Arbiter Libera
☉ Platform: Nintendo 3DS
₪ Genre: Rythm
☑ Release date: September 2014
♬ Soundtrack: 200+ songs from the entirety of Final Fantasy
I've dabbled with the original Theaterythm before tackling Curtain Call, but was convinced by a friend it's not necessary because the sequel improved it in pretty much every regard and just had plain more content. Could have playing through that first, as much as one can with rhythm games without looking to top all scores, affected my judgment of the second game? We'll never really know considering the “damage” is already done, but let's still dive into Curtain Call regardless.
If I had to make a very simple comparison and observation it would be that Theaterythm is one side of a tremendous Final Fantasy fan service coin. Other side would be Dissidia, for those who want to know. What does that mean? In essence – if you care about what it's peddling you'll be all over the game, but if you're not as enthusiastic about Final Fantasy music as a whole and, perhaps more importantly, you have no connection to it because you skipped related games Curtain Call might be a bit harder deal to sell. You will see me get down to game's positives and negatives down below yet I should also say that this is not a bad game. I'm simply not any authority on rhythm games nor any great fan so it had limited appeal to me personally.
Story? Uh... Order and Chaos, something something, complete music stages to gain this elusive resource called Rhythmia that can restore the world. Done. It's a very reminiscent of earlier mentioned Dissidia games in a sense that it's really just some tacked on justification to get you into the game. If you're expecting a traditionally strong Final Fantasy story look elsewhere.
What you will find, though, is some pretty damn enjoyable rhythm gameplay spread across three different types of stages: Field Stages where you control one character while non-combat music plays, Event Stages where you're playing as full-motion video is unfolding in the background (with you trying to NOT look at it) and lastly Combat Stages where you control a faux party of four while combat music is blasting in the background. Curtain Call also added a what could be a fourth type – that being Versus mode – but at the core it's still just combat stages this time with a premise of climbing up in a tournament. There is also local and online play if you feel so inclined. Gameplay itself is rather elegant if not simplistic in a sense that you have to time your actions to execute appropriate commands which range from holding and drag, immediate presses and directional swipes. There are also three stage difficulties and oh boy, does it ramp up from relaxed interaction to WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME? in the end. Compared to the original sequel does have a great addition in a sense that there's now more than ONE control scheme. So, if you don't like the styles for whatever reason you're not limited to it but I think it still remains the preferred method for most average players. Ahem. Me, I mean me, alright.
Now, I've left out brand new added mode called Medley Quests which is really its own thing. It tries to tell stories, but not really because it's just strings together missions with specific recommended levels in mind. Medley Quests still absolutely feels like where you'll be spending the bulk of the game after you go through each game's presented songs in basic mode. Why? Because character unlocks and needing colored crystals to unlock them. As you begin to acquire Rhythmia you will also unlock new stuff along the way and that ranges from new songs to play or listen, new menu chimes and effects or crystals you need to unlock characters. Each character falls under a certain colored crystal group and quantity needed to unlock them goes up over time so yeah, you'll need a more reliable method of getting your greedy paws on the shinnies. That's where Medley Quests come into play because as you play and replay, and replay, and replay them you will get some crystals at the end leading to a larger character roster.
Characters are frankly their own beast and I'm kind afraid to even go there. They all gain experience after completed stages, have their own specific progression paths so they're not just interchangeable faces yet are also clearly better fit for certain type of stages because, for example, you want characters with high STR and MAG for combat stages, they have abilities that can be life savers on the highest difficulty, etc. That's without mentioning there's an item system you can use to affect things like which summon you'll get, because those are in the game as well and show up based on your stage performance, or pre-stage bonuses. Let alone how you gather various cards along the way, cards that you can either A) use to complete your album for the inner collector in your and/or B) use it to further upgrade characters in an entirely separate menu.
What I'm trying to say is this is a grinder's and min-maxer's wet dream kind of game.
So that's a very mixed opinion, right? You bet it is. In the end, as a layman on the subject of these games, I really have to say this is something I would recommend primarily to Final Fantasy fans who are in it for the music. Fortunately, even if you don't care about screen-snapping difficulty or grinding path to optimization game has a very mellow setting you can play on and hear all those songs you remember from your favorite game(s). Not counting all that were added through DLC there's over 200 songs in the game as well as 60 characters to recruit so there's for sure plenty of content there.
