Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line

[Hero-of-Time]

Very fitting seeing how a few of us on here have recently been playing the 3DS games.

[Hero-of-Time]

 

PS4 release confirmed. I do enjoy my Final Fantasy platinum trophies. Probably pick it up for that console instead of my Switch.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Hero-of-Time

[drahkon]

Well well well, never played a Theatrhythm game so...this'll do nicely.

Darksnowman and H-o-T playing the 3DS version got me intrigued and next year I'll join in on the talk  

[Glen-i]

1 minute ago, drahkon said:

Well well well, never played a Theatrhythm game so...this'll do nicely.

Darksnowman and H-o-T playing the 3DS version got me intrigued and next year I'll join in on the talk  

Lucky you! 385 songs is a lot to jump in on!

I was praying for a console version of the arcade game, but I'll happily take a new entry that's based on the arcade style instead!

I hate myself for it, but I can't resist that Digital Deluxe Edition. I'll only regret it if I don't. Hope it means you get every DLC song as it's released...

[drahkon]

So what can I expect from this?
"Simply" a rhythm game? Nothing against it but there's Final Fantasy involved. I WANT TO GRIND!

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, drahkon said:

So what can I expect from this?
"Simply" a rhythm game? Nothing against it but there's Final Fantasy involved. I WANT TO GRIND!

You grind exp to level up and get better abilities. There's plenty to grind for.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Hero-of-Time

[drahkon]

Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

You grind exp to get level up and get better abilities. There's plenty to grind for.

[Glen-i]

13 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Yeah, you basically build a party of 4 very cute versions of characters from Final Fantasy games, some are good at healing, some specialise in magic, and so on.

They learn abilities to equip as they level up, which makes it easier to kill monsters, or make it easier to get through a song without losing all your HP (Song ends in failure if that happens).

Edited September 13, 2022 by Glen-i

[Glen-i]

Three digital versions. Only one physical.

Quote

Season Passes will include tracks from the NieR series, SaGa series, Mana series, The World Ends with You, OCTOPATH TRAVELER, LIVE A LIVE and loads more!

There are three Season Passes, each featuring different titles' music tracks. Every Season Pass will contain 5 song packs for a total of 30 songs each.


Three editions of THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE will be available at launch:
 

Standard Edition: Available physically and digitally, this contains 385 sounds from across the FINAL FANTASY series

Digital Deluxe Edition: Contains all songs from the standard edition, plus 27 additional tracks, and Season Pass 1.

Premium Digital Deluxe Edition: Contains all songs from the standard edition, plus 27 additional tracks, and Season Passes 1-3.

I suppose I might as well go all in. Here's what to expect from the Season Passes.

Quote

Set content (502 tracks)

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line core game (385 tracks)

[Deluxe Edition] music tracks (27 tracks)
Featuring "Eyes On Me", "Melodies Of Life", "To Zanarkand", "A Long Fall (Scions and Sinners: Band) and more.

Season Pass 1 (total of 30 tracks)
SaGa Pack (7 tracks)
LIVE A LIVE Pack (4 tracks)
The World Ends with You Pack (6 tracks)
NieR Pack (5 tracks)
SaGa Pack Vol. 2 (8 tracks)

Season Pass 2 (total of 30 tracks)
NieR Pack Vol. 2 (6 tracks)
CHRONO Pack (6 tracks)
CHRONO Pack Vol. 2 (6 tracks)
Mana Pack (7 tracks)
OCTOPATH TRAVELER Pack (5 tracks)

Season Pass 3 (total of 30 tracks)
SaGa Pack Vol. 3 (7 tracks)
Mana Pack Vol. 2 (6 tracks)
Xenogears Pack (3 tracks)
??? Pack (6 tracks)
??? Pack (8 tracks)

Not enough Octopath Traveler music, but it's more then the arcade game has, so it's an improvement.

I wonder if the vague "Chrono pack" means that we'll get some Chrono Cross music as well.

