Square Enix has officially announced Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line for the Nintendo Switch as part of Tuesday's Nintendo Direct. The Final Fantasy music game will be packed to the brim with song tracks from across the popular JRPG franchise, but will also offer post-launch content for some surprising recent Square Enix games. Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line was just one of Square Enix's Nintendo Direct announcements, which included Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion and Octopath Traveler 2.
Theatrhythm has been absent from the gaming landscape for some time now. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call, which Final Bar Line will be iterating on, launched in 2014. Theatrhythm Dragon Quest, which was never ported to the west, launched in 2015. Most recently, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: All-Star Carnival, a Japanese arcade game, launched in 2016. It's taken six years for the new Theatrhythm to come around, a long wait for rhythm game fans, but the new game looks to be worth the wait.
Square Enix has confirmed that Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line will feature an astonishing 385 total tracks included in the base version of the game. These songs will all come from the Final Fantasy franchise, from the original Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy 15, even if "Final Fantasy" has been dropped from the title. Specific songs mentioned include "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy 7, "Suteki Da Ne" from Final Fantasy 10, and "Torn from the Heavens" from Final Fantasy 14.
Players will be able to get their hands on Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line starting February 16, 2023, on both Nintendo Switch and PS4. But wait, there's more, because if 385 songs wasn't enough Square Enix has plans to increase that number to closer to 500. Both the Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line Digital Deluxe and Premium Digital Deluxe editions will include 27 additional tracks at launch. There will also be three season passes, each delivering 30 more songs via 5-song packages post-launch.
What's particularly exciting about the DLC for Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line is that games beyond the Final Fantasy franchise will have their music included. Teased games include the NieR series, SaGa series, Mana series, The World Ends with You, Octopath Traveler, Live A Live, and "loads more."
Suffice to say, Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line will be one of the most thorough collections of Final Fantasy music available when it arrives next year. It's a genuine celebration of all things Final Fantasy, and the DLC plans for the game make the collection all the sweeter.
Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line releases February 16, 2023 on PS4 and Switch.