Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Review - When It Comes to Final Fantasy, It’s Never Final

When Theatrhythm Final Bar Line was announced, I knew this was a no-brainer for me to check out. I have hundreds of hours in the 3DS titles Final Fantasy Theatrhythm and Theatrhythm: Curtain Call. Even though I’d played them until my 3DS touch screen got worn from constant stylus usage, the prospect of bringing the songs from those games to the Switch and incorporating most of the note charts from the Japan-only arcade title Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: All-Star Carnival (which I got to play while visiting Japan in 2017) was too much for me to pass up. But the question on my mind was would Square Enix and developer indieszero do enough to mix up the formula to make a third game worthwhile for fans of the originals, or was this going to be a watered-down port?

Visually Vapid, Aurally Awesome

Right off the bat, I want to be clear that this title won’t appeal to everyone. As a connoisseur of both rhythm games and the Final Fantasy franchise, Theatrhythm is about as addictive as hard drugs to me, but not all will be down with the game’s limited visual stylings, which speak to its budget. The simple presentation uses a limited amount of backgrounds, and beloved characters are presented as 2D “paper doll”-like sprites, essentially puppets with basic expressions. They also spout random catchphrases in word bubbles, march through FMS (Field Music Stages), and do fierce battle in BMS (Battle Music Stages). Granted, the visuals have been upgraded from the 3DS titles, but they sadly fall short of the eye-popping All-Star Carnival.

But the draw, of course, is the music, and I can confirm that as advertised, there are indeed 385 tracks spread out over the entirety of the Final Fantasy series. There are some notable omissions due to rights issues (“Eyes on Me” from FFVIII and “Melodies of Life” from FFIX come to mind, though the former appears as a stripped-down instrumental). I also noticed a few too many renditions of recurring songs like the main theme and “Mambo de Chocobo”, but nearly every banger that you’d expect makes an appearance. There are over 30 FFXIV tracks, and I was surprised to see nods to more obscure spin-offs, such as the opening theme from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, plus tracks from mobile games and the two Dissidia arcade titles.

Touch, Hold, and Slide Your Way to Victory!

For those unfamiliar with the franchise, the easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay, which combines rhythm gameplay with RPG party building, is by far Theatrhythm’s strongest suit.

You’ll be choosing your party and difficulty before each song - we’ll get into party building later. As the song begins, you’ll be bombarded with notes to hit. The game calls them “triggers”.

There are three different types of triggers. Touch triggers are activated by simple button presses. Slide triggers involve flicking one or both control sticks in specific directions. Hold triggers require you to hold a button down and often use the stick to guide movement. In tougher difficulties, the triggers are all combined in increasingly complex ways. These triggers come at you rather fast at times, in a horizontal fashion, as if you’re reading sheet music.

There are generally four difficulty levels, though many songs are missing the toughest mode. On the higher two difficulties, memorization is key and you’ll need to be absolutely dextrous with your movements. A criticism that I have from the original 3DS titles that carries over is that the first two difficulty modes are too easy, while the third one, Ultimate, varies a lot from song to song as to how much it will test your memory and reaction time. The final difficulty, Supreme, is for true challenge-seekers and masochists only. 

Once you’ve completed a song, you’ll unlock it for all time and can try it on any difficulty. You’ll also be given rewards based on your performance. The abilities of your party make a difference as to how your and run will go if you mess up, as well as what rewards you’ll acquire… if you survive the song. There are also alternate control methods - Simple, which allows you to play with one button, and Pair mode, where you and a friend can each take control of two of the four characters. You can also play Pair mode on your own for alternate note charts and a whole different challenge.

There are several ways to unlock new songs. You can unlock them by simply playing through each individual title (or spin-off series) in the Series Quests mode, via local or online multiplayer, or by browsing recommendations that pop up after completing a song in the Music Stages mode. Each of the game modes has something to recommend it, and adds new layers to the experience. 

In Series Quests, you’ll be able to tackle one title/series at a time, unlocking iconic characters and then cranking away at each title’s songs. What makes this mode exciting is that each song has a corresponding quest attached to it, and these side missions become more challenging as you progress. Quests can range from tasks such as completing a song with a certain character in your party to defeating a boss that’s resistant to physical attacks in 20 seconds, or doing a certain amount of damage. You don’t need to complete these quests to progress, but doing so will net you unique collectibles like awesome art and holographic CollectaCards, as well as useful items such as Potions and permanent stat upgrades. 

Stat Upgrades… in a Rhythm Game?!

Yes, there are RPG mechanics in this rhythm game, but don’t worry - you won’t be living in the menus, as you’ll mostly just be assigning the appropriate abilities to each of your four characters based on the needs of the mission. If this sounds tedious, the fact that you can easily cycle through 5 sets of characters makes a huge difference, so you can have a DPS build, a Magic-focused team, one geared towards defense and healing, etc. You can also assign one of many randomized, unlockable summons to your party (Ifrit, Ramuh, Knights of the Round, etc.) that will not only deal a ton of damage, but bless you with passive effects.

