120-687: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a rhythm video game , developed by indieszero and published by Square Enix for Nintendo 3DS and iOS . Based on the Final Fantasy video game franchise, the game involves using the touch screen in time to various pieces of music from the series. The game was released in Japan in February 2012, and in North America, Australia and Europe in July. An iOS version
240-649: A basic mechanic that formed the core of future rhythm games. The success of PaRappa the Rapper sparked the popularity of the music game genre. In 1997, Konami released the DJ-themed rhythm game Beatmania in Japanese arcades . Its arcade cabinet features buttons similar to those of a musical keyboard, and a rubber pad that emulates a vinyl record. Beatmania was a surprise hit, inspiring Konami's Games and Music Division to change its name to Bemani in honor of
360-437: A challenge similar to that of Simon , in that the player must watch, remember, and repeat complex sequences of button-presses. Rhythm-action can take a minigame format with some games blending rhythm with other genres or entirely comprising minigame collections. In some rhythm games, the screen displays an avatar who performs in reaction to the player's controller inputs. However, these graphical responses are usually in
480-431: A child, he spent much of his free time playing baseball, swimming, fishing and building fortresses. When he was in middle school, his father told him that an era of computers would come and bought him his own computer. Nomura played Legends of Star Arthur: Planet Mephius on it and started creating his own video games by learning programming . He first tried a Nintendo product with the tennis and ping-pong variant of
600-407: A computer music group at MIT . Beginning in 1998, the company developed music games inspired by PaRappa the Rapper . In 2001, the company released Frequency , which puts the player in control of multiple instrument tracks. Ryan Davis of GameSpot wrote that the game provides a greater sense of creative freedom than earlier rhythm titles. Frequency was critically acclaimed; however, marketing
720-400: A godly figure" during his early days at Square. At that time, Nomura was also taught the basics of game design by Ito. He told Nomura never to stick to existing concepts but rather to reuse just specific ideas and explained concepts such as ease of control and effortless accessibility of magic spells. Ito's work as a battle system designer inspires Nomura when thinking of the gameplay system for
840-459: A mobile platform and wanted it to play slightly differently from other titles in the series. The result was Kingdom Hearts Coded , a game set after the events of Kingdom Hearts II , which was later remade for the Nintendo DS in 2010. In the meantime, Nomura was also responsible for the main character designs and orchestration of The World Ends with You for the Nintendo DS. In 2009, he
960-494: A new rhythm-based game mode called Fortnite Festival, mimicking the gameplay of Rock Band , released within Epic's Fortnite game platform in 2023. Rhythm games have been used for health purposes. For example, research has found that dancing games dramatically increase energy expenditure over that of traditional video games, and that they burn more calories than walking on a treadmill. Scientists have further suggested that, due to
1080-575: A new versus battle mode. An arcade-based entry in the series, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: All-Star Carnival , was released in 2016. A second sequel, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line , was released on February 16, 2023, for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. Final Bar Line includes 385 songs from various Final Fantasy main soundtracks and arrangement albums. DLC is planned to add a further 90 songs from additional Square Enix franchises including NieR , The World Ends With You , Chrono Trigger and more. Rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action
1200-456: A nostalgia trip through the series. Curtain Call ' s core rhythm gameplay was applauded by critics for its touching gameplay, with GameTrailers called by a feeling of "playing conductor". Commenters also believe the stages were paired with the original atmosphere, noting FMS and BMS reflected planted and exciting mood respectively, while EMS evoked a reminiscence. The game's difficulty level
1320-438: A profession although he ultimately abandoned the idea. Nomura went to vocational school to learn magazine and advertising artwork. Nomura then looked for an advertising job at a publishing company. However, he eventually applied to Square after he had seen a job advertisement with a drawing by Yoshitaka Amano . In 1991, Nomura was hired by Square and at first worked as a debugger for Final Fantasy IV . Some time later,
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#17327769116011440-750: A real instrument in the future while a majority of those who were already musicians had been inspired to play their instruments more. Despite such popularity the guitar remains less popular than it was in the 1960s. Some musicians have been critical of Guitar Hero' s impact on music education. Jack White of the White Stripes stated that he was disappointed to learn that video games are the most likely venue where younger audiences will be exposed to new works, while Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin does not believe that people can learn how to play real instruments from their video game counterparts. Similarly, Prince has turned down opportunities to have his music in
1560-555: A rhythm game for the Nintendo DS that utilizes the handheld's touchscreen features. It became a highly demanded import title, which led to the release of an altered version of the game in the West— Elite Beat Agents —and a sequel in Japan . Also in 2005, Harmonix and the small publisher RedOctane released Guitar Hero , a game inspired by Bemani's GuitarFreaks . However, instead of the Japanese pop that comprises
1680-479: A rhythm game. Multiplayer features, including WiFi and StreetPass, received positive reviews, but GameSpot hoped there is a online function. Commentators highlighted the game's track library as an impressive collection, praised 70 songs that covered a wide range of styles, which from 8-bit sounds in early games to orchestral arrangements in Final Fantasy XIII . Anime News Network commented that, it
1800-585: A rock concert taken from the lead guitarist's perspective to increase immersion. Guitar rhythm game industry is going for the VR market with games like Rocksmith and Rock Band VR . 2016 saw the release of Thumper , a self-styled "rhythm violence" game combining rhythm mechanics with an abstract horror theme and an original industrial soundtrack. Unusually, Thumper features a player character encountering notes as physical obstacles, rather than having notes simply scroll offscreen. Also in 2016, Konami returned to
