Multiple Interviews Discussing 'Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory'

Meilin Lee · Sep 7, 2020

Earlier today, multiple interviews popped up online, with several websites and publications getting a chance to interview Kingdom Hearts series director, Tetsuya Nomura, along with Ichiro Hazama ('Melody of Memory' Producer) and Masanobu Suzui ('Melody of memory' Co-Director) regarding 'Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory'. A couple of these interviews can be read below, with most of the information discussed being similar across all interviews more or less. Several interesting things to note from the interviews is that 'Melody of Memory' is meant to be a spiritual successor to the Theatrhythm games (even involving the same development team) that has been discussed as early as five years ago, along with the fact that Disney actually pushed for development of the game, and how development was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the interviews below:

DualShockers:

DualShockers: Can you tell us what sparked the first idea or inspiration that went into making KH: MoM? Is it an idea you had for the series for a long time?

Masanobu Suzui: Hazama-san and I were working together to create these rhythm action game series called Theaterythm. That series had been producing titles over the span of eight years, and they had expanded from the Final Fantasy series to Dragon Quest and now we are expanding to the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Because there are so many songs that have made an impression on players’ hearts, we were very interested in the idea. At the team, we tried to develop a plan to create a game and presented it to Nomura-san. At the time, we weren’t able to move forward with the project and the idea remained up in the air. Disney took notice of it after a few years and they re-approached Nomura-san, saying, “Would we be interested in making a rhythm action game using the Kingdom Hearts franchise?” Nomura-san felt perhaps it was an appropriate time to do something like this, so that is how the project came to life.

DS: The Kingdom Hearts games have always had a strong connection to music. Which pieces of music or songs did you personally feel most passionate about including to represent the series in MoM?

MS: In terms of choosing which songs, for any Kingdom Hearts title — any song really got you to the edge of their seats. There are many songs that are very emotionally moving and some parts people would cry over. It has a lot of great songs that taps into the players’ emotions. As a player myself, there are a lot of songs, phrases, and melodies that ring true and are very impressionable. It wasn’t so much a focus on any individual piece… more like it was hard choosing. There is a limit to how many songs we can include in the game, so selecting the songs was the bigger challenge.

DS: It was initially announced that KH: MoM would feature over 140 songs. Will that include any remixes/new interpretations of past KH music? Are there any brand new songs?

MS: When you open up the title screen, you will hear a newly-arranged track for a Kingdom Hearts song. Another thing to look forward to is during the staff roll, you will hear another newly-remixed song. In terms of the actual songs that you will be playing through in the game, those will all be the original tracks. The reason we are doing that is because the point of the game is to walk you through the experiences of the various titles within the franchise and bring back those memories — “Melody of Memory.” We have so many songs to choose from and work with that we deliberately chose the original versions to incorporate into this game.

DS: Speaking of, would you say Melody of Memory is a good entry point for those who didn’t play the Kingdom Hearts series in the past?

MS: You hit the nail right on the head; it is unmistakably going to be a great introduction into the Kingdom Hearts series. Even as I was creating it I felt that revisiting some of the previous titles really jogged my memory. I even took a look at the remixes as well, and I’ve realized how long it’s been since I’ve played it for the first time. With all of the music incorporated the game, there are parts where you are taking a look at cutscenes from the previous titles and you have the narration done by Kairi walking you through the memorable scenes. It really will give you an idea of what the story’s narrative is. I felt it was a good condensed, enriched experience that brings emotional weight. I think people playing Kingdom Hearts for the first time will really get a taste of that experience. We had some developers on the team who are new to the series play the game, and they themselves were very excited about the tracks chosen. It was a great experience for them as well. They felt after playing the music portion of it, they became interested in some of the older titles and wanted to experience it in full. So we are hoping that will be conveyed to the players as well and will allow for people to get interested and learn more deeply about Kingdom Hearts titles.

DS: What was the process like of deciding which Disney Worlds would be included in MoM?

MS: With the gameplay of Melody of Memory, we have this mode called “World Tour” which you are going through the different stages and worlds. We tried to follow along with the story and the narrative of the Kingdom Hearts series. We made sure to go to areas where there was a boss fight in the specific world. We also tried to choose as many Disney worlds as possible, but we had to take into consideration where players were able to go when playing the original games. We’re hoping that it won’t feel like a rush through a collection of the entire series, but it feels robust.

