Form a Party of Four in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

Square Enix shares gameplay and music details for the Final Fantasy rhythm game.

2011-07-11 12:34 / Anoop Gantayat / Comments

Rather than making us wait until later in the week, Square Enix made official announcement of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy with the online press today, and also shared a few screenshots and details. While the exact nature of the rhythm gameplay is a bit unclear, Square Enix did give some hints about what to expect from the game.

You'll be able to select a title, from Final Fantasy 1 through Final Fantasy XIII. Each title has three stages: "field," "battle" and "event." Each of these stages has different different gameplay systems. You can also select difficulty, making the game suitable for beginners and rhythm masters alike, Square Enix says.

The game is played as a party of four characters. The main characters from the past FF games will appear in deformed style (designed by someone who worked on the Kingdom Hearts Mobile avatars -- see this story), and you'll get to form a party of four from the cast. Square Enix has not provided a list of characters, but you can already see Lightning, Cloud and others in the screenshots and at the official site.

Joining the rhythm gameplay, the game has character growth and collection aspects. When you clear a stage, your character will level up, although Square Enix did not say what getting a level up means in the context of a rhythm game. The collection aspects involve collecting music and movie scenes.

On the music front, the game will have major songs from the numbered FF games. Specific songs mentioned by Square Enix include Clash on the Big Bridge (Final Fantasy V), One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII), At Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X) and The Sunleth Waterscape (Final Fantasy XIII). And, of course, the main FF theme. You can hear a sample of the familiar main theme at the official site.

Square Enix also detailed the game's prologue. For that, see this story.

Theatrhythm will likely appear in this week's Famitsu (along with some commentary from Tetsuya Nomura where we'll be getting a few additional Final Fantasy Versus XIII details) so check back later in the week for an update.