Update: Square Enix announced a  July 3, 2012 release date

It's time to relive classic Final Fantasy franchise music history in Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. To celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary, Square Enix has put forth its best effort to try and commemorate the franchise through its iconic music.

While the much improved sequel to Final Fantasy XIII released earlier this year (check out our review of Final Fantasy XIII-2), Square Enix also wants to bring something unique to the franchise's history that hasn't been done before. Now after 25 years, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will become the first music game of the Final Fantasy series.

Theatrhythym Final Fantasy was developed by indieszero, who have worked extensively with over 70 scores taken from Final Fantasy's 25 year-span. This game's goal is to remind long-time fans why they fell in love with Final Fantasy in the first place.

Those interested can find these awesome features quite intriguing:

  • Choose your heroes! Unite four of your favorite Final Fantasy heroes, and play through your favorite music from the series.
  • Tackle unique stage styles! Tap and slide along to the rhythm to adventure and fight through three different stage styles: Field, Battle, and Event.
  • Play your way! A wide range of difficulty levels allow beginners and rhythm masters alike to join in the fun.
  • Reap the rewards! Complete different stages and level up your characters to unlock new music, movie scenes and more, all of which can be revisited in the "Museum."

Check out the gallery of Theatrhythm screenshots and artwork below (Click on the images to enlarge):

With the FFXIII games not generating as much positive buzz as Square Enix hoped (their CEO saying the brand is damaged) for the franchise in addition to the FFXIV MMO representing a major letdown for fans, opening the franchise to the music genre and highlighting what's undeniably one of the best parts of Final Fantasy games (the music) is an innovative idea. With Sound Shapes coming to the PS Vita, Theatrhythm will fit nicely as an exclusive for the 3DS. But don't forget, Final Fantasy X will have an HD re-release for the PS3 and Vita soon as well!

The game released in Japan in February and will release in North America and Europe on July 3, 2012. Players can register now for updates on the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy official website.

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