DS: What were the biggest challenges in trying to implement the mechanics and gameplay of KH into a rhythm game experience?

MS: One of the few things that come to mind, we tried to reconstruct the Kingdom Hearts gameplay experience in a 3D environment. One of the things we focused on was character movements. Specifically how the characters move and their motion set. In the original titles, Sora swings his Keyblade in a very smooth movement. When you are fitting that for a rhythm game, you want to hit the button and react immediately to hit your enemies. Our challenge was how do you make it look like the movement from a Kingdom Hearts game but still have that kind of mechanic incorporated. We took a style that is utilized a lot in Japanese animation where you deliberately adjust the keyframes so the animation gets the ‘exact hit.’ That way we have that sort of button mechanic work properly, but Sora will move exactly like in a mainline Kingdom Hearts game. We worked very closely with the Kingdom Hearts team on the console games to get the movement right, and we tried to do that with all the characters.

DS: Will dual English/Japanese audio be a possibility for the release of Melody of Memory?

Ichiro Hazama & MS: It’s already set, so if you buy the Japanese version of the game you will get the Japanese audio. If you get the overseas version, you get the English voice. I’m afraid we won’t have dual-language functions.

DS: Will the online mode include rankings to keep track of the best players?

MS: It’s a bit unusual; we’ve seen Birth by Sleep do an ad-hoc multiplayer in the past, but it is unusual. It takes inspiration from the Theaterythm series. Curtain Call had the online competitive mode. It’s been about six years since the release of Curtain Call and people still love playing with each other. Fans would get together and do tournaments where they would utilize these online features and play against each other. We wanted to incorporate that with Melody of Memory as well. With this rhythm action game and following the overarching story of the Kingdom Hearts series, that is the main component of this game and we are trying to rekindle that spark of nostalgia. We believe that the fans are going to want to revisit these songs over and over again, and that’s why we thought it would be a good idea to incorporate this online mode to allow for competitive play. A quick overview of the online mode is you go in with two players and each of you will pick a song that you want to play. One of the songs get picked. So you play through the song together, and as you’re playing you are trying to sabotage the other player so you can get the higher score. You have these little tricks that you will try throwing at your enemies. Whoever gets the higher score will win that round, and will be awarded a card. The game is best 2 out of 3, so whoever wins two cards will win — and their ranking will go up. Players will be trying to rank up throughout. We’re hoping that being able to play these songs over and over again will allow for good replayability.

DS: Overall, Melody of Memory looks like it has an easygoing atmosphere, compared to the previous game in the series, Kingdom Hearts 3, which was a story climax with a strong, serious atmosphere. Is Melody of Memory supposed to be some sort of a breather before going back into more serious themes? Or can we expect serious story developments to happen in Melody of Memory?

The overall concept of Melody of Memory is to look back at what’s happened so far, so through the game you will see a mix of serious and lighthearted moments. There’s also another element that will be a big part of the plot — and we don’t want to spoil it — with some newly included scenes that you may have seen in the trailer. They might not be as robust as a Kingdom Hearts game, but we do have something prepared to give that sort of surprise that is unique to the series. And it will give you a glimpse into what’s going to come next. We hope that players look forward to it.
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Famitsu (credit to @RyujiBlades for translation):

Interviewer: Thank you for joining us. For the first question: Does Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory take inspiration from the Theatrhythm series?

Ichiro: When the project started out 5 years ago, it was called internally as "Project: Kingdom Hearts Theatrhythm".

Interviewer: You sound like that was going to be the name from the start.

Ichiro: Well, you see, Akira (Nomura) pitched the idea to me a few years back, and we decided to tackle the idea.

Interviewer: Unlike Theatrhythm, which features alternative sprites of the characters involved, Melody of Memory appears to use the actual 3D sprites of the characters. Is there a reason for that?

Suzui: The little characters you see on the loading screen were actually planned to be what you would see in the game itself. But then we also realised pretty quickly that it would look weird to rig these the way we wanted. So we decided to go with the 3D models to allow us for a more "immersive experience.

