Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call takes all of the beloved music from the Final Fantasy games and mashes them with a rhythm game and the result is pretty great, and pretty tough. The demo has released last week and I downloaded it to give it a whirl. I’ve been a longtime fan of Final Fantasy and love the music. How could I go wrong here.
Playing the game is simple enough. As with similar music rhythm games, the goal is to follow a melody line and tap or swipe at the right times. This is easier said than done, at least in the harder difficulties. Circles and lines pass from the left to the right of the screen. When you are presented with a circle on the screen, you tap when it reaches a certain circle mark on the screen. If you time it right you will get points, if you miss it then you will lose HP in your life bar. Run out of HP and the level is over.
Not only will you find just circle hits, but long bars which you must hold and release in time. There are also arrows which you must swipe in the appropriate direction to get the points. It’s actually rather intuitive and fun to do.
If you want you can also use the buttons and circle pad to play the game entirely, which has a completely different dynamic and feel. Both inputs feel so vastly different that it’s almost like a whole new game.
One neat thing that Square Enix is doing, is that your records from playing the demo will be preserved in your save data. If you then play the full game with that save data present, you will find more characters available to you from the start as a reward for playing the demo! Talk about a great incentive to have people who are curious about the game actually try out the demo. This is similar to how Square previously had the demo for Bravely Default have a completely unique side story which would add to the full game which was released a few weeks later.
There are just two songs in demo, “Edgar & Sabin’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VI (field music) and “J-E-N-O-V-A” from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (battle stage).
Field music involves your characer travelling across the stage while the boss stages involve your timed hits attacking a boss, and misses causing the boss to deal you damage.
The full game has 221 songs, plus it includes a versus mode and quest mode to take on bosses. This one looks like it’s going to be a blast. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call will be available on Tuesday, September 16 for $39.99 exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS.