i can't blame you for FALLING RIGHT BACK INTO THE SYSTEM
-
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
- The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
- Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
HOLD MY CURTAIN CALLS, THERE'S A NEW THEATRHYTHM: Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line
- Thread starter Kazin
- Start date
It feels a little bratty of me to complain about characters when there are going to be 104 of them in the full game (almost enough to face the Stars of Destiny in a dance-off!), but it's also slightly weird that certain titles won't have enough to form a full party of four. Weird side projects like FFMQ make sense to have low representation, but FF3 apparently only has Onion Knight, Cid and Cloud of Darkness, and FFT is just Ramza and Agrias doing their best.
Oh well. I'm just happy that my boy Tyro found new employment after the closure of FFRK Global left him destitute.
Oh well. I'm just happy that my boy Tyro found new employment after the closure of FFRK Global left him destitute.
For up to IX at least, most villains are playable.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
Yeah I hate the double slide arrows. It’s weird seeing one trigger that requires two inputs, and it’s really weird when the inputs switch between two arrows pointing out and two arrows pointing in. They’re the same inputs!
Makes me glad they added simple mode as an escape hatch.
Makes me glad they added simple mode as an escape hatch.
Time to break out an older icon. I think FIGHT has run his course.
Your post actually helped me a bit - realizing it didn't matter which direction I pushed which stick in meant that so long as I got the two directions pressed, it doesn't matter which stick does what (if that makes sense), so I just started doing better lol.
"Finished" the demo, having beaten all the songs on Expert and leveled every character available to 30. I may try to beat Desperate Struggle's mission, but I'm not sure how doable it is, at least on Expert - I don't know if I can do enough damage at level 30, and I'm not good enough to even score 9 million on Expert on that song since it apparently is stricter about the timing than usual, so I have no hope on Ultimate, that's for sure. Still, can't wait for the full game to come out already...!
I have also more or less "finished" the demo. Cleared all songs on Ultimate but didn't get everyone to 30 or complete all the quests. Took a peek at Torn From the Heavens on Supreme and lol that's gonna be impossible on a normal. And that song is only rated an 11 on that difficulty!
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
I just looked up the arcade game and maaaaan, I would totally plop down $300 or whatever for a fancy arcade controller. Every self-respecting rhythm game should have an overpriced peripheral.
Same
... you people blowing through the whole demo in a day have too much free time.
I kid, but anyway, finally sat down and played the FFXIII segment. The dual inputs are an interesting addition - I'm mostly fine with them, though a few things are a bit awkward and I may need to change up my button selections when I move to higher difficulties.
Failed an easy-marked mission to get two treasure chests in a field stage which I either A- or S- ranked but got none. Do I need to up a luck stat for that or something? Do they drop more on higher difficulties? Or did I just have bad RNG?
I kid, but anyway, finally sat down and played the FFXIII segment. The dual inputs are an interesting addition - I'm mostly fine with them, though a few things are a bit awkward and I may need to change up my button selections when I move to higher difficulties.
Failed an easy-marked mission to get two treasure chests in a field stage which I either A- or S- ranked but got none. Do I need to up a luck stat for that or something? Do they drop more on higher difficulties? Or did I just have bad RNG?
I'm not exactly certain of all the mechanics involved but I have several summons that have a boost to getting item drops, so equipping one of those if you have them would help. Also, it seems Hunter-type characters (like Yuffie) might boost your chance of getting chests, as their icon is a treasure chest.
I got lucky - the computer systems at my job went down for half the day yesterday and I work from home, so I just booted up Final Bar Line lol
In addition to what Vaeran said, I wonder if some of the quests aren't doable in the demo because your characters are all level capped at 30, and there's no stat customization in the demo either.
You can grind for stat increase items to give your characters a statistical edge even at this stage. The Guard Scorpion quest was doable utilizing those with a specific set-up piling on magic buffs and fire magic, but others seem more out of reach, like the note-scarce Odin boss quest, devaluing strategies like the trigger damage increase that some summons have.
It's been awhile since I dove into Curtain Call, but assuming Final Bar Line uses a similar system for Field stages the amount of treasures you get depends on the 'distance' you travel, and certain characters had abilities better suited for field map travel than battle.
But I haven't gone into the nitty gritty of what Final Bar Line has, much less in its demo, so I can't say for sure if it does something similar. Either way, higher leveled characters should help with that regardless.
