Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure was one of my favorite games of 2012. Released for the Nintendo 3DS, it was a rhythm game that transcended the genre in many ways, with a charming cast and a hypnotic, jazzy soundtrack. Here we are in 2014, and Sega has mysteriously released an iOS version of the same game, titled Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper (Free). It’s not exactly the same, but rather an abridged take with some iOS-centric goodies.
Rhythm Thief‘s premise is particularly silly, but charming nonetheless. Taking place in Paris, you’ll play the role of 18 year old Raphael, who holds a pretty important secret — he’s an art thief by night who goes by the codename “Phantom R." Throughout the game you’ll team up with your faithful dog Fondue, and uncover a mystery involving the fateful resurrection of Napoleon Bonaparte. Sound ridiculous? It is, but it keeps you guessing often enough and engaged throughout.
The Paris Caper is basically an abridged re-telling of the 3DS game. Instead of presenting lengthy dialog sequences mixed with anime style cutscenes, the iOS game is content on giving you bits and pieces of the story, and instead progressing the tale with a rapid fire slideshow of the proceedings. So if you value the narrative side of things more and want to try out Rhythm Thief, it’s best that you look for the 3DS version.
That’s not to say Paris Caper is a poor game though — because it’s not. It’s also a remake of sorts, mixing in brand new original minigames, and a “board game" like level system, as well as “accomplices," social features, an additional content available to purchase from the in-game store. Instead of wandering throughout Paris by way of an overworld system, instead Paris Caper decides to let you walk through different boards and experience lots of content at once.
Some of the activities consist of roulette style minigames that net you free loot, and a number of them are skill-based games that task you with certain time restricted goals, like “tap the right picture eight times" or “find the icon." There’s a decent selection available so you won’t get bored, and the randomized nature of the boards ensure that you’ll be doing something different constantly.
The crux of the game involves actual rhythm sequences, like dancing on the streets of Paris or sneaking through an art gallery at night. All of these are played out by way of the touch screen, which brings up certain prompts that are specific to that sequence. Think “Dance Dance Revolution arrows" and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. It’s all good fun, and they’re over pretty fast so they don’t overstay their welcome — not to mention, the touch-based controls are pretty flawless.
The Paris Caper also adds some social features to the game, most notably “accomplices," which are basically equipment you can add to Raphael’s arsenal. These icons take the form of characters throughout the game, and they buff your character in certain ways, like adding more “HP" (more leeway to screw up during minigames), or other statistics. The good news is you don’t really need them, but you can also level them up, which adds a unique element to Rhythm Thief that wasn’t really there before.
All things considered, the IAP in the game isn’t all that bad. There’s a in-game shop where you can purchase items by way of the core currency you earn by completing stages, and the other currency — “R Tokens." These are a premium only coin that allows you to purchase certain items and extra levels, which can be basically considered DLC.
The good news is the vast majority (if not all) of the shop’s offerings are optional, and have no real bearing on the game. There’s also a ton of “extra" missions that cycle in periodically for free, so you won’t be at a loss for things to do when you consider the fully featured campaign.
There’s just one major problem — The Paris Caper requires you to connect to the internet to play the game. If you try and load it up in airplane mode or without service, you’re out of luck. To add insult to injury, the game even warns you that “playing in a low service area can result in a corruption of data." Yikes!
To make matters worse, Sega has even had launch day issues with the game, and when they pulled it from the App Store for maintenance, players couldn’t connect even with a working internet connection. It’s a glaring flaw of this otherwise incredible package that needs to be patched out immediately. It would be more understandable for a freemium game, but for something priced at a premium rate, it’s ridiculous.
Barring an incredible odd decision to force players to stay online to play it, Rhythm Thief & The Paris Caper is one of the best rhythm games on the mobile market right now. It has a ton of charm, a heap of content, and easy to use and intuitive touch controls. If you’re a fan of anime style games (Lupin III in particular), it makes the decision to pick this up even easier.
I heard that the Android version has DRM in place? Is that true?
Yes, they have horrible DRM restrictions on Android, which seem to
I read somewhere that it was a similar DRM to the jailbroken iphone thing that happened with Deus Ex, I believe. Like, if you are using a jailbroken device then the game doesn't load or something.
