REVIEW : Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez (PS4)
Kamen Rider is a popular Tokusatsu franchise that’s just as big as Super Sentai/Power Rangers. The franchise centres on masked heroes with different motifs that use motorbikes, change forms using cool gimmicky belts and fight using different weapons ranging from but not restricted to swords and guns.
It’s a set that’s ripe with creativity, one that has spawned quite a various games over the ages. Its most advanced entry called Memory of Heroez is being touted as a “Hero Chain Action” game and is now available for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. Does it Rider Kick its way to greatness or does it fail to impress just like one of Hiden Aruto’s jokes? Here’s our review of Kamen Rider: Memory of Heroez.
A Kamen Rider’s Work Is Never Done
The setting is a modern area called Sector City, where circumstances have brought three Kamen Riders together, namely Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider OOO, and the very first Rider of Japan’s Reiwa era: Kamen Rider Zero-One. A mysterious and evil expert called Zeus is harnessing the skills from each Rider’s own worlds, conducting nefarious methods that put human lives at risk all to become a god.
The memory of Heroez believes that the player is well-known with the Kamen Riders. While the play is still totally playable even without prior knowledge of these personalities, there are several recommendations made to each of these Riders’ shows and major rivals like the Sonozaki family from W and the Greeed from OOO that could lose a new player in the process.
A little half-baked
The game is essentially a third-person beat ’em up. You’ll run to certain points in an area where you will be surrounded by a barrier, baddies will appear, and you will need to defeat them to proceed to the next area. Along the way, you will collect different Kamen Rider powers like Gaia Memories and Core Medals that will bolster each Rider’s arsenal of moves, making them stronger. Aside from their signature powers, you’ll also get way to Rider accessories like W’s Memory Gadgets and OOO’s Candroids.
There are some RPG components mixed in, as advancing through the play will improve your level cap, making your Kamen Riders more powerful and letting you increase parameters and strengthen attacks. You won’t require to worry about running out of resources as the game is rather generous in giving them.
During combat, hints will also show to indicate an event for a counterattack. Which is the reverse of all the hand-holding the game has done so far. The timing is a little more stringent than usual, so it offered a bit of a challenge, and it feels that trying to understand the timing is more challenging than defeating the enemy grunts themselves.
Luckily, some bosses granted more of a challenge even if they were still noticeably repetitive. Bosses have 2 stages to defeat where the second will be more powerful and have more complex attack patterns compared to the first. These patterns will need to be studied and exploited and once they’re down it’s your chance to pummel them with your Riders’ signature attacks. It’s here that Memory of Heroez somewhat succeeds as a Kamen Rider game, though don’t get your hopes completely up.
Audio is something that the fans of the series will come to enjoy. While the game doesn’t bring back the actual actors to reprise their roles, their replacements are no slouches by any means. So when you hear Shotaro and Philip from Kamen Rider W deliver their signature “count up your sins” line, it sounds just like them!
