It's an unfortunate realization I came to recently, while playing the second Theatrhythm game, Curtain Call. I got the game around it's release, way back in 2014, and haven't played it in about 2 years. But while playing Final Fantasy XIV, I was reminded that the music in Final Fantasy games is always so dang good, and decided to dust off the cartridge. And you know what? I was correct. The music in Final Fantasy is, indeed, so dang good. Sweeping orchestral scores, or as close as 8- and 16-bit hardware could manage way back when, serve as a fantastic backdrop to grandiose stories of capital-h Heroes saving the capital-w World. All of the songs are fantastic in their own right, and a few still give me chills to think about.
And Theatrhythm is a very good rhythm game. Hundreds of songs from the series history are represented, from the very first game for the NES all the way to Final Fantasy XIV, the most recent in the series at the time. Even spinoffs like Crystal Chronicles and the obscure Mystic Quest have a couple songs and characters in the game. Beyond the variety of music, the scoring and progression is unique and interesting as well: you create a party of 4 characters chosen from a wide roster, again culled from across the series' history, which all have their own stats. These stats determine how good they are at what kinds of songs: Some characters will make Battle songs easier, while others make Field songs easier, and more still are suited to cutscene or Event songs. These characters will gain experience as you use them in your party, gaining abilities and stats to further help you pass through difficult songs.
Did I mention all of the different kinds of songs have differing mechanics, as well? Battle Music Stages force you to keep tabs on 4 different tracks for notes, while Field Stages have only one that you'll need to manipulate to keep centered on the upcoming notes. Event Stages will actually move the cursors onto notes rather than the opposite. You also have a variety of ways of hitting notes, so whether you're most comfortable using buttons and the circle pad, your stylus, or a mixture of the two, the game allows it and even keeps track. It can occasionally be a little fiddly when the game asks you to flick the stylus or circle pad in a particular direction, but for the most part it's a fun system. And the incredibly slow progression system, of slowly unlocking art and new characters (earned via crystals) as you gather 'Rhythmia' from finishing songs, ensures dedicated players have a reason to play for months. It's great fun.
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Which all goes to show that sometimes, great tastes do not taste great together.
Rhythm games work best with songs that are more designed to be...well, rhythmic, I suppose. Catchy, recognizable beats that are easy to hum along to. I love Final Fantasy and its music with all my heart, but "hummable" describes very few songs in the series. Some songs certainly work better than others: Battle songs tend to work anywhere from decently enough to pretty well. But once the game wants you to play DDR in time to a slow town theme, the whole things feels off.
Not to mention, the note maps are occasionally...silly. There are a lot of ways high-level rhythm game maps mix up the difficulty: They require more buttons, they force you to more closely follow the notes in the song instead of simplifying, things like that. But there's always a sense that goes into those increases in difficulties. Take, for example, this video from Hatsune Miku Project Diva: Future Tone. It's of the song Sadistic Music Factory, on the hardest difficulty level:
Pretty difficult, right? But there's a flow to how the notes are arranged in the song. There are moments with rapid alternation between two notes, which may shift to hitting the notes simultaneously, or holding one note while hitting out a rhythm of other notes. Ultimately, the speed makes it difficult, but any individual section can be looked at on it's own and have a sense to it that congeals well in the end.
For comparisons sake, let's look at the Final Fantasy XIV Titan Theme at the highest difficulty in Theatrhythm:
The notes are much more all over the place in this one. In the same section of the song, the notes you're expected to play shift rapidly without reason, almost like the game is trying to trick you. Note maps can be difficult, but there's usually a sense to them. Some of the maps in Theatrhythm look like those joke note maps for free computer DDR or Elite Beat Agents games. In a song you'd typically hear in a rhythm game, this kind of stuff isn't necessary because following the song itself can lead to enough challenge on its own. But when the music doesn't get as crazy, you have to resort to stuff like this, even when it feels cheap.
I cannot stress enough that I really enjoy Final Fantasy Theatrhythm. I'm at over 40,000 Rhythmia, a metric which has no meaning even to me but basically means I've played this game a bunch. The music is great, and the gameplay is pretty good. It's just a crying shame that they mix like oil and water.
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