that direction, we will get an action RPG eventually in 2021/22 as expected.

Honestly this kind of feels like the "Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee" of Kingdom Hearts: an attempt at doing something different with familair settings, that won't ultimately change the course of the main line (other than story)

 

[Henryp]

Honestly this kind of feels like the "Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee" of Kingdom Hearts: an attempt at doing something different with familair settings, that won't ultimately change the course of the main line (other than story)

Yeah, most probably! And even the story stuff, I'm starting to get the feeling that it will be just a couple of Kairi scenes in the beggining and the end, with the flashbacks in the middle, to set up a future game with her, Riku and Sora.

 

[AdrianXXII]

Yeah, most probably! And even the story stuff, I'm starting to get the feeling that it will be just a couple of Kairi scenes in the beggining and the end, with the flashbacks in the middle, to set up a future game with her, Riku and Sora.

I hope you're right and this is just the "what did Kairi do in the year of the timeskip" game and the game teased at in Limit cut will feature all three of the Destiny Trio.

Personally i think we'll be drop fed flashbacks every few "mission" and have a backloaded ending that'll try and make sense of it all, cuz that's the Kingdom Hearts way

 

[Ballad of Caius]

Also "his final plan" probably refers to Xehanort but what is Xehanort's final plan?

If this is Apprentice Xehanort before he remembered his past, then it's possible it's an entirely different plan.

Is it possible Xehanort planned to use Kairi as a way to return incase he perished? Maybe not Xehanort specificial but a splinter of him not unlike how Ansem perished but set things up so a shadow of him persisted long after death through Riku.

Maybe. Maybe Xehanort had seeded Kairi.

Bonus points if it's a shadow of sorts of specifically Apprentice Xehanort so he can get some screen time.

This makes sense. This could be what Kairi confronts in the Final World: a shadow of Apprentice Xehanort, hooded.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

Maybe. Maybe Xehanort had seeded Kairi.

So he had 14 vessels? Well sixteen if you count Vexen and Demyx. This feels a little too convoluted when two of the Seekers of Darkness never died, therefore a piece of his heart should already still exist in the world. Still this is Xehanort and we know how greedy he is for vessels.

 

[Henryp]

Maybe. Maybe Xehanort had seeded Kairi.

This sounds so wrong on so many levels. I think we are reading too much into it. Xehanort wanted Kairi as a safeplan if he needed the 7 princesses after all. I don't think any Xehanort incarnation will play a high role coming up, it is more like bridging the two eras together. Kairi's problems with AX has been hinted in practically every game she has been in, so I think this might give her conclusion on that and start what could potentially be her arc in the following games.

 

[Absent]

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

I'm still bothered by the idea that Kairi really doesn't remember anything from her childhood at Radiant Garden, because the one scene from KH1 when it's brought up heavily implied she was lying. If they go the route that she's deliberately repressing those memories, that's fine and would give her that extra bit of agency by realizing she can't continue keeping down those horrible memories she chose to lock away and needs to face the trauma she experienced as a child head on. The decision to re-experience those memories, despite knowing what she's in for from the very start, over finding out later.

Maybe. Maybe Xehanort had seeded Kairi.

 

[Luminary]

If so, why have two distinct words for the same thing?

Welcome to the English language. Lol

Destiny and fate can mostly be used interchangeably as synonyms, but they can have slightly different connotations and interpretations. For my personal interpretation, I compare them to a river. Fate is the water that carries you down the river while destiny is the path of the river and where it leads. So fate is a cosmic force influencing life’s journey while destiny is the actual journey that lies ahead of you. Destiny can be determined by you by making active choices, but otherwise, fate will determine where you end up.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

You know Kairi sure has it tough with these Xehanort's. Apprentice Xehanort took her and kicked her off to space. Terranort, a younger version of him, tried to murder her at the Keyblade Graveyard. Xemnas took Kairi and brought her to old man Xehanort. And the old coot himself actually did murder her in cold blood. Honestly Kairi has some major beef with this dude and it's kinda not even addressed. This game could be the remedy to that. The hooded figure has to be Apprentice Xehanort for Kairi's fight.

 

[Ballad of Caius]

You know Kairi sure has it tough with these Xehanort's. Apprentice Xehanort took her and kicked her off to space. Terranort, a younger version of him, tried to murder her at the Keyblade Graveyard. Xemnas took Kairi and brought her to old man Xehanort. And the old coot himself actually did murder her in cold blood. Honestly Kairi has some major beef with this dude and it's kinda not even addressed. This game could be the remedy to that. The hooded figure has to be Apprentice Xehanort for Kairi's fight.

Yep:
* Apprentice Xehanort cursed her home world and I imagine he's related to whatever happened to her grandmother

* Ansem SoD pretty much corrupted her friend and once again left her without a home and separated her from her loved ones

* Xemnas has kidnapped her, like, twice?

* Master Xehanort finished her off

Wow, Kairi really has been a victim of Xehanort's. I think Melody of Memory has room to better her character arc and actually make her more appealing as a lead character in games to come.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

I wonder if it would be awkward for Kairi to interact directly with Terra? It could make for a interesting side story if they don't just ignore it like they did with Riku/Roxas in KH3.

 

[LightUpTheSky452]

I--one of the biggest Kairi fans in the world--is beyond happy about this "Kairi game", of course. Especially since we're finally dealing with Apprentice Xehanort kidnapping Kairi and throwing her out into space... as I've wanted to see that for eighteen years, and something I always thought could make a potential Kairi game great if they showed it. So I'm sooooooooooooooooooo glad it's finally here. Especially since I was going to throw hands, if we saw this kind of stuff with Subject X, but not Kairi still.

I kind of think making "Kairi's game" a rhythm game was a mistake, though. Because if Square was worried people wouldn't play a Kairi game... why not keep it with the usual gameplay and new Disney worlds that people already love, instead of risking something new? Though I'm sure they're (maybe faultily) counting on you being able to play as Sora in this, and a number of other characters, being able to "save it". But IDK. I think the rhythm game might throw people off, more than they think. Though I hope not.

And man, do I hope this game sells well... so that Square Enix might try to do even more with Kairi in the future... and give her a proper game. But this is a great start, and I'm happy. It's definitely more than we've ever gotten for her. And for the longest time, we doubted we'd even get this... or anything.

 

[MATGSY]

And man, do I hope this game sells well... so that Square Enix might try to do even more with Switch in the future...

FTFY