1920-450: A stylized and chibi way and came up with the idea for the " Limit Break " attacks. He also took part in the making of the story and had a hand in plot elements such as Aerith 's death. In 1998, Nomura worked on both Parasite Eve and Brave Fencer Musashi . He then designed characters and monsters for Final Fantasy VIII in what he described as his "actual style of drawing", working alongside art director Yusuke Naora to realize
2040-604: Is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm . Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments , and require players to press (or step on) buttons in a sequence dictated on the screen. Many rhythm games include multiplayer modes in which players compete for the highest score or cooperate as a simulated musical ensemble . Rhythm games often feature novel game controllers shaped like musical instruments such as guitars and drums to match notes while playing songs. Certain dance-based games require
2160-436: Is a rhythm video game . Players take control of four Final Fantasy characters, and select a game from the first Final Fantasy to XIII . Each game has three stages: field, battle, and event. Each stage features different game mechanics than the others; once a stage is completed, the characters level up. The difficulty level can be changed in order to make it appealing to "beginners and rhythm masters alike". Throughout
2280-425: Is a Japanese video game artist , designer, producer, and director working for Square Enix . He was hired by Square initially as a monster designer for Final Fantasy V (1992), before being shifted towards secondary character designer alongside Yoshitaka Amano for Final Fantasy VI (1994). Final Fantasy VII (1997) had him working in the original story alongside Hironobu Sakaguchi , and marked his debut as
2400-533: Is a rhythm game in which players dance on pressure-sensitive pads in an order dictated by on-screen instructions. The game was highly successful both in and outside Japan, unlike games such as GuitarFreaks , DrumMania and Beatmania , though the latter had some success in Europe. Released the same year, Enix 's Bust a Groove features a similar focus on dancing but employs a more conventional input method. The game contains competitive one-on-one battles, and grants
2520-483: Is also a "no fail" practice option for each stage. Lastly for the music section of the game, there is a "Chaos Shrine" mode. There are a total of 99 levels, with two stages per level - a field music followed by a battle music. For each level, there are three possible bosses, with each boss dropping three items for a total of nine potential item drops per level. These items are usually rarer items or crystals needed to unlock additional characters. If one scores high enough in
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#17327769116012640-440: Is played with only touch and audio. Guitar Hero was used as part of a Trent University youth sleep study, which showed that, in general, players who played a song were better at it twelve hours later if that period included normal sleep. Guitar Hero and Rock Band have introduced people to rock music and inspired them to learn how to play the guitar. A study by Youth Music found that 2.5 million out of 12 million children in
2760-508: The Final Fantasy series in the same capacity with 2001's Final Fantasy X . He worked with the staff so that the characters' clothes would be identical in full motion videos and in-game scenes, unlike in Final Fantasy VIII . In February 2000, he started working as the director of Kingdom Hearts with the production team consisting of over one hundred members from both Square and Disney Interactive . Nomura first heard of
2880-473: The Color TV-Game console and later borrowed a Family Computer in high school. Around that time, Dragon Quest became Nomura's favorite because it surprised him and introduced him to video games with story elements. His art teacher in high school pointed him towards the works of Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano . Nomura also created his own manga during class and intended to do this as
3000-540: The Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy X-2 . For the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII metaseries which featured new titles based on Final Fantasy VII , Nomura was once again the character designer. A sequel to Kingdom Hearts started development around the completion of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix , an international version which added more foreshadowing elements regarding
3120-494: The Fretlight practice tool, have expressed scepticism over the game's educational value. There is anecdotal evidence that Guitar Hero aids rhythm and general hand-coordination, but also that it creates a false preconception of the difficulty of learning guitar, which can lead students to discontinue their studies. Guitar Center conducted a survey which found that a majority of instrument-based rhythm gamers intended to take up
3240-474: The Guitar Hero series, stating that he felt that it was "more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar". Other commentators have pointed to drum controllers (including the expanded, lifelike Drum Rocker kit) used in such games as potentially useful in learning and creating music with real drums. Tetsuya Nomura Tetsuya Nomura ( 野村 哲也 , Nomura Tetsuya , born October 8, 1970)
3360-467: The Kingdom Hearts games. When designing characters, Nomura wants their names and outfits to be related with their personalities. An example occurs in Final Fantasy X where the protagonist Tidus was given a colorful uniform in order to reflect his cheerful personality and to contrast with the previous moody Final Fantasy characters. His name as well as Yuna 's, another character appearing in
3480-539: The Nintendo eShop . The game follows the events of the gods Chaos and Cosmos, a similar plot to Dissidia Final Fantasy for the PlayStation Portable . The space between the two is called Rhythm, which gives birth to a crystal that controls music. Chaos causes the crystal to become disrupted, and the only way to return it to normal is to increase a music wave known as "Rhythmia" (known as "Rhythpo" in
3600-563: The Rock Band franchise, which also earned over $ 1 billion. Rock Band titles support multiple instrument controllers and cooperative multiplayer, allowing players to play as a full band. The Guitar Hero franchise followed suit with the band-oriented, Neversoft -developed Guitar Hero World Tour . Guitar Hero installments based on specific bands, such as Metallica and Aerosmith , were also published. Additional songs for Guitar Hero and Rock Band were made available for purchase via
