It has been a long time since I’ve been enthralled with a rhythm game. My experience with this genre has mainly consisted of finger tap games for the iPhone, DJ Hero from Activision, and the occasional Guitar Hero when I’m feeling lucky. All of them were challenging, sometimes impossible, but all of them have gone the way of the Dodo bird, which is sad.
Of course, a game like Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line refuses to let go of an old tippy-tap tradition. Reminding us that the video game world was once a saturated market of music-based video game experiences, while also helping us to relive some of the best-orchestrated video game masterpieces put on paper. There is a lot to love about this return to the tippy-tap tradition.
On that note, let’s get this thing going.
If anything, you have music
Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line is filled to the brim with Final Fantasy compositions that are masterfully recreated with cute backdrops that you can’t appreciate during gameplay. The cute characters and monsters aren’t meant to be the main show, but rather the beauty brought out by the endless notes from some of the best Final Fantasy games through the decades. That’s the main course in this musical meal.
If you’re unfamiliar with this game, it essentially works like this – you see the dot, you press a button, and you move on to the next dot. Your goal is to hit the controller button right when the dot flies over your controller button space onscreen. It’s a step-by-step recreation of every rhythm game from yesteryear. The big catch, and the thankful one, is you can press any button to hit the right note coming across the screen. Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line allows you to relax a bit in this respect, as you don’t need to initially worry about where notes are going to hit and what button corresponds with the colors on the screen. While this is the same concept as a Guitar Hero experience, it isn’t the same. One of the more frustrating parts of the GH experience was getting my fingers to work the way the game asked them to work. While some of GH’s songs were easily mastered with assigned finger buttons, somewhere between medium and hard difficulty required a musical genius-level mindset. Hitting the blue button with my pinky finger at the same time as my index finger’s red button was never going to happen. And it didn’t. That type of musical gameplay just isn’t fun for everyone. And, simply put, that ain’t me, chief.
Anyway, with Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, the buttons come in single pushes, thumbstick directions, double-button whammies, long button pushes (single and double), and the occasional wavy lines that required you to hold down a button while moving the thumbstick up/down. As easy as that might be spelled out for you, the game also throws a mix of those buttons together which can be quite tricky at times. For example, you will find on boss stages, that the game enjoys throwing you wavy lines of music, where you must hold a button down and move a thumbstick, and then at the end asks you to move the other thumbstick in a particular direction. It can get quite complicated, especially when you’re in a fast-paced song. But that is the challenge of Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, where it may not be too complicated with assigned finger buttons, but it does find a different way to drive you bonkers. Well, a good bonkers.
Now, the game also features a varying degree of difficulty, which can also add to the stress. For this review, I enjoyed taking it easy. Getting to know the game and understanding where the pain points were trumped any type of extreme difficulty. I’m under the belief that games should be meant for a fun time, rather than having to work hard to progress in them. For me, anything over a normal difficulty is work. I work 40+ hours a week. I don’t want my entertainment to be work. It wouldn’t be entertainment. I mean, would you like to work on your off-hours? Exactly. Anyway, for the sake of the review, I jumped briefly into a more difficult setting and quickly found myself fumbling about like someone trying to juggle 16 tennis balls. It didn’t go well. The highest difficulty in the game was ‘ultimate’, which meant you had multiple lines of complicated dots coming at you at once. Again, you can use any button you want, but you must hit those dots at the right time. The ultimate difficulty was insane. It’s certainly made for those who enjoy being tortured in games for the fun of it. Or whom I like to call Dark Souls fans. Not me, not ever. But it is nice to know that if you require more of a challenge then the game will ratchet up to 11 for you at any given moment. You can change the difficulty of each fight as you go through it, which is kind of nice if you’re feeling good about one song, but not about another.
