Theatrhythm Final Bar Line director talks cut content and game influences
Not the final time you'll be hearing about this game
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is launching next week, and the development team is making the rounds, discussing the game with various outlets. The game is sure to please Final Fantasy fans with its wide inclusion of tracks from throughout the franchise, but at the end of the day, there just isn’t room to include everything. In an interview with Siliconera, series director Masanobu Suzui discusses the difficult process of choosing which songs to cut:
There are many things that we wanted to include, which include some songs from animes. But due to many differing opinions within the team, along with legal reasons, we started out with a masterlist, and chose and selected from there. There were definitely some strong personal opinions that loved certain songs, but there were a lot of discussions that went into determining the final list, along with input from players as well.
As for one song, there was a staff member that really wanted the songs from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light included. This didn’t get realized until twelve years later, but now they’re finally included. And it’s been really exciting.
Suzui also spoke to Game Rant about the game’s development and its influences. Apparently, one of its biggest gameplay influences was 2020’s rhythm game Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories, developed by the same team. Here’s what Suzui says they took away from that experience:
So in Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory, this was a type of game where three characters could be played and then there would be actions done using both L and R and that’s the gameplay that we focused on for Kingdom Hearts. Through creating Kingdom Hearts, we discovered the joy people feel through the dual input. We built on that to create Final Bar Line, and then we refined it to include the dual directions and pressing two buttons at the same time for the trigger, and found that players find this very satisfying and fun to do.
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line sounds like it’s shaping up to be the most expansive entry in the series to date, even accounting for some missing tracks. The full game will be released on February 16, 2023. Don’t forget, there’s also a Switch demo available right now!
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