3720-517: The University of Michigan Health System has cautioned that dance games and other exergames should only be a starting point towards traditional sports, which are more effective. Dance games have also been used in rehabilitation and fall-prevention programs for elderly patients, using customised, slower versions of existing games and mats. Researchers have further experimented with prototypes of games allowing wider and more realistic stepping than
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3840-402: The eighth generation of console hardware has also spurred return of Activision 's Guitar Hero and Harmonix's Rock Band titles in late 2015. Rhythm game, or rhythm action, is a subgenre of action game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. The genre includes dance games such as Dance Dance Revolution and music-based games such as Donkey Konga and Guitar Hero . Games in
3960-457: The 2005 film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children , and directed Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), while coming back as creative director for the sequel Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024). Nomura's father influenced his interest in art and games early on, creating little drawings and unique Sugoroku board games for him. Nomura started drawing at the age of three years and developed his own Sugoroku games during his elementary school years. As
4080-555: The 3DS version of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and expressed satisfaction, stating that "as I remembered various things from the past 20 years, I was reduced to tears. FF music fans should definitely play it. Won't you cry with me?" A sequel, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call , was released for the Nintendo 3DS on April 24, 2014, in Japan, and in September for North America, Australia and Europe. The game features 221 songs and
4200-481: The EMS background cinematics nostalgic, while IGN were complaints about the repetitive FMS backgrounds. The iOS version received "average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . Reviews expressed that songs are expensive,Re but thought it suited for players who enjoy rhythm game or Final Fantasy and did not care about the cost. The iOS version followed the 3DS version's rhythm gameplay, and
4320-486: The Internet, which generated further revenue. Artists whose work is featured in the games receive royalties, and the increased publicity in turn generates further sales of their music. The success of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises widened the console video game market and its demographics, and the popularity of the genre drove increased sales of consoles. In 2008, it was reported that music games had become
4440-422: The Japanese version). As such, various characters from the Final Fantasy universe are brought together in order to harness the power of Rhythmia. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was proposed by Square Enix 's Ichiro Hazama after working in the film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children . It was originally envisioned for the Nintendo DS but development faced difficulties due to the console's limitations. Upon seeing
4560-464: The Miku series) and 2013 ( The Idolmaster Shiny Festa ), and numerous mobile-based virtual idol rhythm games followed, such as Love Live! , BanG Dream! , Uta no Prince-sama and Ensemble Stars! . Many of these games were freemium games based on existing anime or manga properties, and typically included gacha -type mechanisms to be profitable. With the introduction of motion controllers for
4680-578: The NecroDancer uses a mechanic where the player controls the main character in sync with the soundtrack's beat. Harmonix returned to its core rhythm games in 2014. In 2014, it successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to produce a remake of the PS2 title, Amplitude for PlayStation 3 and 4, with release expected in 2015. Further, in March 2015, the company announced Rock Band 4 to be released later in
4800-557: The Nintendo 3DS, Hazama once again gave his idea to his superior Tetsuya Nomura and the company Indieszero , which resulted in the production for the game on the Nintendo 3DS. While the work title in the proposal file was Final Fantasy in Music , the current title, Theatrhythm , was suggested by Nomura. For the music selection, the Square Enix staff made a music survey during development of Dissidia Final Fantasy although most of
4920-616: The SixString support guitar controllers with strings, and both contain modes that teach players accurate fingering. Despite this new content, sales of music games faltered in 2010. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 sold only 86,000 and 59,000 copies, respectively, in North America during their first week on the market. This was in sharp contrast to Guitar Hero III , which had sold nearly 1.4 million units in its first week in 2008. Through October 2010, music games achieved net sales of around $ 200 million, one-fifth of
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy - Misplaced Pages Continue
5040-526: The United Kingdom have begun learning how to play real instruments after playing music video games such as Guitar Hero . The group believes that these video games can be incorporated into music educational programs. Guitar teachers in the US have reported an increase in students who cite Guitar Hero as their inspiration to start learning. On the other hand, industry professionals, such as the inventor of
5160-588: The Xbox 360 ( Kinect ) and the PlayStation 3 ( PlayStation Move ) in 2010 and 2011, some analysts stated that the rhythm market would resurge thanks to dance- and band-based games that use platform-agnostic controllers. Dance games such as Ubisoft's Just Dance , Harmonix's Dance Central and Michael Jackson: The Experience were based on new motion sensing technologies. Industry pundits believed that, because sales of peripheral-based music games are lagging and
5280-531: The aggressive competition between the Rock Band and Guitar Hero brands on the belief that the market could only support one franchise also contributed to the decline of these games. As a result, analysts lowered their expectations for future music games; for example, projections of first quarter U.S. sales of DJ Hero , a Guitar Hero "spin-off", were reduced from 1.6 million units to only 600,000. Sales of rhythm games, which totalled $ 1.47 billion in 2008, reached only $ 700 million in 2009. Analysts predicted that
5400-499: The background, and the avatar is more important to spectators than it is to the player. In single-player modes, the player's avatar competes against a computer-controlled opponent, while multiplayer modes allow two player-controlled avatars to compete head-to-head. The popularity of rhythm games has created a market for speciality input devices. These include controllers that emulate musical instruments, such as guitars, drums, or maracas. A dance mat, for use in dancing games, requires