Interviewer: From the trailers, it seems the game will focus greatly on Kairi. Is she perhaps...the protagonist of this tale?

Nomura: You're correct. She is going to be the protagonist. This is also why the illustration cover shows her in a throne, like Sora. The image also shows multiple frames. Directing your attention to the Sora ones...those are the Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and 3 endings, from Kairi's perspective, or PoV (point of view) so to speak.

Interviewer: I see!

Nomura: Though, if I'm going to be honest, this illustration was finished barely before the deadline expired. (laughs)

Suzui: Nomura's right. Since I helped supervise the project. Nomura would sketch out the draft and we would ask for the development team's opinion and input on how it can be improved or if it's to their liking. I remember placing hundreds of calls to many members so I could get their input, and eventually, we settled on a design...very close to the deadline.

Interviewer: It looks like you had a tough job delivering the illustration then.

Nomura: One of the primary reasons was that, this time, it's not just one character. It's multiple. The previous artwork I did for Kingdom Hearts III did not have anything etched in his frames, so it was much simpler.

Interviewer: What was the idea behind the graphics for the rhythm game itself?

Suzui: You see, there's a thin line between "many effects" and "little effects." If you put too many effects at once, the player could get dizzy [as if you were drunk!] and possibly have a headache from all those colours and effects,and if you add too little effects, the game will look unimpressive and boring. We wanted the player to have fun playing through the songs, while not bombarding them with effects.

Interviewer: I see. So you went with that design.

Ichiro: In the first early builds of the game, we noticed we got quite...dizzy [imagine a drunk Ichiro. You're welcome.] with how the camera moved and how the effects were laid out. It took many sessions of "Ah, maybe tweak the camera movement to be like this" and "Maybe we added TOO many effects on that part" until we got to a good result.

Interviewer: So it was a fight against dizziness [read: hangover], I take.

Suzui: Correct. We wanted the game to have the Kingdom Hearts games' dynamic while keeping a consistent speed and pace with the effects, so that players could enjoy playing through the songs without being overwhelmed.

Nomura: It took quite a while to nail the right balance.

Interviewer: How was development regarding the rhythm part of the game?

Suzui: It wasn't easy, I'll give you that. (laughs). Timing each enemy hit to the music, while not trying to overwhelm the player with inputs that would make them go "This song looks too scary for me to do...I am not gonna do it..." We wanted players to feel very balanced. So that even beginners to a rhythm game can feel that they can do it, that they can enjoy it. We experimented a lot. I mean, we raised and lowered the speed down more times than I can count! (laughs)

Interviewer: According to commercials, the game will feature over 140 songs. Will there be any arrangements? Or will they be 100% original?

Suzui: 100% original. There won't be any "Melody of Memory MIX" or any of the sort.

Interviewer: Is DLC planned for the game?

Suzui: We have no plans to add any songs via DLC, no.

Ichiro: Yes. We wish to deliver just a single package of songs, instead of just delivering a smaller amount and then having players purchase more/download more via downloadable content.

Interviewer: How were the songs picked? [NOTE: This kinda merges two questions into one, for a shorter answer.]

Suzui: Most songs were handpicked by me, Nomura and Ichiro. We prioritised mostly popular songs (basing ourselves on CD sales of said songs) and songs that just touch deeply into the fans' hearts. But...it was Yoko Shimomura who picked and arranged herself the song that you will listen as the title menu's Dearly Beloved, as well as the credits song.

Interviewer: Was Shimomura-san thrilled in composing the songs?

Ichiro: She sure was. Having played the Thearhythm games herself, she even pitched the idea to us: "Why can't we do this with Kingdom Hearts as well?"

Suzui: I once met Shimomura-san during Hanami [cherry-blossom viewing--commonly held in parks where people can see the beautiful cherry blossoms and have picnics under the trees]. She was listening to one of the Kingdom Hearts soundtracks, and just faced me and said "You know the rest, don't you?" with a big grin on her face (laughs).

Interviewer: How long is the game?

Suzui: Hmm...if I had to estimate it...assuming the player just advances straight to the ending and views the entire story, I'd estimate about 10 hours or so.

Interviewer: How many worlds does the game have?

