News ► Gamekult interviews Hazama, Nomura & Suzui about KH Melody of Memory

[Sign]

Gamekult has published their interview with KINGDOM HEARTS Melody of Memory Producer Ichiro Hazama, Director Tetsuya Nomura and Co-Director Masanobu Suzui. We've summarized it below.

Thanks to Blenderudit for the heads up!

Melody of Memory is built with Unity, which indiezero used for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All-Star Carnival.

There are 20+ playable characters in the game, which account for the four main teams and Disney characters. There are no costume changes available and the characters will retain the same appearance they had during their respective adventures to reflect these past versions of themselves.

There are close to 800 collectible cards depicting various illustrations and characters.

Boss stages are limited and only appear at critical points in progression. Boss themes are not exclusive to these stages; some are used in Field Battle, for example.

Songs can be unlocked by progressing through the game, and once obtained, they will be available in other modes at any time. A few are only available through Item Synthesis, but it will be easy for players to access the entire playlist.

You cannot build your own team; the trios are all preset.

In PVP, players can use 10 different kinds of tricks against their opponent, such as HP Change, Trick Drain, Stealth Enemy, Phantom Enemy, Hide Guide, Hide Enemy, etc. These cannot be countered, but the more proficient you become with the game, the faster you'll be able to fill your own gauge and retaliate. Near the end of the song, you'll be able to use two tricks at once to further sabotage your opponent.

There are no new worlds in Melody of Memory.

When asked if the new story elements are playable, Nomura says "not really."

 

[Launchpad]

What a joyful interview... The "no costumes" and "no team customization" energizes me more than any cup of coffee

 

[Zettaflare]

New story elements not playable huh? Oh well. Even if Kairi taking on Apprentice Xehanort is cutscene only that will satisfy me

 

[The_Echo]

There are close to 800 collectible cards depicting various illustrations and characters.

So the CollectaCard Crystarium has returned, huh...
Thank God there aren't any Trophies for these

 

[Squood!]

I sadly feel like this won't sell well after this interview.

 

[Cumguardian69]

Sixty United States Greenbacks for one of the most obvious asset rehashes, everyone. KH Sycophants will say "meh, i'm used to getting rawed like this xD".

Literally the two most BASIC features are absent: making your own team and accessing new costumes. Why is SE so lazy?

 

[The_Echo]

Literally the two most BASIC features are absent: making your own team and accessing new costumes. Why is SE so lazy?

To be fair, most rhythm games don't even have things like playable characters.

It appears to me that compared to Theatrhythm, MoM is downplaying the RPG elements and focusing in more on the rhythm gameplay.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Sixty United States Greenbacks for one of the most obvious asset rehashes, everyone. KH Sycophants will say "meh, i'm used to getting rawed like this xD".

Literally the two most BASIC features are absent: making your own team and accessing new costumes. Why is SE so lazy?

I was going to tell you off for your post but honestly I agree. Costumes and an editable party would have added in some flavor, especially for the online component.

 

[the red monster]

Our only hope is final mix version/DLC i guess

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Our only hope is final mix version/DLC i guess

Of everything I believe from the interviews this past week is that there won’t be DLC. I think SE wants this to be a one and done deal so they can focus on something that will generate more revenue for them.

 

[the red monster]

Of everything I believe from the interviews this past week is that there won’t be DLC. I think SE wants this to be a one and done deal so they can focus on something that will generate more revenue for them.

Yeah sadly it makes sense if they don't do DLC for this game, it won't be a big selling game especially when it's getting released at the same month of next gen consoles and big games like spider-man.

 

[Chaser]

Of everything I believe from the interviews this past week is that there won’t be DLC. I think SE wants this to be a one and done deal so they can focus on something that will generate more revenue for them.

IDK, I'm not fully off the "no DLC train." It's the one thing that when a dev says, I never believe.

We heard about the no team customisations the other day, but not being able to get KH2 Sora sucks.

