• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy |OT| Yes, "One-Winged Angel" is in! Quit asking!

Bururian

Member
Will Rhythmia top out at 99,999, or will it roll over to 100k? I know that's a silly question, but I'll eventually reach that, and I am really curious about it.
 

LadyRiven

Member
Last night I switched from using the collapsible stylus to using the one that came with the game. I also changed how I held the stylus, which resulted in more precise movements. Both changes made a huge difference! Especially when it comes to those slider notes.

I guess now I just need to play sitting at a table with the Kid Icarus stand instead of playing while laying in bed. I'm sure that will make a difference as well. >_>;;
 
The inconsistency between instrumentation and beat patterns throw me off a lot, and it's sort of starting to bug me now.

Figured i'd just take this snippet here instead of quoting the whole thing. One song that completely threw me when doing the dark notes was "Battle on the Big Bridge" I believe, where the beats suddenly without warning decided to start following something that was definitely not the main melody and continued that way for most of the track, it completely buggered me up. I'm still not quite sure what I was playing too, probably the backing but I had trouble noticing it over the rather infectious main melody, point is i've noticed that the game likes to switch between what the beats play to mid song, usually in order to create tougher beats for higher difficulties I guess but yeah it can definitely screw with your mind, especially when they alternate multiple times in the same run.
 

Midou

Member
Figured i'd just take this snippet here instead of quoting the whole thing. One song that completely threw me when doing the dark notes was "Battle on the Big Bridge" I believe, where the beats suddenly without warning decided to start following something that was definitely not the main melody and continued that way for most of the track, it completely buggered me up. I'm still not quite sure what I was playing too, probably the backing but I had trouble noticing it over the rather infectious main melody, point is i've noticed that the game likes to switch between what the beats play to mid song, usually in order to create tougher beats for higher difficulties I guess but yeah it can definitely screw with your mind, especially when they alternate multiple times in the same run.

Yes, very much this. Once in a while I got a long critical streak going, than all of a sudden it takes a second for my mind to try to figure out which instrument is being used for the beats, and sometimes I don't get it at all. I've even played some songs multiple times and had parts that made me go 'wtf?'. I used to play crazy amounts of keyboard stepmania(along side the actual stepping one), so I feel I can get rhythms down pretty well, but sometimes I just have no idea.

Wish the rhythmia screen was part of another score screen, and it would just let you hit a button to see the specifics, that's another like 10 seconds at the end of each song that just feels extra tedious when I'm in a good groove. Added to this, I wish the stuff like 'song in music player' was extra, and you got cool stuff more often.
 

rpmurphy

Member
It's not really too hard to figure out the flow of the notes after some practice and playing on lower difficulties. The larger issue, which is I think the weakness of the game and many of the games in the genre itself, is that the gameplay follows the sheet music too closely, which makes songs with more complex structure and elements rather a pain to play. It's not a bad thing per se, but consider that you don't have the whole sheet music at hand, you can't practice the sections that give you the most trouble without going through the whole song, and on top are added fluff to the controls like the slide notes which makes the game completely dependent on visual cues. But I'm not sure that the problem with consistency can really be fixed for this game, since the songs were composed without such a game in mind and they have to pull together the extra difficulty modes from somewhere.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
It follows the sheet music in that it changes instruments within the same set so you're following different parts of an ensemble sheet music set, and thus makes the difficulty setting and stream of notes feel rather inconsistent. One second, you're playing attention to the main synth, the next you're playing attention to the percussion, or sometimes the backing melody. I'm kind of weird in that I usually stick to one instrument in a listen and pay attention to what it plays, so it's affecting me a little more.

It simply doesn't seem consistent instrumentally. It's done for the sake of difficulty, but sticking with one instrument or channel can likely factor into the difficulty as I said before.

It's like you're playing the lead guitar for something but suddenly the tab sheet switches to the "x" stuff for the hi-hats or notes for a snare, which makes little sense.
 

laika09

Member
It follows the sheet music in that it changes instruments within the same set so you're following different parts of an ensemble sheet music set, and thus makes the difficulty setting and stream of notes feel rather inconsistent. One second, you're playing attention to the main synth, the next you're playing attention to the percussion, or sometimes the backing melody. I'm kind of weird in that I usually stick to one instrument in a listen and pay attention to what it plays, so it's affecting me a little more.

It simply doesn't seem consistent instrumentally. It's done for the sake of difficulty, but sticking with one instrument or channel can likely factor into the difficulty as I said before.

