WARNING: Rambling ahead.

Oh man. Oh MAN.

I've been playing Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call all night, and it's awesome. It improves on the first game in every way. I really like the new quest mode that plays out like an endurance challenge, but the soundtrack is the star of the show here, and it's larger and deeper than the original game by a long shot. While the first game had only songs from Final Fantasy I-XIII, with a smattering of tracks from other games as DLC, Curtain Call includes songs from Final Fantasy XIV, as well as various Final Fantasy sequels and spin-offs like Crisis Core, Final Fantasy X-2, XIII-2 and Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy Tactics, even freaking Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.

Some of the returning songs are also back in higher quality and longer versions. For example, in the original Theatrhythm, only a portion of One-Winged Angel was actually playable, but here, they've included the full track. Even better is that a huge selection of tracks is available from fairly early on, as it doesn't take long to unlock the default track lists for all of the games. Unlocking new characters is also far less of a grind, and this time around, when you collect enough of a particular colored crystal, you can choose who among that color group you'd like to unlock.

Battle mode is also a lot of fun. There's a meter for EX attacks that you can fill, and when it goes off, it can hit the opponent with a variety of effects ranging from messing with the speed of the rhythm markers to demanding higher precision.

This is a lot of rambling, but it's already past 11PM here and I've been playing Curtain Call almost nonstop tonight. How are you guys enjoying it?

Also, just for kicks, my starting party, which I'm still rolling with, is Lightning, Terra, Cecil, and Cloud.

I really enjoyed the previous one even as some one with no reverence to Final Fantasy but loves Rhythm games. The small library of songs killed some of the re-playability so it's good to hear it's a much bigger selection this time around. Tempted to get it, but I would like if they bought this to iOS like the first one.

Also was there ever a reason to use other characters? I just chose the 4 I knew/liked and stuck with them. As a Rhythm game fan as long as I beat the song with out failing, that was good enough for me.

Different characters have different stats and excel at different stage types.

I love me some FF music (short of the screwed up acid jazz wank in XIII), but despise and royally suck at rhythm games. What am I to do!?!?

Oh yeah, I don't have a 3DS either. (Lousy region locking Nintendo!)

It seems from the demo that the nonsensical selection of battle cries before you play a song are missing. (or whatever they were) Is there anything like that in the game, or is that stuff just gone? I'll be a little sad if it is.

Super excited to play the big, dumb, metal version of One Winged Angel from AC.

The nonsensical cries can now be constructed for your StreetPass profile card. When you start a stage, the characters in your party will instead display random and at times very silly facial expressions.

@hailinel: At least that's something. How is the character unlocking less of a grind? Man, some of the grinding for characters like Sephiroph were such a pain. I remember playing certain dark notes ten to fifteen times in a row without getting any crystals.

@gunstarred: Surprised the most popular character from the most popular Final Fantasy takes a decent amount of grinding to get.

Cool to hear there's XIV music in there. I wonder how much is 1.0 music and how much is ARR music (which I kinda find a little boring), though.

To what end though? What do the stats do and what does excelling at a stage type mean? It's harder to fail out a song on the hardest difficulty or?

I've been ignoring the RPG elements and playing this as if it were Final Fantasy Rock Band.

I was sitting here all giddy waiting for the UPS guy to show up with my copy today but I guess the game wasn't big enough for Amazon to do guaranteed release-day deliver? Now I have to wait until tomorrow (technically today WHY AM I STILL AWAKE!?) so I'm super sad.

IIRC Str and Mag determine how much damage your character does during Battle stages and Agility determines how quickly your characters moves during Field stages. If you don't do enough damage you won't be able to kill quickly enough to reach/defeat the boss and without enough Agility you won't be able to make it far enough to earn the best rewards. Also the distance traveled in Field mode determines the quality of boss you'll face in Battle mode when you're playing a series.

It's pretty fun so far. The Quest Medley system seems much better than the Chaos Notes (I think it was called?) from the last game, and the soundtrack has some awesome new additions. I'll definitely be playing a lot more of it in days to come, in order to get my rhythm game fix until Project Diva f 2nd. It's a little weird how they have very few EMS stages anymore, and changed many old ones to FMS stages, but I bet they couldn't fit much video on the cart with SO MANY SONGS.

My only complaint--and one not with the game--is that I still hate how weak the 3DS' sound is with both headphones and speakers. It really bums me out not being able to blare some of these songs and enjoy them fully.

You say "even freaking Mystic Quest" like it doesn't have some of the best music from the series. Say what you will about the rest of it, that soundtrack is beyond reproach.

I'm looking forward to playing Curtain Call at some point. I feel like I've got a lot of 2014 games to catch up on.

Loving the game from what I played last night. I played the hell out of the first one and was willing to get this just for the expanded track list, but the other advancements make it a better game in pretty much every way.

Maybe the only issue I have is the 200+ track list means there's a lot more chaff in there, or at least a lot more songs that I don't instantly recognize, so it's a little tougher to jump into a random song and be excited for it and able to play through it. Makes the Quest Medleys a little more annoying when you could easily end up in a song you don't like or have no recollection of. But that's definitely a trade-off I'm willing to make just to have the bigger song list with great songs from games like Tactics or Mystic Quest that never get recognized otherwise.

