This brings me to Theatrthym: Final Fantasy, a spin off game (boo) that features the very elaborate Final Fantasy soundtrack library (yay). What do I think of this title? Let's find out.
This game takes place during, well, all 13 Final Fantasy titles (talking proper number here guys, not any of the Advanced titles or Crystal Chronicles...). You choose a party of 4 from a roster of classic Final Fantasy Heroes from 1 to 13, and gain items in order to unlock other characters from each game. (If what I saw is correct, it looks to be about 2 characters for each game) From there you march through three different stages of each Final Fantasy games; one battle stage, one overworld stage, and one cinematic stage. Once you complete a game, you unlock the ability to go and play each song again in a more difficult mode. It is one of those games that is very simple to play, but is more difficult than it looks, especially if you're musically "declined" (like a certain blogger who might be writing this post...).
Graphically the game has a cutesie look to it that you could love or hate. Honestly, I think it looks very colorful and cute, like the overall theme they were going for. I'll admit though, seeing the emo twins, Cloud and Squall, both looking small and cute is rather..disturbing. Although, since I hate both characters, I'm indifferent to their new looks. The cast is likely to have some characters that Final Fantasy alumni will all love, and the expanded roster via unlocking has some of the more obscure, but popular, characters from each number. The music is excellent, and this is where I'm going to lose some of you, because I also think this is where the game suffers from "spinoff-itus." Every track in the game is it's mastered original, meaning the tracks from the first Final Fantasy are ripped right from the Nintendo/Famicom game, and an orchestral re-master or anything of the like. Everything is all original. For someone like me, it's quite okay. I grew up with them, and I don't mind it all. Someone that is twenty years my junior, could very well find the music to be lacking due to this feature. Honestly, it's amazing what long time series composer Nobuo Uematsu was able to accomplish with the limited tools he had back then, but compared to what is available out there these days, even by Final Fantasy standards, might come up lacking in the eyes of younger gamers.
The gameplay is not unlike other music games you might have played. As the music plays, commands appear on the top screen, telling you to tap, swipe, or trace in order to complete each music track. Once completed, you move on to the next song and scene. It's simplistic looking, and if you're watching someone play it might even look easy. However, once you get into some of the more complicated game modes, the speed goes up considerably. I do like the RPG elements to the game though, as you complete each level, the characters in your party will gain experience points, which adds replay value as well as allowing you to choose your favorite characters to play as. Certain characters have different attributes though, so keep that in mind when choosing. A character like Final Fantasy IV's Cecil will level up more as a fighter with more HP than Final Fantasy VI's Terra, who is a mage, and uses more magic and such. While the game doesn't appear to be very long, there is ton to do once the main story is completed. Expert tracks of each song in the game unlock as you complete it, giving a harder, but more rewarding difficulty. After Expert, we get Ultimate Score, which is even more difficult. The Chaos Shrine will also fill up with even more music that is also challenging and more rewarding. There is a ton of things to unlock in this game;characters, cards in an album, items to equip for bonuses during battle, and even a trophy system. Since most old school Final Fantasy fans are freaking OCD about completing FF games to their fullest, if one gets into this, it will last them an extremely long time.
In conclusion, Theatrthym: Final Fantasy is the kind of that that there is going to be a lot of love for. It's a game full of nostalgia and will take those of us who are middle aged back to a time where we could be absorbed into the game and enjoy (before the world changed...more on that later). However, this game will not be for everyone. There are fans who are going to look at this and wonder why it even exists. Had I been making this game, I probably would have included the master tracks for older fans, but have the orchestral remasters for everyone else. This games takes me back to a concert some good old friends of mine and I went to years ago, and I hope it will unlock similar warm memories in the old school fans, much like how Kingdom Hearts did for our Disney childhoods.
I recommend this game to any long time Final Fantasy fan, but doubt it's going to do anything to make fans out of anyone who hasn't swam into those waters before.
(I'm still debating on my scoring system...but for now let's go with this...)
Final Grade: B
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