Two fans would enjoy this game: rhythm game fans and fans of the Final Fantasy games. I count myself in the latter, having started my love of Final Fantasy with the original game on the day it was released in the US (back in '88 I think it was). So the nostalgia factor is important to me. I'll give a brief description of why I found this game so fun and so frustrating (in a good way).
When you first start playing, you set up a profile, select a party made of chibi personalities from Final Fantasy games 1 - 13. They decided to go with the chibi so that all the characters would have a similar appearance despite being from different games with wildly different art. I am NOT a fan of the chibi style, but I guess it's better than some other alternatives I can think of...
The first area that is unlocked is the standard music collections from each title. You pick from FF 1 - 13 and then you have five stages for each, each with a different tune from the original game. So yes, the tunes for the old NES games are the beepy, mono tunes. Accept it, these were the songs we all fell in love with in the late 80s.
You use the stylus to do the actions on the bottom screen: tap, hold, or swipe. Occasionally a combination of hold then swipe. The top screen gives you the queue. The 3D is actually not really important for this game, and I typically keep it on a low, or the lowest setting to reduce eye strain. Especially when you stare at the little round icons flying across the screen.
The initial rhythms are not hard. In fact I made A or S on every one my first time through without ever retrying. There are five styles for each FF title. 2 are very easy little opening and ending tunes where you basically just tap when a note touches the crystal. The others are tougher: a move background (FMS), the Battle, and a Field stage.
You might think, holy crap this is easy... until you unlock the Chaos Shrine. Then it gets crazy tough. Each Chaos shrine has a Field and a Battle stage and it is MUCH faster. You also unlock additional Challenge games for the Final Fantasy titles. The regular difficulty is the stuff you already beat. Then you have Expert, which is pretty tough. Then if you make an A or S on Expert you get Ultimate. Bend over and kiss your own arse goodbye. You will probably have to practice the same song at least 6 times before getting an A or S. Sometimes more. Some are frustrating because you have to tap then swipe in a rapid succession in wildly different directions. So basically tap - swipe up - tap - swipe down - tap - swipe upper left - tap - swipe down right - tap - tap - swipe down left - tap - tap - swipe upper left. And all happening insanely quick.
You level your characters. This really only helps in the Chaos Shrine battle stages. The stronger and higher level you are, the more misses you can make (hence damage you receive) and the more damage you dish out, hence battling more baddies and racking up more items.
Speaking of items and such. There are tons of things to collect. Most are very useful. Again, mainly in battle stages. Items can be used to help you or to help you acquire new abilities. Abilities can be equipped if you have enough CP and they also assist you in battle as well as field stages. They don't tend to do much for you on the FMV stage since it's more of a 'just finish' it stage to get points.
There are additional characters, songs, videos, and more to unlock. I was super thrilled when several songs I felt were stupidly left out ended up being unlocked! Such as Dancing Mad from FFVI Zanarkand from FFX, Crystal Core from FFIV, JENOVA from FFVII and more. I won't give all of them away, nor the secret characters. But they are all familiar faces, and there is at least one per FF title, with a couple of titles have 2 or 3 extra characters. You can also purchase a few extra songs that can be played in Challenge mode. I recommend sucking it up and giving the $1 per song to Squeenix (my loving name for Square Enix) for those few extra songs you might enjoy. Just remember, they are original songs, so don't expect remixes.
It's incredibly addictive. I actually took time off from Etrian Odyssey IV and Fire Emblem Awakening to play this! Addictive, challenging, nostalgic. A great title for fans of Final Fantasy throughout the years. I was so happy with the memories that I have started replaying the original games - in order. Sadly kind of hit a wall with the travesty that is Final Fantasy II... sigh... But yes. The game is worth it. Not really much of an RPG, but a few little RPG elements in a very good rhythm game.
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$18.95
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Nintendo 3DS
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Reviews with images
One of my favorites 🎼
This game is super fun and I’ve waited so long for this game to be a real thing. This game has a lot of songs that you can so conveniently purchase individually for like $1 each and there’s prolly like 30+ songs that are optional to buy. They’re optional but obviously should’ve just been included in the game. 🙄 You’re honestly way better off getting Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Curtain Call, because it has all the DLC included. This game has 3 modes for each song, beginner, expert, and ultimate, and a practice mode so you can try out the songs at their hardest without losing. Ultimate mode is hella hella challenging, some of the songs on ultimate you can get used to. Others are nearly impossible unless you’re a true weeb. There’s also a quest mode where you do random songs and face a boss at the end. And there’s multiplayer although I’ve never personally played it. Id rate this game a 9 out of 10. Won’t give it a 10 because the inclusion of so many songs to purchase is a huge money grab. Just get FFT Curtain Call instead.