But I haven't gone into the nitty gritty of what Final Bar Line has, much less in its demo, so I can't say for sure if it does something similar. Either way, higher leveled characters should help with that regardless.
I've managed to clear all the quests except for the combat difficult ones. For that FMS quest to get 2 treasure chests, the best you can do is a summon stone with Item Drop+ combined with a few characters that get FMS speed boosts. I'm pretty you still have to defeat enemies in the FMS stage to get a treasure drop, rather than what Curtain Call did and based it on distance traveled, but some characters also have passives that increase your speed during downtime.
It's items like Power Plus, Luck Plus and so on. Single-use and a permanent increase. You use them in the party menu. Should be a big "use item" prompt as you highlight a character, probably pressing Y/square or the like to bring up the menu. This is distinct from the pre-stage menu where you can activate consumable items to be used during the song, mind.
I'm a little worried the character building won't be as engaging as Curtain Call, even if using up Collectacards could be tedious, especially when you run out... But it kept me playing, you know? For years, it did. I only ever maxed out one character (Terra, of course - though now that I think about it, I think one of her stats wasn't maxed, maybe Luck? I'd have to check). Using a Power Plus on Cloud gave him +30 Strength, which was a boost not easily obtained in Curtain Call...
It's a scarcely available experience for people to draw upon, but rather than take Final Bar Line as a direct sequel to Curtain Call, it's probably more accurate to understand it as a console port and adaptation of the aforementioned All-Star Carnival, if only to contextualize any design divergences between the two as stemming from its arcade roots and context. It's premature and I doubt the differences in player experience will be as stark, but that was the division that struck people with Dissidia NT in how it continued the series in a differing play context, and how it de-emphasized the incremental numbers-go-up RPG character-building systems that attracted many to the otherwise raw skill mechanics at the heart of the series. I had no problem with the shift, since a fighting game or a rhythm game are what I play otherwise anyway, but it wasn't lost on me that for a lot of people they really wanted that additional contextualization and incentive to interact with either genre and what allowed these games to be as successful at hybridizing their ingredient genres as they were.
Got my treasure drops, played a few more titles, and was noting that the two boss quests mentioned above (Odin and Scorpion) seem difficult-to-impossible with the Lv30 cap, barring a ridiculous stat item grind. Ah well, no harm leaving them til the rest of the game drops I guess.
I’m already a little annoyed that you can only store 5 parties at once, lol. Not sure what it would harm to allow more other than making it take a bit longer to find the one you wanted.
I’m already a little annoyed that you can only store 5 parties at once, lol. Not sure what it would harm to allow more other than making it take a bit longer to find the one you wanted.
Yeah, I don't need the character building mechanics to be as deep as Curtain Call, but I will miss them if they are indeed gone (or de-emphasised). I still will be playing all these songs anyway, as Curtain Call was primarily a fun way to listen to Final Fantasy music, and having played the demo, I know my $100 won't be a waste, but I hope the rewards for routinely booting up the game and playing will be worth it. Maybe playing daily songs like in Curtain Call (which is a mechanic present in the demo, even though maxing out at 2,000 rhythmia is bonkers easy) will net us stat up items, which I guess would convince me to log in and play long after I beat every song in the game.
Well in learning more about FBL I have discovered the existence of ASC as mentioned in this thread. Even managed to try it out some thanks to a dedicated fanbase getting it running on PC. Don't know how much I'll play it as Peklo points out it feels like FBL is the console adaptation of it but we'll see how much Theatrhythm I need in my veins.
Sprite
(He/Him/His)
The “suggested next song” feature will do an okay job of keeping me grinding, I think.
I want there to be as many fiddly bits and number-go-ups as possible, and I think this game will have juuuust enough to keep me going. What’s neat about Theatrhythm is the mechanical one-way street. If you like the RPG bits, the rhythm stuff meshes nicely. If you just want a rhythm game, though, you can pretty much ignore the RPG bits.
I want there to be as many fiddly bits and number-go-ups as possible, and I think this game will have juuuust enough to keep me going. What’s neat about Theatrhythm is the mechanical one-way street. If you like the RPG bits, the rhythm stuff meshes nicely. If you just want a rhythm game, though, you can pretty much ignore the RPG bits.
Wait, what mechanic? I played a bunch yesterday, then did one song today and didn't notice anything special happen. But I did hit 2k rhythmia yesterday, so is it just rhythmia bonus that doesn't even display if you're maxed?