SpoonySage
N3DS Community Ghost Gym Leader
The Story Thus Far...
In its 25th anniversary, Square-Enix has brought together the main Final Fantasies for a special game crossing all dimensions. Chaos and Cosmos have battled in Dissidia games, but this game focuses on the Rhythmia, which holds all these dimensions together. As you play the different music games, you build your Rhythmia and gain access to more music and extras from all the varying Final Fantasy universes and thwart Chaos's plan to divide the dimensions.
Gameplay/Mechanics
First, you can pick 4 warriors and either Series, Challenge, or Chaos Shrine Mode. The first has you play through a series of songs from a single game, the second lets you freely take on any song you've unlocked, and the last is a harder mode that has better prizes and can be exchanged via
Streetpass.
Series Mode is where you start out to unlock songs.
There are 3 main styles of gameplay in Final Fantasy Theatrhythm: FMS (Field Music Score), BMS (Battle Music Score), and EMS (Emotional Music Score). First, in the FMS, you travel through the overworld of the game of your choice while tapping, swiping, or following the lines and nodes on the screen. Mistakes will cause the character to trip while perfect (or critical) hits makes you go faster. If you make it far enough, you are sure to get treasure, or even double treasure if you are lucky enough to find a Moogle. In BMS and EMS, you do not have to follow the lines, but they both come with their own challenges. BMS throws 4 lines of nodes at you at a time and also is the easiest to get a Game Over in as monsters will fight back every time you miss a beat. Finally, in EMS, the tempo changes are at times hard to keep up with as the string of nodes moves all over the screen.
BMS is pretty boss.
All in all, there are 65 songs in Series Mode, 99 song combos in the Chaos Shrine, a handful of event-unlock songs, and new songs added to the DLC area every few weeks in Japan (currently 8 songs in USA).
Graphics
This game is adorable. The art style is very calming and helps set the tone for the game. The "battle cries" that the characters mash up before each level also add to the hilarity of the game. While some hardcore fans were initially off-put by the art style, I think many of them are warming up to the game as the gameplay itself is great.
Sooo many great laughs had simply at the sh*t Cloud/Squall say.
There is a lack of thrilling 3D effects in this game, but this did not bother me too much as 3D would distract from the action on the screen and also add to the amount of eye fatigue one gets from playing a fast-paced rhythm game for long periods of time. Both my sister and I play this game and we both tend to end up playing for hours without even noticing how much time has passed.
I was also pleased that the graphics of even FFXIII, a PS3/Xbox360 game, showed up in brilliant detail on Theatrhythm. You may not have much time to enjoy the scenes while playing, you can unlock all the cutscenes for casual viewing later.
If only they remade the cutscenes for 3D...
Music/Sound
All of the music in this game comes from the original versions of each source game. Admittedly, this is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, it is refreshing at times to hear all the original music and not reorchestrated versions heard in the remakes. However, some of the early games (like FFIII, for example) did not come over or come over early enough for me to play and thus I was only exposed to the remakes. Perhaps this will be fixed by releasing the reorchestrated versions later.
Replayability
Each song has 3 different difficulties, with the Ultimate Score unlocked only after getting an A rank or better on the Expert Score. Also, only after beating each song in a game in Challenge Mode on a higher difficulty can you unlock that difficulty on Series Mode. In other words, speaking exclusively to the main songs in the game, you will have to play each a minimum of 6 times to have beaten everything! Also, when there are tons of songs only in the Chaos Shrine Mode, event-related challenges, and DLC, you will find hours and HOURS of gameplay in this one title.
Multiplayer
This game only offers local multiplayer, where you can take on the most difficult of songs while delegating half of the nodes to a friend to cover for you. This will help you beat more songs and also help gather treasure and EXP for your favorite characters. The lack of an online multiplayer is regretable, but I think co-op games tend to do better in person.
Streetpass
Streetpass has a few different functions in this game. Firstly, it will send a customizable player card detailing your stats and favorite song. It also allows you to share defeated Dark Notes in the Chaos Shrine. These 2 song sets are normally unlocked in a random order and thus sharing them will help you unlock all 99 in case you get stumped.
Extras
There are all kinds of extras to unlock in this game. First, you have all the special songs to unlock, both by gaining enough Rhythmia and by DLC, which come at $1 a song. Addressing the quality of these extra songs, so far I have downloaded one, which was a song I played a koto solo in during one of the Pixelcon Concerts (a local video game convention which likes to feature game art and music). Next, you have a card collection book showing all the Theatrhythm cards you have found. Getting multiple copies will upgrade your cards to holifoil cards that have additional functions. You get these by beating bosses and FMS levels, but they can also be unlocked by Passwords which will be released on the official website as well as at special events, to be announced.
I swear, this one better be a good card...
There are extra characters for you to unlock and level up as you see fit and also hidden abilities to teach them. As I mentioned before, you can unlock all the cutscenes from the FF games to watch as you please. You can even unlock songs just for pleasure listening. The best part is, just like in the DS remake of FFIV, you can create a playlist, put your 3DS to sleep, and still listen to the playlist via headphones! Finally, there is a trophy list of 64 achievements for you to shoot for, which are revealed only as you get close to each goal.
Rating
Clearly, this game has a ton of fantastic Final Fantasy content. It is the perfect addition to any fan's collection. But what if you are not a fan of Final Fantasy? You simply like rhythm games? Well, that is a tough one. There are better general rhythm games for the Wii, but the DS did not get as many good rhythm games (curse them for not bringing over Taiko Drum Master!). In all honesty, you might prefer Rhythm Heaven if you have no knowledge of Final Fantasy. But while you may not know the characters or locations, the extra content in this game does a good bit to teach you! So, in the end, I do not think it is a game solely for FF fans, but a game anyone can generally enjoy.
9.5/10
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