Cute.. He said jail broken in reference to an android device. It's "rooted" (big difference) and this game works fine on all of my rooted devices. Especially my 10.1 inch, 2560x1600, 299ppi Samsung note. (Yes.. that's better than apples "retina" display. The new and fancy I pad air only has 264ppi...)
Do you even know what DRM is?
OH MY GOD I GOT TOLD
I know right...you're taking it well though. Try not to press your face too hard into the pillow when you cry.
Man, why do people say things like this to each other on the net? Gladly, I don't have to identify with the way you paint me, but have some tact before you feel the need to be Mr. Righty-pants. Sheesh.
Square Enix is dog**** as they don't keep any of their games updated as time goes on.
Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 1, 2, 3 all haven't been updated to the 4 inch screen of the iPhone 5/5s and it's been TWO YEARS already.
Imagine how crappy the play experience will be on their games once Apple comes out with a new 5 inch sized iPhone this year?
How about a simple ****ing iOS controller support update for any of your games as well? Would that be so hard?
Square Enix already charges ultra-premium app store prices so they need to start acting like an ultra-premium developer by keeping their games up to date instead of simple releasing them for a quick cash grab and then abandoning them forever...
This so hard!
Explain why companies should update a game that's several years old just because you want them to.
Where's the actual financial incentive to do that?
Because they are still selling those games to new customers, using new devices. I'm not convinced that everyone using an iphone 5s does know, that there are screen size differences. But that aside, they don't even update their games even when the device updates happen a month after their release. And I don't find 15$ quite expensive for a good game, but as it stands, that is expensive compared to other AAA Games on the app store. All of those other, less expensive games usually get updates, expansions etc. Square doesn't even include save game protections like icloud integration. It's a weird company
Well under your logic then why should Apple update older iPhones that are out-of-warranty with newer versions of iOS?
Where's the actual financial incentive to do that? Right?
It's called being a good developer and taking care of your customers (something Square Enix fails to grasp).
Hardware and software are two different beasts. That's like comparing your car to the gasoline you fuel it with.
This is so easy: because Square can sell Chrono Trigger for the next 20 years! It's software! Apple literally takes old phones off the market every 2 years. They don't run new OSes because they don't have the power to run the latest version. Ask anyone with an iPhone 4S how iOS7 is going.
He makes a point. These outdated games rarely get pulled. For example, Crimson Gem Saga stopped working two ios versions ago, but it's still for sale last I checked. Despite completely not running, or mentioning this in the app description, ones only clue is to check reviews for other complaints. And unlike android, you don't get a refund window if the app doesn't work.
You mean apart from it being the right thing to do? Also ignoring the fact that developers with less than 1% their annual revenue seem to manage? Since I'm on a roll we will also ignore the fact that most of the .99 cent games I play have long been ios7/iPhone 5 compatible.
But yea, I guess if he were the ONLY one... Oh wait, him and likely a couple hundred thousand others (at worst)
Make the customer feel important, and they come back for more, usually spending more money. Make the customer feel shafted, and they find a new company to give their money. Is that a good enough financial incentive for you?
Like it or not, premium priced games on iOS tend to come from established development companies. These companies have an engrained mindset of finishing a game and then moving the team to a new project. Any further patches tend to be minor bug fixes at best.
Look at any console game. For the most part gameplay and features are locked from day one.
The most expensive games on my iPad are the ones that see the least long term support.
On the bright side, so long as the games worked on your older iOS device, it should be at least as good on your new one.
It's a crappy way of doing business and wreaks of amateurism or simply not giving a **** about your customers.
I don't like it and will bring attention to it every chance I can to hopefully cost Square Enix sales they would have had (including mine) if they simply acted like a premium developer and kept their games up to date the way they should.
It's frustrating enough paying $15 for a game that is only 3.5 inches on a 4 inch screen, and I'd imagine it's only going to get worse as Apple releases iPhones with even larger screens (say 5 inches) this year.
I'm about to upgrade my phone to that 4 inch screen you speak of. And I'm still playing through FF3. I just wish I could control the joystick in those black bars on the sides instead of on the viewable screen. That'd make up for the lack of support!
Be careful about how you state your arguments. Your word choice and phrasing are giving the impression that you are a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because you aren't getting what you want, and that you'll keep ranting about it forever and ever until something FINALLY gets done about it, when you'll just turn around and RAEG about something else that makes you mad, and you'll repeat this cycle forever.