5520-519: The chosen songs were from Final Fantasy VII . All the songs were included in their original versions with the exception of the "Gurugu Volcano" from the first Final Fantasy which is based on the PlayStation release since the original version was shorter. The idea of using the gods Chaos and Cosmos from Dissidia was proposed by Nomura as both Hazama and he had worked in such game and wanted to continue using them. The trademark " Theatrhythm "
5640-603: The company shifts to newer games. In Japanese amusement arcade, arcade-based collectible card games became popular. In 2004, Sega released Oshare Majo: Love and Berry which was a fashion coordinate game with collectible card game and rhythm game elements. The Oshare Majo was a big hit in Japan and then other game companies also entered in this game genre. Those games have only aimed at young girls, however some of those games also hit at some adults which are often mentioned as " Ōkina otomodachi " (lit. Big Friends). In 2016, as for PriPara, Tomy mentioned that "When all users [of
5760-588: The company's staff was divided and he was placed in the team in charge of Final Fantasy . After he had received some training by artist Tetsuya Takahashi , Nomura designed the monsters for Final Fantasy V . At that time, each Final Fantasy developer had their own plan book as a compilation of ideas to present to the director of a game. While the others typed their plan books at the computer and then printed them out, Nomura wrote his by hand and attached many drawings which impressed director Hironobu Sakaguchi and event planner Yoshinori Kitase . Nomura then became
5880-447: The country's obesity epidemic . Arnold Schwarzenegger , former Governor of California , was a noted proponent of the game's use in schools. In Japan, celebrities reported losing weight after playing Dance Dance Revolution , which drove sales of the game's home console version. Bemani's testers also found themselves losing weight while working on the game. There is further anecdotal evidence that these games aid weight loss, though
6000-486: The creation of the non-playable characters . In 2008, he was the character designer of Dissidia Final Fantasy . The game was originally envisioned by Nomura as a Kingdom Hearts spin-off featuring a cast of Disney characters. He later felt uncomfortable with the Disney characters fighting each other and instead opted to use Final Fantasy characters. Nomura was responsible for the character designs, which changed much of
6120-416: The critically acclaimed Final Fantasy VII Remake . He worked as the director of the project, character designer, and concept designer. After a successful launch, Nomura would go on to work on downloadable content for the game called "intermission", which released in 2021. During this, he was also working on the next installation, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth . Work for that project began in 2019, however, it
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#17327769116016240-527: The downturn in rhythm games, Activision shuttered their Guitar Hero division in February 2011. Analysts suggested that the market for peripheral-based rhythm games may remain stagnant for three to five years, after which sales could resurge because of digital distribution models or the release of new video game consoles. However, by 2013, the era of peripheral-based music games was considered at an end, as Harmonix announced that it would cease regular updates of Rock Band downloadable content on April 2, 2013, as
6360-426: The earlier title's soundtrack, Guitar Hero features Western rock music. The game reinvigorated the rhythm genre, which had stagnated because of a flood of Dance Dance Revolution sequels and imitations. Guitar Hero spawned several sequels, and the franchise overall earned more than $ 1 billion, with the third installment ranking as the best selling game in North America in 2007. Harmonix followed Guitar Hero with
6480-418: The extensive legacy of Final Fantasy music, with had a history of twenty-five years, and some critics wondered the long wait for a Final Fantasy music game. The fusion of rhythm gameplay and role-playing elements was found to be interesting and nostalgic, though the role-playing sector has limited impact on the actual enjoyment. Reviews recommended Theatrhythm Final Fantasy for Fantasy Fantasy fans seeking
6600-595: The film. The same occurs within the Kingdom Hearts series where the scenes that show unknown characters are left to the player's imagination until the following scene reveals it. Nomura received the "Excellence in Visual Arts" award by the International Game Developers Association for his work on the first Kingdom Hearts game , alongside Shinji Hashimoto . In IGN 's "The Top 100 Video Game Creators of all Time" Nomura
6720-455: The first field music stage, a sign will appear indicating they will go to "Boss 2 or 3", who will have better item drops. These levels have a difficulty level between the 2nd and 3rd levels from Challenge Mode. Additionally, Chaos Shrine contains songs from Final Fantasy games not featured in other areas of the game (for example, Mambo de Chocobo). The game also features downloadable content , allowing players to purchase new songs and stages from
6840-484: The first half of the year. This decline was attributed to fewer purchases of instrument controllers; it was assumed that players had already bought such controllers and were reusing them. While analysts had expected that United States sales of Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band would be high—close to or exceeding one million units each in the first month of their release —sales only reached roughly half of those projections. The failure to meet sales projections
6960-586: The formula in 2005 with the Western-targeted Guitar Hero . In general, few Japanese arcade rhythm games were exported abroad because of the cost of producing the peripherals and the resulting increases in retail prices. The 1999 Bemani title DrumMania featured a drum kit controller, and could be linked with GuitarFreaks for simulated jam sessions . Similarly, this concept was later appropriated by Harmonix for their game Rock Band . Dance Dance Revolution , released in 1998,
7080-516: The game during a discussion between Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi regarding the use of the character of Mickey Mouse in a video game. He was inspired to work on Kingdom Hearts by Nintendo 's platforming game Super Mario 64 . After discussing with the Disney staff, Nomura convinced them to use original characters with him as the character designer. The game's protagonist, Sora , became his favorite character he had designed so far. Following Kingdom Hearts , Nomura worked once again on
7200-528: The game, and to begin experimenting with other rhythm game concepts. Its successes include GuitarFreaks , which features a guitar-shaped controller, and 1998's Pop'n Music , a game similar to Beatmania in which multiple colorful buttons must be pressed. While the GuitarFreaks franchise continues to receive new arcade releases in Japan, it was never strongly marketed outside of the country. This allowed Red Octane and Harmonix to capitalize on
