Parents' Guide to Theatrhythm Final Bar Line

A huge selection of songs makes this rhythm game a compelling experience. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is an updated port of a game that previously required the use of a stylus on a touch screen, and it does a great job of translating the gameplay to traditional controllers. You're tasked with pressing and holding buttons while flicking and aiming the joysticks to the tunes of the Final Fantasy franchise. While doing so, miniature versions of characters from the franchise automatically do battle with monsters and bosses, using customizable abilities that unlock as you continue to play. The gameplay is separated into Battle, Field, and Event tracks, which each have minor variations to the core rhythm gameplay. You unlock more songs and characters by playing through the Series Quests, which visually follow the basics of the plots of the games they are from. The game also features multiplayer options, where you can compete with other players online to see who gets the best score and trade customizable profile cards.

Despite switching control schemes, the gameplay remains engaging and intuitive, while also allowing for a greater degree of customization. You can manually adjust your button calibration and tweak the background visuals and audio cues to help tailor the experience to your own needs. While there are many characters to unlock with different roles and abilities, the consequence for doing so feels fairly minor. This doesn't distract from the fun of the game itself, and the truly massive number of songs to play keeps things feeling fresh for a long time. Anyone with affection for Final Fantasy as a franchise will love the breadth of the references and details, while players after a pure rhythm game will be more than satisfied by what's on offer here.