Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a video game for the Nintendo 3DS and is the first title in the Theatrhythm series, released to commemorate the Final Fantasy series' 25th anniversary. It is a "theater rhythm action" game in which players use the stylus to tap and hold notes while fighting enemies. The game features popular Final Fantasy songs and characters, who appear with a similar style to their avatars from Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade, Kingdom Hearts Mobile and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded.
An iOS version released in 2012, but service for this version ended on September 30th, 2017 due to a lack of support coupled with relative unpopularity, the game was removed entirely from the App Store. While it is no longer possible to download the game or access new content, existing game data will remain on the device for which it was acquired, though compatibility is limited to older devices released in 2012 to 2017.
A sequel, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call, released in 2014 features over 200 songs, including tracks from Final Fantasy XIV and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, with over fifty playable characters and a "Versus Battle Mode" for rhythmic multiplayer action.[1]
In 2016, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All-Star Carnival released for arcades in Japan only[2], and in 2023, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line released for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 to commemorate the series' 35th anniversary, featuring over 350 songs, as well as 104 playable characters and several new playstyles, including co-op play.
Gameplay[]
Gameplay of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.
Described as a "rhythm-action" experience, the main gameplay involves tapping the three types of "Triggers" in sync to a musical track with the Nintendo 3DS stylus (touch screen on the iOS); Touch triggers (colored red) require a tapping input, Slide triggers (colored yellow) require a flicking input, and Hold triggers (colored green) requires the note to be held and released. The timing of the trigger inputs determines the high score, and are graded from Excellent, Great, Good, Bad or Miss. Inputting a "Bad" or "Miss" will damage the party's hit points, and if fully depleted the game is over. During a song, the Feature Zone may commence, and successfully inputting the triggers activates the "Feature Drive", with its effects differing depending on the type of music sequence.
The sending from Kilika from Final Fantasy X appears as an event sequence.
There are three types of "Music Sequences", one of each are played in Series Mode:
- Battle Music Sequence - Songs played in a BMS are fast-paced and high-tempo, with the player party controlling up to four characters, each designated to a note lane, with successful inputs enabling a party member to attack and damage an enemy in the lane they are placed. A successful Feature Drive will enables one of four summons to heavily damage an enemy. The summons that may appear from weakest to strongest are Ramuh, Shiva, Ifrit, Odin and Bahamut, with the latter requiring an item to successfully summon.
- Field Music Sequence - Songs played in an FMS are slower-paced and ambient, with the party leader travelling through the field. Inputting a "Bad" or "Miss" causes the present character to trip and be replaced by the next character in the party, and so on. A successful Feature Drive calls a Chocobo that temporarily replaces the character and covers a large distance through the field. The type of Chocobo that appears is determined by successful inputs, and from slowest to fastest, are the Red, Black, Yellow and White chocobos. The latter requires either an item or nearly all inputs in a Feature Zone to be an "Excellent" to successfully summon.
- Event Music Sequence - Songs played in an EMS feature a visual montage from scenes of a specific Final Fantasy title, with the song used from a key moment in the montage, and requires the timing of inputs across the entire screen. A successful Feature Drive will continue the EMS and feature the "extended" scene and increase the high score. Failing the Feature Zone will end the sequence.
- Additionally, exclusive to the Series Mode are optional opening and ending themes that grant additional Rhythmia through successful triggers. There is no penalty for missing these triggers and the player will not receive a game over.
Characters have four stats: Strength, Magic, Agility, and Luck. Each character has different stats to represent their skill, and stats increase as the character levels up. Stats are ranked based on their current level, with the ranks ascending from F to A, with S as the second highest rank a character's stat can achieve and "Mastered" being the highest. In the iOS version, the "Mastered" rank is changed to SS and SSS, being the second and first best rank respectively.
Depending on the character, each can equip a maximum of either three or four abilities; a Reactive action ability or a Proactive support abilities. Certain skill slots may be restricted to either one type of ability or both. The iOS version had each character restricted to two abilities each, with each ability changing as they level up, and was the only way for statistics to be altered.
Game Modes & Options[]
Music Play - There are three main game modes to choose from:
- Series Mode - The first available mode that features a selection of five songs from each mainline Final Fantasy game up to Final Fantasy XIII. Once selecting a title, the sequence starts with the opening theme and finishes with an ending theme, with the order of the battle, field and event music sequences varying depending on the title. Clearing a title unlocks the songs to be available in Challenge Mode.
