Author Topic: [3DS] Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy  (Read 4949 times)

Offline CarolineJohnson

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[3DS] Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy
« on: August 25, 2013, 10:53:14 PM »

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy
System: Nintendo 3DS / iOS
Genre: Rhythm / Music
Release Date: July 3, 2012
Developer: Square-Enix 1st Production Department / indieszero
Publisher: Square-Enix

This is an interesting one - a rhythm game for the Final Fantasy series. It's not all that weird, however, because they did music games right.

STORY

There are two gods: Cosmos and Chaos. The space between them is Rhythm, which gave birth to a Crystal that controls music. Chaos corrupts this crystal and the only way to purify it is to increase a type of music wave called Rhythmia. Cosmos summons characters from various Final Fantasy games to get the Crystal back to normal.

This is fairly similar to the story of the two Dissidia: Final Fantasy games, if you think about it (similar elements) but it's a great one for a rhythm game like this. Short, simple, and to the point. After all, you're playing the game for the rhythm stages, not the story, right?

THE GAME

Did I ever mention this game was simple? You get a party system, with an equip system that's more like the ability equip from Kingdom Hearts. Your equipment consists of various abilities and magic, as well as a single item if you so choose. This party, by the way, consists of any characters you like from the first thirteen Final Fantasy games. At the start, you only get one character per game, but you can unlock some as you go.

The gameplay itself consists of four types of stages. Opening/Ending Themes, Field Music Stages, Battle Music Stages, and Event Music Stages. Each one has a distinct style of play, though all are almost fundamentally the same. You choose which game you want to play music from, and it'll send you first to the Opening Theme.

Opening/Ending Themes are the simplest of the four. In the middle of the top screen is the Crystal, with some small music note bubbles coming toward it. All you do is tap the bottom screen when the music note bubbles get to the Crystal, or to the basic melody of the song if getting the timing of the bubbles alone is somewhat difficult. You can actually skip these stages if you want to, as they're not actually counted as mandatory stages. However, they do get you extra Rhythmia and the music is usually too good to skip anyway.

Field Music Stage (FMS for short) is just that. It's a stage with overworld music from whatever game you chose. The first character in your party walks/runs to the left as the music plays and some notes run to the circle on the right. You have to tap, flick, hold, and drag depending on what notes are coming up. Halfway through the stage, you get the chance to summon a Chocobo to run faster. The more silver notes you successfully get, the better the Chocobo. If you get to the end just as the song ends, a character from the game that song is from will give you a bonus treasure cheat. It's a very fun, fast paced type of stage.


Battle Music Stage (BMS for short) is, again, exactly what it says on the tin. It's a stage that looks like a typical Final Fantasy 2D battle screen, but with circles in front of all four of your party members. Like in FMS, the notes come at the circles on the left. You don't have to keep track of WHERE they're going to hit, though. All you have to do is hit them correctly. Partway through will be some silver notes, like in FMS. This time, they summon a summon...you know, like Shiva or Odin. However, you have to hit all of them or you will lose your summon chance. As the stage progresses, you'll defeat the monsters on the left side of the screen. How many you defeat doesn't matter, as it's just a little visual thing so the stage isn't too static. These are entertaining battle scenes, and every hit feeling so satisfying because the little characters attack whenever you get a successful hit on a note.


Event Music Stage (EMS for short) is somewhat different. You get a prerendered video playing in the background, a circle, notes, and a line. The video is probably there to distract you. The line goes in every direction. The circle follows it, occasionally running into notes you'll have to successfully hit. It's kind of reminiscent of Elite Beat Agents, actually. Again, halfway through are some silver notes. However, I don't know what failing to hit them all does, and all I know about what happens when you successfully hit them is that the effect is called "Extended Version". As I've never failed to hit them all, I can only assume it extends the song. Sometimes annoying, but always fun. Nostalgia factor may summon the onion-cutting ninjas on these, though.


Last but not least: Chaos Shrine. At one point, you will get a "Dark Note", which opens up the Chaos Shrine mode. In it, you play Dark Notes. These are little challenges that are like the main part of the game, but only consist of two stages and don't have Opening/Ending Theme stages...though the songs from those may pop up as other kinds of stages. When you first play a Dark Note, you will not know what songs are in it. All you'll get out of it is the type of stage you'll be playing (which always a battle or field stage. EMS doesn't ever pop up in Chaos Shrine mode).

...also, this game is quite short. I got to the credits within a 24-hour period. Still, there's a lot of replay value and there's still a ton that can be unlocked after the game has been completed.

SOUND AND VISUALS

I'm not going to gush, but please excuse my gushing. OH MY GOD these songs are amazing. In the stages, almost all of the songs sound exactly as they did on the original system they were on. The tracklist is a very good one, my friends. Great indeed. A lot of great songs are here, from "Elia, the Maiden of Water" and "Suteki da Ne" to "The Sunleth Waterscape" and "Main Theme of Final Fantasy IV". Five songs each are represented for thirteen main series Final Fantasy games, and there are even more you can buy and unlock separately.

The menus have fantastic arrangements of various Final Fantasy songs, though you won't get to hear them for long as each menu has a separate song and I doubt you'll be on each menu long enough to have a good listen to the songs. However, if you stay there long enough to listen, they're very nice to listen to.

The visuals are a mix of adorable and awesome. The guy who created the little avatars you can see on Kingdom Hearts Mobile and Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded has done a lot for this game, and it's a great change from the normal stuff. The top screen is always so bright and pretty! However, the bottom screen is usually a static image with sparkles appearing whenever and wherever you touch. All of the focus is on the top screen, though, so I find that to be all well and good. You don't really need to and don't have the time between notes to look at the bottom screen at all.

The 3D is also pretty nice. My eyes usually freak out when I put my 3DS on full 3D, but this game does it so well that I can have it up as little or as much as I want without my eyes burning. However, some sections make very little use of the depth and it's not mind blowing enough that you decide you HAVE to play with the 3D on 100% of the time.

So, in short, this game is a joy to play and, while short, is something that can be enjoyed for a long time (like most music games). It's got charm and a wonderful track listing. So...um.... I leave you with this.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10
SOUND: 10/10
VISUALS: 10/10
TRACK LISTING: 10/10
3D EFFECT: 8/10

TOTAL: 9.6/10
« Last Edit: August 25, 2013, 11:29:50 PM by CarolineJohnson » »

Offline Swagmaster

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Re: [3DS] Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2013, 10:59:48 PM »
Great Review. I think you may have overrated it a tad bit, but this is your opinion. I love the game

 

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