Yep. Played this.
Where to begin? The title Square decided to use for their tapping-based Final Fantasy rhythm game is Theatrhythm, a portmanteau of "theater" and "rhythm," which is hardly even appropriate since there's very little theater here. Gameplay consists of tapping, sliding, and holding your stylus against the lower screen based on the symbols flying by on the top screen, and all of it is set to memorable tracks from Final Fatasy's 25-year history. I'm not even a big fan of rhythm games, but I knew I had to have this one as soon as its American release date was announced. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. It was light and simple and easy enough to beat. But it could have been better!
I understand this game's desire to treat all thirteen Final Fantasy installments equally, providing the same number of tracks from each game, but I doubt anyone out there would have minded trading in a few trivial and redundant tracks from the earlier 8-bit originally Japan-only games in exchange for more of the wonderful tracks from later games in the series. We've all got our own nostalgias and biases here, but for a game that seems to exist solely because some diehard fans like me would play any game revolving around Final Fantasy music, this one really holds back on some of the goods. Where was the love song from when Squall and Rinoa are in outer space in FF8? How about the opera scene from FF6? Cid's theme from FF7? These omissions and countless others are probably resonating with no one at all, not even Sweeney who has played more games in the main series (12) than me (11), so I'll quit while I'm ahead, but damn did this game just feel so much less complete than it could have been.
Oh well! Luckily any time I want to crank out some Final Fantasy tunes for nostalgia's sake, I can just hop on over to YouTube. Avoiding the minefield of fan renditions and shitty remixes isn't easy, but it's worth it in the end.
One more fun observation: Square is doing everything they can to distance themselves from the shitfest that was Final Fantasy XIV. Although that game came out in 2010 (to abysmal reviews), this game makes absolutely no reference to its existence at all. Strange, since it's still officially part of the 25-year history of Final Fantasy, no?
I'm looking for a any reason to get myself a 3DS, but these line-ups of games still just aren't doing it for me.
ReplyDelete...and I'm still waiting for someone (*cough* Sween *cough*) to make a post of FF13 to hear how bad it actually is. I mean, if Square is willing to ignore it in this anniversary package it's got to be even worse than I imagined - and I played the first 10 hours or so of it before ridding it from my collection once and for all.
Oh, they had FF13 in there. FF14 is the one they utterly and totally ignored. I was actually thinking of starting FF13 pretty soon. I take it you disapproved?
ReplyDeleteI was fairly disappointing with this addition to the series, at least in its gameplay. The graphics were astounding, however. Storyline... well it's about as wacky and nonsensical as the rest. Once again, at least up to the point I reached.
ReplyDeleteInitially I thought you just had a typo in your post as I wasn't even aware that there was a 14th installment already out. Just browsing on their web site, it's another MMORPG. Clearly you indicated that's it's generally referred to as rubbish. Has anyone played it yet? Is it even out in North America?
Super Mario 3D Land is reason enough for the 3DS. In my opinion, it's the best Mario game ever created. It's the best use of 3D any game has ever made, and it's not even close.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you've never heard of FF14 (and I only ever did because I got curious and Googled it a couple years ago) speaks volumes to Square's ability to sweep the entire thing under the rug. I was never interested in the MMORPG scene, and will just wait for FF15, which has yet to even be announced.
ReplyDeleteKeith, study.