- Challenge Mode - Unlocked after clearing at least one title from the Series Mode, with songs from said mode available to play freely. Each song features three difficulty levels: 'Basic', 'Expert' and 'Ultimate', with the latter unlocked upon completion of Expert mode with a ranking of 'A' or higher. Several songs from the Chaos Shrine mode will also be available. DLC could also be played as well, but with the closure of the Nintendo 3DS eShop, they can no longer be accessed.
- Chaos Shrine - Unlocked after receiving a Dark Note through Rhythmia. Any dark notes acquired by the player can be accessed in this mode, and by successfully clearing a Dark Note will unlock another. In multiplayer mode, all players receive the record of the group's best player, resulting in better items and rewards received from that player's dark note.
StreetPass - The player can edit their ProfiCard and view ProfiCards obtained from other players with StreetPass. A ProfiCard contains a selected Dark Note, design and message of the players' choice. The back of the card contains various statistics, such as the player's current party and most played song. Viewing other player's ProfiCards will also display their statistics and receive a Dark Note by selecting it.
Museum - A compilation of the player's progression and achievements:
- Records - Details statistics and in-game achivements.
- Collection - Displays all the CollectaCards the player has acquired.
- Theatre - The option to view the visual montages in their "Extended Version" featured from Event Music Sequences, as well as the Staff Credits roll after defeating Chaos.
- Music Player -The option listen to music the player has unlocked.
Story[]
The story focuses on a conflict between Chaos and Cosmos. The space between the two is called "Rhythm", and houses a Crystal that births music. When the forces of Chaos disrupt the balance, the Crystal's power wavers and Cosmos sends her warriors to increase a music wave called "Rhythmia" to restore balance and make the Crystal shine again.
Characters[]
The thirteen main protagonists from each mainline Final Fantasy title (bar Final Fantasy XI) are available to play by default. Building up Rhythmia and clearing Dark Notes enables the player to acquire crystal shards of different colors that correspond to an additional playable character that can be unlocked, two of whom can only be acquired through Dark Notes. Enemies throughout the series appear in battle stages, such as Behemoths and Bombs, along with boss-type enemies including Ultros and Gilgamesh.
The defunct iOS version came with the thirteen default characters above, with twenty-five more characters that were purchasable, nine of whom were iOS exclusives.
Characters in bold are available by default.
Music[]
Featuring over seventy songs throughout the series; five songs are available in the Series Mode from each mainline Final Fantasy up to Final Fantasy XIII, corresponding to a field, battle, event, opening and ending theme. Extra themes are unlocked with Rhythmia points that can be played in special modes. Additional music tracks were available via downloadable content through the Nintendo eShop, but are no longer available to purchase following its closure on March 27th, 2023.
All playable songs bar "Mount Gulg" and "Chaos Shrine" are present in their original versions.
Several arrangements of themes from the Final Fantasy series are rearranged for different menus:
- "Cornelia Castle" (from FF) - Used for the Series Mode menu.
- "Chaos Shrine" (from FF) - Used for the Chaos Shrine menu and as a Battle Music Sequence upon acquiring 10000 Rhythmia.
- "Return of the Warrior" (from FFIII) - Used as the Results theme after clearing a title in Series Mode.
- "Palom and Porom" (from FFIV) - Used for the tutorial menus.
- "Kingdom of Baron" (from FFIV) - Used for the Museum menu.
- "Battle at the Big Bridge" (from FFV) - Used for the Music Select menu in the iOS version.
- "Setzer's Theme" (from FFVI) - Used for the Party Edit menu.
- "Win/Place/Show Chocobo!" (from FFVII) - Used for the StreetPass menu.
- "The Highwind Takes to the Skies" (from FFVII) - Used for the Main Menu.
- "Festival of the Hunt" (from FFIX) - Used for the Music Play menu.
- "Roses of May" (from FFIX) - Used for the Collection menu.
- "Thunder Plains" (from FFX) - Used for the ProfiCard Design menu.
- "Streets of Rabanstre" (from FFXII) - Used for the DLC menu.
- "Blinded By Light" (from FFXIII) - Used for the Challenge menu.
Playable Songs[]
The "Victory Fanfare" from Final Fantasy V is included as a tutorial theme.
Downloadable content[]
Fifty-two additional songs were available as DLC, with eight songs available at release that were also discounted for a limited-time. The songs featured were what the staff had wanted to include, but couldn't fit due to capacity limitations.[3] Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was the first Nintendo 3DS game to have paid downloadable content.
