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Review: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Is Game Music Nostalgia At Its Best
Jon Brodkin writes "Few game series other than Final Fantasy have consistently provided epic adventures for 25 years—and perhaps no company outside of Nintendo capitalizes on its history like Square Enix. In its latest attempt to merge the best of past and present into one experience, Square Enix has produced the music game Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for the Nintendo 3DS. Joining Guitar Hero-style mechanics, 3D perspective, RPG-like character building and battling, and the rich music catalog of the Final Fantasy franchise, Theatrhythm is impressive, enjoyable, and one of the best examples of why it's worth owning a 3DS and that wacky stylus." Read below for the rest of Jon's review.
Theatrhythm is far from being the most exciting Final Fantasy game. But it's nonetheless addictive to uncover one great song after another, getting used to the quick taps, holds, and slashes the required by the stylus-driven gameplay. I bought the game on its North American release date of July 3, and became captivated after a few initial doubts.
Gameplay
Gameplay is controlled entirely by the stylus, and benefits from being comfortable to play. That may not seem like much, but 3DS owners who played the blockbuster remake of Kid Icarus know that an uncomfortable control scheme can ruin an otherwise perfectly good game. I found myself grateful to Square Enix for not creating a game that induces carpal tunnel syndrome.
I found the game's explanation of its mechanics confusing at first, but once you play for a few minutes it all seems self-evident. A circle moves over notes on the 3DS's top screen while you tap the bottom screen with the stylus. If the note has an arrow, swipe in the direction indicated. If two notes are connected with a solid line, just keep the stylus down on the screen until the second note passes.
In most cases, you don't have to worry about the location of your tap; you just need to get the rhythm down. Some long strings of notes require keeping the stylus on the screen and moving it up and down to hit each note, but the location of the initial tap doesn't matter.
Theatrhythm's songs come in three types: field music stages in which a Final Fantasy character walks around; event music stages in which scenes from the major Final Fantasy games play in the background; and battle music stages in which four party members fight a monster or series of monsters. In the lattermost, successful notes keep the monster at bay, while misses allow the monster to advance and lower your hit points.
Hitting a series of featured notes (similar to Star Power in Guitar Hero) can turn your character into a super-fast chocobo or unearth a summons that deals gobs of damage to the enemy.
A Noble Attempt at Story
As the game begins, a group of songs from each of Final Fantasy's first 13 main series titles are available for play. (The disastrous MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV is conspicuously absent.) As you clear songs, they become available in a challenge mode with two additional difficulty levels, and a separate section brings "dark notes," which offer the same type of gameplay but a different song list and often a greater challenge.
Standard role-playing elements such as leveling up, boosting hit points, choosing attributes, and equipping items (including a potion that will automatically save you from death) make the gameplay a little more interesting. A noble attempt is made to provide a shell of a story—something about the world being controlled by the gods Cosmos and Chaos, and a space between the gods called "Rhythm." A music crystal (every self-respecting Final Fantasy game needs a crystal) fills the world with harmony, but that harmony is disrupted by chaotic forces. The heroes (which the player chooses from a roster of characters pulled from the 13 main Final Fantasy games) can restore the crystal's radiance by collecting Rhythmia—which is conveniently made available each time a song is cleared. Extra characters can be unlocked by collecting crystal fragments.
Once you hit a certain amount of Rhythmia, a relatively easy final boss battle against Chaos ensues, and then the epilogue and credits roll. The ending seems abrupt, but there's little incentive to stop playing. I "finished" the game in eight hours, but still had some 80 or so dark notes left to collect and play through, not to mention the expert and ultimate difficulty modes for most of the main songs.
The Final Fantasy series and this game are astounding for their catalog of incredible music. Final Fantasy has produced classic tunes stretching from the 8-bit era to modern gaming. In Theatrhythm, you sometimes get the original version of a classic song, and in other cases you'll get a modernized version from one of the various remakes of early games.
If you're disappointed by the lack of a song in the series mode, just keep plugging away; it'll most likely appear among the dark notes. I was surprised that two of my favorites—Mt. Gulg's theme from the original Final Fantasy and the battle theme Blinded by Light from Final Fantasy XIII—didn't make the main series of songs. But both appear in the dark notes. The game has about 80 songs, and more that can be purchased and downloaded for a dollar apiece.