The lack of Bravely Default music concerns me though. I hope those songs didn't get cut. They're in Curtain Call...

Of course, it could be in the last two packs, or in the Deluxe edition, but then, why keep that secret?

Edited September 13, 2022 by Glen-i

[Sheikah]

Theatrhythm was great fun, nice to see this being brought to more modern consoles. There's something about 3DS that makes me loath to go back to it (possibly it being in standard definition with much smaller screens). It feels like a really old device, much older than it actually is. Also trophy support on the PS4 should be nice.

[Jonnas]

MFers really locked Melodies of Life and To Zanarkand behind the half-premium version...

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

I wonder if the vague "Chrono pack" means that we'll get some Chrono Cross music as well.

I was thinking exactly that Maybe a Radical Dreamers track too.

2 hours ago, Glen-i said:

The lack of Bravely Default music concerns me though. I hope those songs didn't get cut. They're in Curtain Call...

Of course, it could be in the last two packs, or in the Deluxe edition, but then, why keep that secret?

Bravely Default III?

And on the same vein... Triangle Strategy II?

Edited September 13, 2022 by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

3 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Bravely Default III?

And on the same vein... Triangle Strategy II?

I'm hoping for Octopath Traveler II music, I've not heard any of the songs, but I don't care. I know it'll be great!

Anyway, I spotted Red XIII, Mog, and even Mystery Dungeon's Choco in there. So there's new characters as well.

[Dcubed]

@Glen-i.  We made this happen! Told you that playing All Star Carnival was a good idea!!

Fingers crossed that S-E release a replica Arcade Controller here… All Star Carnival’s control scheme is mad fun, and FBR’s gameplay is clearly based off of it

[Dcubed]

Full length trailer.

[martinist]

you know i'm buying the £100 Premium Deluxe version. Played the crap out of both games on the DS years ago. Still play Curtian Call every now and again.

[V. Amoleo]

I really hope it has touch screen as an option on the Switch.

[Dufniall]

We discussed about this on the Discord last week, but wouldn't it be something if Nintendo would make a game like this? Imagine a Smash Bros Ultimate spin-off rhythm game with that soundtrack. Oh my.

[Hero-of-Time]

21 minutes ago, Dufniall said:

We discussed about this on the Discord last week, but wouldn't it be something if Nintendo would make a game like this? Imagine a Smash Bros Ultimate spin-off rhythm game with that soundtrack. Oh my.

I'm genuinely surprised nobody else has approached S-E to make this type of game for them but with their own franchise. Zelda would make for a fantastic Theatryhthm game, even more so if you could have Tingle as a party member.  

Edited September 15, 2022 by Hero-of-Time

[Sheikah]

2 hours ago, V. Amoleo said:

I really hope it has touch screen as an option on the Switch.

Thinking about that, I wonder how well it will work. I think a stylus worked well for precise touching of the different keys, but I'm not so sure how easy it will be to touch with fingers when the speed kicks up.

[Glen-i]

5 hours ago, V. Amoleo said:

I really hope it has touch screen as an option on the Switch.

 

2 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Thinking about that, I wonder how well it will work. I think a stylus worked well for precise touching of the different keys, but I'm not so sure how easy it will be to touch with fingers when the speed kicks up.

Gonna nip this in the bud right now. It's not a touch screen game.

As I mentioned before, it's based on the arcade game, you can tell this because of the double notes, two inputs that you have to hit at the same time. There's also the double arrows, where you use the two control sticks to hit both of them at once.

You wouldn't want touch screen compatibility on the Switch version anyway, that screen is far too imprecise for a game like this. The fact that it's not touch screen is likely the reason why PlayStation is getting it at all.

I played the arcade game, and the biggest barrier was my muscle memory of the 3DS version. But once I started to unlearn that, it started to become much easier to handle. It works well enough. (Except the fourth purple difficulty option, that's just insanely difficult)

[Jonnas]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

As I mentioned before, it's based on the arcade game, you can tell this because of the double notes, two inputs that you have to hit at the same time. There's also the double arrows, where you use the two control sticks to hit both of them at once.

