Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy is a rhythm game featuring some of the best-known pieces from the Final Fantasy series. The main goal is to collect Rythmia, the energy wave of the rhythm crystal in order to restore its power. To do so, the player will form a party of four characters from the 13 protagonists of the main series, like in Dissidia: Final Fantasy. There is an reward for every 500 Rythmia points collected. These rewards are music tracks and movies unlocked it the Museum's music player and theatre, extra tracks to play in Challenge mode and colored crystals to unlock bonus characters.
The basic game-play is to follow the rhythm by tapping, holding the notes, or sliding the stylus in a specified direction. Hitting the notes perfectly will result in a "Critical Hit", and missing them will result in HP loss. When the HP reaches 0, the song ends and the player gets a failed score. To help during the fights and travel, each characters have abilities that will deal more damage, heal the party or allow faster movement. Clearing the stage will reward the player with Experience points to level-up the party members, Items. For each stage, there is a Critical Chart to fill-up. The more critical hits you get, the more the chart fills-up. When replaying a stage, the critical hits stack-up until the chart is complete. Clearing a stage will also reward some Rythmia depending on different criteria such as the characters in the party, what equipment they have, and the score for said stage.
The "Music Play" consists of three modes:
- Series
- Challenge
- Chaos Shrine
In Series, there are 13 track sets to choose from, one for each numbered Final Fantasy game to date. Each set consists of three stages: one Field Music Stage (FMS), one Battle Music Stage (BMS) and one Event Music Stage (EMS). There are also the optional Opening and Ending Theme songs for each game.
Each of the three stages plays a bit differently:
In the FMS, there is a single line to follow, but the player has to follow the notes vertically, which is more important for the long notes. The party members stroll in a field scenery that fits the chosen song. The farther they can get, the more rewards they will receive.
In the BMS, there are four lines to follow, one for each party member. The fighters will attack the enemies that appear during the song and defeat them in order to get items to drop.
In the EMS, the notes will make a pattern that matches the song progression. There is no need to follow the notes position, but it is crucial to pay attention as the rhythm varies during the music piece.
During the opening and ending themes, notes will spiral to the crystal in the middle of the screen. Tapping the screen when they reach the center of the crystal will collect the note. At the end of a Series song set, the player will receive one extra Rythmia for each note collected.
By completing a set in Series mode will make the three stages available to play in Challenge mode. The stages are initially available in basic and expert mode. Getting a score of A or more in expert mode will unlock the ultimate mode, and clearing the three stages from a single series in either expert or ultimate mode will unlock them in Series.
Eventually, the player will come across a Dark Note to be played in the newly unlocked Chaos Shrine. The Dark Notes are more challenging than the regular stages. Each one consist of a FMS and a BMS in which the party will face one of three possible Boss monster, each Boss having three different item drops. Clearing a Dark Note will also unlock a new one, until all of them have been cleared. The items dropped in the Chaos Shrine are mostly rarer items such as colored crystals (of which eight are needed to unlock new characters). Chaos Shrine can be played in Solo Play or Multi Play.
There is also a StreetPass to exchange profile information (Known as ProfiCard) with friends. The ProfiCard is customizable and a Dark Note can be attached to it (It will then be available to the other player). More options for the ProfiCard can be unlocked by collecting Rythmia.
The Museum has four options: a Theatre, a Music Player, a Collection of "CollectaCards" representing the characters and enemies from the game, dropped in the Music Play, and a Records section that shows the player's statistics and the acquired Trophies.
