For battle themes, the screen is laid out like a random encounter from the earlier FF games, with your party in a row on the right side and the monster they’re battling on the left. It nails the music game part, it nails the RPG part, and somehow the two don’t jar up against each other and explode, but just the opposite - they make each other stronger.įirst, let’s talk about the music game part, which comes in 3 slightly different forms depending on the kind of song you’re playing. I haven’t really played a Final Fantasy game since VII, but Curtain Call still managed to dig its fangs deep into the squishy parts of my brain and has yet to let go (spoilers: I might actually be dead right now). What’s so impressive to me about the whole thing is just how well it manages to court both audiences. That said, while Theatrhythmborrows a few design elements from games like Dance Dance Revolution and Taiko Drum Master, it is very much designed primarily for people who have never played music games before, never had any interest in them, and never would have given this game a second thought if it didn’t have Final Fantasy attached to the title.

It’s really, really good.Ī disclaimer: I like music games a lot. The results were successful enough to green-light a sequel - Theatrhythm Curtain Call - which dropped just a few weeks ago in Japan (a US release is confirmed with a pending release date), and… guys, it’s good. Back in 2012, Square Enix released Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a 3DS game that attempted the bold jujitsu of merging Final Fantasy with a music game.

Theatrhythm curtain call song list