Theatrhythm Final Bar Line review

Theatrhythm Final Bar Linebrings together the great soundtracks of Final Fantasy. I don’t think anyone predicted that the Final Fantasy series would become so popular when it first aired 35 years ago. Over the past years, almost a hundred games have been released under the name of Final Fantasy, two of which are MMORPGs, 15 main games, remakes of games, side stories, different completely independent games.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line / PS4

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is our new rhythm game that brings together the great music of the games released under the name of Final Fantasy. Moreover, a game from this series is coming to platforms other than Nintendo’s handheld console (and iOS) for the first time. Let’s see what’s the difference compared to other rhythm games, is it fun to play, will it please the players as a rhythm game consisting only of Final Fantasy soundtracks? Let’s answer them all in this review.

Adapt to the Rhythm

I think most of us are familiar with rhythm games thanks to the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games that swept the world, including our country. In fact, I liked this genre so much that I continued to play rhythm games on PSP and PS Vita. The Persona Dancing series, which was released especially for PS Vita and later on PlayStation consoles, is one of my favourites. Theatrhythm, on the other hand, was a series I had heard of on Nintendo consoles but had not tried.

Published for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line contains music from almost all Final Fantasy games. The logic of the game is very simple. While your characters on the screen are trying to complete the adventure of the game you have chosen, you have to help them by pressing the right keys at the right time in accordance with the rhythm. Moreover, as you open new stories, it is possible to obtain different characters and create your dream teams.

The soundtracks of the Final Fantasy series have always been great, I’m not open to any arguments about that. Most FF games have produced quality music years ahead of their era, and still manage to keep their OST albums listenable. While the music was this good, the only thing that could make the game bad was that it couldn’t give a sense of rhythm and tried to advance by pressing random keys on a flat screen. Fortunately, we do not have such a problem.

The number of keys in the game is kept very few, Triangle – Square – Circle – X keys can all be used for the same note, while trigger keys are activated when you need to press more than one note. Apart from these keys, sometimes there are moving parts that you need to move in accordance with their analog aspects and rhythm. It has a system that looks pretty simple at its core, but can be complicated enough to cause all your characters to eat sticks in a moving song. Having all the notes on the same keys bothered me a bit at first, but once I got used to the pace of the game, it’s a problem I could ignore.

They managed to keep the difficulty level of the game quite reasonable, as they wanted even someone who has never played a rhythm game before to have fun. It is possible to unlock each song in the game by playing it on the easiest difficulty level. To get some collectibles, you have to do more challenging missions (like finishing in hard mode or defeating the boss), but this does not apply to music. Therefore, you can play with peace of mind, on the difficulty you enjoy.

Beating a Boss While Listening to Music

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line puts music and some characters from almost all Final Fantasy games under our control. With the keys we have, we open the album of a game and have the characters of that game. These characters gain levels and abilities as we play. Each character has a class and abilities appropriate to their class. Using these, they join the adventure and defeat the enemies.

During the adventure, we can use the “Summon” system, which consists of the common characters of all the games of the series, as well as the abilities of the characters. As we progress in the chapters, we need to press the keys in accordance with the rhythm and get enough power to summon helpers such as Bahamut, Leviathan, Ifrit. Summons do a great job, especially against boss enemies, but due to the chaos in the middle of the screen, pressing the incoming keys becomes a bit difficult.

All the songs you open in Quest mode are also unlocked in the Music Stage so you can play the rest of the game whenever you want. Which game you want to start from in Quest mode is up to you, the difficulty level above them is more related to how difficult the side missions are. If you want to start directly with FFX, don’t let it be labeled as difficult, you can still play it. Already halfway through each album, you earn the key that can unlock the other game’s album.

The song selections in the game are fine, but there is a noticeable difference in the number of songs compared to the albums. Songs from more popular titles like Final Fantasy 7 + spin-offs and Final Fantasy XIV are a bit too much. As someone who has finished almost all the main series games and played a significant part of the side games, I never said “why is that song missing”, so I won’t complain too much. During the songs, the backgrounds and the enemies our characters fight are also carefully prepared in accordance with the place where the song is playing.

Visuality and Performance

The game was only released for Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch, I am doing this review by playing the PS4 version on PlayStation 5. I can easily say that the game works flawlessly. I did not experience even the slightest stuttering, even a small problem that could affect the sense of rhythm. Visually, it did a pretty good job.

Final Fantasy characters, who have become little characters we call Chibi, look very cute. They make their moves while fighting, they use their special abilities, they roll away when we press the wrong button, everything looks very nice. Of course, we can’t follow much, especially as the difficulty level increases, your eyes must be on the keys. They’ve also done a great job with the Summon animations, but I’ve had a couple of times when my flawless performance was trashed by a summon that landed on the screen.

Conclusion

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line may be a difficult game to say (and write) but it’s definitely one that will appeal to Final Fantasy fans. It is actually a production that anyone who wants to play a fun rhythm game with great music can enjoy. It’s great that I can even play the soundtracks of games like FFXIV, which I couldn’t continue due to the monthly fee, and Type-0, which didn’t interest me.

There is a part about the game that I don’t like, I’ll write it before I finish. I entered the Music Stage and “GET DLC” appeared directly in front of me. Come on, I don’t have a problem with songs that will be added later, such as songs from NieR games, but it bothers me that the songs that are ready on the day the game is released are presented as DLC. By the way, as a NieR fan, I definitely want these songs but we’ll see if I get them when they come out. I wish DLC didn’t hit us right away.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Playstation 4 and for Nintendo Switch It is available for sale with a price tag of $ 49.99. Playstation 4 version via PSN Turkey You can buy it for 599 TL. The package containing 27 extra songs and the content of the 1st season, which will be added later, can be purchased for 899 TL, and the package containing all 4 seasons to be published can be purchased for 1099 TL. I recommend you not to miss the game, which I can only recommend to the fans of the Final Fantasy series at full price, if you come across it on sale.