Problem with Curtain Call is that, honestly, after you've played it for ten-fifteen minutes you've basically seen everything it has to offer as a game. Might as well put together a Youtube playlist of your favorite songs if that's all the game becomes.
☉ Platform: Nintendo 3DS
₪ Genre: Adventure, JRPG
☑ Release date: November 2012
♬ Soundtrack: Main Theme and Her Reputation Precedes Her
You might be glancing back and forth between the game's title and box art, and wondering if I've finally lost my marbles but I assure that it's not the case. Not yet, at least. In this singular example Crimson Shroud sadly never saw proper physical release and was bundled together with couple of other games in this anthology titled Guild01. This release was also Japan-only. It took couple of months for individual games to be released separately on eShops worldwide and that's a good thing because any JRPG fan would be remiss to overlook Crimson Shroud. Let's dig in.
As the narrator promptly informs us we assume the role(s) of Chasers – group that will find anyone for the right price. In our particular case it's a trio of characters who get to form the party; Giaque, Frea and Lippi. It's a good thing they're pretty well defined with distinct personalities and combat roles because Crimson Shroud opts for a smaller party so they're your only go-to people with Frea being the resident mage and cynic, Giaque assuming the role of leader and front-man while Lippi takes the rear with his bow and ability to sense enemies. Intro keeps the cards well hidden, but from in media res setup you can tell there's a lot more at work here than just a group of adventurers on a simple mission the tutorial lets you on. I won't go on much longer about the story and characters of the game, yet I feel compelled to mention it's an interesting spin to have your character indebted to their antagonist and intriguing hook to get you to pay attention to what's unfolding before your eyes. After all, this IS a Matsuno game and it shows through and through.
Where I really find Crimson Shroud, well, shines is in the mechanics. This is a game where magic spells are tied to weapons reminiscent of FF9, sans the ability to memorize them for good because that would be too easy, and rotating said implements around will let the characters employ different spells. In practice this means you're constantly thinking about “Should I replace this stabby-stabby for stat gains or keep it for the ability I get from it?” without ever becoming annoying unless you have a fundamental problem this system itself. Fact that Frea, Giaque and Lippi are already distinct “classes” kinda helps here aka Giaque cannot equip staves nor can Frea handle axes, for example. That doesn't mean our two non-casters are incapable of casting spells or even have some on their weapons, though. It's merely a matter of overcoming their inability to regenerate their magic naturally, but that's what items are for if you're really inclined to go down that path. On the other hand Skills are occasionally learned at the end of battles and, beside equipment which is also looted at the end of combat, are the only method of improving your characters in a game without levels.
You might think these are relatively simple turn-based JRPG systems, albeit some may be atypical for the genre if you only look at current mainstream titles, but bottom 3DS screen hides real joy as far as I'm concerned – dice. What do I mean by that or are we going back to whether I've lost my mind? Well, you get dice for executing proper Chains aka sequentially casting differently attuned abilities without A) directly repeating them or B) casting their opposite, in combat which is harder than it sounds because enemies can disrupt your Chain. D&D fans will feel right at home with everything from 1d4 to 1d20. These dice can be used to improve your attack either by adding damage or hit % chance, but even if you don't bother with Chains you will still be employing dice in some capacity. Whether it be Frea's regeneration ability to restore her magic points, how many turns you or enemies are immobilized for depending on whether battle was an ambush or benefiting your side, etc. Dice are not just a gimmick in this game which makes it all the better you don't have to pull out your stylus every time you have to roll because A button and analog will suffice.
Rolls also exist on adventure maps. By that I mean areas you will be advancing through in unlockable segments because there's no real overworld or anything similar in here. That doesn't mean these maps are devoid of events or encounters, though. Practically every segment will have something ranging from party banter, combat scenario, bags of loot, etc and good chunk of these will be prompted by a choice or two you can make. Do you open the chest and risk whatever could happen or just walk away? Do you parry the incoming goblin arrow or attempt to dodge? This is where rolls also come into play leaving it sometimes to RNG, but pulling you in by the sheer interactive aspect that often goes amiss. I found it a worthwhile pursuit.
I haven't yet talked about the visuals or game's soundtrack so I'll drop a few here.