I doubt Theatrhythm will attract hordes of people who have never played Final Fantasy. But if you're a Final Fantasy fan, appreciate the series' music, and have even the slightest interest in music game mechanics, Theatrhythm is well worth the $40. Millions of gamers play the titles from their youth on emulators for nostalgia purposes. Theatrhythm provides just as much nostalgia, but also something completely new.
Final Fantasy Thrives in Many Styles
Square Enix seems to get more than its share of criticism from gamers and video game journalists, who claim the Final Fantasy series is somehow broken and needs to be fixed.
Among the most controversial games was Final Fantasy XIII, and undeservedly so. I believe XIII is great precisely because it overhauled the battle system into something faster and more dynamic, while de-emphasizing a lot of the tedious portions of previous games. I did not mourn the loss of towns in which the player must talk to every last person just to advance the plot. But lots of Final Fantasy diehards said XIII was too linear, didn't include enough traditional elements, ruined the whole series, killed their dog, stole their spouse, etc.
Square Enix can't be doing that badly—the company was profitable in fiscal 2012, something Nintendo can't claim. Granted, Nintendo's situation is a lot trickier, as it sells both hardware and software and faces the end of the Wii's lifecycle. But I don't think Square Enix's longevity and success are any accident.
Mario and Zelda are my two all-time favorite game series. But Final Fantasy, I think, is the best example of a series with roots in the 1980s remaining innovative while honoring its past. And because Square Enix isn't duty-bound to any one brand of hardware, it makes Final Fantasy titles for every gaming platform, and makes each one unique.
3DS and PSP Final Fantasy games aren't just ports from the PS3. Each game takes advantage of its target system's unique characteristics. Moreover, Final Fantasy extends to an impressive range of genres: Beyond traditional RPGs there are action-adventure games, hack-and-slash, tactical RPG, dungeon crawling, tower defense, city-building, real-time strategy, and even massively multiplayer online games.
In addition to completely new titles, remakes of the early Final Fantasy games for the iPhone, iPad, and Android offer some of the best touch-screen gaming around. While most Nintendo games from the 80s or early 90s would be clunky on a phone or tablet because of their precise control requirements, the command systems of early RPGs turn out to be perfect for touch screens.
All of this is to say that Square Enix manages to transform gameplay even while going back to the well of its early successes. Games like Theatrhythm, and the recent Dissidia series (which joined the most famous Final Fantasy characters in an RPG/fighting game) provide excellent ways to indulge in the past without actually replaying 20-year-old games.
In an interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Theatrhythm creator Ichiro Hazama said he came up with the game's idea for the Nintendo DS, but couldn't execute it on that platform because "so many compromises needed to be made in terms of storage capacity and what we could do in terms of presentation. When I saw Nintendo 3DS, my first thought was, 'Yes! Now we can do it!'"
The device's 3D perspective doesn't add much to this game, but the system's upgraded graphic capabilities are put to great use, and the sound is excellent. The Final Fantasy characters are all recognizable, but cuter and more cartoonish than in their original incarnations.
I would change a couple things about Theatrhythm if I could. In the series mode where you play a set of five songs from each game, the opening and ending tunes require no skill—you just tap mindlessly as notes pass into a crystal. Only the three middle songs offer real gameplay. You can skip the ending and opening songs, but you lose points.
The battle animations are also pretty tame, and a bit too similar to the early Nintendo games in which a sword is swung but no contact between the character and monster is made. The summonses help out by throwing huge fireballs and such at the enemies, but that happens just about once per song.
It would also be great to have a proper series of boss fights at key moments, instead of just one at the end of the game. Alternatively, the final boss could have been more exciting and memorable if it had multiple stages or harder difficulty.
But all in all, this is a great game that I plan to continue playing. In fact, I'd love to see the Theatrhythm treatment given to the Zelda series, my favorite in terms of music.
Nintendo is still the master of nostalgia gaming, but Square Enix is right on its heels.