Suzui: Around...47 or so. Out of the 47, 16 are original KH worlds and the rest [31] are Disney worlds.

Interviewer: It's honestly quite amazing that there will be 10 available languages to choose from the get-go.

Ichiro: We wanted to tackle the challenge that is releasing a multi-language game. Since this game is supposed to be fun for everyone, we also want it to be inclusive, even to non-Japanese [English] speakers.

Interviewer: Did the current Coronavirus outbreak affect development negatively in any way?

Suzui: Well, we did double the security around the SQUARE ENIX building, to ensure our workers managed to work safely, and even switched to remote development. But remote development...had its limitations. Creating assets remotely can be a bit complicated.

Nomura: Voice acting was pretty tough, especially the overseas voice acting, because the risk level of the virus fluctuates a lot from country to country, and not all voice actors are available [due to the rules of quarantine on said country.]

Ichiro: The same can be said with motion capture and acting. We had to crunch a lot of time to make sure we weren't disturbing our actors' time while also keeping within Coronavirus regulations.
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Nintendolife:

For players looking to dip their toe into the pool of this appealing action-RPG series, though, it's tough to know where to start. The universe may seem impenetrable to a newcomer, but upcoming rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories might well serve as the best possible introduction to this most labyrinthine of series.

"I really hope so," co-director Masanobu Suzui tells us via interpreter in a recent interview with both him and series director (and Final Fantasy series veteran) Tetsuya Nomura. Suzui-san is the founder of Indieszero, a development studio with ties to Nintendo (most recently collaborating on development of Sushi Striker and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training for Nintendo Switch).

"Obviously, at the end of Kingdom Hearts III we've kind of reached the end of a particular story arc within the Kingdom Hearts series, so I think it's a really good opportunity for fans and people who've already played the games to look back over that period, or for new players to really come in and pick that up as a good overview."

Melody of Memories was revealed back in June and fans of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy quickly saw similarities between this new game and its 3DS forebears. It's no surprise that they're similar, as Suzui-san was the director on that title, too. Given the success of the Kingdom Hearts series over the past eighteen years, we guessed that a rhythm game must have been on the cards for a while.

"The first Theatrhythm came out in 2012 and then, of course, after that we had the Curtain Call version for iOS and then the Dragon Quest version that was released in Japan," Suzui continues, "so we were obviously busy with all of that development. But Kingdom Hearts as well has an absolutely fantastic soundtrack--some excellent music in it--so we were really excited about the possibility of being able to do a rhythm game there. About five years ago, Hazama-san [producer, Ichiro Hazama] and myself took a proposal to do a Kingdom Hearts rhythm game to Nomura-san. Yes, so that was about five years ago."

The idea may have been around for a while, but timing is everything, especially with a franchise this big with multiple projects and parties involved.

"At that time, the result was that it wasn't quite the right time; it would be a little bit difficult, so it didn't go ahead. But then a bit further down the road, Disney also came back and said 'Well, have [you] considered doing a rhythm game for Kingdom Hearts? We heard that might have been something in discussion and we're quite open to that'. And so then Nomura-san took another look at things and we decided to go ahead with it this time around."

Once the green light was given, updating the basic foundation of rhythm-based battles with a fresh Kingdom Hearts spin became the focus. We wondered how much of a departure Melody of Memories is from the gameplay and mechanics of Theatrhythm. "The idea of how music is important and how gameplay is important hasn't changed at all. That's still something that is very central to this game," says Suzui. "The one thing we really wanted to consider is taking this into the direction of 3D. Since Kingdom Hearts is a 3D game, we wanted to create this in a 3D way, so we thought about how we wanted to make this and how we wanted to implement it and that's the main change."

In fact, inspiration for how the added third dimension should work in the game came from an existing source. "The initial idea that we got from Nomura-san was based on the 15th anniversary jukebox website where there was a little Sora running across the top of a musical score. Initially, we tried to build that into it, and that's eventually the direction that we went."

Implementing that extra dimension, however, presented new problems. "First of all the camera was quite difficult - it ended up making a lot of people motion sick - so we had to create a lot of different prototypes and this camera element and the action elements are areas that we've tweaked a lot as we've gone on."