Yes, you come off as that big of a douchey dick. The thing is... I honestly don't think that interpretation is true.
I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, but I suspect that you are a mature and intelligent person who is frustrated at seeing certain problems and issues pop up over and over again, and you don't know how to deal with them again without all that frustration exploding into some violent act. So you use the comments section as a catharsis, so that you remain calm in real life, while you keep these problems and issues at the forefront of the discussion so that when a solution IS implemented, you can finally relax a little, knowing that something under your skin has finally been scratched out.
If this is the case, or something similar to it, then I must caution you about your communication, because you are butting heads with other people and their opinions in a comments section. It is very likely that a rant of yours that calms you down may trigger an equally emotional response in someone else that could make you upset all over again, thus triggering the RAEG-filled back-and-forth that happens when two emotionally-backed opinions clash on the Internet, which makes everyone who sees it miserable. Including you. Which, if I have hit the mark, is NOT what you want.
If you are doing this to deliberately be a troll and a dickwad... then that's your choice. Remember that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and that just because the Internet is anonymous and affords a little "protection" because of that anonymity, doesn't invalidate this physical law. If you start a verbal fight, you'll have to deal with it, regardless of who you are in real life.
Well, that's my opinion. Make of it whatever you will.
Sincerely,
Mr. Album
P.S. Only ONE grain of sand is needed for an oyster to make a pearl. Dumping an entire bucket of sand into an oyster will probably kill it, or at the very least, hurt it. Think about that.
You pay 15 dollars for an old game expecting something ported correctly. 15 dollars isn't cheap and the fact that many current ports like SoM and CT are BAD. Just BAD ports. It's REALLY disrespectful as a company to not to care about your consumers at ALL
Your P.S. is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. You didn't need to write all that hodge-podge to get the point across. Also, calling someone "dickwad" doesn't come across as the best way to influence them to your perspective...think about that!
Besides your ill manners, this post is ill considered. While controller support would be a possibility, increasing the screen size is a prohibitively tremendous task. Many games have dynamic play areas, allowing the player to view a limited range of a larger area. To expand the screen is as simple as increasing the amount that can be seen at any one time. While this could be done with field areas or dungeons in FFVI, battle screens feature static artwork for the background and foreground. To increase the screen size would necessitate brand-new artwork to fill in the new areas -- a large and and expensive task. By comparison, see SoMoGa's effort to do just that with their release of Lunar:
http://toucharcade.com/2013...
There has been no word on that update since the story was posted several months ago. This is a herculean task; yes, it can be done, but it's not so simple as armchair game designers would tend to believe.
Stop and think about this for a moment. These are not simple apps where windows just need to be enlarged so text can wrap differently. They are based on complex graphics.
To remake them for different screen sizes requires extensive development effort. The best that can be hoped for is for the games to be scaled at a fixed ratio, but that doesn't work jumping from the iPhone 4 to iPhone 5. The ratio is different. The games can be stretched, but that is an awful solution.
I love these games and would very much like to see Square Enix going back and updating them whenever Apple introduces a significant feature (e.g. Retina) or change (e.g. screen resolution), but from a development perspective, that's not realistic unless a particular release is *extremely* popular, or the change can be handled reasonably well. And if it is to be done, it should be done when the development cost is reasonable and not necessarily rushed every time a change is introduced, but rather down the road when it is clear the return on investment is worthwhile.
Also, Square Enix *has* done some updating for old titles. Maybe not as much as people might like, but they have put effort into it. Aside from releasing consistent bug fixes, they have also released some worthwhile updates, such as FFT getting the Retina treatment.
Square Enix needs to make money on these games, otherwise these games wouldn't be released in the first place.
Square Enix is a big company. They can handle a resolution change. Honestly, I wouldn't mind paying again for the app if they redid it to fit the larger screen size. But, these are the kinds of problems plaguing iOS gaming, and making it appear mediocre rather than the "future of gaming" that all the journalists are claiming it is.
They at least fixed FFT so it was playable
Square Enix is a Japanese company. Japs don't give a rat's ass about customer service. They think their games are superb and whether you like it or not, you need to go on their terms. Japs are super proud - can't talk customer service with people like that.