Crimson Shroud has a very specific look in a sense that characters are essentially tabletop miniatures with set poses resulting in somewhat stilted scenes and “cutscene” direction overall, but one you'll get used to because written dialog is where most of the delivery lies at. Keep in mind this also affects overall level of production quality in terms of animations as you'll see characters move around during combat as if someone picked up the minis and aggressively flung them about, simulating the idea of moving the pieces and “attacking” enemy pieces. It's all very charming if you come from a particular tabletop background, but I can also see how it would be annoying if you're used to things like, oh I don't know, attack animations.
Even before I really looked into the soundtrack I could tell from early on Sakimoto was involved as it heavily reminds of his Ivalice work. Not to say he was solely responsible for the soundtrack at hand as there was about half-dozen composers hard at work, but that's what stood out for me. Seeing as I'm not any sort of musical expert I'll just say I enjoyed what I heard tremendously and leave it that. One advice I'm going to give is to play the game with headphones as 3DS' speakers can't really do it justice.
So let's wrap this up. Would I recommend Crimson Shroud? Without fail and then some. I would say beware of some caveats, though. Game is no budget title as I envision such things even though you can tell it was a limited production with a ton of heart in it with some constraints just as visible be it due to hardware or budget. This means you should probably curb your expectations coming in from bigger titles, but what it lacks in that department game makes up for in mechanics themselves. Which brings me to the inevitable RNG discussion whenever dice rolls are involved. It's simply a fact and while Crimson Shroud hardly lives or dies by them the dice and lady Luck still play a part if you want to get the most out of the game. If this is a deal breaker for you, you might want to look elsewhere.
Hopefully we see more of Crimson Shroud or similar projects some day.
Foreword (Report #002)
My first bite-sized update released in record time. ❤
Probably helped by the fact I was away from my PC most of the time so I didn’t get to do much, but as you’ll quickly discover at least it lead to my old portable finally seeing some [light] use. Hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can get around to Resident Evil 7 and couple of other games I have on stand-by. I should apologize for my lack of availability off-site, but it has been a hectic period.
Outlandish Junction
I think that the entertainment industry itself has a history of chasing success. Any time a hit product comes out, all the other companies start chasing after that success and trying to recreate it by putting out similar products.
3DS update, I guess? Left to waste by the wayside it has at long last been resuscitated by yours truly to bring enjoyment when otherwise occupied and became target of many ushered prayers when one lends it to others. Old bugger keeps chugging on, though. Much to my own surprise I tackled a rhythm game tied to a familiar long-running franchise and a JRPG palette cleanser… after a game from the aforementioned series left a bad taste in my mouth as described in my last update.
☉ Platform: Nintendo 3DS
₪ Genre: Rythm
☑ Release date: September 2014
♬ Soundtrack: 200+ songs from the entirety of Final Fantasy
I've dabbled with the original Theaterythm before tackling Curtain Call, but was convinced by a friend it's not necessary because the sequel improved it in pretty much every regard and just had plain more content. Could have playing through that first, as much as one can with rhythm games without looking to top all scores, affected my judgment of the second game? We'll never really know considering the “damage” is already done, but let's still dive into Curtain Call regardless.
If I had to make a very simple comparison and observation it would be that Theaterythm is one side of a tremendous Final Fantasy fan service coin. Other side would be Dissidia, for those who want to know. What does that mean? In essence – if you care about what it's peddling you'll be all over the game, but if you're not as enthusiastic about Final Fantasy music as a whole and, perhaps more importantly, you have no connection to it because you skipped related games Curtain Call might be a bit harder deal to sell. You will see me get down to game's positives and negatives down below yet I should also say that this is not a bad game. I'm simply not any authority on rhythm games nor any great fan so it had limited appeal to me personally.
Story? Uh... Order and Chaos, something something, complete music stages to gain this elusive resource called Rhythmia that can restore the world. Done. It's a very reminiscent of earlier mentioned Dissidia games in a sense that it's really just some tacked on justification to get you into the game. If you're expecting a traditionally strong Final Fantasy story look elsewhere.