Only question I have - is there any downside to fusing cards onto characters? The tutorial said the cards would still be viewable in your collection, but I wasn't sure if it otherwise impacted your collection or progress to fuse the cards instead of keeping them in your inventory.

Also has anyone tried the non-stylus control modes? I was just ignoring them since I was used to the stylus and like the tactile feel, but I'm hearing from others that they liked using the button modes more.

It's fantastic. First I was excited to play the Tifa battle music from Advent Children. But then I felt overwhelmed by songs.

Luckily, Quest mode is brilliant and smartly gets you to try all sorts of stuff. Battles against AI are fun, there's so much customization, and it just makes me hope this series continues with other franchises. Super fun stuff.

The demo apparently sold it short as I played it once, said "yep that's Theatrhythm" and shut it off. I loved the original but the demo seemed like it was just more of the same.

Does the DLC from the first game carry over?

Having not played the first one, is there any reason I might want to go back and play the first one before playing this one?

@drbroel: No. This game features all of the music and characters from the original.

Your post sums up my feelings pretty well. It's just more, bigger, better. The new Quest mode is fun, and I love the fact that you can play with button inputs only. The main drawback about that is that the circle pad is kinda sub-par for FMS songs, but it's worlds better for BMS.

The inclusion of more spinoff games, including Tactics and Mystic Quest, is also really great.

It looks pretty great but I never did finish the first one, and my backlog is already humungous... I'm not sure I can justify the purchase at this exact moment. Maybe a little further down the line...

Glad to hear it seems to be an improvement to the original across the board though. Despite the fact I didn't finish the first one, I did lament its limited track list.

Glad to hear that it's good. I checked out the demo for the first one a while back and was obsessed with it. I figured I'd wait until this one came out instead of buying the first. I'll definitely pick it up when I have more free time.

Oh gods I was going to stay up late to clean since the in-laws are coming over tomorrow but instead I ended up playing a bunch of this game.

Oh gods.

Also they really need some fucking "Buy All" option for their DLC, this shit is getting tedious.

Hi, a while back, I ordered the first game on Amazon thinking I could play it waiting for my Curtain Call preorder to come.
Now CC is here but my Amazon order has yet to show up (or be restock for all that matters).
So my question is : is CC enoug and should I cancel my order of the first theatrhythm or is the first game still worse giving a try ?

Any input from people who played both ? Thanks !

I'm pretty sure that Curtain Call includes most, if not all, of the songs from the first one, so I'm not aware of any particular reason that you would want to play the original game if you already own CC.

@patounet: Nearly everything from the first game is in the second. You'll be missing out on a few EMS stages that are now full songs. (better) Even the sound quality is better, some songs used to sound a little like the speakers were blown, but that's not the case here. Don't bother with the first game.

Thanks for the advice. I'll cancel my order then. I had been waiting for 4 months already, their loss.

Played it today and lost like 3 hours. This game is addicting. I only wish there were more songs from Mystic Quest in it.

LIKE THIS ONE. 0:46 would be a nightmare on Ultimate, but it would be DOPE.

RPG for kiddies, greatest soundtrack of its time.

Y'all think this would be fun for someone who doesn't really have an attachment to the music of Final Fantasy? They way the modes are described in this thread reminds me a bit of Dissidia, which I was heavyyyyy into despite not having much love for the characters.

@euandewar: I'd say it might be? If you enjoy rhythm games this is basically just a good one of those, with some great music even outside of the context of their games. Will all the songs it has from so many games the soundtrack is also really varied too.

I haven't been playing a ton (I'm caught up in other games at home, and am mostly playing it on break at work) but man it is basically the first game, but more and better which I fully support in every way. I also already might have to buy DLC to get Crazy Chocobo...

I also feel like I might be the only person with intense nostalgia for the Crystal Chronicles songs in there and was SUPER excited to see it represented, though I have no idea where that really metal song comes from.

Played it for 4-5 hours straight over the weekend, and now my eyes hurt...

Everyone I've met online is a robot, HOW CAN YOU GET PERFECT CHAINS WITH ALL THE JUDGEMENT POWERUPS GOING OFF!?

Aaaaaand strongly recommend using a good set of headphones or hooking the 3ds up to some speakers to get the full effect, as the 3ds speakers are terrible.

Doesn't seem like it, I bought a couple of songs for the last game, they don't seem to be present/available to re-download.

Oh man, I just went on a tear through all of the CPU battle mode and man, I think my favorite thing about that mode is the fact that it makes healing/defense characters actually useful. That said, does it drive anyone else FUCKING CRAZY that during a Hold Trigger there's a repeating chime sound in the background that is completely out of time with the music? Why the fuck would they do that?

EDIT: NM, I turned off chimes altogether and I'm doing significantly better.

Still playing. I love having my 3ds in sleep mode at my desk, just opening it and play one or two songs at a time. All the unlockable stuff is just a big pile of bonus.

My Gamestop never called me for my pre-order and had it for almost a month. I just got it last week and I've been playing it like a fiend. It's very fun!