Though I hope that people don't feel like they're being forced or obligated to buy this game if there's so much of it that pisses them off or annoys them. If you don't want a rhythm game, what's been said isn't what you were expecting, or you think you'd just rather be youtubing cutscenes then I hope y'all save your money and let SE know that what they're delivering with MoM isn't something you want to support.

Edit: I posted this in another thread but I’ll post it here too since there’s the costume thing.

KH1 Riku looks to only be playable in co-op mode, alongside KH1 Sora. Doesn’t seem like you can choose anyone else for that mode.

“There will be four main parties of three characters. You won’t be able to change the members of those parties but you’ll select them as a whole”, he notes. “And then in addition to those characters there will be Disney guest characters depending on the world that you’re currently in, and so they’ll be able to replace one of the sub-members of that party (but not the leader themselves who will always stay in that party).”

And as for multiplayer, Suzui-san excitedly explains, “It actually has both modes! So there’s the ‘versus’ mode which is a 1v1 online mode [against another player] or against the computer enemy, or on the Switch version through local communication. And there’s also the co-op mode in which one person will play as Sora and one person will play as Riku and then you’ll work together playing the same song to try and get a high score.”

Talking Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory With indieszero and Tetsuya Nomura

Talking Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory With indieszero and Tetsuya Nomura

press-start.com.au

 

[Chie]

I dunno what there is to get so upset about. I just see video games as that video game, not a giant checklist of "features". Obviously this isn't the most exciting game ever but that's... just what it is, I dunno if it ever could be.

 

[AR829038]

The more I hear about this game, the more disappointed I become. Which is a bad sign.
I'm not going to hate the game for its concept or design. I'm sure it'll be fun to play, and I'm not going to bash it for being a rhythm game necessarily. But they're really starting to test me with how meager an experience they're making this sound while still charging a full triple A game price for it. So far, I've heard:
1) No customizable parties/alternative skins
2) No gameplay for the actual story segments
3) Rehashed PS2-style assets, which means this game won't even have the superficial benefit of boasting great graphics and visuals
4) No playable Kairi (in her first own freaking game!)
5) No chance for DLC
6) 10 hours MAX to get through the narrative
7) Won't even drive the story forward that much
So far, it's seeming like a bulk of the game's enjoyability is supposed to come from its multiplayer and other ancillary side-stuff, which, as an introvert and someone for whom multiplayer means absolutely nothing in terms of enjoyability, is unfortunate. But I could forgive every single one of these problems and just enjoy it for what it is, IF IT WEREN'T FOR THAT RIDICULOUS PRICE TAG! And I'm sorry, but the price being because they have to shove the cost of the music rights onto the customer is NOT a good enough reason to charge that much. This is the same price as KH3, a game that had upwards of 60 hours of story content not including ReMIND, and they're charging the same price for this game when it'll only go for 10 hours using old-generation assets.
And btw, before anybody tells me, "Well, if you don't like it, just don't buy the game," THAT'S THE PROBLEM. My issue isn't that I have to play the game, it's that I WANT a Kingdom Hearts game to PLAY—I don't want to just watch the story segments on YouTube. But this price makes it really hard to justify an expense like that, especially for a game that has so much less to offer than its predecessor of the exact same cost.
I know some people are gonna call me a whiner or whatever, and that's fine. I just wish that SE would have done a different kind of game if they couldn't find a way to deal with the music costs without shoving them off onto the consumer. And don't get me wrong, I like the idea of celebrating the music of the series. But if that has to take up the bulk of the cost of the game itself (especially when I could just listen to the music on the soundtracks I already freaking own), then it just isn't worth it to me. Between this, Union X, and Dark Road, I'm really praying the next installment in the franchise has the team getting serious again about their priorities, because so far we've got three games now where the majority of people are preferring to watch the story clips on YouTube rather than pay money for ripoff games. I don't care if it's smart from a business pov—it's ridiculous, and it needs to stop.