Nearly two decades since the first game in the series, we wondered how the working relationship with Disney has changed over that period. Along with the excitement of having Mickey, Donald and all the other treasured characters from the House of Mouse, there must also come tight restrictions over how they're used. We asked Tetsuya Nomura if it's easier to get things done or approved now than it was 20 years ago?

"My general impression is that, for example, overseas (in this case obviously American) companies tend to change people--have personnel changes--more often than Japanese companies," Nomura says. "So obviously, whenever the person from Disney that's dealing with the Kingdom Hearts series changes, we see some changes."

In fact, in some ways, it was easier in the old days when Kingdom Hearts was an unknown quantity, as Nomura-san explains: "To be honest, in the early years not many people at Disney really knew much about Kingdom Hearts. It was a little sort of tucked away thing, if you will. But now it's more widely known, there's a lot more recognition within Disney that Kingdom Hearts is a 'thing'. So, there were some things that were easier to do when we weren't as well known, but on the other hand there are some things that are easier to do now we have that larger name recognition."

Dealing with a huge corporate entity like Disney means that internal policies can fluctuate frequently, too, which inevitably affects projects and possibilities. "In the past decade plus, there have obviously been a lot of rule changes at Disney itself so in the past some things that we weren't allowed to do, we are now allowed to do. And on the other hand, some of the things we were previously allowed to do we are no longer allowed to do. So, I think the biggest thing that hasn't really changed is that it's always changing."

Melody of Memories revisits the narrative and worlds from the entire Kingdom Hearts series, with a rich cast of characters that will feature familiar faces even if you've never touched a KH game before. "With both Kingdom Hearts and Disney characters, there's about 20-something characters in there," Suzui confirms. "There are the main parties, which have three members, and there are four of those different main parties that you can change between. In addition to that, there are the guest Disney members that will appear in their specific Disney-themed worlds. For those guest characters, when they appear there will be world-specific [details]; for example, different sounds, different symbols, etc, so you can see that kind of impact on the gameplay."

For a series was bafflingly complex as Kingdom Hearts (narratively-speaking), we imagined that combining story elements into the rhythm experience must have been a challenge. "Players will be able to follow the story through the music and through the different worlds [through the World Tour mode]," Suzui tells us. "Obviously, the important points in the plot in each world will be looked back on in cutscenes and movies as the players progress through it with Kairi's narration - Kairi's storytelling [Kairi is Kingdom Hearts III's protagonist]. This will cover events from Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, etc, going on."

While you might think it's simply a case of throwing cutscenes behind the rhythm action, Suzui-san believes the narrative and gameplay nit together well. "I think that the gameplay itself--the rhythm game and the story--are quite interwoven there, quite well stacked on top of each other, if you will. We've also obviously paid a lot of attention to the backgrounds, the characters that are being used to really bring back the memories of the original games as they were, to capture that original essence. So, we think that it'll be really good in that sense for both elements."

So, the game looks to capture the spirit of the series, which should please franchise fans looking for a dose of the KH's inimitable charm on Nintendo's console. We were interested to find out more about Melody of Memories' structure and how it differs from that of Theatrhythm. We ask Suzui-san about the main modes available (including online) and if the game will feature similar Event / Field / Battle Music Stages.

"There are three what we would call different 'styles' or different 'segments' that you would play the rhythm action in;" he tells us. "That's the Field, the Memory Dive and other Battles. There are three different ways you can play in that style. But then, to widen it out to the modes, separate to those different styles of play you've got the Online Versus mode, you've got Co-op mode, then you've got the Music Select, and then you have the Main World Tour."

The game has over 140 tracks, with some Disney classics mixed in with the original Kingdom Hearts tracks. We asked about the split between Kingdom Hearts and Disney music. "We chose those 140 songs really looking at the Kingdom Hearts series and focusing on the Kingdom Hearts music," Suzui continues, "so there's not a lot of Disney songs in there really. Obviously, Disney songs that were used in Kingdom Hearts worlds will be included, but they're not really the main majority. We also discussed this--I discussed this with Nomura-san and Hazama-san as well--we really wanted to bring the Kingdom Hearts worlds to the fore and use the music that was there."