Yeah, I thought those were weird, but looking at the joy-cons, I figured that's what it was.

Despite me preferring the stylus, the buttons are just as fine... except for those "Hold" inputs that end on a Slide during FMSes. As I move the circle into its final position, the game registers it as an attempted "good" Slide.

Do you think it's possible to make it so that one stick controls the circle, and the other one takes care of the Slide at the end?

[Glen-i]

3 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Do you think it's possible to make it so that one stick controls the circle, and the other one takes care of the Slide at the end?

Well, in the arcade one, it didn't matter which one you used for each input (As long as it was a single note), so I imagine that can still work here, thanks to having two sticks.

[Sheikah]

18 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Gonna nip this in the bud right now. It's not a touch screen game.

Do you mean this specific game isn't? The one being released?

I guess it's a bit of a shame because I can't imagine pressing buttons on the Switch would be as good an experience as using a stylus on 3DS, but then you can't use a hard stylus with the Switch anyway.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Sheikah

[Dcubed]

5 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

But...it was. The game we all played on 3DS was a touch screen game. That's a bit like saying Monkey Ball is not a game you played with a controller because the original arcade cabinet came with a banana joystick.

It would be more accurate to say "Theatrhythm is a game both played with buttons (as in the original arcade cabinet game) and touch screen (as with the 3DS)."

There's nothing really to be gained by debating which is more "correct" based on what came first. While I've never played the arcade machine I can say from playing on 3DS that using a stylus to actually touch the keys on screen is a pretty genius idea and one that worked very well, which is why I'm a little concerned how it would work out with buttons. You've also got to remember that with an arcade cabinet, the placement of buttons is tailored to that specific game.

If we look at a different example - Resident Evil 4 on Wii introduced motion aiming for the game, which made the game much easier to be precise. The motion controls came second but many would argue it was a superior way to play.

 

He's saying the Final Bar Line is not a touch screen game, not that the 3DS game isn't originally a touch screen game (which it most certainly is.  The button option was always an afterthought - hell, Theatrhythm was originally being developed for the original DS before being moved over to the 3DS).

Final Bar Line is essentially an upgraded port of the arcade game, All Star Carnival; which is not a touch screen game.  It had a custom controller that used two buttons and two turntable... things.  See below...

Game is mad fun BTW!

ASC plays very differently from the 3DS games.  Even ignoring the switch from touchscreen to this custom controller, it is fundamentally a two-handed game; whereas the 3DS games are single-handed.  You are expected to hit multiple notes/slides at the same time with different hands.

That's why it's fairly safe to say that Final Bar Line will not support the touchscreen... and it's also why this game really needs a custom controller that replicates the arcade setup!

Edited September 16, 2022 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

18 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

He's saying the Final Bar Line is not a touch screen game, not that the 3DS game isn't originally a touch screen game (which it most certainly is.  The button option was always an afterthought - hell, Theatrhythm was originally being developed for the original DS before being moved over to the 3DS).

Final Bar Line is essentially an upgraded port of the arcade game, All Star Carnival; which is not a touch screen game.  It had a custom controller that used two buttons and two turntable... things.  See below...

Game is mad fun BTW!

ASC plays very differently from the 3DS games.  Even ignoring the switch from touchscreen to this custom controller, it is fundamentally a two-handed game; whereas the 3DS games are single-handed.  You are expected to hit multiple notes/slides at the same time with different hands.

That's why it's fairly safe to say that Final Bar Line will not support the touchscreen... and it's also why this game really needs a custom controller that replicates the arcade setup!

Yeah I had realised that's probably what he meant and edited my post pretty quickly, but you still managed to see it.

I think the point you made about needing a custom controller is spot on. I guess my point is that Theatrhythm on 3DS was perfectly designed for it, whereas this looks like it could be tricky with a standard controller setup.