Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

Back in the before time, the long long ago that was summer of 2011, a little developer by the name of Square Enix announced a Final Fantasy game the likes of which no one had ever imagined, or even knew what to make of.

Theatrhythm, a name as bizarre as its concept, was apparently a title that would feature music and characters from all 13 main numbered Final Fantasy games.

The weird thing was that the game play would be entirely music based. Other than a few screenshots, not much else was known, and some gamers (myself included) just made squinty "huh?" faces and didn't pay much attention.

Boy were we wrongfully dismissive.

Now the game is out on U.S. shores, and between seeing video of it in action and actually getting my hands on it, I can definitively say that my early nonchalance was a big mistake. I am a bit of a Final Fantasy fan, and have a deep appreciation for the music of said franchise. I should've been all over this game from the start.

Theatrhythm takes these coveted JRPG games and characters and mashes them up not only with each other, but with other games such as Rock Band and Frequency. There is a story to be told as well, but it's so off the wall and unrelated to the goings-on that I won't bother to present it here. In fact, you'll be having so much fun tapping your 3DS's stylus to these famous Uematsu tunes, you won't care why you're doing it.

At the start you form a party of four from the most prominent characters in each game. After that, you initially only have access to the basic Series Mode. Here you are able to play through five songs from each of the numbered Final Fantasy games in varying ways.

Most of the gameplay takes place on horizontal note tracks, not unlike Guitar Hero. The notes flow from left to right and take the form of either a regular note to be tapped, an arrow note that must be swiped in the indicated direction, and pairs of notes connected by a thick white line that must be held down. If you've played the aforementioned plastic instrument game-and really who hasn't at this point-it will look very familiar. The nice part is that you only need to be precise with the timing of your taps and swipes, not the placement of them. You can use the entirety of the bottom touch screen.

The first and last songs bookending each game's playlist are the most basic, called the Demo Music Stages. There's a big crystal in the middle of the screen, and while the opening and ending themes play, notes will fly toward the crystal in time with the melody. Your job is to tap the screen when the notes reach the center of the crystal. These are the most uneventful songs to play as the tunes are typically more mellow and the note patterns easy to land. While these stages are skippable, you won't really want to. Each successful tap will be tallied and added to your overall Rythmia score, which I'll get to in a bit.

Then there's the Field Music Stage, where your party's leader treks across the land to the tune of that game's overworld traveling song. The difference here is that the joined pairs of notes are not always connected by a straight line, requiring you to trace the up and down path across the width of the note track. The better you do, the further you travel and the better your rewards get.

The Battle Music Stages are the most interesting. Here all four of your party members join in and are lined up on the right side with the enemies on the left. If you've played any of the pre-PS1 era Final Fantasy games, you'll feel right at home, especially once the energetic battle songs kick in. Each character has their own note track and each time you tap a note, that character attacks the enemy. The enemies themselves, while generally consistent with the game you're currently in, don't really mean much except to provide window dressing to compliment the music tapping stuff.

The enemies will attack you, but the better you are at hitting the notes, you'll stand a much better chance of defeating them before they deplete your HP. When you defeat an enemy, another one, usually bigger but not necessarily stronger, merely jumps in to take its place. You're not really trying to defeat the enemies, you're trying to match the music notes coming at you.

Lastly is the Event Music Stage. Here, a particularly popular event tune plays while various memorable scenes from the specific game are shown in the background. The note track really changes up in this mode. Your marker indicating when you have to tap a note is what moves this time. The marker follows a set track that turns corners, curves, and will speed up and slow down as the tune's tempo does the same. The notes are fixed to the track and you tap when the marker reaches it.

These tended to be the most difficult songs for me, for several reasons.

First, because the track winds back and crosses itself numerous times, you're only shown a small portion of it at a time, so you have less lead time to plan for the notes that are coming. Also, the irregular placement of the notes and changing speeds of your marker can screw with your timing, even if you're familiar with the particular song.

All these gameplay modes sound a little complicated, but there's a short tutorial that shows you the basics. Once you've played each type of stage a time or two you'll quickly have the hang of it. Anyone who's played a rhythm game in the last several years will have no problems, and like those games, Theatrhythm is at its best when you're very familiar with a track and get into the rhythm of it, your hand tapping instinctively as you relive the moment in the game it represents.

