Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, the new rhythm-based installment of the popular long running series, will be getting its own playable demo sometime in mid-October.
This news was announced by the game’s producer, Ichiro Hazama at the 2020 Tokyo Game Show during his live segment. We only know about the existence and release window for this demo, however. There is no exact date set at this time. That information will be coming later, we can safely assume.
Hazama was joined by Kasumi Ashizawa, a member of the e-Sports team G-Star Gaming. Together, they showed off some of the gameplay for this upcoming title. Specifically, they played through a bit of the game’s co-op mode together before Ashizawa took on the single player World Trip mode.
While typical games in the Kingdom Hearts series have an RPG hack and slash element, this will be a traditional rhythm-based adventure that features the game’s much heralded soundtrack. It’s going to work a lot like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Theatrhythm Dragon Quest, which both came out on the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 and 2015 respectively.
The game will feature more than 140 songs from throughout the various Kingdom Hearts games. The soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts has always been a huge point of praise for the Square Enix/Disney mashup series. It was created by the legendary composer Yoko Shimomura, and will be an excellent backdrop for this rhythm adventure.
You’ll take command of a team of three characters, such as Sora, Donald, and Goofy, or Roxas, Xion, and Axel, as you battle your way through each world, pressing buttons along with the music.
“The controls weren’t really that different from a normal game in the Kingdom Hearts series,” Ashizawa said. “Jump is jump and attack is attack.”
Shimomura also took part in the Tokyo Game Show, and noted that this game was an all-new experience in her career. Typically, her melodies provide background emotions and serve as accompaniment to the story. Here, however, they are the focal point of gameplay.
“I always felt that music was supposed to be in the background but also help set the scene without standing out too much,” she said. “But this time my music is at the front, so it’s surprising. When I was able to see the game played a little while ago, the music was really front and center all the way through. I actually felt a little embarrassed.”
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory will be releasing on November 13 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch consoles.