LogFAQs > #951324238

#8 - Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS, 2014)

There's been a good amount of rhythm games all over my top 100, and I tend to buy a good few every year. Theatrhythm though is what I've found to be the best out of all the rhythm games I've played, for various reasons.

Curtain Call is a follow-up sequel to the original Theathrhythm: Final Fantasy, which was a decent game, but had a very low amount of songs included on its cartridge. Curtain Call remedies this problem by having the base game contain well over 200 songs from the entire series, with another 100 songs as DLC. The game still breaks it up between Field (traverse through a map based on the game it's from), Battle (a battle between various enemies, with a boss from the game it's from), and Event (a map based on a cutscene from the game itself) stages depending on the song. Not only does it have songs from the main games in the series, but it also brings together tracks from many spinoff games as well, such as Dissidia, Tactics, Crystal Chronicles, Mystic Quest, Type-0, and others. Also unlike the original game (and the Kingdom Hearts rhythm game released this year), almost all of the songs are available at the very beginning, with only a few exceptions. Instead, the game mostly has you unlock different characters spanning the entire series. You start with a choice between the 14 main characters of the main series at the time (XV was not released yet) and unlock all of the others through collecting crystal shards. Each character has certain abilities that they receive from leveling up through quests, each one having a different loadout. Some might have abilities that benefit the different stages the game has.

The main way to unlock more characters with shards is the Quest Medley mode, a new mode introduced in this game. These can range from short to long depending on how many songs the game will have you playing throughout the quest. In each medley, your party traverses through a map or dungeon with a boss at the end. There's usually multiple paths to the boss, and several random events that can happen as you go through the map. Songs are hidden until played through once, and the quest can be repeated as many times as needed for EXP and drops (but not crystal shards). It's a nice addition to the game, and was much better when StreetPass was a big thing as it allowed people to trade quest medley maps with each other. I have quite a few of them myself that I've received from others.

The versus mode is an interesting concept, but bad in practice. It allows you to face off with another player (or CPU opponent) by playing the same song, but the game is made more difficult by having you use various attacks on the other player by changing the trigger speed, trigger size, monster strength, timing, or other things. I never did much in this mode because I absolutely hated it, and mostly just ignored it entirely after a while. (They brought it back in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory and it had a trophy for finishing it, which really annoyed me.)

Anyway, with over 300 songs including DLC, every game from the main series has at least ten songs to play through and chances are your favorite song from the series is in here somewhere. There are a few other songs from the series are also used as menu songs that didn't get bumped up to being playable. The DLC is also nice that it not only limits itself to Final Fantasy tracks, but also manages to pull in tracks from other Square-Enix games. The DLC includes tracks from Chrono Trigger, NieR, Bravely Default, The World Ends With You, the SaGa series, and others. Having Corridors of Time, Hills of Radiant Winds, Calling and all my favorite Final Fantasy tracks was an amazing combination. The DLC tracks will also sometimes appear in quest medleys after being purchased as well, a nice addition to the game.

I still go back to Curtain Call every so often and lose myself for a few hours. I have all the characters and songs, but one day I might actually unlock all the collectacards in the game (I don't think so though, some are extremely rare drops). It's definitely a game I keep revisiting and enjoying myself, and that's why it holds such a high rank on this list.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!