It's like you're playing the lead guitar for something but suddenly the tab sheet switches to the "x" stuff for the hi-hats or notes for a snare, which makes little sense.

Yes, this is bothering me too on the higher difficulties. Good analysis.

It only really bothers me because the gameplay becomes less about listening to the music and more about whackamole.
 

Midou

Member
Would have been cool if on top of field, cinematics and battle, it had town themes too. Some of my favorite songs in each FF are towns. I know some of field tracks are towns, but I think it deserved it's own play style.
 

Kazerei

Banned
Oh god, I have to put this game down. I took a nap this afternoon and dreamed I was playing Theatrhythm. The OCD gamer in me wants to keep going though. I still have three characters to unlock!

56845 rm
Trophies 29/64
Playtime 28:13
 

rpmurphy

Member
It follows the sheet music in that it changes instruments within the same set so you're following different parts of an ensemble sheet music set, and thus makes the difficulty setting and stream of notes feel rather inconsistent. One second, you're playing attention to the main synth, the next you're playing attention to the percussion, or sometimes the backing melody. I'm kind of weird in that I usually stick to one instrument in a listen and pay attention to what it plays, so it's affecting me a little more.

It simply doesn't seem consistent instrumentally. It's done for the sake of difficulty, but sticking with one instrument or channel can likely factor into the difficulty as I said before.

It's like you're playing the lead guitar for something but suddenly the tab sheet switches to the "x" stuff for the hi-hats or notes for a snare, which makes little sense.
At least for the benefit of this game, I haven't really found any switches so far that are illogical, and the switches are consistent within each song. Other rhythm games do the same thing, switching between vocals and instruments, so I guess I just don't pay much attention to that kind of thing.
 

Jintor

Member
It follows the sheet music in that it changes instruments within the same set so you're following different parts of an ensemble sheet music set, and thus makes the difficulty setting and stream of notes feel rather inconsistent. One second, you're playing attention to the main synth, the next you're playing attention to the percussion, or sometimes the backing melody. I'm kind of weird in that I usually stick to one instrument in a listen and pay attention to what it plays, so it's affecting me a little more.

It simply doesn't seem consistent instrumentally. It's done for the sake of difficulty, but sticking with one instrument or channel can likely factor into the difficulty as I said before.

It's like you're playing the lead guitar for something but suddenly the tab sheet switches to the "x" stuff for the hi-hats or notes for a snare, which makes little sense.

+1
 

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
At least for the benefit of this game, I haven't really found any switches so far that are illogical, and the switches are consistent within each song. Other rhythm games do the same thing, switching between vocals and instruments, so I guess I just don't pay much attention to that kind of thing.

To be fair, this is basically how about every rhythm game ever has worked for the sake of keeping the play varied. You often switch between lead and rhythm to keep things fresh, so you aren't just hammering out the same 16 notes for the entire song.
 

Midou

Member
To be fair, this is basically how about every rhythm game ever has worked for the sake of keeping the play varied. You often switch between lead and rhythm to keep things fresh, so you aren't just hammering out the same 16 notes for the entire song.

My problem is, even though I've heard some of these songs a hundred times, I still can't hear where certain parts come from. I can't give any specific examples right now, but I think this is the problem other people have too.
 

Boogiepop

Member
Played up through IX in series mode thus far. It's proving to be quite a charming little game. Weirdly enough, the Event modes songs are proving the most troubling for me, but not because of the actual songs themselves. I just keep getting distracted by what's happening in the background. I noticed that they oddly seemed to have a lot of parties comprised of the same jobs in III. Like, 3 black mages in a single party. Thought that was kind of interesting.
 

laika09

Member
Played up through IX in series mode thus far. It's proving to be quite a charming little game. Weirdly enough, the Event modes songs are proving the most troubling for me, but not because of the actual songs themselves. I just keep getting distracted by what's happening in the background. I noticed that they oddly seemed to have a lot of parties comprised of the same jobs in III. Like, 3 black mages in a single party. Thought that was kind of interesting.

As much as I loved III, class balance wasn't its biggest strength. One boss was pretty much unbeatable without four dragoons, haha. And of course once you unlock the two ultimate classes there's no reason to use anything else.

I appreciated the inclusion of shurikens as items, though.
 

BooJoh

Member
Just to be clear, from what I'm seeing here, if I find I'm having a lot of trouble with my latest Dark Note, I can delete it and replay the previous one to get a new one?

I had assumed that you couldn't get a new Dark Note from a "Cleared" Dark Note.
 