 

[Chie]

3) Rehashed PS2-style assets, which means this game won't even have the superficial benefit of boasting great graphics and visuals

I don't get why people keep saying this. What is wrong with the PS2 graphics. I've always loved them and even if you like KH3's visuals better for some reason, I don't think anyone played like 90% of the series thinking "gee it's too bad I have to settle for these graphics instead of [imaginary kh3 aesthetic that doesn't exist yet]"

 

[The_Echo]

So far, it's seeming like a bulk of the game's enjoyability is supposed to come from its multiplayer and other ancillary side-stuff

The bulk of any rhythm game comes from the chase for higher difficulties and better performance.
You don't have to stop playing when you finish the ~10-hour story mode. (Which probably doesn't count completing all the challenges shown in the World Trip mode.)
I got about 10 hours out of the Invector DLC that dropped last week, and that was just 10 songs (which cost $12 by the way).
So with a tracklist of 140+ songs, I expect to spend quite a lot of time with this game even without any multiplayer.

Of course this genre is pretty niche and the rhythm game grind isn't going to appeal to everyone.
But that's what this kind of game is.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

40 staff, y’all! They only had maybe like 40 people working on this game outside of the cutscene staff. It’s okay that it isn’t some massive game. The_Echo is right in that the bulk of the content is in the harder difficulties, not the sheer level of content. Also 140+ songs is well beyond the average for any rhythm game.

Most rhythm games Have 20~ all the way up to maybe ~80. 140+ is unheard of.

 

[AR829038]

The bulk of any rhythm game comes from the chase for higher difficulties and better performance.
You don't have to stop playing when you finish the ~10-hour story mode. (Which probably doesn't count completing all the challenges shown in the World Trip mode.)
I got about 10 hours out of the Invector DLC that dropped last week, and that was just 10 songs (which cost $12 by the way).
So with a tracklist of 140+ songs, I expect to spend quite a lot of time with this game even without any multiplayer.

Of course this genre is pretty niche and the rhythm game grind isn't going to appeal to everyone.
But that's what this kind of game is.

I mean, I get what you're saying, I'm just used to games in this series being nice and heavy on story. I'm not entirely sure how much of the 140 tracks factor into the narrative segment of the game, but I imagine that if the devs expect the story to only take about 10 hours to complete, then I assume a good chunk of those tracks will be extraneous to the main story. And since the story and all the stuff you can do en route to 100% said story is the only thing I really care about when it comes to video games, I don't imagine all this extra stuff and harder difficulty modes is going to be of any value to me. Again, this is just my personal taste in games, I realize other people are going to find a lot more to entertain themselves with this game, but I still think the price is exorbitant considering that caveat.

 

[AegisXIII]

You know it doesn't mean that Kairi won't get her playable game after that. This one serves just as a playfield for the serie as well as the start of the new arc.

 

[AR829038]

I don't get why people keep saying this. What is wrong with the PS2 graphics. I've always loved them and even if you like KH3's visuals better for some reason, I don't think anyone played like 90% of the series thinking "gee it's too bad I have to settle for these graphics instead of [imaginary kh3 aesthetic that doesn't exist yet]"

I have nothing against PS2-style aesthetics in and of themselves, it just seems like one more thing that they had to cut cost on because of how much the music rights drove their price tag up.

You know it doesn't mean that Kairi won't get her playable game after that. This one serves just as a playfield for the serie as well as the start of the new arc.

I'm certainly hoping for it. If our girl hadn't been getting sidelined for the last 17 years, I'd have more optimism about them following through on an actual Kairi-centric game where we get to play as her. The fact that they finally got around to making a game with Kairi at the center and you (most likely) can't even play as her is a little irksome, and I have doubts that we'll see another Kairi-centered game very soon—A Verum Rex game (if one is in the works), KH4, and whatever they're planning on doing with the BBS trio seem like they'll be higher priorities for the development team after this.