So when I heard the Square-Enix were releasing a rhythm game for the entire series, I was pretty excited. One of my favourite game series? Some of my favourite game soundtracks? What was not to like? I'll admit, I did become a bit wary over time. S-E has had a fairly spotty reputation when it comes to its flagship series of late, and (as far as I'm aware) hasn't done it's own rhythm game before. This could all go wrong. After playing the demo though, I can say my fear have been assuaged.
Theatrhythm's story is similar to that of the Dissdia Final Fantasy games. There's a war occuring between the gods Cosmos (good) and Chaos (evil, surprisingly), and they've summoned warriors to fight for them.
Basically though, in Theatrhythm, you can play through various different tracks from the various main series games I-XIII, as well a one or two tracks from FFXIII-2, Type-0 and the upcoming (still, but that's a different story) Versus XIII. The tracks are split into 3 types and have 3 difficulties: Basic, Expert and Ultimate. For whatever track you select, you have to try and match the rhythm, and your character loses HP for everytime you miss a note, and if your HP goes down to zero it's game over!
Battle stages, where you play through a piece of battle music from the game chosen, and the characters fight either a series of random monsters (as in the demo) or a boss. These battles comprise of typical rhythm stuff, including tapping the screen, swiping in the proper direction or holding down the stylus for the specified amount of time. In the demo, I was able to play 'Man With The Machine Gun' from FFVIII (aka., the Laguna battle theme). This was quite enjoyable, and was quite easy on Basic mode (surprisingly), a little more difficult and took me a few more goes to master on Expert, and was very difficult on Ultimate! I haven't completed it yet but look forward to the challenge!
Then there are field stages, where your character(s) (which I should say are randomly chosen by the computer, at least in the demo) are wandering through a landscape to the appropriate piece of music. Again, this consists of tapping, swiping and holding, the only difference being that when you have to hold, you move the stylus up and down to hit various 'checkpoints' along the way before you can release (see the below screenshot). This was also enjoyable but I found it a bit easier than the battle stage. The demo included the 'Sunleth Waterscape' theme from FFXIII.
Then there are event stages, where you have to move the stylus around the screen in time with the music again, whilst a video montage from the game, for example an FMV, is played in the background. Unfortunately, this was not included in the demo, but I can kinda see why. I guess Squenix wanted to save them for the actual game and they might have eaten up a tad too much memory for a demo. Ah well. I know one of the included event stages is 'Waltz for the Moon' from FFVIII, which plays the FMV of Squall and Rinoa dancing at the SeeD ball in the background, just so you can get an idea of what this is like.
I have to say I enjoyed the Theatrhythm demo, and will undoubtedly play it again while I can. I find being able to combine a game with listening repeatedly to some of my favourite tracks incredibly enjoyable. And S-E has said they're planning to include DLC for the game too, with additional stages and tracks for the games to prolong the games lifespan which is a plus too (as long as the DLC will be reasonably priced - they cost 150 yen per song in Japan, which is roughly £1.20, which I'd personally say is a tad high, and I'm hoping there'll be bundles).
(04/07/12 EDIT: It's been announced what the first DLC tracks will be. There's 8 of them and will cost 90p each, which actually surprisingly affordable. Article can be seen here: http://www.nintendo-gamer.net/2012/07/04/first-theatrhythm-dlc-listed-reasonably-priced/)
It's definately a game for Final Fantasy fans like myself, who will enjoy being able to listen to the music and relive parts of their favourite games. I don't think it's any coincidence that this 'anthology' of mini-games and music is being released in during the 25th anniversary of the series either. Whilst any old Joe Bloggs could play the game for the music and the rhythm aspect, only a fan of the series will get the most out of it for their money, and this could be detrimental to sales of the game. Particularly since many fans of the series are more Sony/Xbox fanboys than Nintendo ones, and so it would seem to me that fewer are likely to own a 3DS and buy the game. But who knows, it might be a huge success. Either way, I have to say I can't see Theatrhythm being the start of a new mini-series of FF games, and I'd think that any future songs S-E wants to release will be through DLC.
I thought graphically the demo was good as well, smooth and crisp with bright, cartoony graphics which fit with the chibi characters and monsters. I have to admit as well that I kept getting distracted sometimes from the gameplay by wanting to see what the characters were doing in the background and trying to see what monster was what!
Overall, I thought the demo was enjoyable and has made me look forward to purchasing Theatrhythm in the future after it's been released in the UK later this summer. I think it will be an enjoyable game for any fan of the series, that you can either play for hours on end or just in short bursts, with some replay value, which could be enhanced with DLC. Like any game like this though, once you've beaten every song on all difficulties, it's hard to see what'll keep players coming back apart from for the odd nostalgia play, but I guess that won't really be S-Es problem. It's more a game for fans than casual gamers. Also, whilst I'm an admitted die hard FF fan, depending upon the price of the game itself, I am unsure about whether I will buy this upon release or wait until the price drops a bit before buying it.
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