Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless), 2 Competitive (Local Wireless)

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Review:

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call, released on Nintendo 3DS and in 2014, is a Music-Rhythm game and a sequel to the first Theatrhythm. As with its predecessor, Theatrhythm is a celebration of the music of the Final Fantasy series. In many ways, this game covers much the same ground as its predecessor, so some of what I’ll be going over here will be lifted directly from my review of that game.

Given the Final Fantasy franchise’s rich backlog of spectacular music, the notion of a Music-Rhythm game drawing from the series is a delightful notion. More specifically, Curtain Call contains multiple music tracks from each of the first 14 numbered Final Fantasy games, as well as numerous spinoffs. If a game featured the title “Final Fantasy” and was released by the time Final Fantasy XIV came out, odds are good it is represented here. There’s quite a lot of music from many of these games too, as this release includes virtually all of the music that was released for the first game (as well as its DLC), and tons more. All told, the soundtrack here features a massive 221 songs, with an additional 100 available via paid DLC (at least until the Nintendo 3DS eShop shuts down). Where the first game’s tracklist of 70+ songs was impressive, this game’s catalog of music is absolutely jaw-dropping.

As with the first Theatrhythm, I will note that his game’s menus feature beautiful remixes of classic themes, but the actual gameplay here only includes the original versions of the songs. However, given the massive library of music here, I don’t feel justified in complaining about this.

And this game once again returns to Theatrhythm’s 2D visuals use simple chibi versions of characters from throughout the series. However, this time the various backgrounds of the first game seem to be pared down to only simple 3D backgrounds, which is just a tad disappointing compared to the first game’s occasional use of video footage of the game whose music is currently playing.

The gameplay hasn’t changed much here either – this game’s gameplay still bears some similarities here to the phenomenal Nintendo DS Music-Rhythm game Elite Beat Agents and its Japanese counterpart Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, having players tapping a touchscreen in time with a beat and occasionally dragging the stylus in a direction as indicated. However, Theatrhythm has all of these gameplay cues shown only on the top screen, making for a bit of a disconnect when you need to slide a cursor in a specific pattern. To compensate for this, the game is very forgiving about where you tap the touchscreen, literally letting you tap anywhere so long as you can move the cursor in the proper direction relative to where you started. This works well enough, but it still makes for brief moments of awkwardness.

However, Curtain Call wisely cuts down on the various confusing different ways it presents this Music-Rhythm gameplay. And what’s more, this time players are given multiple control options to play, including the original touchscreen controls, a control mode using buttons and the analog pad, a hybrid control scheme using both, and even a “one-hand” mode using just the analog pad and the L button. As much as I may take some issue with some of the gameplay elements here, this wealth of control options does a lot to cut down on that frustration.

This game also still retains its predecessor’s poorly-explained and over-complicated RPG elements. Once again, players form a party of multiple unlockable classic Final Fantasy characters, each with their own abilities you can swap in and out… but during the gameplay itself, you rarely feel like “I’m doing so much better now that I have Cloud in my party!”

One more area where Theatrhythm improves on the first game is in its menus, allowing players to access all difficulty levels for songs right from the start, and unlocking most of the game’s content after playing just a few songs, individually playable in whatever order you want. This is a huge improvement over the first game forcing players to tackle songs in blocks based on the game they came from before you’re allowed to tackle them individually.

In addition to the improved control options and vastly expanded soundtrack, another element that Curtain Call adds over the first game is a new 2-player competitive mode in addition to the first game’s co-op mode. Sadly, I haven’t been able to test this feature myself, but it is still nice to know I’ll be able to throw down with another player if they happen to own a Nintendo 3DS with a copy of the game… and for DLC we both also need to own a copy of the song, which is an irritating requirement.

Of course, there is one other issue looming over this otherwise great game – we’ve only just recently had a new installment in this series announced for Nintendo Switch, Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, which purports to have even more songs than this game, as well as bringing back the video backgrounds that were cut from this game. Given this, if you own a Nintendo Switch, it seems like you’d very likely be better off waiting for that game.

Overall, Theatrhythm Curtain Call still has a few minor issues that detract from the overall experience. The loss of video backgrounds is a shame, the RPG elements still seem half-baked, and a few other minor issues are strewn about here and there. However, overall this is not only a massive upgrade over the previous game that makes its predecessor virtually obsolete, it is also an outright phenomenal Music-Rhythm game in its own right with an absolutely insane amount of truly excellent songs from throughout the history of the Final Fantasy franchise. But of course, with its upcoming sequel offering even more songs and improvements, it’s hard to recommend this game unless you absolutely want to play Theatrhythm on your Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call is a Music-Rhythm game that is a sequel to the first Theatrhythm that eclipses its predecessor in virtually every way, with a massively expanded catalog of phenomenal music from throughout the Final Fantasy franchise, improved control options, more menu accessibility, and added multiplayer features. While the game still has a few minor issues, such as the loss of video backgrounds that were in the first game and some half-baked RPG elements, this is overall a great Music-Rhythm game on the Nintendo 3DS… but one that sadly looks to be eclipsed soon by its upcoming Nintendo Switch sequel.

Grade: B

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