Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Hits all the Right Notes - Preview
by Gordon Bryant , posted on 07 June 2012 / 3,076 Views
I honestly don't know what to say about Theatrhythm to properly convey how blown away and surprised I am with this title. With the original announcement and the gameplay demonstrations I'd seen online, I had absolutely no interest in a music game where the chime of hitting a note overran the actual music you were emulating, but after actually playing it I have to say my opinion has entirely changed. Not only do I enjoy the core gameplay a lot, but there are lots of little features in the game that really make it special.
I admit I didn't quite pick up on all the nuances of the game, but I saw experience points, hit points, thatrepoints (or was it rhythmpoints? Or some other amalgamation of the game's title and points?), and magic points scattered about the game as I played. The songs were divided amongst different games (FFI-XIII) and song types (field themes, combat themes, and event themes), and map themes, as well as difficulty. Each different song type had different ways to play, giving the game a lot more variety than I expected. The battle themes are a combination of tapping, holding, and quick swipes as your characters attack enemies; the field or environmental ones require you to drag your stylus across the screen, whereas the character and event themes actually require spacial accuracy.
I was also happy to see that for the most part, the game doesn't require you to keep your stylus hand over the action to actually hit the notes as they pass through the barrier, instead focusing almost entirely on timing and variety. It's also apparent that there's some sort of ongoing story akin to the Dissidia series to go along with the already robust gameplay, as each of the songs resulted in me getting experience points and there did seem to be a sequential series of levels to complete.
I admit I wasn't able to excavate much information about the game as a whole, other than the core gameplay and some of the features, but I have to say I'm quite interested in learning more and this went from being just another 3DS release to one of my most anticipated titles of the next year.
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is due out July 3/6 depending on region, and is exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS.
