Theatrhythm: Final Fantasty Review

Theatrhythm Logo

To set the mood a little, let’s just say that I really don’t like rhythm games, but I stinking love Theatrhythm.  I hate the name though, since it’s not a real word and I can’t spell it without checking the spelling three to four times every time.

Initially I wasn’t willing to pick this game up for the full $40 they wanted for it.  It’s just my feeling towards rhythm games.  I don’t really feel like they are real “games”.  I kind of view them like Wii Sports.  Sure they’re nifty and you enjoy playing them a little, but after about 30 minutes… it’s time to move on to something else.  Something with a bit more meat on the bone.

Something so simple, yet satisfying.
Something so simple, yet satisfying.

Another big thing I had going against this game was that the song list I saw wasn’t very impressive and saw that they had DLC coming out.  DLC… really?  The game hadn’t even been released and they were planning on DLC?  I was sure all the songs I wanted weren’t included so I just let it pass on by.  Let’s just say, some time has passed and there was a good deal and since I was still interested, I felt it was worth the money at that point.  I was looking forward to some extra songs so I could just build that into the price.  It was a win/win of sorts for me.

I still don’t feel that rhythm games are technically my thing (possibly due to my lack of rhythm), but once I started playing, all of my worries were flushed away.  They had some of the songs I loved already in the game.  Obviously those would be:

  • One Winged Angel
  • Aerith’s Theme
  • Terra’s Theme

One main song I would miss would be Liberi Fatali.  That, unfortunately, coincided with one of the Final Fantasty’s I didn’t completely care for, but I don’t want to start a grudge match on my comments page.  Let’s move on shall we?

The Bad:

I have a natural lack of rhythm so randomly I’ll fail at a note and ruin a perfectly perfect run at a song.  This in turn makes me restart that song.  Sometimes I’ll fail it a few times resulting in a lunch filled with one song in my head and some frustration left over.  That’s on me… sort of.  I do feel that I got the note, but it’s ALWAYS on one of the slash motion notes.  So I’m not sure if it is completely me… just saying.  (The game is just out to get me!)

*Special thanks to Gamespot for this video.  I will probably never see the end of this song as at 2:58, I can’t swipe, tap, or hold to save my life and fail about 4 seconds afterwards.  Or any other song on the Ultimate difficulty for that matter.

A real complaint though is that, after looking it over, I don’t even see Liberi Fatali in the song list or list of DLC.  That’s just lame.  There is still time for them to release it later though *crosses fingers*.

The Good:

There are a few different modes to each Final Fantasy game listed with different songs to go along with them.  It’s not exactly a run through of the whole game, but you’re here for the music, not the story.  They give you three options to play in: Series, Challenge, and the Chaos Shrine.

So far, the Series aspect is the simple part unless it’s a slow song for me.  To little notes to keep the beet to and I’m thrown off as well.  The Challenge mode is where things start to get more interesting.  At first they give you the same difficulty and then ramp it up twice more and the second jump is usually brutal compared to the first.  Needless to say, going for the “Ultimate Score” on any songs has only led to failure every time.  The Chaos Shrine just seems to start at difficult and rub it in from there.  It’s not quite as hard as an Ultimate score difficulty as I can actually complete these.

Battle music go!
Battle music go!

There are RPG elements as well.  Your characters level up and you can equip moves to help you out at different parts of the songs.  No worries though since these moves are used automatically.  Remember to read the descriptions as some moves pertain to only certain song types and you can only equip so many moves per character.  You also pick up items along the way and can equip one single item for your entire party so pick carefully here too.  You pick the characters that you want from the history of the FF franchise.  Granted, it’s the ones they wanted to give you, but the main ones are there, even if you have to unlock them first.

The game graphically has a fun feel to it.  I enjoyed the whimsical fun-ness of it all as I freak out at crazy fast notes.  (You can’t really dog on a rhythm game for the graphics anyway, that’s just goofy.)  The music sounds pretty dang good on the 3DS, but it’s not your favorite orchestrated versions.

The 3D, as with most 3DS games, is a pass for me since I’m poking and slashing at my 3DS and the screen swaps in and out of visibility.  Normally I think the games just look better in 2D, but this time it’s due to me flopping like a dead fish on the touch pad.  The game does look good in 3D, it’s just hard to maintain a steady hand for me.

The controls are simple enough for a beginner to pick up and enjoy as well.  Basically you’re just poking, slashing, and holding the stylus to the screen.  That is the whole game.  You’ll just have to do it quicker and more accurately if you want to get super good at it.

This precedes every main song and they can say some of the weirdest crap since it's four randomly selected phrases.
This precedes every main song and they can say some of the weirdest crap since it’s four randomly selected phrases.

The fact that you can level your characters and get new moves will probably have some people playing this for a long time.  I don’t feel it’s going to be that way for me.  I do wish that this was a title I could have downloaded.  I can easily see this as one of those games I would just randomly have an urge to start up and play for short bits at a time like Tetris.  At it’s price right now and if you’re remotely curious about this game, I would say this is definitely the time to pick yourself up some Theatrhythm.  If you’re a fan of the music in the least, you’ll not regret the purchase as it’s a fun new way to experience the music as well.

As per the last picture and just for funzies, here’s a short list of sayings that my four heroes have spouted just before a song starts:

-Let’s go / we laugh / falsely / in hope.
-So now / we slice / easily / for nothing.
-Yes, so / we go / excessively / for uh…
-Alas friend / we sleep /restlessly / in fear.

Did any of you get some super weird ones?  Let me know!

Love it or hate it, let me know!