Gameplay
Gameplay is controlled entirely by the stylus, and benefits from being comfortable to play. That may not seem like much, but 3DS owners who played the blockbuster remake of Kid Icarus know that an uncomfortable control scheme can ruin an otherwise perfectly good game. I found myself grateful to Square Enix for not creating a game that induces carpal tunnel syndrome.
I found the game's explanation of its mechanics confusing at first, but once you play for a few minutes it all seems self-evident. A circle moves over notes on the 3DS's top screen while you tap the bottom screen with the stylus. If the note has an arrow, swipe in the direction indicated. If two notes are connected with a solid line, just keep the stylus down on the screen until the second note passes.
In most cases, you don't have to worry about the location of your tap; you just need to get the rhythm down. Some long strings of notes require keeping the stylus on the screen and moving it up and down to hit each note, but the location of the initial tap doesn't matter.
Theatrhythm's songs come in three types: field music stages in which a Final Fantasy character walks around; event music stages in which scenes from the major Final Fantasy games play in the background; and battle music stages in which four party members fight a monster or series of monsters. In the lattermost, successful notes keep the monster at bay, while misses allow the monster to advance and lower your hit points.
Hitting a series of featured notes (similar to Star Power in Guitar Hero) can turn your character into a super-fast chocobo or unearth a summons that deals gobs of damage to the enemy.
A Noble Attempt at Story
As the game begins, a group of songs from each of Final Fantasy's first 13 main series titles are available for play. (The disastrous MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV is conspicuously absent.) As you clear songs, they become available in a challenge mode with two additional difficulty levels, and a separate section brings "dark notes," which offer the same type of gameplay but a different song list and often a greater challenge.
Standard role-playing elements such as leveling up, boosting hit points, choosing attributes, and equipping items (including a potion that will automatically save you from death) make the gameplay a little more interesting. A noble attempt is made to provide a shell of a story—something about the world being controlled by the gods Cosmos and Chaos, and a space between the gods called "Rhythm." A music crystal (every self-respecting Final Fantasy game needs a crystal) fills the world with harmony, but that harmony is disrupted by chaotic forces. The heroes (which the player chooses from a roster of characters pulled from the 13 main Final Fantasy games) can restore the crystal's radiance by collecting Rhythmia—which is conveniently made available each time a song is cleared. Extra characters can be unlocked by collecting crystal fragments.
Once you hit a certain amount of Rhythmia, a relatively easy final boss battle against Chaos ensues, and then the epilogue and credits roll. The ending seems abrupt, but there's little incentive to stop playing. I "finished" the game in eight hours, but still had some 80 or so dark notes left to collect and play through, not to mention the expert and ultimate difficulty modes for most of the main songs.
The Final Fantasy series and this game are astounding for their catalog of incredible music. Final Fantasy has produced classic tunes stretching from the 8-bit era to modern gaming. In Theatrhythm, you sometimes get the original version of a classic song, and in other cases you'll get a modernized version from one of the various remakes of early games.
If you're disappointed by the lack of a song in the series mode, just keep plugging away; it'll most likely appear among the dark notes. I was surprised that two of my favorites—Mt. Gulg's theme from the original Final Fantasy and the battle theme Blinded by Light from Final Fantasy XIII—didn't make the main series of songs. But both appear in the dark notes. The game has about 80 songs, and more that can be purchased and downloaded for a dollar apiece.
I doubt Theatrhythm will attract hordes of people who have never played Final Fantasy. But if you're a Final Fantasy fan, appreciate the series' music, and have even the slightest interest in music game mechanics, Theatrhythm is well worth the $40. Millions of gamers play the titles from their youth on emulators for nostalgia purposes. Theatrhythm provides just as much nostalgia, but also something completely new.
Final Fantasy Thrives in Many Styles
Square Enix seems to get more than its share of criticism from gamers and video game journalists, who claim the Final Fantasy series is somehow broken and needs to be fixed.