What you will find, though, is some pretty damn enjoyable rhythm gameplay spread across three different types of stages: Field Stages where you control one character while non-combat music plays, Event Stages where you're playing as full-motion video is unfolding in the background (with you trying to NOT look at it) and lastly Combat Stages where you control a faux party of four while combat music is blasting in the background. Curtain Call also added a what could be a fourth type – that being Versus mode – but at the core it's still just combat stages this time with a premise of climbing up in a tournament. There is also local and online play if you feel so inclined. Gameplay itself is rather elegant if not simplistic in a sense that you have to time your actions to execute appropriate commands which range from holding and drag, immediate presses and directional swipes. There are also three stage difficulties and oh boy, does it ramp up from relaxed interaction to WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME? in the end. Compared to the original sequel does have a great addition in a sense that there's now more than ONE control scheme. So, if you don't like the styles for whatever reason you're not limited to it but I think it still remains the preferred method for most average players. Ahem. Me, I mean me, alright.
Now, I've left out brand new added mode called Medley Quests which is really its own thing. It tries to tell stories, but not really because it's just strings together missions with specific recommended levels in mind. Medley Quests still absolutely feels like where you'll be spending the bulk of the game after you go through each game's presented songs in basic mode. Why? Because character unlocks and needing colored crystals to unlock them. As you begin to acquire Rhythmia you will also unlock new stuff along the way and that ranges from new songs to play or listen, new menu chimes and effects or crystals you need to unlock characters. Each character falls under a certain colored crystal group and quantity needed to unlock them goes up over time so yeah, you'll need a more reliable method of getting your greedy paws on the shinnies. That's where Medley Quests come into play because as you play and replay, and replay, and replay them you will get some crystals at the end leading to a larger character roster.
Characters are frankly their own beast and I'm kind afraid to even go there. They all gain experience after completed stages, have their own specific progression paths so they're not just interchangeable faces yet are also clearly better fit for certain type of stages because, for example, you want characters with high STR and MAG for combat stages, they have abilities that can be life savers on the highest difficulty, etc. That's without mentioning there's an item system you can use to affect things like which summon you'll get, because those are in the game as well and show up based on your stage performance, or pre-stage bonuses. Let alone how you gather various cards along the way, cards that you can either A) use to complete your album for the inner collector in your and/or B) use it to further upgrade characters in an entirely separate menu.
What I'm trying to say is this is a grinder's and min-maxer's wet dream kind of game.
So that's a very mixed opinion, right? You bet it is. In the end, as a layman on the subject of these games, I really have to say this is something I would recommend primarily to Final Fantasy fans who are in it for the music. Fortunately, even if you don't care about screen-snapping difficulty or grinding path to optimization game has a very mellow setting you can play on and hear all those songs you remember from your favorite game(s). Not counting all that were added through DLC there's over 200 songs in the game as well as 60 characters to recruit so there's for sure plenty of content there.
Problem with Curtain Call is that, honestly, after you've played it for ten-fifteen minutes you've basically seen everything it has to offer as a game. Might as well put together a Youtube playlist of your favorite songs if that's all the game becomes.
☉ Platform: Nintendo 3DS
₪ Genre: Adventure, JRPG
☑ Release date: November 2012
♬ Soundtrack: Main Theme and Her Reputation Precedes Her
You might be glancing back and forth between the game's title and box art, and wondering if I've finally lost my marbles but I assure that it's not the case. Not yet, at least. In this singular example Crimson Shroud sadly never saw proper physical release and was bundled together with couple of other games in this anthology titled Guild01. This release was also Japan-only. It took couple of months for individual games to be released separately on eShops worldwide and that's a good thing because any JRPG fan would be remiss to overlook Crimson Shroud. Let's dig in.
As the narrator promptly informs us we assume the role(s) of Chasers – group that will find anyone for the right price. In our particular case it's a trio of characters who get to form the party; Giaque, Frea and Lippi. It's a good thing they're pretty well defined with distinct personalities and combat roles because Crimson Shroud opts for a smaller party so they're your only go-to people with Frea being the resident mage and cynic, Giaque assuming the role of leader and front-man while Lippi takes the rear with his bow and ability to sense enemies. Intro keeps the cards well hidden, but from in media res setup you can tell there's a lot more at work here than just a group of adventurers on a simple mission the tutorial lets you on. I won't go on much longer about the story and characters of the game, yet I feel compelled to mention it's an interesting spin to have your character indebted to their antagonist and intriguing hook to get you to pay attention to what's unfolding before your eyes. After all, this IS a Matsuno game and it shows through and through.
