Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: A Game That Will Rock Your Chocobo’s Socks
Though the era of Rock Band, Guitar Hero and the like may have petered out, Square Enix has not tired of milking the Final Fantasy franchise with spin-offs. Theatrythm Final Fantasy is a great, nostalgic addition to the hardcore Final Fantasy fan’s collection, and anyone familiar with games like Rhythm Fever and Elite Beat Agents will get the hang of the similarly-styled gameplay quickly.
On the surface, the game looks kiddie, but in an Edward Gorey way: The characters look like a coloring-book interpretation of Limbo’s characters, stripping them of all their original visual appeal and their individuality. This chibi (albeit creepy) graphics ensure that you are always aware this is a spin-off game. But there’s a simple brilliance to Theatrhythm. The player is given the opportunity to choose a party of four from the main characters of Final Fantasy I through XIII (including unlockable characters), and the party is taken through each game’s soundtrack. (Final Fantasy X-2, XIII-2, and XIV are not included in the game.)
Mini Boss Diary: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Dear Boss,
Today, I fended off a handful of deranged, chibi-looking heroes who tried to steal the crystals we’ve worked so hard to acquire. But—get this—the jerks actually thought they could fell me with music. Ha! Well I made short work of them, just like when I fought that spoony bard with the harp! Boss, have you heard the term, “fight fire with fire”? Well I did exactly that. I threw tunes at them with such speed that they became disoriented and were unable to form a proper attack—beautiful songs too. (My mother always told me I could have been a performer, but alas, I chose a different route.) I finished them off with a complex rendition of “One-Winged Angel.” You should have seen them try to match each note in an effort to deflect my brilliant arrangements. In the end—even having used a potion—I drained the life from them. The weird-looking fools!
Sincerely,
The Mini Boss
FF1 & FF2 Coming to iPhone & iTouch!
The Square Enix Downloadable Games Facebook group has announced that Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II will soon be coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch. I’m very excited.
Official Teaser Site
No Levels In FF13
When I first heard that Final Fantasy XIII would be doing away with the traditional level up system (article at Official XBOX Magazine) all my years of anticipation for the game came crashing into a mound of disappointment. Leveling up has been a staple of the franchise - and of most great JRPGs - forever, as well as a point of bragging rights and sense of achievement. Leveling also gives you a clear goal set where you can set out to reach Level XX by some obscure deadline you set for yourself. The leveling up system in games is more than a motivator, it pushes you to continue playing that one game, perpetuating the “just one more level” creed we begun as children in games that are more open and don’t have breaks between areas the way adventure games used to have 1-1 and 1-2.
The drive to level up also leads players to obscure areas of the map that fall outside of the main plot as they attempt to explore and fight tougher enemies for more experience points. But perhaps I’ll still feel the need to explore because of the drive to discover new items with new abilities.
According to the Official XBOX Magazine’s website, character levels and experience points will be replaced with Crystal Points (CP), which will be used on a circular chart to unlock abilities. This is similar to (AP) in Final Fantasy IX and X, or (LP) in Final Fantasy XII. The question will be how these abilities effect game progression. Will you have to manually upgrade your health points, magic points, evasion, agility, strength, etc. as well as your special moves? I think it’s also safe to assume abilities will be learned through items as in Final Fantasy IX or through equipped summons as in Final Fantasy VI and VIII. Although, the name “Crystal Points” denotes the points are earned through the usage of crystals, so I think it’s a safe bet that equipped crystals learn abilities and also equip summons.
If the system works out that way then the game should be fine, but I will sorely miss leveling up simply out of nostalgia. At the very least maybe no leveling system will mean the series will be somewhat challenging again. And that’s something I’ve missed for a while.
Camera Angles
I miss the days of fixed camera angles. It felt so much more artistic, so thoughtful. Also, you never had to get frustrated with a bad camera system in the days before you could control its panning.
Game Developers Conference 2009
Hey there. The Nintendo keynote of GDC has begun as of noon and Iwata of Nintendo is expected to make some big announcements. I’m following IGN’s live blog and they are also doing a live Twitter feed. I’ll post the highlights as I read the feed.
Here’s another feed from Kotaku. They’re posting everything line by line, not just the important points like IGN is doing.
EDIT: Some highlights:
- Last year, 47% of Nintendo DS users were female.
- Global Wii shipments have topped at 50 million.
- “Rhythm Heaven” for the DSi was shown and given out for free to all attendees. The DS version of the game has sold 1.7 million in Japan.
- “Rock & Roll Climber” for WiiWare was demonstrated, using the Wii Remote, Nunchuck and Balance Board together.
- A new Wii system menu will incorporate SD and SDHC cards as a storage solution. The menu has room for 240 channels. An SDHC card can hold up to 32 gigs of memory.
- The new SD storage/SD channel menu is available in an update that is currently ready to download.
- Games can be downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel directly to the SD card. Games load quickly from the SD card.
- Final Fantasy games will finally be coming to the Virtual Console! U.S. only gets FF1 and FFIV for now, though. Too bad I’ll have already finished FFVI on PS1 by the time it’s out on the Virtual Console.
- Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is coming to WiiWare. This is a port of the storyline sequel that appeared as a Japanese cell phone game.
- Final Fantasy: My Life As A Darklord announced for WiiWare (sequel to My Life As A King).
- MotionMemo for DSi demonstrated. Animates the player’s sketches.
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks announced for DS this year. The video had a Phantom Hourglass-style Link driving a train with a cannon on it. Link can direct an armored sidekick with the stylus. They fights a huge crab thing boss.
The Legend of Zelda: The Spirit Tracks (DS) as unveiled at GDC ‘09. Photo from WiiNintendo.net.
Thus ends the Nintendo keynote of the Game Developers Conference. Overall, not bad, but could’ve been crazier.
New FFXIII Global Trailer!
There’s no option to embed the video, and if it’s possible than I guess I’m just not as web saavy as I would like, but here’s the link to the full trailer:
http://www.finalfantasy13game.com/index.html?lang=UK
(Japanese with subs.)
Please Note: It looks totally awesome!
