THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE devs: our 10 most emotional moments
THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE Series Director Masanobu Suzui shares some of the team’s favorite secrets and callbacks in this love letter to FINAL FANTASY!Hello - my name is Masanobu Suzui and I am the Series Director for the THEATRHYTHM games.
Our new game, THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE, is more than just a rhythm action game. It’s also a celebration of the FINAL FANTASY series that all of us on the development team adore. This game is a true passion project, and we’ve filled it with recreations, secrets and references to the moments in games that mean so much to us.
I wanted to share some of these with you all, so I asked the team to tell me some of the things you can do in the game that conjure powerful emotions for them personally.
As you can see, we all poured a lot of love into the game!
1. STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN: Jack’s Theme
One of the tracks we added to THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE was Jack’s Theme from STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN. We paid special attention to the background so that it reacts exactly like it does in the ending to that game, with light emerging from a glimmer of clouds in the sky!
If you play with just a party consisting of Garland and Princess Sarah, it doubles the emotional impact of the moment - it’s something we’re really proud of!
2. Alexander’s Temporal Stasis attack affects more than the combat
There’s a really cool feature in the stage for THE PRIMALS / FINAL FANTASY XIV track Band:Rise (included in the Deluxe Editions of the game).
What we tried to do was recreate the Temporal Stasis attack in the battle with Alexander on the music score itself! Everything in the stage - including the rhythm itself - freezes and if you’ve played FINAL FANTASY XIV, you’ll immediately recognize when it happens! Please enjoy that little Easter Egg for fans!
3. Recreating an emotional moment with Noctis
For the FINAL FANTASY XV track Main Theme from FINAL FANTASY, we specially made blue flower petals that fly across the scene as you play. We did this to recreate the original moment in FINAL FANTASY XV when you hear this song!
4. Introducing Aeon Battles
In previous THEATRHYTHM FINAL FANTASY games, Summons – or Aeons or Eidolons, depending on the game - emerged to help the player damage enemies. However, for THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE, we asked the developers to use the Summon data to appear on the monsters’ side.
This was done because we wanted to represent the Aeon battles in FINAL FANTASY X, so it’s really cool it’s in the game. If you play with a team comprising the original characters - Tidus, Yuna and Auron - it’s even more emotional!
5. Going solo with Zack Fair
You may have noticed that THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE allows you to set a party of a single character. This feature exists in the game because of the track The Price of Freedom from CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII–!
We wanted to recreate that one scene where you’re just playing as Zack alone against the horde of Shinra soldiers!
6. Moogle memories of FINAL FANTASY XIII-2
If you want to capture the spirit of FINAL FANTASY XIII-2, use a two person party with just Serah and Noel on any song from the game. The team is accompanied by a Moogle, just as they are in the original game! which really helps recreate the feeling of the original game!
7. Moogle memories of FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES
In FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES stages, if you play as Ciaran alone, you get a two-man party with just a Moogle as a partner, just like you do when you play CRYSTAL CHRONICLES solo. Some on the team find this very emotional as it recreates the powerful moments and memories from the game!
8. Blitz Off!
The music stage for Blitz Off! from FINAL FANTASY X has some fun features. To simulate the idea of Blitzball in our game, we made it so that only human enemies appear during the track Blitz Off! Also, occasionally, a circular enemy appears to simulate the ball!
When you play this stage, I recommend playing as just Tidus and Jecht. Then you have the Zanarkand Abes on your side!
9. Galuf charges in
This is one of my own personal favorites. During The Dawn Warriors, if you play as Galuf on his own, you can recreate the scene where he rushes into Exdeath’s castle to save Bartz and his comrades.
Apparently, the guy who worked on that stage was crying all the time while he made it!
10. A secret that will bowl you over
If you press both bumper buttons down on a loading screen, it makes the party fall over! If the screen is showing chocobos, they’ll jump up!
This one’s not really emotional - it’s just funny.
I hope you enjoy playing THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE and discover your own emotional moments!
The game is out now for PS4 and Nintendo Switch. Three versions are available:
Standard Edition: Available physically and digitally, this contains 385 songs 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.
- Get THEATRHYTHM FINAL BAR LINE on Switch
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