Theatrhythm is the embodiment of a rhythm game for Final Fantasy nuts. If you’re enough of a nerd to pay close attention to the soundtrack of the Final Fantasy games as you enjoy them (for the record, I am), then this game is right up your alley. That is, if you also like rhythm games.
The field levels feature squiggly, curvy lines and explorative backrops.
For the most part, the gameplay closely parallels the other most widely enjoyed rhythm game on the DS: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan—or, more specifically, its North American counterpart, Elite Beat Agents. In it, you follow along to various beats on the top screen and gesture along on the touch screen using the stylus to process each specific command. The biggest difference here, however, is that since the action takes place on the top screen visibly but the control is still concentrated around the touch screen, your hand doesn’t get in the way of the action. I liked this.
The commands primarily consist of taps, eight-way directional swipes, and drags. In the “field music” songs (more in a moment on that), the drags also curve around, and you have to follow the line as closely as possible and tap or swipe along the way in specified locations to keep things going at a healthy clip. All of this happens to the rhythm of, naturally, various tunes from various Final Fantasy games.
In fact, every mainline Final Fantasy game to date was selectable in the playable demo, which was actually very likely the finished game, localized and all (though it isn’t due out until next month). Each FF game lends three tunes to the game: Field music, Battle music, and Event music. Each type of music is overlaid on top of an appropriately related scene, whether it’s a boss battle, trip across a field, or a collection of familiar nostalgic scenes from the game. There’s a lot more to this, but since the game’s already out in Japan, you can check out the Wikipedia page for much more detail about how it works.
The battle songs are, predictably, battles.
There are some cool ancillary ideas too. There are some serious RPG elements to the game, including level-gaining, stats, and even items. These elements help you during battles and field songs, and it obviously provides an additional sense of depth to the experience as well. Reportedly there is even some sort of Chaos Tower later in the game as well that includes a ton more content.
I haven’t played a heck of a lot of it yet, but what I have seen of Theatrhythm leaves me somewhat impressed and wanting more. Then again, I’m a bit of a music nut, and Final Fantasy’s, of course, is among the upper echelon of videogame music. Look for more from us soon closer to the game’s release in a few weeks.