7320-468: The game, according to Bloomberg . The first Just Dance game (2009) overcame a poor critical reception to topple Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 's best-seller status, while Just Dance 2 (2010) became the best selling non-Nintendo game for the Wii. The Just Dance series competed with top action franchises for sales. Tap Tap Revenge , the first installment of the iPhone rhythm series Tap Tap ,
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#17327769116017440-529: The game, also have a common theme, the former being Okinawan for "Sun" and the latter Okinawan for "night". Various characters such as Squall Leonheart and Lulu are given multiple accessories, making the games more challenging for the programmers. When directing Advent Children , Nomura explained how the film was different from Western films due to the lack of direct answers from the plot. He added that he wants viewers to interpret certain scenes themselves and then discuss them with friends as another way to enjoy
7560-414: The game, players can unlock music and movie scenes. The gameplay requires players to tap on the screen in correct spots to the beat of the music playing. Within the main game section "Series Mode", there are 3 unique stage styles: Field (Overworld) Music, Battle Music, and Event (Dramatic) Music, as well as the option to play through the opening and ending themes. There is also a "Challenge Mode" that allows
7680-443: The game] are counted as its main target of from 6 to 9 years old [Japanese] girls, we succeed to expand the market scale as many as every one of the main target." in its financial results. Virtual idol rhythm games grew in popularity in Japan out of two different media segments. One was The Idolmaster series of games developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment first released as an arcade game in 2005. Initial games had players taking
7800-560: The genre challenge the player to press buttons at precise times: the screen shows which button the player is required to press, and the game awards points both for accuracy and for synchronization with the beat. The genre also includes games that measure rhythm and pitch, in order to test a player's singing ability, and games that challenge the player to control their volume by measuring how hard they press each button. While songs can be sight read , players usually practice to master more difficult songs and settings. Certain rhythm games offer
7920-572: The genre's revenue during the same period in 2008. Analysts believed that the market likely would not break $ 400 million in revenue by the end of the year. End year sales were less than $ 300 million. By the end of 2010, the instrument controller-based rhythm market was considered "well past its prime", and developers shifted their focus to downloadable content and potential integration with motion control systems. In late 2010, Viacom sold Harmonix to an investment-backed group and allowed it to continue developing Rock Band and Dance Central . Citing
8040-421: The graphic director of Final Fantasy VI . For this game, he conceived the characters Shadow and Setzer as well as their background stories. Their designs were reused from some of Nomura's abandoned concepts for Final Fantasy V . Following several smaller projects, Nomura was asked to be the principal character designer of Final Fantasy VII in replacement for Amano. Nomura drew the game's characters in
8160-473: The highest rates of obesity and its attendant diseases in the US, introduced Dance Dance Revolution into its schools' physical education classes. According to The New York Times , more than "several hundred schools in at least 10 states" have used Dance Dance Revolution (along with In the Groove ) in their curricula. Plans have been made to increase the number into the thousands in an effort to mitigate
8280-403: The importance of software and downloadable content sales. Activision scaled back its 2010 Guitar Hero release schedule to just two games, reducing the number of SKUs from 25 in 2009 to 10 in 2010. The company closed several in-house developers, including RedOctane, Neversoft's Guitar Hero division, and Underground Development . Viacom , which had paid Harmonix $ 150 million following
8400-421: The inclusion of new characters and new gameplay mechanics. For 2011's Final Fantasy XIII-2 , Nomura only created the new characters' faces as other staff members designed their clothes. Once the Kingdom Hearts coded remake was released, Nomura and his companions had already thought about creating Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance , a game that would set up the events of Kingdom Hearts III . The game
8520-419: The large amount of time children spend playing video games and watching television, games that involve physical activity could be used to combat obesity . Studies have found that playing Dance Dance Revolution can provide an aerobic workout , in terms of a sufficiently intense heart rate , but not the minimum levels of VO2 max . Based on successful preliminary studies, West Virginia , which has one of
8640-530: The latter one did not provide potential freedom to allow players to make a " Theatrhythm Zelda ". In the first week of release in Japan, sales of just shy of 70,000 were reported, despite Famitsu giving the 3DS version a score of one ten, two nines, and one eight for a total of 36 out of 40. Within one month, by March 2012, said handheld version had sold 112,344 copies in Japan. As of February 2013, said version sold 163,098 units in Japan. In February 2012, Nobuo Uematsu , longtime Final Fantasy composer, played
8760-620: The lead character designer, a capacity he would retain for several future installments of the series, as well as other Square Enix titles such as The Bouncer and The World Ends with You . He also created well-known Cactuar , Gilgamesh and Tonberry characters. Additionally, Nomura created and has led the development as director of the Kingdom Hearts series since its inception in 2002 and has been creative producer in The World Ends with You series. He has also directed
8880-468: The look and style of Amano's illustrations. In 2010, Square released Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep , a prequel of the first Kingdom Hearts that explained scenes shown in Kingdom Hearts II and its updated version. In early 2011, Square released a follow-up to Dissidia titled Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy . The game carried several ideas Nomura had ever since early development, such as
9000-575: The market would settle at the same "healthy" $ 500–600 million level of the Call of Duty series . Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter concluded that the saturation of the rhythm game market accounted for one-third of the industry's 12% sales decline in 2009. The fallout of the weakening rhythm game market affected game developers, publishers and distributors. Companies in the latter two categories believed that most consumers would own at least one set of instrument controllers by 2010, which would increase
