Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories Review: Need a hit? Melon is it!

All things considered, Honeydew’s life has been a pretty normal one. Like a good number of people in Ham Town, she puts on her bunny ears every morning and heads into the melon soda factory to do an honest day’s work. Oh sure, it’s pretty cushy in the marketing department, but that doesn’t stop Honeydew from trying her best every day — and with friends like Cantaloupe, Strong Dog, and Kitten Princess by her side, she simply cannot lose! Hey, speaking of Cantaloupe, he’s bunking off today and expects you to meet him over in Hog Town. Bring his briefcase, mmmkay? It’ll further the whole illicit melon trade plot later. You’ll see!

Yeah, so about that last bit up there — let’s just say Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories roped me in with its saccharine sweet façade only to give me a one-two punch with some darker material thrown into the mix. Developed by Froach Club / Poppy Works (Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi) and published by Marvelous / XSEED (No More Heroes 3, Potionomics), Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories is described on its Steam page as “a story-exploration game about getting caught up in the outlandish happenings of a small town where melons are illegal.” A 5 – 6 hour experience (longer if you enjoy reading every last morsel of text), Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories may be on the shorter side, but its sweetness is certainly offset by its surprisingly sinister side.

Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories opens up fairly normally: Honeydew’s work husband, Cantaloupe, is taking the day off and wants her to meet up with him and do the same. After training it into Hog Town from Ham Town, players (taking the role of Honeydew) will be forced to get involved with the city’s goings-on in an effort to find Cantaloupe, doing things like investigating manhole covers for secret hideouts, convincing a rat to join a cheese cult, and more. As players progress, they’ll come to learn more about Hog Town’s explicit ban on melons and how Ham Town plays a part in its illicit underground trade. Sounds like it would have been more relaxing at Honeydew’s regular 9 to 5!

Normally I like to say I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, but the truth is, I can’t remember enough of Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories’ story progression to do that, even though I played it this week. Although I suspect I would have retained more information had I played the first game in the series, I don’t know if it would have helped enough. Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories has a lot going for it, but boy is its story a bit confusing!

Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories may not have the most clear story flow, but it does have extremely cute aesthetics, adorably fun characters with some relatable, raw charm to them, and a fantastically retro feel overall. Although Honeydew and Cantaloupe appear to be human, everyone else seems to be an animal of sorts, like the hamsters from Ham Town, the hedgehogs from Hog Town, and even some mythical animals thrown in there. There’s even a talking apple! All of the characters have fun and interesting things to say that can and do change nearly any time you walk off screen, making Hog Town truly feel alive. Complete with a monochromatic melon-green backdrop and small scenes to emulate the GameBoy era, Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories shines in its look, feel, and overall world.

As Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories is supposed to be an homage to handheld games of yesteryear, I feel I must stress two things. First, saving will need to be done manually, as there was no autosave on GameBoy games back in the day. This feels like a no-brainer to state, but as modern gaming has more or less transitioned into autosave, it’s important to state for the record.

In fact, I wish I had saved more often because, for my second point, I need to stress that I don’t think the PS5 is the best platform for Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories. This might feel obvious again due to the fact that it’s emulating a handheld title so it would best fit on, say, the Switch or Steam Deck, but moreso because the game crashed on my PS5 near the end and I hadn’t saved in, like, forever. I’m not ready to place the blame entirely on Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories for the crash (even though this has never happened to me on my PS5 before), but I definitely wish the character that encouraged me to save my game had been a recurring one instead of a one-off. My restart from the crash would have been a lot less painful that way!

Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories is reminiscent of the wacky RPGs of yesteryear that captured our hearts as children with its cute aesthetics and humorous writing, but it also surprisingly delves into some more serious material. Although I wish I had been able to better grasp the intricacies of its storyline, the overall picture was painted in well enough and the throwaway NPC lines were entertaining enough in their own right. If you miss the silliness of retro RPGs and need a dose of nostalgia juice, Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories invites you to take a melon-flavored sip.

Final Verdict: 3.5/5

Available on: XBox One, XBox Series X|S, PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 (Reviewed); Publisher: Marvelous, XSEED Games; Developer: Froach Club, Poppy Works; Players: 1; Released: April 6, 2023; MSRP: $14.99

Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories provided by the publisher.