Yes, we need Square to update their games to the new screen sizes. Things like this have been giving me a big reason to become jaded with iOS gaming. It all seems so low-quality and "quick fix" type stuff. I need gaming with more "meat," so to speak. It's great that I have FF6 in my phone, but I'd really like to enjoy the original with the right screen resolution, too. Hell, I'd like to enjoy an iOS game that doesn't feel like a half-baked endeavor that only exploits a single gameplay mechanic. Come to the App Store. We have match 3 games. :(
I got all warm and fuzzy when I saw the screenshots, sorry Eli, I didn't really read the article :P but oh man! I want it for the iOS more than ever now!
Oh well. At least it's coming sooner than later. Thanks Eli.
WANT
I wish they would just get this on the 3DS.
Looking at the sprites makes me very sad. It's like they applied DNR far too liberally.
I like the pixels, I like the sprites. I equate this to when film restoration companies completely ruin classic films by removing any sort of film grain, and softening the image to a sickening degree.
I loved the game when it launched, and have played it through countless times. I'm sadly confident that ap is right, and it won't get updated. So far, I believe the only port that has was FF Tactics. That may well be due to its popularity, and there's a chance this could come close to that in sales... Maybe?
Every time I see the character sprites, I feel a deep sadness. That said, I have my GBA copy that still works, and I can always either load it up in my GBA micro or snag my DS back from my daughter and play it there.
I'll tell you, though, if this pops up in the 3DS VC store, I'll be on it like white on rice.
The character sprites look weird as heck, but the rest of it looks kinda cool. Much better than I feared, certainly. It looks a little cartoony, which feels right to me. FF6 always struck me as a goofy game.
The sprites look like someone took the GIF, converted to JPG, sized up, and blurred. SE should have redrawn them in a way that made it look less like the original sprites and more fitting with the cartoon look of the remake. That might've worked...
Especially if they included a "classic graphics" option.
Exactly!
They can redo them as much as they want, but why the truck can't they at least give us the opportunity to play it as it looked, at LEAST from the character side.
And ff3/6 did something really amazing. They took an epic tale and weaved it in with some seriously awesome, goofy humor.
But the fact that I can have Lunar AND this game on my iPad/iPhone? Yeah. That's pretty amazing.
I gotta say, after seeing all this, I have zero interest in this port. The graphics look terrible and some of those control options are bizarre at best. I'll just stick with the SNES emulator on my jail broken iPad, thanks.
And before any dum dum gripes about "theft" (as if you knew what that actually meant), I spent $70 on this cartridge the week it came out, so I feel zero trepidation about that.
I agree, the sprites look terrible. Wish they would have left them as they were.
Did you upload the ROM?
Anyone know if this has cloud saves?
I don't see any such option for that. It has the regular save option and a new quicksave option (after loading a quicksave, be sure to do a regular save soon after else a death/game over puts you back at your last *regular* save).
Serious on android?
Also, what's the story on the sound? I haven't read any review or impression that mentions it.
From the trailer, it sounds unaltered, unremixed or anything.
The imgur gallery linked to this article mentions there's an option in the menus to listen to the entire soundtrack as you wish, and there's also an event viewer to let you rewatch scenes in the game. These two features should be in every game!
I am thinking maybe I should get this just so I can listen to the FF6 OST anywhere, I love that soundtrack. Or I could just rip my CD copy now I think about it...
Um. I would love it if they would revisit FF1, FF2, Sword of Mana, and Chrono Trigger to put in this new album feature and helpful hints on where to go next. I love being a purist at times, but with those old ones, I'd be lost without some kind of FAQ or guide book!
And if they did revisit those old ones... I hope they leave the graphics/sprites alone.
Meh, I am disappointed with the user interface (no more time bar for turns?) and with the new look of the world map. They should kept like in FFV
Glad you enjoyed my review. A lot of reviewers have been belching liquid hate at this game over its looks. And while they are not perfect, I think the overall improvements to the game take precedent over the graphical changes. Beauty is only skin deep after all.
As soon as I read "there's nothing worse than picking up a Final Fantasy game and not having the slightest clue as to where you're supposed to go next," I immediately thought of Final Fantasy III on the DS.
I love the new look of the game. Sometimes it seems like I'm experiencing performance issues though. Maybe it's because I'm on the older Nexus 7. It might be time to upgrade. Text and other things sometimes doesn't flow smoothly.
The music is exactly the same as the original, which is fine with me. The menus are beautiful. And I have no issue at all with the price. $16 for any Final Fantasy game is a blessing. These are huge games, not dinky little apps that should be selling for $0.50. I've already spent upwards of $50 on this game multiple times, so I'll not complain about $16.