9120-480: The more realistic approach to the game's graphics. Additionally, he wrote the character's background stories and was the battle visual director in charge of designing fight sequences. Afterwards, Nomura worked on several different projects for Square, for example as a character designer of the 1998 fighting game Ehrgeiz which also used characters from Final Fantasy VII . Nomura was the character designer for 2000s beat 'em up The Bouncer before he returned to
9240-532: The music created in Vocaloid, and many of these videos became popular on the Japanese media sharing site Niconico . The popularity of the Miku's videos led to other similar videos based on other popular characters including those out of the Idolmaster series. The next Idolmaster game, The Idolmaster Live For You! in 2008, focused more on the performance mini-games, which led for most remaining games of
9360-485: The next several years. The most successful of these was the 1998 dance mat game Dance Dance Revolution , which was the only Bemani title to achieve large-scale success outside Japan, and would see numerous imitations of the game from other publishers. Other Japanese games, particularly Guitar Freaks , led to development of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series that used instrument-shaped controllers to mimic
9480-405: The player more freedom than typical rhythm games. NanaOn-Sha , the creators of PaRappa the Rapper , released Vib-Ribbon in 1999. It eschews instrument-shaped controllers; instead, players maneuver the protagonist through an obstacle course by pressing buttons at correct times. The game's levels are generated by the background music, which players may change by inserting audio CDs . While it
9600-649: The player to choose the Battle, Overworld, or Dramatic music from a Final Fantasy game that they have cleared the normal difficulty of in Series Mode. The player then plays these one stage at a time, instead of in succession as in Series Mode. If an A rank or better is received on a song, a higher difficulty is unlocked. Unlocking a higher difficulty for all three songs from a Final Fantasy Game will unlock that difficulty in Series Mode. Within Challenge Mode, there
9720-431: The player to physically dance on a mat, with pressure-sensitive pads acting as the input device. The 1996 title PaRappa the Rapper has been deemed the first influential rhythm game, whose basic template formed the core of subsequent games in the genre. In 1997, Konami 's Beatmania sparked an emergent market for rhythm games in Japan. The company's music division, Bemani , released a series of music-based games over
9840-567: The player to step on pressure-sensitive pads. However, most rhythm games also support more conventional input devices, such as control pads. One early rhythm-based electronic game was the handheld game Simon , created in 1978 by Ralph Baer (who created the Magnavox Odyssey ) and Howard Morrison . The game used the " call and response " mechanic, in which players take turns repeating increasingly complicated sequences of button presses. Human Entertainment 's Dance Aerobics
9960-495: The playing of actual instruments. Spurred by the inclusion of popular rock music , the two series revitalized the rhythm genre in the Western Market, significantly expanded the console video game market and its demographics. The games provided a new source of revenue for the artists whose music appeared on the soundtracks. The later release of Rock Band 3 as well as the even later Rocksmith would allow players to play
10080-425: The point where we can say that." Wishing to stop using the character of Sora temporarily, Nomura instead wanted to continue the series with games that explained different subplots. This resulted in the creation of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS in 2008 which explored events that set up the story of Kingdom Hearts II . In mid-2007, Nomura mentioned a desire to create a spin-off Kingdom Hearts game on
10200-587: The popularity of pop music is surging, dance-based games would continue to thrive. Just Dance and Dance Central boosted the rhythm genre's late-2010 sales; the latter was the top-selling game for the Kinect in North America in November 2010. Both games helped the genre increase its sales by 38% over November 2009, according to NPD. Harmonix is expected to post more than $ 100 million in profit for 2011 buoyed by sales of Dance Central and downloadable content for
10320-641: The project and other key members of the original Final Fantasy VII development team, Kitase and Kazushige Nojima returning as producer and scenario writer. At E3 2015 , Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced with Nomura confirmed to be the director of the game. Nomura designed the charications in the "Torna" organization for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 . Nomura also designed bosses for the Eden raid in Final Fantasy XIV 's expansion, Shadowbringers . In April 2020, Nomura and Square Enix launched
10440-539: The recently announced Kingdom Hearts IV . Like the previous games, he will be in charge of the character design, the story, and the concept design. As for this project’s release date, and when more news would be shared, no release date was given, and any more visual showcases for the game will come at a later date, and not during the summer. Nomura also created art pieces for his characters on post cards which could be purchased in October 2022. He also created artwork which
10560-457: The rhythm game market continues to expand, introducing a number of dance-based games like Ubisoft 's Just Dance and Harmonix 's Dance Central that incorporate the use of motion controllers and camera-based controls like the Kinect . Existing games also continue to thrive on new business models, such as the reliance on downloadable content to provide songs to players. The introduction of
10680-413: The role of a manager of rising stars (idols) managing their schedules through mini-games , which include performing in auditions similar to a rhythm game approach. The other direction came from the introduction of the virtual idol of Hatsune Miku by Crypton Future Media for its line of Vocaloid sound synthesis software in 2007. Using Vocaloid, software users could have Miku mimic singing and dancing to
10800-422: The role-playing machines may helpful for completing difficult songs, but they felt the four-person party a "visual aid" for providing the "illusion of success": players could rely on their rhythm skills, rendering the character leveling and party arrangement aspects less impactful. The game's opening was boring, which was compared to dull beginnings of role-playing games by IGN , but the later-unlocked Chaos Shrine