This game made me really appreciate XIII's soundtrack. I didn't really like it when I played through the first time, but now going back to listen to the OST has really changed my mind.
 
Do they repeat, or are they semi-generated?
They repeat, but you don't know which one you get until you actually play the song.

Some songs you'll think are really easy, but then you'll get a beat pattern that is based on a totally different aspect of the song. It keeps you on your toes.
 

rpmurphy

Member
They repeat, but you don't know which one you get until you actually play the song.

Some songs you'll think are really easy, but then you'll get a beat pattern that is based on a totally different aspect of the song. It keeps you on your toes.
Aww okay. That's still more than I expected, although I almost had hopes just then that there would be a better reason to StreetPass this game. :p
 
I'm really glad they didn't bring in Alexander O. Smith to shit faux Victorian poetry all over such a whimsical game. The localization is perfect as far as I'm concerned.

It's not about "faux victorian shit" or whatever. It's the actual localization is lazy as hell.

Videos in the background are of Japanese-language versions, even with English text in front of them. It uses Japanese versions of songs when there are English versions available and, more to the point, were the ones used in those games when they came to America.

That's bush-league. Square shouldn't be held to a lower standard.
 

Caelestis

Member
Would people really want all the songs to be in English in the game? I thought as soon as you start to understand what they are singing about they don't sound as nice...

Oh and I like how UPS has send my copy of this somewhere that is not my address so now it is lost in a limbo. :\
 
Would people really want all the songs to be in English in the game? I thought as soon as you start to understand what they are singing about they don't sound as nice...

Oh and I like how UPS has send my copy of this somewhere that is not my address so now it is lost in a limbo. :\

I, for example, don't have any nostalgia for Melodies of Life in Japanese. That's not what I played over a decade ago.

If that were the concern, they should have offered both versions with a switch. But I suspect it was more that a proper localization was deemed too expensive for a low-priority project and their feet deserve to be held to the fire for that.
 

laika09

Member
It's not about "faux victorian shit" or whatever. It's the actual localization is lazy as hell.

Videos in the background are of Japanese-language versions, even with English text in front of them. It uses Japanese versions of songs when there are English versions available and, more to the point, were the ones used in those games when they came to America.

That's bush-league. Square shouldn't be held to a lower standard.

You're asking them to fundamentally alter the game's content. In the exactly one case of a Japanese song, Melodies of Life, you're asking them to modify the actual gameplay (as the notes are tied to the vocals) without any input from the developer. You're asking them to record videos, in English, of games that were never released outside of Japan. And you're asking them to do this for a game that won't break 150k units.

This game isn't about rekindling your fond memories of playing FFIII on your DS in 2006, it's about the heritage and evolution of the series. If anything they should be commended for releasing this game at all considering how little of its appeal is relevant to the vast majority of western consumers.

Japanese text in gameplay videos of games (most of which were never released elsewhere) is bush-league? Okay. Personally I can make peace with them saving thousands of dollars and getting the game out in a reasonable timeframe.

(I'm glad they passed on Sayuri Sugawara if that meant that people would be clamoring for "My Hands" in the localization...)

HEY.

HEY.

HEY.

Hey.

Damn. Don't be too hard on the guy. No one can salvage Matsuno's melodrama.

It works in Ivalice, even if it gets heavy-handed from time to time. It would be cringeworthy here.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Sash said:
Would people really want all the songs to be in English in the game? I thought as soon as you start to understand what they are singing about they don't sound as nice...
I would because I'm so used to the note progression in those themes. Melodies of Life messed me up a little because I'm so used to the English version due to listening to it and practicing it in the past. I don't have much of an attachment to the Japanese version. Those were the songs that were added to the original games during their localizations for the western audience, and they should add them for the sake of consistency and nostalgia.

For the love of pancakes, the game plays off of nostalgia, and it would have had a better effect if it had a better localization--for the EMS segments, in particular.

I'm really glad they didn't bring in Alexander O. Smith to shit faux Victorian poetry all over such a whimsical game. The localization is perfect as far as I'm concerned.
The man localized Phoenix Wright. :O
 
You're asking them to fundamentally alter the game's content. In the exactly one case of a Japanese song, Melodies of Life, you're asking them to modify the actual gameplay (as the notes are tied to the vocals) without any input from the developer. You're asking them to record videos, in English, of games that were never released outside of Japan. And you're asking them to do this for a game that won't break 150k units.

This game isn't about rekindling your fond memories of playing FFIII on your DS in 2006, it's about the heritage and evolution of the series. If anything they should be commended for releasing this game at all considering how little of its appeal is relevant to the vast majority of western consumers.

