The hyper-difficult Critical Mode hasn’t always been a staple of the Kingdom Hearts series, with the first iteration of the challenging mode initially appearing in Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix, but it became one over time. However, as more and more players learn how to challenge Kingdom Hearts‘ strongest bosses and dive into these additional difficulty modes, it becomes necessary for even spin-offs like Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory to include the setting.
This is not to say that Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory doesn’t already have some incredibly difficult songs, either in Proud Mode or the additional Performer Mode available outside of the World Tour. A number of these songs, either as field battles, boss battles, or memory dives can be almost impossible for players that aren’t quite as familiar with the rhythm action genre.
That being said, there is still an argument to be made for adding a Critical Mode to the game in order to better represent the rhythm and melodies of the songs, as well as enhance Melody of Memory‘s stellar mechanics. Of course, this new challenge mode would have to go beyond simply making everything go faster, or demanding a few more button presses per song, it would be closer to completely reworking each song. So, while players may not want to hold out hope to see Critical Mode come quickly, it is still the kind of thing that fans of the genre will be keeping their ear to the ground for.
To the credit of Square Enix and indieszero, Melody of Memory‘s World Tour mode is very well designed, with early levels starting at an accessible difficulty and new worlds accelerating the challenge as players progress. This makes traveling through the game’s “Story Mode” feel like an escalating process that fits for a Kingdom Hearts title, but it leaves some of the early songs feeling like a bump in the road, rather than an experience on it’s own. While it makes sense to do this for the story mode, it can be disappointing for any song in Kingdom Hearts‘ soundtrack to feel left out due to progression balancing.
This is the kind of thing that might make the initial process of unlocking songs through the World Tour difficult, but making even some of the slowest or easiest songs into a challenge is great for the longevity of the Track Selection. Given that rhythm action titles originally made their mark on gaming through party games, both the local co-op and online Versus modes could be greatly enhanced by a Critical Mode. Making every track in Melody of Memory as exciting as possible can make playing the game either with or against friends, as well as alone, the type of thing that keeps the game interesting beyond it’s initial draw.
Looking at ways to implement a Critical Mode, it’s important to remember that making things harder often aren’t simply the product of giving enemies more health and damage. This especially rings true when it comes to a rhythm action title, where these more general options for ramping difficulty aren’t even available. Instead, if Square Enix leans in on Melody of Memory‘s stellar gameplay, the developer could take the current “X, L1, R1” mechanic and differentiate them from each other.
By having these buttons mapped out to each individual character as opposed to the three being interchangeable would make certain maps, especially as the enemies hop all across the path, much more difficult. Considering that the game is already able to recognize which player needs to attack based on where enemies are, so it wouldn’t be a huge change to assign a button press to each one. Similar mechanics even appear in Melody of Memory‘s extra modes like Performer Mode during Track Selection, but even then, all it adds is a few optional inputs, not a new qualifier for passing and failing.
For players looking for an extra level of challenge in Melody of Memory, there is an option that goes beyond Proud Mode and can incrementally increase that challenge at any difficulty. However, these only ever add bonuses for players to chain together, as opposed to creating an extra challenge that can either pass or fail a song. Implementing these changes into a new difficulty would be a good place to start, but as it is, the mode doesn’t have the same impact as the jump Kingdom Hearts‘ Critical Modes usually offer.
That being said, anyone looking for the bragging rights that often comes with jumping into harder and harder difficulties can still find a tough challenge in Performer Mode. Considering how difficult stringing together some of the new performer actions can be, it almost seems to check off the list for most of what a Critical Mode needs. There’s really only one more change that fans of the rhythm genre might ask for, that Melody of Memory unfortunately misses the mark on in a number of it’s best and potentially most difficult songs.
One of the things that makes a rhythm action title like Beat Saber, or older games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, such a hit is the way that players feel like they are playing the song in real-time. Melody of Memory captures this in a sense, by having the necessary inputs on specific beats, sometimes even making players learn different sections of different harmonies or melodies as throughout different stages. However, there are far too many songs that, even in Proud Mode, don’t make the player feel like they’re playing the song, but instead playing a game that happens to tie-into the song at certain occasions.
Requiring players to not only keep in rhythm with the underlying beat of a song, but input each and every single note as the music plays is the major difference between Melody of Memory and other games in the genre. This is not only what makes these titles so immersive, but why fans have grown so fond of rhythm action in the first place, because it creates an accessible way to emulate a level of skill in the simulated instruments. So, for everything that Melody of Memory sets up for Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix should double down in a Critical Mode to set up for the developer’s future in these titles.
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is available now for PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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