Where I really find Crimson Shroud, well, shines is in the mechanics. This is a game where magic spells are tied to weapons reminiscent of FF9, sans the ability to memorize them for good because that would be too easy, and rotating said implements around will let the characters employ different spells. In practice this means you're constantly thinking about “Should I replace this stabby-stabby for stat gains or keep it for the ability I get from it?” without ever becoming annoying unless you have a fundamental problem this system itself. Fact that Frea, Giaque and Lippi are already distinct “classes” kinda helps here aka Giaque cannot equip staves nor can Frea handle axes, for example. That doesn't mean our two non-casters are incapable of casting spells or even have some on their weapons, though. It's merely a matter of overcoming their inability to regenerate their magic naturally, but that's what items are for if you're really inclined to go down that path. On the other hand Skills are occasionally learned at the end of battles and, beside equipment which is also looted at the end of combat, are the only method of improving your characters in a game without levels.
You might think these are relatively simple turn-based JRPG systems, albeit some may be atypical for the genre if you only look at current mainstream titles, but bottom 3DS screen hides real joy as far as I'm concerned – dice. What do I mean by that or are we going back to whether I've lost my mind? Well, you get dice for executing proper Chains aka sequentially casting differently attuned abilities without A) directly repeating them or B) casting their opposite, in combat which is harder than it sounds because enemies can disrupt your Chain. D&D fans will feel right at home with everything from 1d4 to 1d20. These dice can be used to improve your attack either by adding damage or hit % chance, but even if you don't bother with Chains you will still be employing dice in some capacity. Whether it be Frea's regeneration ability to restore her magic points, how many turns you or enemies are immobilized for depending on whether battle was an ambush or benefiting your side, etc. Dice are not just a gimmick in this game which makes it all the better you don't have to pull out your stylus every time you have to roll because A button and analog will suffice.
Rolls also exist on adventure maps. By that I mean areas you will be advancing through in unlockable segments because there's no real overworld or anything similar in here. That doesn't mean these maps are devoid of events or encounters, though. Practically every segment will have something ranging from party banter, combat scenario, bags of loot, etc and good chunk of these will be prompted by a choice or two you can make. Do you open the chest and risk whatever could happen or just walk away? Do you parry the incoming goblin arrow or attempt to dodge? This is where rolls also come into play leaving it sometimes to RNG, but pulling you in by the sheer interactive aspect that often goes amiss. I found it a worthwhile pursuit.
I haven't yet talked about the visuals or game's soundtrack so I'll drop a few here.
Crimson Shroud has a very specific look in a sense that characters are essentially tabletop miniatures with set poses resulting in somewhat stilted scenes and “cutscene” direction overall, but one you'll get used to because written dialog is where most of the delivery lies at. Keep in mind this also affects overall level of production quality in terms of animations as you'll see characters move around during combat as if someone picked up the minis and aggressively flung them about, simulating the idea of moving the pieces and “attacking” enemy pieces. It's all very charming if you come from a particular tabletop background, but I can also see how it would be annoying if you're used to things like, oh I don't know, attack animations.
Even before I really looked into the soundtrack I could tell from early on Sakimoto was involved as it heavily reminds of his Ivalice work. Not to say he was solely responsible for the soundtrack at hand as there was about half-dozen composers hard at work, but that's what stood out for me. Seeing as I'm not any sort of musical expert I'll just say I enjoyed what I heard tremendously and leave it that. One advice I'm going to give is to play the game with headphones as 3DS' speakers can't really do it justice.
So let's wrap this up. Would I recommend Crimson Shroud? Without fail and then some. I would say beware of some caveats, though. Game is no budget title as I envision such things even though you can tell it was a limited production with a ton of heart in it with some constraints just as visible be it due to hardware or budget. This means you should probably curb your expectations coming in from bigger titles, but what it lacks in that department game makes up for in mechanics themselves. Which brings me to the inevitable RNG discussion whenever dice rolls are involved. It's simply a fact and while Crimson Shroud hardly lives or dies by them the dice and lady Luck still play a part if you want to get the most out of the game. If this is a deal breaker for you, you might want to look elsewhere.
Hopefully we see more of Crimson Shroud or similar projects some day.
You made me wanna pick up my 3DS and play Theatrhythm again :3
I really enjoyed playing the game but there was way too much tacked-on minutia for the sake of progression as far as I’m concerned. Rhythm aspect itself was good, though.