With this being the first Kingdom Hearts game to come to Switch, we wondered if the console's touchscreen or other features might be put to use. "It's all going to be button-based controls," Suzui-san confirms. "Obviously you can detach the Joy-Cons, you can split the controller up and play the Co-op mode together with those individual Joy-Cons. We've also included local play for the Versus mode, so you can play local [...] Versus instead of just online play." However, the Switch version of Melody of Memory is getting an exclusive mode: "Free For All mode, where you can play with a large number of people on local communications with the Switch." More information and details on this Switch-specific mode will be coming soon.

With time tight in our interview, we finished our conversation by asking Nomura-san how this game's development and schedule has been affected by the unusual events of 2020. Orchestrating all the elements of a project that involves both Square Enix and Disney would surely be a challenge at the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic. "It has had a bit of an impact on the schedule, which is running a little bit later than the original plan," Nomura says. "It's not a huge impact by any stretch of the imagination but, for example, it has had an impact on recording--voice recording, etc. We can't follow the same schedule we would usually be able to in these circumstances."
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IGN:

The idea for Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory dates back to the release of Theatrhythm Dragon Quest in 2015. Like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy before it, TDQ is a rhythm action game set to music from across the entire Dragon Quest series. “We thought, well, Kingdom Hearts has a lot of really great music in that series as well. Why don't we do a Theatrhythm Kingdom Hearts?” recalls Suzui.

Franchise director Tetsuya Nomura declined the pitch at the time, but Disney resurrected the idea sometime later. By that time, Nomura felt things were “lined up” for Kingdom Hearts to swing its keyblade in the direction of an action rhythm game.

“This game itself is actually very similar in concept [to Theatrhythm],” says Suzui. “The underlying concept of using music to look back across the whole series.” As a result, you can expect to play along to music drawn from the entire Kingdom Hearts timeline. But, in a change from Theatrhythm, Melody of Memory is a 3D game, which provides its own unique feel compared to its spiritual predecessors.

Selecting the songs for Melody of Memory has been a process of careful consideration. “You're probably aware that Kingdom Hearts has had world concerts taking place globally, and we use the set-list for that as one particular hint for ourselves,” explains Suzui.

“We wanted to make sure that there was no particular melody that we left out,” he adds. “So when there was a song that we absolutely couldn't include and we had to cut it down, we would always try to make sure that there was a refrain that hadn't been included.”

That completist attitude applies to not just the game's musical library; Melody of Memory’s storyline spans the entire Kingdom Hearts narrative… and beyond.

“I think it is a summary of sorts,” says Suzui. “The current story arc that came to a conclusion with the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 is all summed up here in a nice, easy to digest format. It's a really great entrance for new fans who want to come in and pick that up and learn about [Kingdom Hearts].”

“But for the old fans who've really followed Kingdom Hearts up until now and know a lot about it, there are hints about what's coming next,” he explains. “Not quite a signpost, if you will, but just a few little tidbits and there.”

While Suzui would not reveal what’s to come as part of the extension of Kairi’s story, he did say that the new scenario, written by Tetsuya Nomura, had the team “very excited, very surprised”.

Unlike the core Kingdom Hearts games, Melody of Memory is not an RPG. The musical genre has meant Square Enix has found new approaches to telling stories in the Kingdom Hearts world, via a variety of modes. For those in love with the fiction, World Tour Mode will be the first port of call, as it’s effectively the story campaign. Select Music mode is similar, but allows you to revisit single tracks that you’ve previously unlocked.

Then there’s Memory Dive, in which you can “play with some of the cutscenes and movies from past series and include those in the rhythm sections,” says Suzui. The mode is even inspired by a cutscene from the RPG games themselves, in which the characters dive into memories.

A new step for Kingdom Hearts is the inclusion of multiplayer, both competitive and co-operative. For friendly matches, the Co-op mode offers local play on the same screen, “where one player will play Sora and the other player Riku, and you'll have to cooperate to get a high score in that mode.”

The Versus mode, meanwhile, has a few more complexities. The 1v1 mode, which uses tracks that have been unlocked in World Tour mode, is played online, or locally against AI. Rounds begin with each player choosing a preference of track, and the game randomly selects which one will be played. Then it’s a race to the best score, with your opponent’s score displayed on your HUD to encourage/upset you.