10920-411: The same year, with plans to keep the game as a platform with continued free and paid updates and downloadable content, while refocusing on the core social and music enjoyment of the game. Activision also announced Guitar Hero Live , slated for late 2015, which rebuilds the game from the ground up, keeping the core mechanics but using a 3-button with dual position controller, and using recorded footage of
11040-767: The second most popular video game genre (behind action) in the United States, with 53% of players being female. At its height in 2008, music games represented about 18% of the video game market. Video game industry analysts considered 2009 to be a critical year for rhythm games, and they believed that it would allow them to gauge the future success of the genre. Both the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises were expanded, and they received entries for handheld gaming devices and mobile phones. Specialized titles that targeted specific genres and demographics, such as Band Hero for pop music and Lego Rock Band for younger players, were released. Sales of music games were down in
11160-483: The series to be virtual idol rhythm games. Similarly, as Crypton continue to expand on Miku and other virtual idols for Vocaloid, they expanded to licensing those idols for video games, collaborating with Sega to create the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA debuting in 2009. These games were initially mostly for consoles, but mobile game versions of these series appeared in 2012 ( Miku Flick for
11280-515: The series' plot. Nomura continued his work on the series with Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. He had originally planned to work directly on the PlayStation 2 sequel Kingdom Hearts II . However, desire from fans to play the original game on a portable console resulted in the creation of Chain of Memories which would bridge the gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II . Afterwards, Nomura
11400-417: The songs using a real electric guitar. By 2007 rhythm games were considered to be one of the most popular video game genres, behind other action games. However, by 2009, the market was saturated by spin-offs from the core titles, which led to a nearly 50% drop in revenue for music game publishers; within a few years, both series announced they would be taking a hiatus from future titles. Despite these setbacks,
11520-469: The success of Rock Band in 2007, began seeking a "substantial" refund on that investment after weak sales in 2009. Viacom also sought to negotiate new deals with music publishers to reduce the costs of the Rock Band series' licensed music. Ultimately, the company began to seek a buyer for Harmonix during the third quarter of 2010. In 2010, rhythm game developers included new features in their products. For example, Rock Band 3 and Power Gig: Rise of
11640-489: The tapping actions found in commercial dance games. MIT students collaborated with the government of Singapore and a professor at the National University of Singapore to create AudiOdyssey , a game which allows both blind and sighted gamers to play together. Guitar Hero games have been used alongside physical therapy to help recovering stroke patients, because of the multiple limb coordination that
11760-446: The tapping control, from 3DS stylus to iOS finger, was considered great by reviews. Due to iOS devices' capabilities, the version had better graphics quality with running smoothly, but SlideToPlay criticized its "continuous" running problems. The introduced modes of Quest Medley and Compose Scores were interesting. However, PocketGamer commented that the first mode worked well if players bought music to expand library, while IGN stated
11880-476: The titles require. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have used Guitar Hero III and its controller to help amputee patients, and to develop new prosthetic limbs for these patients. Researchers at University of Nevada, Reno modified a haptic feedback glove to work with the Guitar Hero freeware clone Frets on Fire , resulting in Blind Hero , a music game for visually impaired players that
12000-469: The top selling and highest rated virtual reality game on the Steam market at the time of its release. In 2019, the rhythm genre made its first foray into the first-person shooter genre with Harmonix's AUDICA. This same formula would then be used again for 2019's Pistol Whip , 2020's BPM: Bullets Per Minute and 2022's Metal: Hellsinger . Harmonix was acquired by Epic Games in 2021, and worked on
12120-400: The western arcade market with Dance Dance Revolution A after a successful location test. In 2017, Step Revolution released StepManiaX , a game similar to DDR and In the Groove , with an additional center panel. The game currently releases monthly updates. In 2018, Beat Saber , a virtual reality rhythm game designed around cutting colored cubes in time with a song's beat, became
12240-443: Was also the main character designer of Final Fantasy XIII . The graphics capabilities of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 compared to previous consoles allowed Nomura to use more complex elements in the character designs than before, such as Lightning's cape and detailed facial features. This in turn meant that the art team had to do much more work for each character or area than in previous games. Nomura did not take an involved role in
12360-450: Was an early rhythm-based video game released in 1987, and allows players to create music by stepping on Nintendo 's Power Pad peripheral for the NES video game console . The 1996 title PaRappa the Rapper has been credited as the first true rhythm game, and as one of the first music-based games in general. It requires players to press buttons in the order that they appear on the screen,
12480-444: Was filed near the end of E3 2011 by Square Enix. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy was officially announced for release exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump . The game was originally announced for release only in Japan. Square Enix Japan created an official website to promote the game. Rumours came up that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy would be developed by Jupiter , but
12600-466: Was interesting. Reviews lauded for its challenging and unlockable elements. Polygon commented that defeating Shrine bosses would cost skilled music gamers a considerable time, while Edge while Edge described the challenge of "slowly unlocking harder, more obscure songs in the Chaos Shrine" as "the game's real challenge". The story was criticize for its weakness, but they did not count it a issue for
12720-471: Was later confirmed on the official website that it would be developed by Indieszero. The character and monster designs are designed by MonsterOctopus, who also designed the Kingdom Hearts avatars found in Kingdom Hearts Mobile and Re:Coded . According to Metacritic , the Nintendo 3DS version of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy received a "generally favorable". Theatrhythm tapped into