Now, having played through FFV on Android three times (loved it!), I can say I'm having a tougher time adapting to the menus of FFVI than I did with FFV. Hopefully that eases with time.
I agree, the new look is refreshing. I've seen the original sprites for years and years, since playing the original well beyond the 99:99 time showing on the cartridge save, and the new look is well-crafted. The characters look pretty true to their original while displaying better on today's high-res screens.
I played FF6 (FF3US) when it came out for SNES back in the day and it has always remained my favorite FF experience (I've played all but a couple). I've loaded it up on an emulator a few times but couldn't come to terms with not being able to just touch the proper areas of my phone's screen when playing. Now that we've got a touch-compatible version I'm all over it. I will admit it's taking some getting used to the menus with the way they slowly extend upward and having to scroll up/down on them. I noticed that for straight up melee attacks you can just tap on the monster a couple times to initiate though, no need to use the menu at the bottom. If you have cursor memory enabled (it's on by default) then the same holds true of repeating the last action (ie. if you want to steal something, use Steal once and then you can just tap any monster a couple times when it's that characters turn to repeat that action). Personally I've disabled cursory memory so that my default "tap on the monsters a couple times" behavior always results in a melee attack in case I forget I just did some other move the prior turn that I wouldn't want to mistakenly repeat.
Bus ride gameplay and a battery that drains very quickly, here I come!
It's not on iOS yet cause it's not done. The iOS version is bigger and has more dungeons and mini games
pics or stfu
... App Store Approval process. Ahem.
Why don't they remake ff7 or something. Nothing news worthy here
Pass. Still waiting on FFVII...and also for SE to pull their head out of their ass when it comes to making mobile games.
Usually titles / apps are approved more then 90% of the time in less then a week (assuming the review team doesn't find any huge critical bugs and/or reasons to disqualify the app) so I wouldn't be surprised if we see it in less then a week from now.
If you grew up with this on SNES, chances are you'll enjoy the game as much as the GBA version (for better or worse on terms of the translation, a lot of people prefer Woosley's version for crazy Kefka but I do quite like the new one as it's a bit easier to understand at later parts of the game). Literally all the ports they make are of the latest console version: III and IV used the DS version while V and VI are pretty much the GBA games with new graphics.
That said... I do not enjoy this version, and I own a copy of the GBA version (then later put a version patched with nearly every fix on the Internet into a GBA emulator). The new sprites were lazy decisions IMO: they don't fit in too well with the atmosphere, which as opposed to FFV is a bit darker. The backgrounds though redone, still look like they needed a whole lot of work in comparison. Certain special moves feel weird.
I never played too far, but I heard that they even rebalanced the game to be quicker towards the end. I have no opinion on that other than it sounds silly, because FFVI can be broken pretty easily at that point even with the Vanish bugs gone. Also since this is a port of the GBA version there may still be some censorship on terms of scenes compared to the SNES with a character's beating taken out (this was purely to keep a kid's rating on the game in all nations). I don't know if this happened on mobile.
The only plus to this port is that in comparison to the GBA version, the music seems completely untouched as opposed to being remixed as I feared they would. So that's something good, because the soundtrack is awesome.
EDIT: I had probably glossed over the dialog of the game due to having played it so many times, but I noticed now that there are some typos in the script. It appears to use the same translation that was used before, so I have no idea how they managed to do this. o.O
Unless you use the charm that makes enemies not attack, the last dungeon requires you to fight through the hardest enemies in the game with the whole cast split into 3 parties. So unless you do some very end game grinding, this part is very hard. I wouldn't mind them making the last part less of a grind.
What I don't understand is why people could do it all those years ago but want it to be easier nowadays? There's no real accomplishment in taking the easy way out when it's been proven that the original way can be done.
It doesn't need to be a grind. I went through each path with just one strong team, one Moogle Charm team, and one team that ran away from everything/healed up. It required backtracking (so the strong team could wipe out all the bosses), but that's how you do it if you don't want to grind.
My wife went through with her team of favorite characters, a second team with imp equipment (instant godliness), and a Moogle Charm team.
I just feel like the character sprites clash far too much with the enemy sprites. Like they are from two different games.
Hmm... why did they destroy the character sprites? YUCK!