Among the most controversial games was Final Fantasy XIII, and undeservedly so. I believe XIII is great precisely because it overhauled the battle system into something faster and more dynamic, while de-emphasizing a lot of the tedious portions of previous games. I did not mourn the loss of towns in which the player must talk to every last person just to advance the plot. But lots of Final Fantasy diehards said XIII was too linear, didn't include enough traditional elements, ruined the whole series, killed their dog, stole their spouse, etc.
Square Enix can't be doing that badly—the company was profitable in fiscal 2012, something Nintendo can't claim. Granted, Nintendo's situation is a lot trickier, as it sells both hardware and software and faces the end of the Wii's lifecycle. But I don't think Square Enix's longevity and success are any accident.
Mario and Zelda are my two all-time favorite game series. But Final Fantasy, I think, is the best example of a series with roots in the 1980s remaining innovative while honoring its past. And because Square Enix isn't duty-bound to any one brand of hardware, it makes Final Fantasy titles for every gaming platform, and makes each one unique.
3DS and PSP Final Fantasy games aren't just ports from the PS3. Each game takes advantage of its target system's unique characteristics. Moreover, Final Fantasy extends to an impressive range of genres: Beyond traditional RPGs there are action-adventure games, hack-and-slash, tactical RPG, dungeon crawling, tower defense, city-building, real-time strategy, and even massively multiplayer online games.
In addition to completely new titles, remakes of the early Final Fantasy games for the iPhone, iPad, and Android offer some of the best touch-screen gaming around. While most Nintendo games from the 80s or early 90s would be clunky on a phone or tablet because of their precise control requirements, the command systems of early RPGs turn out to be perfect for touch screens.
All of this is to say that Square Enix manages to transform gameplay even while going back to the well of its early successes. Games like Theatrhythm, and the recent Dissidia series (which joined the most famous Final Fantasy characters in an RPG/fighting game) provide excellent ways to indulge in the past without actually replaying 20-year-old games.
In an interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, Theatrhythm creator Ichiro Hazama said he came up with the game's idea for the Nintendo DS, but couldn't execute it on that platform because "so many compromises needed to be made in terms of storage capacity and what we could do in terms of presentation. When I saw Nintendo 3DS, my first thought was, 'Yes! Now we can do it!'"
The device's 3D perspective doesn't add much to this game, but the system's upgraded graphic capabilities are put to great use, and the sound is excellent. The Final Fantasy characters are all recognizable, but cuter and more cartoonish than in their original incarnations.
I would change a couple things about Theatrhythm if I could. In the series mode where you play a set of five songs from each game, the opening and ending tunes require no skill—you just tap mindlessly as notes pass into a crystal. Only the three middle songs offer real gameplay. You can skip the ending and opening songs, but you lose points.
The battle animations are also pretty tame, and a bit too similar to the early Nintendo games in which a sword is swung but no contact between the character and monster is made. The summonses help out by throwing huge fireballs and such at the enemies, but that happens just about once per song.
It would also be great to have a proper series of boss fights at key moments, instead of just one at the end of the game. Alternatively, the final boss could have been more exciting and memorable if it had multiple stages or harder difficulty.
But all in all, this is a great game that I plan to continue playing. In fact, I'd love to see the Theatrhythm treatment given to the Zelda series, my favorite in terms of music.
Nintendo is still the master of nostalgia gaming, but Square Enix is right on its heels.
Well, we have the zero punctuation take: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1569-Final-Fantasy-XIII
FF13 was too linear and the battle system runs itself (auto battle everything)
>> If you're a Final Fantasy fan, appreciate the series' music, and have even the slightest interest in music game mechanics, Theatrhythm is well worth the $40.
I didn't know games for portable devices were still sold somewhere $40 - seems like a lot in the era of $4.99 premium editions from app stores and all that.
There's nothing wrong with casual gaming, other than where is hard core gaming or has is been pushed away?
Decade(s) ago when I was playing Civilization, sim city, F-19/F-117, later F-18, Ultima series especially VI, Myst and clones, Zork and all that was Infocom, Wolf3d, doom, quake, Harpoon, the Steel Panthers series, I always wondered with anticipation what the future would bring to gaming. Amazing technological advances, huge storage, fast 3d graphics, fancy sound systems, strange and amazing UI devices, ubiquitous networking. Oddly my technology fevered imagination never strayed to "In 2012 I have a dream of being able to tap my pen along with the music".