With only five songs per game, Theatrhythm at first seems short and a poor value. After completing your first few songs, however, you unlock Challenge Mode and Chaos Shrine Mode.

Challenge Mode is just what it sounds like. You can play through any song you like that you've completed in Series Mode to improve your score and earn more Rythmia points. You can also play through two increasingly more difficult versions of each song.

Chaos Shrine mode is where the real meat of the game lies, and is the most difficult, fun, and rewarding. Here you play through a randomly generated setlist of 99 medleys. Each medley consists of one Field Music stage and one Battle Music stage. These are where the rest of the over 70 included songs are unlocked and the best items are earned, but it's also where the songs get much more difficult. Like any good music game, the later difficulties will have you tapping and swiping the screen like a madman, only to feel incredibly satiated when you finally manage to land every note perfectly and earn that S-rank.

This being a Final Fantasy game, there are RPG elements involved. Every time you complete a stage, you find various items, collectibles, and add-on spells. These can be equipped to your party members not to make the note patterns any easier, but for things like being able to use more powerful spells and attacks, use healing items if you're close to death, or even guarantee you a ride on a speedy chocobo in a Field stage.

You're also graded on several areas after each stage and given a certain amount of Rythmia points. Building your Rythmia score is how you unlock songs for the music player and earn colored crystals, which are used to unlock more characters for your party. Yes, even that one guy with the massive sword that killed that one girl in that one game.

There's even a multiplayer component to Theatrhythm, but is limited to local co-op only. You can gather up to three friends to help you tackle some of the tougher levels, with each player gaining experience as well as items. Using streetpass, you can also trade Chaos Shrine melodies with strangers, which is kind of neat since they're randomly generated.

The graphics here are pretty great, which is both exciting and disappointing. The backgrounds are colorful and represent each game in the series rather well. During the Event stages, you won't be able to help but smile as you relive some of the most moving moments throughout the franchise, such as the famous opera scene or Rinoa urging Squall to dance with her. The in-game character models are especially endearing, done up in cutesy chibi-style, doll-like versions of themselves.

The unfortunate thing about all this goodness is that you're usually paying so much attention to the notes and your accuracy that you won't have time to truly appreciate the rest of the visuals. The 3D effects are also a mixed bag. For the most part the 3D scenes look pretty good, but they're combined with other elements that are not displayed in 3D such as the stat text and the note tracks themselves.

When you have that much 2D stuff crammed onto the same screen as the 3D backgrounds, the resulting visual cacophony doesn't do either side any favors. I ended up just turning the 3D off altogether.

The sound is about what you'd expect out of a game like this. Lots of the usual well of Final Fantasy sound effects that have been recycled and retooled many times throughout the life of the series. The music is some of the best highlights from each game. You have the obligatory favorites like the original theme, To Zanarkand, and One-Winged Angel. My only complaint with the music is that when you're dealing with a 13-game franchise, each with a score over 60 songs deep, there is no hope of shoehorning all those tracks in. Which means no Liber Fatali, no Vivi's Theme.

Still, the content that is here is top notch, and the more you play, the more you unlock. And with so many songs present, combined with unlockables and the addictive qualities of your typical music game, Theatrhythm's replay value is pretty high.

There's already a number of downloadable tracks available as DLC, a first for the 3DS. Additional songs are a mere $.99 each, with plans for more coming available in the next few weeks.

If they can keep a somewhat Rock Band-like DLC schedule to round out the selection, this could be something you could play for a long, long time. Even if they don't commit to a schedule on that scale, this is a great start to a potential new series in and of itself. Imagine a sequel that includes even more tracks, and games such as Crisis Core or FF Tactics. Theatrhythm: Dragon Quest or Star Ocean perhaps?

Small quibbles such as the complicated Event stage note tracks, lack of full online multiplayer and messy 3D aside, this is a great love letter to fans of Final Fantasy and the music contained within. If you enjoy rhythm games and this series, don't think, just buy.