Board 8 > Theatrhythm Final Bar Line Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://opencritic.com/game/14292/theatrhythm-final-bar-line/reviews

The definitive Theaterhythm experience is here! 385 songs at launch and even more coming via DLC not just from Final Fantasy but from the entire Square-Enix back catalogue. So far we got 90 on MC and an 88 on OC through 20 reviews. Pretty much blows away all the past games (78 for the original and 83 for Curtain Call). They did say this is the final Theatrhythm game so quite an impressive way to go out....but I still hope they do a console port of the Dragon Quest one that was only in Japan on 3DS....

Noisy Pixel - 10/10
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is a terrific rhythm experience that, even after over 30 hours in, I can't get enough of. Its almost overwhelming number of playable songs, waves of unlockables, addictive progression, and endless methods of replayability coalesce to provide a game that all Final Fantasy fans, new or not, will fall in love with. Heck, even if you've never played Final Fantasy, Final Bar Line is worth picking up. It's that good.

DigitallyDownloaded - 5/5 Stars
Given that the only issue with Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is that the JRPG elements are superficial and unnecessary for the game (while not actually undermining the underlying rhythm game action), its hard not to see the effort as a monumentally successful project. With nearly 400 music tracks out of the box, excellent underlying rhythm game mechanics and, of course, the music being so good, this is a game thats going to last even the most casual Final Fantasy fan for months. And then theres the DLC with music from games outside of the Final Fantasy series to look forward to. Thats only going to add even more to the biggest value game on Switch.

NintendoWorldReport - 9.5/10
All of these levels feel exactly as you'd hope, meaning any skill level can have a good time. The music of Final Fantasy is legendary for a reason, and Theatrhythm is the perfect representation of that. If you're looking for a great rhythm game to eat up your time and occupy your mind, Final Bar Line is a fantastic choice.

NintendoLife - 9/10
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is an utterly addictive, perfectly tuned celebration of all things Final Fantasy. It's a deceptively simple-looking game that, once you get under the hood, you'll discover it has teeth and demands practice and patience if you want to unlock everything. It gives back what you put into it, and we're struggling to put it down even now. We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the series' 35th anniversary, and this makes it a must-buy for Final Fantasy fans and rhythm game enthusiasts. How other storied, sprawling game series' haven't followed suit with their own rhythm games is baffling when the results can be this magical.

Shacknews - 9/10
The only negative that really stands out to me is if you want access to absolutely everything song wise you may find yourself compelled to spend a bit more money on things like the games Digital Deluxe edition as it has 27 exclusive songs. That said, the standard version should still have more than enough content to satiate most Theatrhyhm, Final Fantasy, and rhythm game fans.

TheGamer - 4.5/5 Stars
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is the platonic ideal of fanservice. There are plenty of people who would have been happy with a port of Curtain Call or simply bringing All-Star Carnival over to the West, so its a delightful surprise to see just how much effort and care has been poured into a title like this. It is endlessly charming, bursting with content, and treats its content with reverence. This is a game built with love for Final Fantasy, and that expression of love is resplendent, infectious, and mellifluous. I love this game with my entire thesaurus.

Hardcore Gamer - 8/10
The Theatrhythm series has always been a celebration of Final Fantasy and the iconic music associated with each title. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line continues that tradition by bringing together more titles, songs and characters onto consoles for the first time. The transition is nearly flawless, allowing Final Fantasy fans to experience some of the most iconic songs from each title in a fun, easy-to-play gameplay experience. Its not perfect, though, with some titles getting more favor over others. Some exclusions are odd, particularly the absence of the critically-acclaimed Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker and the fact that a good number of iconic tunes are trapped behind premium deluxe editions is simply not OK. Past that, this is a successful transition from handheld to console with tight gameplay, plenty of content to unlock and a beautiful presentation backing it up. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line isnt the perfect celebration of Final Fantasy, but its a great one.

Also love that opening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHP0t8dLG1M

Ill say it this game is going to pwn

All my hype

i am $100 poorer

I can easily imagine myself sinking hundreds of hours into this, it looks great! Holding out for a PC version for as long as I can since I vastly prefer playing rhythm games there when factoring in delay, but I may crack on this if it takes longer than a year.

Xiahou_Shake posted...

I can easily imagine myself sinking hundreds of hours into this, it looks great! Holding out for a PC version for as long as I can since I vastly prefer playing rhythm games there when factoring in delay, but I may crack on this if it takes longer than a year.

Is there a lot of delay on the Switch in portable mode?

I love Final Fantasy music and enjoy some rhythm games but I played a Theatrhythm demo on 3DS and it did nothing for me, I guess I don't like the gameplay for some reason.

MacArrowny posted...

Is there a lot of delay on the Switch in portable mode?

Relevant to my interests. Is this based on anything? Because I want to play this on Switch portable mode most of the time if possible.

MacArrowny posted...

Is there a lot of delay on the Switch in portable mode?

Seemed fine to me in the demo

Oh wow

Ok in

lol the noisy pixel video review

"FF14 has too many songs!"

the reviewer must not play FF14

If it was only FFXIV songs I'd actually get it.

I'm bummed I have to spend an extra $30 to get Melodies of Life, To Zanarkand, and Eternity Memory of Lightwaves, but I can't not have those songs.

RikkuAlmighty posted...

i am $100 poorer

Money well spent

how many of these songs are actually new? the set lists from older games looked the same from what I could tell. there's been like three new games since curtain call, and maybe a few other titles like Octopath?

Anything 14 on is stuff that wasn't in Curtain Call. Mystic Quest and non-FF stuff was in before.

Still though, $50 for 400 songs or $100 for 500+ is hardly a problem. This is an absurd amount of songs.

I'm still bitter about the original's in-game vs. DLC tracks.

