Once in a while owners of Nintendo consoles are rewarded with a game that pays them back for their loyalty. A game that delivers an experience that simply would not and could not work on any other console. For the DS we have moments like closing the console in Phantom Hourglass to make an imprint of a map and basically all of Elite Beat Agents (and the rest of the Ouendan series), who’d have thought tracing and tapping patterns in time with music would connect a player so completely to the game. Oddities like this really are innovation bred from a desire to use the hardware at hand.
What Square Enix have done here is take the amazingly unique game mechanics of Ouendan and, without wanting to sound too crude, Final Fantasied the fuck out of it. The music drawn from the 13 core titles from the series, with each game contributing three playable tracks each in their original form, no remixes, no re-engagement. For the more recent titles you’re obviously getting a full symphony performance but earlier titles retain their 8-bit charm. One very important change from the Ouendan games is that in Theatrhythm your stylus input takes place on the lower screen while the patterns are displayed on the upper screen. While this seems odd at first it makes perfect sense because you no longer need to worry about obscuring the screen with you hand. This also means that the tracing of patterns is now relative to your starting point for each move allowing you to settle into whatever holding setup you find most comfortable.
Tracks come in one of three gameplay styles: Field, Battle and Event, with each using the same basic tap, hold and swipe inputs differently. Field tracks present you with a single line of patterns scrolling horizontally across the screen as your character wonders through an over world type environment. The unique part is that hold patterns move in a vertical wave that needs to be tracked. The bonus inputs here will have you turn into a chocobo for a short time! Battle stages pull in your whole party at once giving you four horizontal pattern tracks. Inputs are simpler here but come fast. There is no need to jump between tracks, just copy what you see to play out a traditional battle in the background. Nail the bonus inputs here for a summon.
Finally we have Event tracks. These are played across the whole upper screen with a a medley of in game cutscenes playing in the background. The inputs move all over the screen in time with the music and on the harder arrangements really give a sense that you are conducting an orchestra. Getting perfect inputs on the final stretch will lead to an extended cut of the track. A particular delight is Final Fantasy VIII’s Waltz for the Moon where the pattern matching fits beautifully with the music and cutscene of Rinoa and Squall dancing.
It’s not all music and patterns, though, this is a Fanal Fantasy game so as you might expect there is a full RPG style party management system wrapped around the audible joy. You can build your party from the heroes of each game, all super deformed to an adorable degree. As you progress you will be rewarded with items and equipment to help you on your way and your party will also level up at an alarmingly high, if somewhat erratic, rate. There are a wealth of things to unlock and collect and you are seemly rewarded for just about every action. Multiple game modes offering a series of tracks at once or the ability to replay your favourites at a harder difficulty, even a multiplayer mode of sorts.
With nearly 40 playable tracks there is plenty to keep you busy. If you want to take your obsession further Square Enix are offering additional tracks as DLC for 90p per track. This should help cover the unavoidable disappointment if your favourite track wasn’t chosen. I’m waiting on To Zarkland from X and Don’t Be Afraid from XIII.
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