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shion's Theatrhythm review!
As the title implies, Theatrhythm is a music and rhythm game featuring songs from throughout the Final Fantasy series. This game guides you through a magical adventure of battling your way through music in order to save the world from Chaos! A story that makes as much sense as any other. It's a quirky, whimsical game that can bring out the fun, silly side in all of us! The player uses the stylus to hit notes following the melody. There are 3 types of notes: red means a player has to tap at the right time, green means they have to hold, and yellow requires the player to move the stylus in a specific direction.
There are also 3 types of songs: field, battle, and event. Field levels are levels in which the player has to guide their main character through the level in the hopes of reaching the treasure chest at the end before the song ends. The feature zone for this level allows the player to control a chocobo for a short period of time, which moves them through the level at a faster speed. In the battle levels, characters will fight a series of monsters in order to reach the boss at the end who, upon defeat, will reward the player with a special treasure. The feature zone for this level brings forth some of the classic summons from the game to deliver devastating damage. Finally, the event levels show you scenes from your favorite Final Fantasy games, allowing you to relive some great moments. The feature zone gives the player an extended version of the song which shows them more of the great moment the games have to offer.
The player can choose from several modes, including Series, Challenge, and Chaos Shrine. Upon completing a song, players receive "rhythmia", which is used to unlock songs, videos, cards, characters, and more. Series allows players to choose from Final Fantasys I through XIII and complete a battle, field, and event song from each. Challenge allows players to play any of the unlocked songs. Dark Shrine allows a bit more of a challenge, tasking the player with completing a field and battle song with the possibility of unlocking character shards, rewarding the player with unlocking characters more quickly than simply collecting rhythmia.
This game sounds interesting, shion! You must have jumped on it when you first heard of it. Surprisingly, when I first heard of Theatrhythm, I had no interest in playing it. I tend to play video games on mute, and it seemed like a silly thing to spend $40 on. But one day I decided to watch some videos of the gameplay on YouTube. I began to understand exactly how the game worked and what it had to offer, I was sold. It looked like really fun, and one I was interested in trying.
I was soon headed on a road trip and decided to buy it so I would have something to keep me entertained on the long drive. I started playing as soon as I got home, and had clocked several hours on it before I even began my road trip. Theatrhythm was one of the most fun games I’ve played in a while and justified the purchase 3DS system, it was simply that enjoyable.
I had so much fun playing this game. There were some excellent song choices, which brought up some nostalgic memories of the actual games themselves. Event music also had some scenes from the games themselves, which were fun to watch. The art style was cute and quirky, which is something I really liked. Theatrhythm offers a good variety of difficulty, allowing the player to begin slowly and practice in Series mode, before unlocking more difficult modes and attempting the Chaos Shrine.
The songs that I enjoyed the most were the ones that brought out the nostalgia of playing the games. Since IX is my favorite, I enjoyed most of the songs in this section, each reminding me of the game itself. The Event level, which also showed some scenes from the game, was particularly exciting for me as I got to relive some of my favorite moments from the game. My favorite was probably 'Something to Protect', a beautiful song that brought back find memories of IX. I was also happy to hear Overture and Blue Fields from Final Fantasy VIII, the first one being one of my favorites of the series and the second one bringing me right back to the overworld, filling me with memories. On top of that, I newly discovered some songs that have quickly worked their way up on my favorites list, such as Eternal Wind from Final Fantasy III.
Another positive Theatrhythm has is the selection of characters. There are 2 to 3 characters per game featured, allowing a good selection to build a party of your favorites. The downside to the characters is that in order to unlock them all, you must venture in to the more difficult Chaos Shrine, which could be challenging for some and annoying for those who dislike increased difficulty. But on the plus side, once you unlock the characters you can customize them with abilities to help make things easier.
Abilities are unique traits that vary by character, and can make a huge difference in gameplay. Having a Cura spell activate as you reach a boss can mean the difference between completing the level or not, and some of the more specialized abilities, such as Grand Lethal, provide an added attack to the bosses, allowing a higher chance of defeating them and acquiring the precious shards.
You can also equip your group with an item, ranging from always summoning a certain summon beast during the special feature zone, to restoring a set amount of HP when you most need it. There were more times than I would like to admit where a Hi-Potion saved my butt, stepping in and picking up the slack for my lack of skill. The abilities and items may seem useless at first, but in the higher levels they can mean the difference between completion and failure.
For all of the positives, there are a few negatives as well. The story is lacking, which isn’t a huge deal considering the lighthearted nature of the game. The biggest fault I see is the amount of time required to unlock everything. Especially for those of us who aren’t pros at the game, it really takes forever to be able to amass enough points to unlock everything. The game can also be very touchy, especially with the yellow directional notes, sometimes claiming you were unsuccessful when you actually completed the note properly.
Overall it was a very fun game, good for wasting some time without having to get too involved or put in too much effort. The character designs are lovable and goofy and some of the series most threatening enemies are made adorably special looking. I wanted to see every character and every enemy just to look at the upbeat and funky designs which always put a smile on my face. Getting to watch scenes from the games you love and listening to the songs is sure to induce the feels in even the manliest of Final Fantasy fans, and getting to make a part consisting of your favorite characters from the series makes Theatrhythm that much of a treat. If you’re looking for some silly but challenging fun, and you enjoy the Final Fantasy series, I would certainly recommend you give this game a try.
