Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

[Tayaya]

New DLC hit today. Some good songs there too - Sarutabaruta from FFXI is a must-buy for me - I spent a lot of time there farming silk!

Also - BMS stages on Ultimate difficulty - FUCK THAT. I've gone from S-ranking everything to not being able to pass half the time. It's fun, but good GOD did the challenge ramp up!

[Spigot]

If nothing else, I'm ever so happy that this game has reminded me how great the music in FFXI is. It's really, really good stuff.

[evilgoodwin]

There's a few things I wanted out of this.

Like an endurance run of the complete "Dancing Mad." All 4 parts. O_O

Or the whole Opera scene. Surprising they didn't have it included beyond "Celes' Theme."

[Suave Peanut]

Duuuudes. No one told me how much XP you get for battle scenes on the higher difficulties.

I'm gaining like two levels per song, and my guys were in the high-60s.

[Rock Bandit]

I love this game's sense of humor with the randomized speech bubbles you get from your party in between songs. I need to start writing down the really good ones. Also my profile card describes me as a "Savagely backstreet Time Mage"

And for a testament of how good this game is purely on it's own mechanics, the only Final Fantasy I've played is the remake of III on the DS and FF: Tactics Advance. I do however have those two Square collection anthologies for PS1 that has FFIV, FFV, and FFVI (as well as Chrono Trigger which I have played before and would LOVE a Theatrhythym of) that I'll probably crack into at some point.

[Suave Peanut]

Dude, get on those games. If you want to keep it portable you can get the FF IV on DS for cheap.

Also there exist FF I&II, IV, V, and VI on GBA.

[Rock Bandit]

Oh right, I played I&II on GBA a little as well. Not so interesting there. But goddamn did I put some hours into Tactics Advance. I was working the night shift at a wharehouse office at the time, 56 hour weeks kind of deal, and that game and the coffee maker were my sole source of solace.

[Spigot]

I've got my party mostly into the 70's now and they're gaining a level most songs. Most are Dark Notes or Expert/Ultimate difficulty now.

[evilgoodwin]

I played some damn song on Expert and it gave me 5k experience. I just can not remember what it was. I think it was "Awakening" from FFXI, but I'm not sure.

[Cyndair]

So I've kind of hit a wall with this game at this point. I got my party up to level 99, have 40 dark notes, and a little over 30K rhythmia. I'm having trouble clearing the latest dark note that I unlocked, so I've taken to leveling up a new party of 4 clearing songs on Ultimate difficulty in Challenge mode.

Despite playing 16 hours at this point, I have yet to unlock a single extra character. Am I doing something wrong, or does it just take forever? I think I have 6/10 orange shards and that's the closest I've come. It just seems like the time requirement to unlock things is a bit steep for a game of this type. I'm still having fun, and I guess that's what matters, but the way things are trending right now, I'll need over 30 hours in before I start unlocking characters.

[Suave Peanut]

I think I have 7/8 on one character after 12+ hours but that's the best I've done.

[Zero]

From Gamefaqs:

Playing through the Chaos Shrine mode and defeating the bosses there is the more reliable way. Doing well with a fast party member on the first (FMS) stage determines which boss you get, and having enough attack power to defeat the boss on the second (BMS) stage will get you items. The higher number bosses tend to have crystals as their "loot drops" more frequently.

Once you find a Chaos Note stage with a boss holding a crystal you need, simply play that stage repeatedly until you have all eight shards of that color

Sigh of relief. If it really took that long to unlock characters I would probably have just quit.

[Suave Peanut]

That makes sense. I think I'd noticed more shards dropping from the Chaos Notes but I've been more focused lately on leveling up and beating songs/series on the harder difficulties.

Also: how did I SS-rank one song? Once, when I got a perfect critical run, the score capped t 799999. I don't quite understand the scoring system apart from 7-S, 6-A, 5-B, etc.

[evilgoodwin]

You really only get crystals from Dark Notes. Just farm them.

SS-Rank comes from having the bonus that comes with having a party equipped with nothing. No items or abilities, semi-perfect score. If you do the one that capped at 799999, you can get a trophy if you do it again with nothing equipped.

[Spigot]

Yeah, I've managed a few SS ranks by going in there 'naked', as it were.

And for crystals, I have a few Dark Notes that I've hearted that have a few bosses with crystals to farm. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I want to actively farm them, but I have done a few runs through one or two of the Dark Notes to try to grab extra crystals.

I think I have one character (the Yellow one) with only one or two crystals to go... but I feel your pain.

[Cyndair]

Good info, thanks guys. I thought that it seemed a bit excessive. I'll try to do some farming and see where I get.

I also didn't know about the SS ranking. I'm going to have to try to get one of those as well.