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Are you telling me Nintendo LOST MONEY in 2012?
I expected $15 - $20 based on the platform, description, and the estimated 8 hours of gameplay. I've gotten hundreds of hours out of $20 Indie games recently.
Square's problem is management.
The early games were great. But, as inevitably happens, the best people, the ones making the games great, left, one by one. That's why the series peaked at either VI or VII - they would have continued to get better and better had all the original people stayed, or been replaced with equally-talented people. But that didn't happen.
After that, the series stagnated. They had a good design, but nobody really knew how or why it worked (Japanese developers in general seem to have difficulty with the concept of a "game designer", as opposed to "game director" or "producer"). So they didn't change much for VIII, IX, X, X-2... Yes, there were changes, but not significant ones.
But eventually the pressure from fans to "innovate" and their own false confidence led them to change things. And that led to a decline in the actual gameplay.
But Square doesn't get that. Mr. Miyamoto (of Nintendo) has a well-known personal mantra: "find the fun". Square doesn't get that. They don't seem to see games as games, but as interactive stories. That just does not work. That's not just Square - it seems symptomatic of the entire Japanese game industry - but Square has it worst.
What makes it worse is that they "innovate" on the wrong features. The combat system was decent. Not perfect, but pretty good. So it got thrown out and replaced with something terrible. But things that aren't good or don't fit (Chocobos, for example) keep being thrown in, just because the fans buy a lot of merchandise based on them.
Personally, I blame Nomura. The latest Square games are about what you would expect from putting a character designer in charge of the game. It's like putting a costume designer in charge of a movie - it doesn't work. You get crazy costumes, but static, "archetypal" characters and a boring plot.
They also just have massive mismanagement. Reportedly *half* the content made for FFXIII was cut. Now, that figure itself isn't bad - most games cut 90% of their *planned* content. But they cut half the stuff they had already made (and later recycled much of it into XIII-2). That's just terrible management. FFXIV is a train wreck.
They also seem to pick the wrong staff. Their portable division does much better - remember Crisis Core? Even Dissidia was pretty good. Even on a single-person level, Takeharu Ishimoto's a far better composer than Masashi Hamauzu; he's the one who should be writing the music for their big-box console games. (Yes, I'm a FF music nerd who pays attention to all that stuff and can recite both versions of "One Winged Angel" in two languages from memory)
In short, yes, Square may still be profitable. Even many of their other franchises are doing well, not even getting into their Eidos side. But the Final Fantasy series is coasting on it's brand identity. They have two or three more chances to get it *right*, or that brand identity is gone.
For sixteen dollars it seems a bit pricey for an older game, but they've gone through and freshened the graphics and other tweeks. I never played the original FFIII, but I'm tempted to support this with the hopes Square will continue to port stuff to Android. I'd love to have FF VII in my Galaxy SII.
Theatrhythm is impressive, enjoyable, and one of the best examples of why it's worth owning a 3DS and that wacky stylus.
And then you say:
The device's 3D perspective doesn't add much to this game, but the system's upgraded graphic capabilities are put to great use, and the sound is excellent. The Final Fantasy characters are all recognizable, but cuter and more cartoonish than in their original incarnations.
So a long time ago I bought a DS Lite and then the DSi XL came out and I was told that I just had to have it. So I bought it and was not too impressed. Bigger screen, now I can buy from an online store, use an SD card, etc. Now I need to have a 3DS so I can play games that don't take advantage of the 3D perspective?
Why add 3D perspective and a "whacky stylus" to a game that does not need it? You can still play regular DS games on a 3DS right? So why are game publishers going 3DS for the sake of 3D? That just feels so gimmicky to me. Especially when they can access other systems (like all of them) that do not use 3D technology if they make a non-3D version of the same game or just go non-3D natively. I really do not understand.
