Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

People often go on about how all the handheld games and mobiles games released after Kingdom Hearts 1 and before Kingdom Hearts 3 are some of the worst games in the series and not worth experiencing. Well people are straight up wrong. Even the original episodic mobile release of Coded is better than this game. This was advertised as a game with Kairi as the protagonist, but she's really not. We get one scene fleshing out what happened to her in her past when she still lived on Radiant Garden and one character development scene where she shows some maturity by admitting she's not strong enough yet to join Riku and Sora in their adventures instead of insisting on going with Riku to save Sora. She also transforms into Sora to battle Old Man Xehanort when she fails to defeat him with her own power. This game has 25 minutes or so of new story content that you can enjoy for free online and save your $60 for something actually worthwhile. All jokes aside rhythm games just like any other kind of game have their niche that will provide this game with an actual audience that will gladly consume it so if you're one of those who's into rhythm games go ahead and waste your money on it. If nothing else your ears will be satisfied given that this series has some incredible music. For me as a long time fan of the series this game was extremely disappointing not only because of what kind of game it is and the overinflated launch price for such an empty package, but because it was a game where they had the potential to do a lot more when it comes to the story. From showing us how Kairi got separated from her grandmother during the attack that resulted in the Fall of Radiant Garden, to showing us the Final Fantasy gang's defense efforts during said attack, to taking a little more slice of life time with Kairi and Riku after she woke up, and making Kairi an actual protagonist not just having her narrate the events of all the previous games, there was a lot of missed opportunity here. If the Limit Cut episode of the Re:Mind DLC was simply an excuse to get Riku to point A of saving Sora, then Melody of Memory is simply an excuse to get Riku to point B of saving Sora. Kairi's only getting seemingly special treatment because of how much damage control they needed to run in the aftermath of all the backlash over their handling of Kairi in the KH3 base game. To put firmly into perspective how badly this game serves its advertised purpose as a Kairi game I'll mention this: The best and most compelling scene in this entire game is the post credits scene where Mickey scrambles to go after Riku because he's worried about Riku being alone in a world unfamiliar to everyone. It's just...the best example of how not to continue a franchise I've seen in games in recent memory. They really did not put in anything more than the bare minimum effort here. The next time I hear or see anyone bashing Coded/Recoded I will show them the 25 minutes of new story content or so that this game provided for the series.