THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE, Rhythm, Lights, Action.

One thing we can all agree on, even without having played any Final Fantasy and just watched small gameplay trailers, is that all of its soundtracks are memorable. THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE is a title that essentially celebrates music, as a love letter to all the defining moments of Final Fantasy titles.

The main idea of this title, being a rhythm game, will be for the player to press the buttons correctly as they appear on the monitor in the form of musical notes. Not only pressing buttons, but also keeping the joystick pressed towards a specific direction shown by green lines, and which allows the player to obtain a higher score. It's actually a pretty simple premise at first. As the difficulty of the levels increases, their complexity increases. Not only is it faster, but also the level of combinations required is more complex, such as needing to press a direction at the end of a combo string or lines. This combined with pressing different buttons, all at the same time, even reminds me a little of the movie " Everything Everywhere All at Once ".

When starting his musical journey, the player will have access to a key that allows him to open a game soundtrack and some characters from that world. Eventually, it is possible to open all the soundtracks and thus have access to different characters and build the party with which they most identify. All characters have their own specific "World" or "Title", but that's not why they can't be incorporated into the most diverse situations. Each character has a specific role, such as fighter, mage, support, hunter, and summoner just like Yuna. Throughout the levels, each character present in the party will gain experience points, thus increasing their level and consequent skill and strength. Still, at this point, each character will have access to 3 skill slots, where the player can choose specific skills for each case, or select the option to select the best skill. Sometimes the best skill is not the best option for the character, so it's really important to spend some time studying all the options.

Each level will have access to a main mission which, upon completion, will give you access to rewards. These rewards can be collectible cards, new means of locomotion, although they are only aesthetic is an interesting detail, Summons, among others. During the level itself it is possible to collect other objects, such as potions or phoenix downs, or even buffing items. One of the main details that makes this title stand out from other titles in the rhythm genre is precisely the aspect of the main missions. It is certainly possible to play all the levels and get the best score, but not complete the specific mission. Here comes the strategy behind building the party and its skills and the different combinations that can be made that allow the player to overcome the missions assigned to him.

There are 3 game modes, Series Quest, which is the single player adventure where you can unlock the various worlds and their different songs, Music Stages mode, which after unlocking the songs in Series Quest mode, the player will be able to adventure to beat your previous score, and finally the Multi Battle mode, which allows the player to join a room already created by another player, or to be the host of the room himself. This mode features a rating system where you can see how each player's run went.

Of course, part of the magic of THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE is based on the nostalgia surrounding the Final Fantasy universe, on the memories, you had the first time you set foot in any title of this adventure. For someone who just recently fell in love with this same universe, it is fascinating to drink a little bit of all this inspiration around its remarkable stories. It's so fascinating that, after finishing Final Fantasy X, at the beginning of 2023, I felt the need to venture into other titles. So I took advantage of the Steam promotions season to do so. Now I just need to find time to play them.

THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE presents a very complete difficulty system and a very demarcated learning curve. Simple at first but quite addictive in the sense of overcoming the previously achieved score, or simply because you want to collect all the collectibles.