This game looks really fun and it looks like it'd be right in my wheelhouse. I just can't justify buying a third Nintendo DS. Furthermore, I feel like this is by Nintendo's design as a way to get people like me who drag their feet to ante up. It's a risky venture and I'm not surprised to see the price anarchy ensue for them to move consoles. If my own personal experience is any indication, I don't think their 3DS XL is going to sell well. Guess I'll add it to my long list of games that I'll hopefully someday play.
My work here is dung.
This review has obviously been written by a Final Fantasy fanboy. There are even several paragraphs where he's being an apologist for Square Enix, even going so far as to call the scorn Final Fantasy XIII received "undeserved". Come on.
Gameplay issues aside, Final Fantasy XIII was a failure. They pumped so much money and manhours into the thing. The sales weren't bad, but they were well below expectations and didn't offset the investment.
Final Fantasy XIV was an even bigger failure.
Why do you think Final Fantasy XIII-2 saw the light of day? Because they could reuse assets made during Final Fantasy XIII's development, saving money. One wonders if the game helped, though. It has been out for only about half a year and it's already being dumped at 20 euro or less in stores.
Yes, Nintendo didn't have a good year. But they have been turning a profit for decades before that. The comparison is hardly appropriate.
Anyway, while I find Theatrhythm Final Fantasy to be a cute game, it definitely isn't worth the purchase of a 3DS in my opinion. Nor do I think it's worth 40 bucks. It's too derivative and doesn't have enough meat on its bones.
Gladly: 1997, where it helped kick off the trend of more CGI in video games and helped Sony beat out Nintendo in the home console arena, despite Nintendo having superior games and hardware.
Since then? Never.
from your line:
"and more that can be purchased and downloaded for a dollar apiece"
I see my main concern for this game has not been resolved. I might get this game when and if they release a "Deluxe Edition" that has all the songs. Until then I do not like the idea that there are songs for the game that do not come with the game. I love FF and enjoyed Elite Beat Agents but do not want to encourage developers to nickel and time customers with DLC micro-transactions.
download old Final Fantasy MIDI's
Here, I'll summarize it for you: "I'm a giant Final Fantasy Fanboy and will buy everything that Square Enix makes! Well, glorious Square Enix Nippon, not that western crap like Deus Ex Human Revolution or Quantum Conundrum."
Here's my review: Are you a giant Final Fantasy music fan? Like, enormous? Could you listen to nothing but Final Fantasy music for days on end? Congratulations, this game is for you! If you're only a minor Final Fantasy fan and enjoy the music, this game is probably worth $10-$20. Everyone else, don't even bother looking at it. The game is literally nothing but Final Fantasy fan-wank.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Black Mages concert bootlegs.
(The disastrous MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV is conspicuously absent.)
Well that's a shame! In retrospect the only good thing about FF14 was that they got Nobuo Uematsu to "come back" and do the soundtrack. (Well, hired him and his studio on contract rather.)
I got ahold of an early leak of the soundtrack and it was enough to get me kind of excited about the game, despite never having played an MMO before. Then of course the game was actually released and the reviews started coming in and there went that idea.
But still, the music was the only redeeming feature of the game, so it's kind of a shame that they didn't include it in the one context where the quality of the music is the only thing that matters.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
and yet you morons keep buying these shitty ass semi interactive movies where the fate of the world depends on a teenage girl with an IQ smaller than her bra size, holding a pop concert.
I wouldn't care, but every time SE farts it hits every god damned website in the world like its a universal truth, and its fat pervy fans defending it like it was the word of god.
Square Enix will just just keep milking that cash cow till blood comes from the udders.
despite Nintendo having superior games
Ha ha, no.
The PSone easily has a better lineup than the N64. It even has better platform games than the N64 does. Yes that's right, I think any Spyro game is a better game than Mario 64. And if you want RPG's...well...you don't want the N64.
and hardware.
Ha Ha, no. Yes the N64 has more polygons and mip mapping and hardware z-buffering but that doesn't matter because of the limits of cartridges. Those cartridges also limit the music and sound. I can't stand the sound in N64 games. Also the massive amount of storage space let companies simply put more "stuff" in games. Not just FMV or Music but actual gameplay.
So the dude is "excessively japanophilic" and not just your usual FF/S=E fan's version of "limited Japanophilia"