There’s actually a lot of build variety for your party, too. Incredibly, each one of the dozens of characters is unique in some way. Most characters have a mix of skills, with a focus on one primary type - there’s Physical types who excel at dealing damage, Magic types that can use elemental spells, Defense types to shield your party and keep them alive, Healing types to recover lost health, Summon types to boost your summons, Support types to enhance other party members’ skills, and my favorite, Hunter types who specialize in finding treasure chests. Each character also has unique traits that only unlock at high levels. If you don’t care much for the RPG mechanics, you can quickly level-up allies using the ample EXP boosting items and auto-equip battle skills from the menu. However, you’ll miss out on collectible items and be unable to complete certain quests. 

Many Modes of Musical Mayhem

On the topic of quests, once you’ve beaten a certain amount of titles, the game will roll credits and you’ll gain access to the “Endless World” challenge gauntlet, where you aim to survive, but lose one of three health points each time you fail a song’s Quest. It’s a challenging mode for tryhards to test out their party’s strength as well as their own endurance and adaptability. Also, after every title you beat, you’ll unlock an EMS (Emotional Music Stage), essentially a well-edited video filled with highlights from the game. These were great rewards. You can also enjoy the videos and music you unlock in the Museum.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line also has a decent multiplayer versus mode, a slight improvement over Curtain Call’s offering. You can play both locally and online, but you’re limited to Battle Music Stages. One of the mechanics unique to this mode are ‘Burst’ attacks, which let you try to mess up your opponent in various ways. You can do things like hide your foe’s triggers, freeze points for anything but perfect triggers, set stricter timing windows, and drain HP. Burst attacks can be turned off, and as in Curtain Call, I preferred to play without them. The gameplay heavily rewards achieving perfect timing on triggers (“Rainbow Critical” hits).

Unfortunately, two of my favorite modes from Theatrhythm Curtain Call do not return. The first is Quest Medley, where you would unlock and play custom shareable quests consisting of songs from multiple series, and you’d occasionally find rare crystal shards for unlocking characters. You could acquire these randomly-generated quests from the 3DS’ StreetPass feature as well as through online play. It was a great concept that sadly does not return. Also, in Theatrhythm Curtain Call, you could progress through a ladder of battles VS increasingly difficult AI teams and test your mettle, precision, and your ability to endure enemy Burst attacks. Final Bar Line only allows you to experience these features while playing online, so if you don’t feel a Nintendo Online subscription is worth it, you’ll miss out entirely on team VS battles.

Another missed opportunity lies in the tracklist. Forgive me if I sound spoiled for choice, but I would have liked to see longer/complete versions of a lot of songs. And while I’m sure music licensing issues would likely have gotten in the way, I would also have liked to be able to play some alternate tracks, such as the orchestral renditions in the Distant Worlds live concerts, or prog-metal covers by Nobuo Uematsu’s bands The Black Mages and Earthbound Papas.

A Silly Symphony for Final Fantasy Fanatics

Small gripes aside, a whopping 385 songs in the base game is nothing to sneeze at, and even after 30 hours, from a completionist’s perspective, I’ve only scratched the surface. And if the game’s robust tracklist wasn’t enough, Square Enix has already announced an impressive DLC schedule that includes tracks from the Dragon Quest, SaGa, Mana, NieR, and Chrono franchises, among others, meaning that there’s plenty more rhythmic reveries for Square Enix fans to look forward to in 2023. 

Overall, the highest recommendation I can give Final Bar Line is that even though it feels like I’ve played it twice already, I still love its base gameplay and definitely see myself putting in the time to best its many challenges and fully unlock everything it has to offer. If a hardcore rhythm game where cardboard cutouts of Cloud, Lightning, Vivi, and Terra leap into the air to critical attack and dance at the end of songs sounds like your jam, you’ll most definitely enjoy tapping and sliding as you headbang through Theatrhythm Final Bar Line.

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8/10 (BUY)

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PROS

• Huge tracklist with 385+ songs and more series coming via DLC

• Fun, addictive mix of rhythm and RPG gameplay

• Note charts are mostly taken from the arcade title, so 3DS fans will have a lot of new/altered content

CONS

• Some notable missing tracks due to rights issues. Some iconic tracks are shortened

• A few modes and challenges do not return

• Graphics and art are reminiscent of a mobile game

What I’ve Played

• Over 31 hours of rhythmic gameplay on all modes

• Beat 22/26 Series Quests (mostly Ultimate difficulty) and unlocked 270 songs

• Gained 87,736 Rhythmia, Achieved 51/100 Feats

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