The iOS port included additional songs from series' not present in the 3DS version, including Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
Behind the scenes[]
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is Ichiro Hazama's debut game. Previously he had worked as support staff with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and proposed making Theatrhythm after Advent Children had been completed.[4] Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was envisioned as a Nintendo DS game, but the development team would have had trouble fitting all content in the game. When Hazama first saw the Nintendo 3DS, he went to developer Indies Zero to finalize the plan for the game and showed this to Tetsuya Nomura receiving the go-ahead to start the project that same day.[4] The game was originally pitched with the title "Final Fantasy is Music" before Nomura came up with the final name.[5]
The music selection is based on surveys conducted at the Japanese Square Enix Members during the development of Dissidia Final Fantasy, as well as considerations of balance. Hazama joked that if they'd followed the survey results the game would have been more like Theatrhythm Final Fantasy VII.[3] The included songs are in their original form, the only exception being the "Gurgu Volcano" theme from the original Final Fantasy, which is based on the PlayStation arranged version, because the original NES version was too short. Although Theatrhythm Final Fantasy doesn't use music from spinoffs, Final Fantasy Versus XIII is part of Fabula Nova Crystallis, the Final Fantasy XIII family, and the creators wanted to include music from every game in that series.[6] Although Theatrhythm features songs from the main series Final Fantasy games, no songs from Final Fantasy XIV were included. Ichiro Hazama has commented that he thought they were not ready to be incorporated, because Final Fantasy XIV was undergoing a big change, but didn't rule out the possibility of Final Fantasy XIV songs being added in the future.[6]
Ichiro Hazama has noted the stories and key moments in the Final Fantasy franchise were often tied to his memories of the music, so it was a natural pairing for him to create a rhythm game. To make the game accessible to as many fans as possible, he wanted to add RPG elements as to not turn them off to the title based on it being a rhythm game.[7]
The game outputs at 60 frames per second even when stereoscopic 3D is on, something the team worked hard to achieve. High framerate is necessary for playability in a rhythm game; event music stages run at 30 frames per second due to the need to output video, but the touch controls are still read at 60 frames per second.[3] Some of the event stages show their movies in 3D and making the rhythm gameplay work while playing back a 3D movie presented some technical hurdles.
From the beginning the team was discussing how to present characters from the entire Final Fantasy franchise, but after seeing the designs of the Final Fantasy guest characters in Kingdom Hearts Mobile this style was decided to be used for Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Tetsuya Nomura, who worked as the creative director, thought it would be a good idea to use the artwork from Dissidia Final Fantasy and thus the game's logo features Chaos and Cosmos.[6]
Demo[]
Two playable demos were available prior to the release of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.
Reception[]
The series' original composer Nobuo Uematsu has endorsed Theatrhythm Final Fantasy in his Twitter with the words: "I played Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for the first time today. Not too shabby! As I remembered various things from the past 20 years, I was reduced to tears. FF music fans should definitely play it. Won't you cry with me?"[8]
Social Rhythm[]
The Battle against Yama-chan.
As part of its promotion for the game's release, Square Enix released a game called Social Rhythm whose gameplay system was similar to that of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. In Social Rhythm the player could link his or her Facebook or Twitter account to create a character and team up with other players to fight monsters and eventually reach the final boss, Yama-chan (head is attached to a Tonberry's body) from real life Japanese comedy duo Nankai Candies.
The game was accessible here and was only available from February 10 to March 30, 2012.
Production credits[]
| Director | Masanobu Suzui (indieszero) |
|---|---|
| Producer | Ichiro Hazama |
| Creative Producer | Tetsuya Nomura |
| Character Designer | Atsuhiro Tsuchiya |
| Product Manager | Tatsuya Nonaka |
| Marketing Producer | Kakuko Obinata |
| Original Composers | Nobuo Uematsu Masashi Hamauzu Hitoshi Sakimoto Kumi Tanioka Naoshi Mizuta |
| Executive Producer | Shinji Hashimoto |
Packaging Artwork[]
.png "Theatrhythm (EU).png (1.82 MB)")
Gallery[]
External links[]
Citations[]
- ↑ http://www.joystiq.com/2013/09/10/theatrhythm-final-fantasy-curtain-call-announced/
- ↑ http://jp.square-enix.com/t_ffac/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://andriasang.com/comzyt/theatrhythm_interview
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://andriasang.com/comzxy/iwata_asks_theatrhythm/
- ↑ 【開発ブログVol.1】シアトリズムのなりたち (Accessed: January 25, 2023) at Square Enix
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/02/how-a-versus-xiii-song-got-into-theatrhythm-final-fantasy-and-other-questions/
- ↑ http://www.destructoid.com/theatrhythm-producer-gives-us-the-dirt-on-development-230659.phtml
- ↑ http://andriasang.com/comzyz/uematsu_theatrhythm/