REVIEW: KAMEN RIDER: MEMORY OF HEROEZ – Same Tropes, New Tricks
Raves
Rants
Wear your rider belts and rev up your bikes. It’s Henshin Time with Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez.
Truth be told, the Kamen Rider series is an iconic part of Japanese culture, and for a lot of great reasons. These bug-eyed, masked heroes of justice have everything – interesting stories, well-loved characters, cool suits, and most importantly, marketability. These guys are a powerhouse of merchandising going from TV shows to movies, games and even fruit candies. Naturally, they’d have a healthy roster of videogames to support the IP, with the latest one being a story-based, hack-and-slash RPG that pays homage to 10 years of the Neo-Heisei lineup.
Enter, Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez.
HENSHIN!
In a nutshell, Memory of Heroez follows the two-in-one Kamen Rider Double as they unravel the mysterious circumstances that led to the revival of old KR foes such as dopants and the Greeed within Sector City. Along the way, they bump into AI, a navigational robot powered by artificial intelligence, as well as Kamen Riders OOO and Zero-One.
The game essentially features only two modes; a full story campaign that takes around 10 to 11 hours to complete and a simple survival mode, where players fight against continuous waves of enemies in succession.
While Memory of Heroez features an original story independent from the three aforementioned Kamen Rider shows, the story and plot are mostly just there as an excuse for these different Riders to meet up and unite against a common foe. That does not mean to say that the narrative’s pretty bad, but it easily falls to the tropes of annual Kamen Rider crossover films, which is a double-edged sword itself.
If it’s any consolation, it feels great that Bandai Namco finally developed a Kamen Rider game with an actual story, rather than a mindless fighting or brawler title.
Modern, Yet Retro?
Memory of Heroez features a simple combat system akin to Devil May Cry‘s chain combo dynamic. Players may string different attacks to create and prolong combos to enemies. A style ranking will be awarded after every enemy encounter based on several factors, including the number of combo chains and the amount of damage dealt to enemies. The game will also allow players to transform the Riders into various forms. Each of these forms possess unique abilities which will prove useful in latter stages of the game.
Sadly, you can’t just bash and mash buttons to victory in Memory of Heroez, as the game features a stamina system called the RP (or Rider Power) mechanic.
Using normal attacks won’t use up RP, but doing anything else like strong attacks, unique attacks and most importantly, dodging, requires RP. You can find yourself vulnerable after a flurry of combos and unable to dodge an attack just because your RP is depleted. Thankfully, the game is laughably easy even at standard difficulty.
However, there’s little to no exploration to speak of, as the game is as linear as a game can be. All you can do is move forward and get thrusted into fights and more fights with mobs of enemies who are severely lacking in terms of variation.
Additionally, despite having crisp and Code Vein-esque visuals for the game, most of the assets feel outdated as if they were brought from a PS3 title. The linear and empty environments make it worse, but at least the fun combat makes up for them. While it is not detrimental to the overall experience, it feels awkward at times that Bandai Namco did not maximize its resources to deliver a better-looking game.
Prepare to Rider Change
In conclusion, Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez is a fun action game amid its numerous flaws and trope tendencies. It is a good homage to the last decade of the Heisei era, and a spark of hope for the bud that is the Reiwa era. Fans of the franchise will definitely love this game.