My First Game on the 3DS

Before, I don't know anything about the Nintendo 3DS. I never heard of it. I might end up not knowing about this handheld console, then came this specific game.

No, it's not Pokemon X/Y, nor it is Fire Emblem: Awakening. I already decided to have a 3DS XL before those games were announced. I bought a Nintendo 3DS XL thanks to this game:

The box of the game.

My answer may seem a bit odd, but I'm not kidding one bit. My love for Final Fantasy and rhythm games really convinced me. I've been watching videos of people playing on Youtube, and I told myself, that someday I will be getting that. Just watching the videos made me understand the game mechanics.

As the game is called, this game is a rhythm game. You use the stylus and the touch screen as the ONLY method of input for this game. I recommend applying screen protector especially for the lower screen. The lower screen will not only be exposed to taps, but to slides as well, a lot of them.

The game title screen

Challenge Mode Song Selection

The game features songs from Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy up to Final Fantasy XIII. Each title has a "Battle Music", "Field Music", and  "Event Music". In Series Mode, each title has an additional prelude and ending theme, both just for collecting Rhythmia.

The story is very plain, but it does not matter, because the game play is much more important for this genre.

Just like other rhythm games, there is a health bar. But this is no ordinary health bar, the total is based on the stats of the characters currently in use.

Characters also have skills. From helping in keeping the health bar from reaching zero, to further boosting their stats, skills can be set according to the player's gaming style.




Songs under Battle Music, as the name implies, are songs used during battle. These are songs ranging from random battles, to final boss battles. In my opinion, the challenging part of the game lies under the battle music.

Battle Music

Songs under Field Music are usually the overworld themes of each title, unless the game itself does not have an overworld theme. Examples of this would be Final Fantasy X, up to Final Fantasy XIII, I guess.

Field Music

Songs under Event Music are songs from important events of the game. This is where the 3D function of the 3DS works at its best, especially in Final Fantasy VII onwards. I remember a friend of mine saying that he'd rather watch the cinematics in 3D than play the event music. I think that's a normal reaction for someone seeing 3D without glasses for the first time.

Event music

Chaos Shrine mode, is where you can unlock other characters, through obtaining crystals.You can also obtain other items the easier way. Instead of playing songs continuously in challenge mode, trying your luck, in Chaos Shrine you may already see what possible items to obtain.

For the selection of playable songs,  I actually like most of them, but I got disappointed for some songs. A case of this would be for Final Fantasy X. Mi'ihen Highroad gets picked over Zanarkand for the field music. Isn't Zanarkand the more popular one? Zanarkand appears in Chaos Shrine, but I don't like that mode.

Even though I did not like Chaos Shrine, that mode really did something for me. That mode introduced me to some songs of Final Fantasy XI to Final Fantasy XIII, since songs Chaos Shrine levels are from 20 selected songs (10 field, 10 battle). Thanks to this mechanic, the song "The Sunleth Waterscape" became one of my favorite songs in the game.

After some time playing this game, I felt that the songs are too few. I bought downloadable content, to further enjoy the game. I bought 19 songs in total. This may sound costly, but it was totally worth it, until... (Oops! That's for next time.)

Overall, this game is awesome. Praise the guy/gal who thought of this idea. All I can say is, be prepared for nostalgia! It's a must have for lovers of Final Fantasy Soundtracks and rhythm games. Thank you Square-Enix for a wonderful game!

Pardon me for having not-so-clear photos in this post. I'm still working on how to have a clear shot from those high frame rates. I don't like grabbing photos left and right. I want to use my own photos, except in special cases.