Launch Station: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is a video game franchise that has been renowned for its' incredible music.  So much in fact that  there are concerts dedicated to the music and anthologies of CDs that fans look for.  One Winged Angel, the Chocobo theme and the Victory theme are just a short list of incredible music that has been produced for the Final Fantasy series.  Tomorrow, there will be a game that will allow gamers to experience the music of Final Fantasy in a whole new way as Theatrhythm Final Fantasy releases for the Nintendo 3DS.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a rhythm game spin-off in the Final Fantasy series.  The gods Chaos and Cosmos have disrupted the music crystal in a place called Rhythm.  It is now up to heroes from the Final Fantasys I to XIII to increase the output of the music wave known as Rhythpo in order to restore the crystal in Rhythm.  The player is able to choose a party of four Final Fantasy characters.  Some characters you can choose are Cecil from Final Fantasy IV, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, Squall from Final Fantasy VIII and Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII.  There is a level for each game in the main Final Fantasy series.  Each level has three stages that highlights a different song from the corresponding game.  The three stages from each level are a Field stage, a Battle stage and a Event Stage with the option to play through the opening and ending themes of each level.  The gameplay is very similar to Nintendo's Elite Beat Agents for the DS, where you tap and swipe the touch screen in the correct spot in order to keep in time with the beat of the song.  After completing each stage, your characters will gain more experience and level up.  As you play through the Theatrhythm, you will unlock bonus songs to play along with bonus movies as well.  Theatrhyhtm also features varying difficulties, a Challenge mode and a Chaos Tower mode to keep gamers busy playing this game for weeks and possibly even months on end.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy looks like an incredible amount of fan service.  Anybody who loves the music that has been produced for the Final Fantasy series these last 25 years will definitely want to pick up this Final Fantasy themed rhythm game.  When it was first announced, Theatrhytm looked interesting, but nothing really worthwhile.  The more I have seen of it, the more I believe Theatrhythm Final Fantasy could be a considerable third-party hit for the 3DS and rightfully so.  It is a game I will eventually pick up someday for my 3DS.