12840-450: Was later released on consoles in the West as Taiko Drum Master , and the franchise continues to receive new installments in Japan, as well as console releases around the world. Gitaroo Man featured a guitar-playing protagonist four years before the release of Guitar Hero , though the game employed a conventional rather than guitar-shaped controller. Harmonix was formed in 1995 from
12960-607: Was made difficult by the game's abstract style, which removed the player's ability to perform for onlookers. In 2003, Harmonix followed up Frequency with the similar Amplitude . The company later released a more socially driven, karaoke -themed music game in Karaoke Revolution (2003). Donkey Konga , a GameCube title developed by Namco and released in 2003, achieved widespread success by leveraging Nintendo's Donkey Kong brand. In 2005, Gitaroo Man' s creator Keiichi Yano released Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan ,
13080-483: Was not prefect but covered most of popular songs. and Polygon felt the lack of XIV was due to its negative reception. Giant Bomb found the DLC tracks to be worth purchasing but criticized the lack of a preview feature. The humor elements—chibi-style characters, and the funny character dialogues like "At last, we tremble mythically for an idiot!"—were praised by commenters for adding "playful" and "colorful". Reviews found
13200-535: Was partly attributed to the impact of the late-2000s recession on the video game industry; Harmonix's CEO Alex Rigopulos considered that at the time, both Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the most expensive video games on the market. Analysts also considered it to be a sign of market saturation. Further contributing to the decline was genre stagnation; the franchises retained the same basic gameplay over several iterations, giving consumers less incentive to buy additional titles. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos felt that
13320-649: Was praised for its unique style and artistry, Vib-Ribbon ' s simple vector graphics proved difficult to market, and the game was never released in North America. Sega's Samba de Amigo , released in arcades in 1999 and on the Dreamcast in 2000, features maraca-shaped, motion-sensitive controllers. The game allows for two-player gameplay, provides a spectacle for onlookers and allows players to socialise while gaming. In 2000, Taiko no Tatsujin combined traditional Japanese drums with contemporary pop music, and became highly successful in Japanese arcades. The game
13440-437: Was praised for its wide range, with being accessible for beginners but hard for mastering. Nonetheless, Slant found the game for a lack of polish, and NWR found its occasional issues and suggested the addition of button control. Some reviews considered the fusion of role-playing elements as a innovation with bring nostalgia, but some reviews also found its not well-rounded as it was hardly affected gameplay. Although agreed that
13560-417: Was released for the Nintendo 3DS owing to the team's positive reaction to the console's quality. Nomura confirmed that he would be considering what he called an "HD Technical Test" in order to commemorate the series' tenth anniversary and to entice players new to the series. This occurred on March 3, 2012 in the form of a premiere event where footage from the game, including its full CGI introduction sequence,
13680-425: Was released in 2005, resolving the elements foreshadowed in the first game's secret ending. As a result of being set a year after previous titles, Nomura was careful to make the plot accessible to newcomers. After Square Enix had finished development of the updated version Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix , Nomura was approached by Disney which expressed interest in a sequel. He said "We have various ideas, but we're not at
13800-562: Was released in December. A sequel, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call , was released in 2014. A third game based on the Dragon Quest series, Theatrhythm Dragon Quest , was released in 2015. An arcade game, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: All-Star Carnival , was released in 2016. A second sequel, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line , was released on February 16, 2023, for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 . Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
13920-401: Was revealed in an interview with him that progress for the game would be shown in the year 2022. As for a specific date on when it would be shown, or a release date for the project, one was not announced. He would begin working on it as the creative director (the person in charge of the creative vision for the game), as well as the concept designer and the character designer. He is also working on
14040-642: Was showcased to celebrate the game's release. In May 2012, Nomura revealed he was working as the director of a new Kingdom Hearts game that had yet to be announced by Square Enix. He was directing Final Fantasy XV which originally entered production as Final Fantasy Versus XIII shortly before its announcement in May 2006. Nomura left his position of director on Final Fantasy XV following "changes in development structure" by Square Enix in December 2013. After his departure from Final Fantasy XV , development of Final Fantasy VII Remake began, with Nomura directing
14160-495: Was the director and lyricist for the CGI animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which was released in 2005 in Japan. This marked his film debut, and he redesigned the characters as well. Nomura joined the film's crew after producer Yoshinori Kitase called him and eventually became the director because of his attachment to the character of Cloud Strife . He split the role of directing with Takeshi Nozue. Kingdom Hearts II
14280-516: Was the platform's most downloaded game in 2008. The Tap Tap franchise ultimately generated 15 million downloads and received a Guinness World Record as the "most popular iPhone game series". Over the course of 2014, the phenomenon of indie games produced several variations of the genre. The game Jungle Rumble uses a mechanic where players drum on a touch screen to control the game. Different rhythms correspond with different verbs to control entities in an RTS like environment. The game Crypt of
14400-408: Was used to introduce Kingdom Hearts IV , which displayed many of the characters he has created through the games long timespan. Nomura considers Yoshitaka Amano one of his biggest inspirations when doing artwork. His four "seniors" Hironobu Sakaguchi , Yoshinori Kitase , Hiroyuki Ito and Tetsuya Takahashi were also described as major influences. He even compared Sakaguchi to something "like
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