With Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory on the horizon, Square Enix recently answered questions in several interviews about what fans can expect.

First up, let’s take a look at the interview with Game Informer. In it, the Melody of Memory team explains how the game came to be, the number of songs that will appear in the game (140), and how you’ll level up despite it being a rhythm game.

Nomura then explains some of the story details. Most of the narrative will be a trip through past events in the series, with Kairi acting as storyteller.

Kairi is the central character here, and she “is relevant to a very big part of the plot.” Nomura also goes on to say that Melody of Memory will not have as much story content as other Kingdom Hearts games, but will provide a glimpse of Kairi’s childhood as well as where the future of the series is going.

An interview with IGN mostly covers the same ground, but co-director Masanobu Suzui adds that the team was “very excited, very surprised” by the new story scenario.

Ever since the game was announced, some fans have complained about the next part of the story being put in a rhythm game, while others expect it will only have a short snippet of story at the very end. From the recent interviews, it sounds like it might be somewhere in between those two. Nomura reiterated in a PlayStation Japan interview, translated here, that it does not have a “great volume” of story, but that a new story was written for it. Apparently the rhythm gameplay specifically connects to the story in some way, too.

Meanwhile, he confirmed in that same interview that Melody of Memory and Master of Masters having the same acronym is intentional (as theorized back when the title was first revealed).

So it sounds like we’ll have two general story threads, one dealing with Kairi’s childhood and the other involving the Master of Masters and the future of the series. It will probably be a minor part of the game’s content, with most of Melody of Memory being focused on the rhythm gameplay and the music, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has an unexpected twist judging by that quote about the team being “surprised.”

And in a Famitsu interview, translated here, Nomura mentioned that 2022 is the anniversary of Kingdom Hearts, the next game is already in development, and upcoming announcements will surprise us.

Personally, I can’t wait!

Mixed news for fans hoping for Kingdom Hearts on the Switch, though – the question came up in an interview with Nintendo Enthusiast, and Nomura said porting Kingdom Hearts games to the Switch would be “technologically difficult,” but that he likes the Switch and “another game of his” could potentially come to it.

What games could he have in mind? If Kingdom Hearts is is a challenge to port to the Switch, I can’t imagine he means the Final Fantasy VII Remake… so I’ll go back to hoping for a The World Ends With You 2 announcement.

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory is being set up as the game that will bridge the Dark Seeker Saga to the next saga. I’m looking forward to playing it when it comes out this November. How do you feel about Melody of Memory?