MacArrowny posted...

Is there a lot of delay on the Switch in portable mode?

I wouldn't imagine so! Mostly an issue with TVs - I probably should have clarified that I'm not much of a handheld gamer.

If I could figure out how to hit those moving lines, I'd probably get this. But I played the demo and just couldn't figure it out.

The way I did it was to hold the left analog stick to the left while trying to the note centered on where it moves to. Before that, I kept getting endless bad notes.

Dancedreamer posted...

If I could figure out how to hit those moving lines, I'd probably get this. But I played the demo and just couldn't figure it out.

If the line is moving up, push your stick up. if its moving down, push it down. You cant overshoot it or anything like that, so dont worry about pushing too hard.

The thing I had to retrain my brain for were double notes or notes during a hold. Certain patterns were literally impossible for my brain to process when I was using a button and a trigger, so I have to use just triggers now

Well, I know what I'm doing next week!

Downloaded the demo. loving the music, loving the game, however I think Melody of Memory does it better.

Oh my god, so many songs.

This is amazing.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

You cant overshoot it or anything like that, so dont worry about pushing too hard.

Oh. Man. That's really good to know.

Anyway I tore through the entire demo and decided yeah I'll just splurge on the $99 copy for all the tracks. Loved Curtain Call.

What I'm missing is the mode with the map that was in Curtain Call where you'd go through randomly generated forked path stages-- is that still in this and you just need to unlock it or did they scrap it?

Lopen posted...

What I'm missing is the mode with the map that was in Curtain Call where you'd go through randomly generated forked path stages-- is that still in this and you just need to unlock it or did they scrap it?

Say it aint so

*Salivates about XIV, as he is wont to do.*

Been playing this as well! First Theatrhythm.

Pretty fun! I'd def be down to play some vs mode with you guys. We get CARDS out of it too!

Lopen posted...

What I'm missing is the mode with the map that was in Curtain Call where you'd go through randomly generated forked path stages-- is that still in this and you just need to unlock it or did they scrap it?

This is gonna be my first Theatrhythm game so I have no idea what mode this is, but was it similar to whatever the Endless mode that's going to unlock once all the music quests are all completed?

I don't know what Endless is but maybe?

The thing I'm thinking of you had a running health total that tracked through songs and you progressed through a map with stages with songs and difficulties pre-selected and you could pick easy/hard songs as you went through (if you were getting beat down, you might want to pick an easier song on the next stage so you could heal for example), and then eventually there'd be a hard stage at the end that was the "boss"

A lot of the mechanics of the game (the healing in particular) seem like they'd be obsolete without a mode like this so I feel like it probably is what you're saying even if there totally was an "end" to these maps.

Okay googled what Endless mode is

And yeah seems like that's the replacement, just with slightly different mechanics on how it plays, but more or less the same.

What a relief. That mode was great fun.

I think this fixes all my problems with the original other than the DLC structure still being kind of lousy. But even another $50 for about 120 extra tracks is a lot better.

Lopen posted...

Okay googled what Endless mode is

And yeah seems like that's the replacement, just with slightly different mechanics on how it plays, but more or less the same.

What a relief. That mode was great fun.

Honestly, this scared me. That mode was basically the only mode I played.

I have successfully spent $50 on this game and $30 on To Zanarkand

the inclusion of the FFRK remixes and The Black Mages stuff is so good

I am AWFUL with these new controls though. I was stylus exclusively

Ah, so when you get a character to level 99 you don't loop them back to 1 this time. They can just level up more beyond 99 to increase their "star level." What that does, I won't know until I actually get one of them leveled up again, it takes considerably more EXP.

A bit hesitant to get this. I really liked the touch screen gameplay of Curtain Call.

I got used to not using a touch screen with the Persona rhythm games so I'm not too worried about the adjustment period here

Is the $100 edition limited time?

I only ask because I'm busy as hell right now, and wonder if it may go on sale by the time I get the time to play it.

I'm struggling with the moving green bars that then need to have an opposite direction arrow to end them. I feel like they are trying to make it as confusing and difficult as possible.

I made to make a beeline to unlock Exdeath first

game has TOO MUCH CONTENT

The held bars take a little getting used to just cus theres always an intended beat right at the end so you are technically releasing a button to hit a beat which my mind is taking a bit to figure out. :x

Isquen posted...

*Salivates about XIV, as he is wont to do.*

Not including Insatiable, To the Edge, and any Endwalker songs is a sin. Heres hoping for DLC.

One thing I will say though, is that they really fucked up with Rise. That is NOT a fun song to play in this game.

oh, here's a good tip for new players that I don't think the game ever says

diagonal inputs only require one of the two cardinal directions involved. For example, a down-left arrow will be cleared with just a Down or Left input. I find it easiest to simplify anything that's not directly up or down into just a left or right input.

KamikazePotato posted...

A bit hesitant to get this. I really liked the touch screen gameplay of Curtain Call.

If you haven't yet, you can just play the demo to see how you feel about button control.

TheManaSword posted...

game has TOO MUCH CONTENT

I will say I absolutely adore rhythm games like this that clearly come from a company saying "okay, we've made our money on the mobile and/or arcade game, so here's a home release with just a truly ludicrous amount of content."

do I get this for PlayStation because it has trophies for me to obsess over or switch so I can play it in bed

i cant decide. I am paralyzed. I wish this was on PC so I could just play on Steam Deck.

I wonder what it says about Square that for once, they released an actual good game with almost no strings attached (other than the usual DLC bullshit).

Unless this is a front for an NFT grift somewhere. "Buy the Premium Digital Pack, and you'll get a Moogle NFT to sell on the Metaverse. We'll even pack in 100% certified sand from a beach next to our office building!"