During rounds, you’ll be able to make use of ‘tricks’. “There are 10 of these different types of tricks,” Suzui says. “At the beginning of the track, you'll only be able to use one trick, but towards the end you'll be able to use two simultaneously. That makes it even more tricky and complicated about how you can build these together.”

Winning a Versus match will bag you two collectible cards, and - in a move that feels very evocative of Kingdom Hearts’ kindly values - losers are more like runner-ups, as they get one card, too.
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GameInformer:

Can you discuss the creative process and how the team approached bringing Kingdom Hearts to a new genre?

Hazama: The idea was floating around for a while, it was around five years ago. [Suzui and I] kept thinking, “Oh, we would love to do a Theatrhythm Kingdom Hearts.” We were discussing it, making planning documents, and things like that. But at the time, we decided that it might be a bit difficult to move forward with the project. A few years ago, there was a separate discussion with Nomura-san and Disney. Disney actually came forward to Nomura-san, asking, “Hey, could you do this with us?” They decided that they wanted to move forward with the project and then the discussion came down to me and Suzui-san to do this project, and that's how this project came to be.

It does look very similar to Theatrhythm’s gameplay, and Square Enix had entries for Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in that series. Why is Melody of Memory a separate spinoff rather than a new Theatrhythm game?

Suzui: As we mentioned earlier, we were talking about how we had come up with rough ideas and planning documents. But as we were discussing how we go about creating this particular title with Nomura-san, we were keen on making this 3D. With Final Fantasy Theatrhythm, you may recall we had this side-scrolling, very 2D sort of aesthetics. And then in terms of Dragon Quest, it was more of a top view where your battles are sort of going inward; there's like this field of depth. With Kingdom Hearts, we wanted to pursue the idea of utilizing the original characters. We wanted to recreate the original look of the game titles and carry that over. We also took inspiration from [Kingdom Hearts’] 15th anniversary music site. From there, we started to think, “Okay, so how do we incorporate different elements?” And Nomura-san provided feedback and a lot of the inspiration that went into the basic idea. We took that as well as some of the technical elements and the mechanics that were already existing in the Theatrhythm titles, and then thought about what kind of music and what kind of scheme of the notes that we want for players to experience. We [wanted to] incorporate those fun elements of play and make sure that we are leveraging the game mechanics of the original game, as well as bringing in Kingdom Hearts’ stylish action and incorporating the rich story behind it, especially the world settings that we've established in our series titles. We asked, “How do we leverage and keep the integrity of that?” That was our foundation for our approach. From there, we thought, ‘Okay, so we're going to build this from the ground up and we're going to bring this as a brand new title.’ That's why we decided we're going to change up the name and we weren't going to carry over the Theatrhythm title. We thought it would be appropriate and proper to have that Kingdom Hearts name. That's how we moved along with the development of it. We all had the same understanding amongst our team members that this is not a Theatrhythm game. Nomura-san also [felt] that way, so he came up with a really nice name for this title and a really nice key art as well, and we kind of expanded from there.

Will we see lots of remixes to songs, or are you mostly sticking to the originals?

Suzui: Generally speaking, we will be using the original music. We didn't want to take away from the gameplay experience from the different titles in our franchise. But that being said, certain parts of the game, like the title menu or the staff credits, will have songs that incorporate a new arrangement by Miss Shimomura, so that's something to look forward to.

Are there any new tracks in the game that we haven't heard before?

Suzui: No. There will not be any new tracks.

With over 140 songs in the game, can we expect music from every world we visited in the Kingdom Hearts series, or are some being left out?

Suzui: We actually looked at all of the tracks that were available and we revisited all the different CDs from the past and counted all the songs. Of course, we couldn't keep a full catalogue of the most recent Kingdom Hearts games like 2.8 or some of the songs in Kingdom Hearts III. We haven't gotten the full count of all of the songs that are in there, but it ended up being about 600 to 700 songs. So unfortunately, there may be some songs that are not included in Melody of Memory. That being said, from our vast library, we tried to carefully select the songs, and it's a very rich selection of over 140 songs.

How do they approach designing the different levels and making sure the backdrops match the essence of each song?