Speaking of songs, there are a ton of them on this release. From Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy XV, you will get your fill of songs that made some of those games memorable. The initial count, before you unlock other goodies, is around 360+ songs right out of the gate. That is a lot of music from the Final Fantasy series to play around with and enjoy. Not to mention that as you successfully progress through the game, you get to unlock those tunes to enjoy on your own. That is a helluva deal, especially if you’re used to toting around CDs of it. Or electronic songs. Whatever. Anyway, each tune is replicated from its time, so you’ll get that sweet synth chip sound from Final Fantasy while getting that fully orchestrated beauty from Final Fantasy VII Remake. I’m truly happy that they went with authenticity rather than making everything the London Symphony Orchestra flavor. It just perfectly respects the period the game resided within. I want that NES sound cranked.
Music aside, how you progress in the game is somewhat complicated. While getting through a song will either mean that you have passed or failed, you’re given goals before the song that you can meet to earn extra virtual swag. Those goals can be something like scoring a certain amount of damage on an enemy or it can simply be defeating XYZ. The former is based on your chain attacks and the difficulty you’re running on. The lower the difficulty, the lower amount of damage. The higher the difficulty, the much higher amount of damage you can incur, but you will be challenged along the way. By getting those goals accomplished, you can unlock more characters (you create your party as you go), level them up, unlock artwork, or unlock other goodies the game has for you. The game motivates you to do better or to revisit songs/enemies to get a higher score/damage/grade. The game throws a lot at you and requires a lot from you to gain the maximum amount of success. While this isn’t a new or unique structure, it is built properly for this type of gameplay. Anytime you’re given a reason to go back and do better in a music-driven title, it’s a good time. I’m not sure other music-driven games of the past did that as well as Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line does it here.
To give you further encouragement to return to the experience, the game also makes it challenging to unlock albums. Did I mention you have to unlock albums? Yeah, you must unlock them. To do that, as you progress through games, you will happen upon chests that contain keys that unlock an album of your choice. You can’t just go unlock everything at once, which might be some fans’ expectations. The game wants you to work for it and honestly speaking, that’s not a terrible thing. The music compositions are spectacular for the most part, as well as the added interactivity, so why wouldn’t you want to work for it? Let’s put it another way in case you have a silly counter-argument. Why in the world would you want your appetizer, main course, and dessert brought out at once? That’s silly. Your parents/guardians would be disappointed in those life choices. Don’t disappoint them.
All of the above is how the gameplay design and structure work. The game does allow you to revisit stages that you have completed, like GH fashion, if you want to try and perform better. You can do this with a music list option, or you can simply go into the stage directly through the main story and get going with it. The former is much quicker, but either way, you’re going to dive right back into it. The other modes included in the game are interesting, especially the multiplayer option. While I wouldn’t necessarily want to disappoint other actual people out there on the interwebs with my lack of button-pushing skill, I think having that option available means more longevity for the experience.
Again, never a bad thing. Keep it all alive as much as possible.
The curious case of pricing
The pricing for this game seems to be a buffet of choices. The initial drop for 360+ songs is around $49.99, which isn’t bad whatsoever. You get the full Final Fantasy experience that stretches over decades, and you get to hum tunes for the next few months. Maybe even revisit some soundtracks in the car. Whatever. From there, the pricing gets somewhat fascinating. The highest price point in the bunch is $99, a deluxe edition. You’re thinking to yourself, “Is there an autographed (fill in the blank) included?” Well, not exactly. What you get with this pricing tier are tracks included from other Square Enix titles, including SaGa and NieR music (and others). You also get season passes (1-3), which I was unaware they had seasons with this game. Honestly speaking, it’s not a bad deal. The bulk of your happiness will come from that initial purchase. If you’re a huge Square Enix fan, then you’re in heaven. The number of choices (and there are some in the middle range between the low-high) is quite acceptable and pleasant for those on a budget. Having the ability to access all music at any given point is also quite lovely.
All said and done, the price for what you get is acceptable.
On that note, let’s wrap this rambling up.
Conclusion
Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line revisits music-driven gaming experiences with classiness and potent powerfulness that will make any Final Fantasy music-lover happy. It contains a fair amount of challenge, sometimes an impossible amount depending on difficulty, while also allowing you to enjoy decades of musical enlightenment the Final Fantasy series has created.