Japanese text in gameplay videos of games (most of which were never released elsewhere) is bush-league? Okay. Personally I can make peace with them saving thousands of dollars and getting the game out in a reasonable timeframe.

(I'm glad they passed on Sayuri Sugawara if that meant that people would be clamoring for "My Hands" in the localization...)

At least we've shifted from "It's perfect" to "Let's make excuses."

Sure, they have a lot of excuses. I absolutely do not care. Things like the FFVI video use Japanese text, which is insane. Say what you want about the game not being about nostalgia (and using an example I didn't even mention, so whoever you're arguing with in your head should probably stay out of the discussion), removing that aspect from it significantly harms the game as an experience. Not being good at nostalgia should be called out.

Like I said, it is obvious why they did not do it. It is a low-priority localization (that still took five months). That doesn't keep it from being sloppy.
 
It uses Japanese versions of songs when there are English versions available and, more to the point, were the ones used in those games when they came to America.

Wait, which songs were this? The three songs with lyrics I've come across were how they were in the English version of their games
 

zroid

Banned
I, for example, don't have any nostalgia for Melodies of Life in Japanese. That's not what I played over a decade ago.

If that were the concern, they should have offered both versions with a switch. But I suspect it was more that a proper localization was deemed too expensive for a low-priority project and their feet deserve to be held to the fire for that.

Heh, I feel like this might have been something that bothered me, if not for the fact that none of the relevant games are ones that I have played in the given form.

That is, I've not played 1, 2 or 9, while I played the DS versions of 3 and 4.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
It is a low-priority localization (that still took five months).

5 months is pretty damn fast actually, (assuming that number is accurate in terms of actual time spent on the localization). Don't forget at least a month of that alone would be for manufacturing and packaging.

You don't mess around with Nintendo Lot Check, so 2 months of QA/cert wouldn't be surprising. ;P
 
Oh, I haven't played Melodies of Life yet.

Didn't know Sunleth Waterscape had different lyrics between versions too after looking it up either. I stand corrected.

edit: whoops I have, didn't realize it was Japanese either because I wasn't paying attention..
 

laika09

Member
At least we've shifted from "It's perfect" to "Let's make excuses."

Sure, they have a lot of excuses. I absolutely do not care. Things like the FFVI video use Japanese text, which is insane. Say what you want about the game not being about nostalgia (and using an example I didn't even mention, so whoever you're arguing with in your head should probably stay out of the discussion), removing that aspect from it significantly harms the game as an experience. Not being good at nostalgia should be called out.

Like I said, it is obvious why they did not do it. It is a low-priority localization (that still took five months). That doesn't keep it from being sloppy.

I assumed you were talking about the meaningful parts of the localization, and not making vapid and pedantic complaints about the low-res compressed text on hardcoded background movies. So apologies for giving you the benefit of the doubt.

I, of course, did not use an example that you mentioned because you didn't mention any examples, so I apologize again for trying to lend some sporting credence to your, uh, argument.

Square Enix deserves enormous amounts of credit for bringing such a fringe product over in the first place, and whining that they didn't rerecord movies of 18-25 year old games, most of which were never released in the west, and rehire the developer of a game that finished production close to a year ago to modify gameplay components merely to avoid offending delicate western sensibilities is simply being unreasonable.

So anyway, the localization is perfect.

Wait, which songs were this? The three songs with lyrics I've come across were how they were in the English version of their games

Melodies of Life had (extremely embarrassing and cheesy) English lyrics in the western version of the game.

Eyes on Me had English lyrics in all versions, Suteki Da Ne had Japanese lyrics in all versions. Sunleth Waterscape had slightly different lyrics, but both in English.

He's just making a mountain out of a molehill. I, for one, am glad not to understand MoL.
 

Dark Schala

Eloquent Princess
Didn't know Sunleth Waterscape had different lyrics between versions too after looking it up either. I stand corrected.

edit: whoops I have, didn't realize it was Japanese either because I wasn't paying attention..
Yeah, they used the Japanese FFXIII's version of the theme, but it was in English anyway. I imagine that if they'd added Serah's Theme to this game, it would have been the same case of them using the version of that theme from the Japanese version even if it was originally in English.

They just changed the lyrics for the western version of Final Fantasy XIII because they thought the lyrics would flow better to English speakers. Interestingly, iirc, they used the Japanese version of Sunleth Waterscape in the western version of Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Edit: Oh yikes, this thread's gotten crazy. :p
 
Top Bottom