Suzui: The primary game mode that you will be playing through is what we call “World Trip.” You're literally going through [the experience] in order from Kingdom Hearts 1 and following it with the game's story. You’re looking back at the experience through the music and the gameplay, and there are various movie clips of the story that you get to experience through it. In some parts, there's some narration by Kairi, and then once you clear a few songs and different missions, you open up a gate to move on to the next section. As you progress through the game, of course, there will be different difficulties with the songs. You may notice that the enemies that appear in these stages will be from the original games, and we tried to structure it so that you're re-experiencing the different iconic moments and symbolic elements with each of the songs. Also, the enemies that you encounter will move very similarly to how they first appeared in the original titles. You experience the overall game arc as you progress through these different songs. With the narrative, it’s what we call the “Dark Seeker Saga,” which has been throughout all the Kingdom Hearts titles up to Kingdom Hearts III. We traverse through all of the different key elements through that saga in order. That's the general flow. And then with the tempo and the mood of each of the stages, we have some boss battles prepared as well. Those do tend to be a little bit more on the difficult side. So there's a good variation of difficulty levels as you play through. Now that being said, we understand that there may be players who might not be as comfortable with playing rhythm action games, and so we made sure to design the game so that players are able to complete their missions no matter what difficulty they choose.

Kingdom Hearts is an action/RPG. What kind of progression system will we see in Melody of Memory in terms of new abilities and leveling up?

Suzui: The progression system for Melody of Memory is leveling. Because it's a rhythm action game, it was a bit difficult to differentiate the different moves and actions within the gameplay. But through leveling, your character will gain higher HP, so you won't get a “game over” as easily, which should be beneficial when you're trying to clear the different stages. Plus, as you level, your attack power will also increase. Of course, bosses will need a few extra hits. But as you level up and become stronger, you won't take as long to stun them to get an advantage on attacking the bosses, and you’ll get a bonus for that. There is no ability system that you would be bolstering throughout the process. Each leader will have two different types of ranged and melee attacks, but that's about it.

How will online battles work in the game?

Suzui: Similarly to Theatrhythm Curtain Call, there is a versus match, but we expanded on that where you have one player versus one player and you compete for the higher score, and as you win, your rating will go up. With online battles, one of the mechanics is called “tricks,” where you're trying to not exactly sabotage, but get in the way of the other players so that they might trip. The goal is to get as many points without failing or tripping in your gameplay and competing for who gets the better scores.

We discussed this a little bit with Kairi’s narration, but what can we expect from the story and Kairi’s involvement in it?

Nomura: So Kairi is going to be our storyteller so to speak – what she is doing is reflecting upon the previous iteration and the history of the narrative. She is going to be talking about all of what happens within Kingdom Hearts and she's going to be bringing you through this story. And so her positioning... I'm afraid we can't delve too far into details, because it will be quite a bit of a spoiler and she is relevant to a very big part of the plot. But what she does tell through her recollection is not just the experiences that she went through, but it's all the experiences that her allies and the party members had experienced throughout the story as well. And once we go through the story of recollection and beyond that, we start to see a timeline that will connect to the future.

Is this going to bring closure to where we left off with Kairi at the end of Kingdom Hearts III and the Re Mind DLC?

Nomura: With Melody of Memory, the timeline fits immediately after the story of Re Mind. But with that being said, the story volume is not going to be as large as a mainline Kingdom Hearts title, so you may not see too big of a movement in Kairi’s time and in her narrative. Still, I think you might get a glimpse of where this might be going through this title. It's quite difficult to not spoil it, but still try to explain it at the same time. But with Kairi, her childhood is still shrouded in mystery. We haven't really delved deep into that part of her narrative, so you might be able to see a glimpse of that through Melody of Memory. But that being said, again, it's not meant to advance things significantly through this game.

The Gummi Ship was featured in trailers. How is that going to work in the game?

Suzui: It's kind of unfortunate this is going to be the last question because the Gummi Ship is just strictly going to be for transportation purposes, traveling between worlds. [laughs] Unfortunately, we won't have any sort of like customization elements or anything like that.
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Multiple Interviews Discussing 'Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory'

Meilin Lee RPG (Red Panda Girl)

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