Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a video game for the Nintendo 3DS and iOS . It is a " theater rhythm action " game in which players use the stylus to tap and hold notes while fighting enemies . The game features popular " Final Fantasy " songs and characters , who appear with a similar style to their avatars from " Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade " , " Kingdom Hearts Mobile " and " " . Its sequel , " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call " , was released in Japan on April 24 , 2014 on the 3DS , with a release date of " 2014 " for other countries . The game features a playlist of over 200 songs , including tracks from " Final Fantasy XIV " and " " , with 60 characters and a " Versus Battle Mode " for rhythmic multiplayer action . On February 3 , 2016 , Square Enix announced an Arcade version called " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy All - Star Carnival " . Gameplay . The game features three kinds of notes . If a red note appears on screen the player has to tap it ; if a green note appears the player must hold the note ( green notes in field sequences have a pattern the player must trace ) ; and with yellow notes , the player is supposed to slide in the direction of the arrows on them . Failing notes damages HP . At some point in the song there will be a section called the Feature Zone where the notes turn silver . Doing well enough in this section activates an event depending on what type of stage is being played . This gameplay is divided in three types : Battle , Field and Event : Characters have four stats in Theatrhythm : Strength , Magic , Agility , and Luck . Each character has different stats to represent their skill , and stats increase as the character level s up . Stats are ranked based on their current level , with the ranks ascending from F to A , with S as the second highest rank a character ' s stat can achieve and " Mastered " being the highest . In the iOS version , the " Mastered " rank is changed to SS and SSS , being the second and first best rank respectively . Each character may have up to either three or four abilities divided into either Reactive or Proactive abilities , such as Focus and Strength Up , respectively . Depending on the character , certain skill slots may be restricted to only active or only passive abilities , with some slots able to equip either type of ability . The iOS has each character restricted to two abilities each , with each ability changing as they level up . This is the only way for each character to have changes to their fixed stat . When the game starts there will be three main options to choose from — Music Play , StreetPass Settings , and Museum : Music Play branches out into its own categories such as Series Mode , Challenge and Chaos Shrine . In the StreetPass settings the player can edit their ProfiCard and view others ' ProfiCards they have obtained from StreetPass : Museum has four options : Records , Collection , Theatre , and Music Player : Story . The story , as with " Dissidia Final Fantasy " and " Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy " , focuses on a conflict between Chaos and Cosmos . The space between the two is called " Rhythm " , and houses a Crystal that births music . When the forces of Chaos disrupt the balance , the Crystal ' s power wavers and Cosmos sends her warriors to increase a music wave called " Rhythmia " to restore balance and make the Crystal shine again . Characters . The game ' s logo mirrors " Dissidia Final Fantasy ' s " , featuring matching chibi - esque Cosmos and Chaos . The protagonists who were represented in " Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy " appear in the game along with sub - characters that can be unlocked and become playable after collecting crystals . Many enemies from titles of the series appear , such as Behemoth , Bomb , Ultros , Flan , Green Dragon , Magic Pot , Gilgamesh and Enkidu , and Iron Giant . The iOS port comes with thirteen characters initially available in the 3DS version . Additionally , twenty - five more characters can be purchased online . Of these , two characters are from games not represented in the 3DS version : " Final Fantasy XIII - 2 " and " Final Fantasy Tactics " . Music . The game includes over 70 songs . There are at least five tracks for each " Final Fantasy " from the original to " Final Fantasy XIII " , corresponding to a field , battle , event , opening and ending theme from each game . There are extra themes unlocked with Rhythmia points that can be played in special modes ; and paid downloadable content . The game borrows themes from past games for menus . All playable songs but " Mount Gulg " and " Chaos Shrine " are present in their original versions . Several arrangements of themes from the " Final Fantasy " series are used as the background themes for the menus : Included playable music . The " Victory Fanfare " from " Final Fantasy V " is included as a tutorial theme . Downloadable content . Square Enix released 52 songs as downloadable content , with eight songs available at release , at ¥150 per song in Japan , $ 0 . 99 in North America , €1 . 00 in Europe , £0 . 90 in the United Kingdom , $ 11 . 99 pesos in Mexico , and $ 1 . 50 in Australia . To commemorate the game ' s release the eight initial downloadable songs cost ¥100 each for a limited time after the release date . The DLC list includes songs the staff had wanted to include but couldn ' t fit due to capacity limitations . " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " is the first 3DS game to have paid download content . The iOS port includes more songs in its online store , including tracks from " Final Fantasy Tactics " , " Final Fantasy X - 2 " , " Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles " and " " , titles that were not represented in the 3DS version . Development . " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " is Ichiro Hazama ' s debut game . Previously he has worked as support staff with " Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children " , and proposed making " Theatrhythm " after " Advent Children " had been completed . " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " was envisioned as a Nintendo DS game , but the development team would have had trouble fitting all content in the game . When Hazama first saw the Nintendo 3DS , he went to developer Indies Zero to finalize the plan for the game and showed this to Tetsuya Nomura receiving the go - ahead to start the project that same day . The music selection is based on surveys conducted at the Japanese Square Enix Members during the development of " Dissidia Final Fantasy " , as well as considerations of balance . Hazama joked that if they ' d followed the survey results the game would have been more like " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy VII " . The included songs are in their original form , the only exception being the " Gurgu Volcano " theme from the original " Final Fantasy " , which is based on the PlayStation arranged version , because the original NES version was too short . Although " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " doesn ' t use music from spinoffs , " Final Fantasy Versus XIII " is part of " " , the " Final Fantasy XIII " family , and the creators wanted to include music from every game in that series . Although " Theatrhythm " features songs from the main series " Final Fantasy " games , no songs from " Final Fantasy XIV " were included . Ichiro Hazama has commented that he thought they were not ready to be incorporated , because " Final Fantasy XIV " was undergoing a big change , but didn ' t rule out the possibility of " Final Fantasy XIV " songs being added in the future . Ichiro Hazama has noted the stories and key moments in the " Final Fantasy " franchise were often tied to his memories of the music , so it was a natural pairing for him to create a rhythm game . To make the game accessible to as many fans as possible , he wanted to add RPG elements as to not turn them off to the title based on it being a rhythm game . The game outputs at 60 frames per second even when stereoscopic 3D is on , something the team worked hard to achieve . High framerate is necessary for playability in a rhythm game ; event music stages run at 30 frames per second due to the need to output video , but the touch controls are still read at 60 frames per second . Some of the event stages show their movies in 3D and making the rhythm gameplay work while playing back a 3D movie presented some technical hurdles . From the beginning the team was discussing how to present characters from the entire " Final Fantasy " franchise , but after seeing the designs of the " Final Fantasy " guest characters in " Kingdom Hearts Mobile " this style was decided to be used for " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " . Tetsuya Nomura , who worked as the creative director , thought it would be a good idea to use the artwork from " Dissidia Final Fantasy " and thus the game ' s logo features Chaos and Cosmos . Demo . Two demos for " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " have been released before the game . During the Penny Arcade Expo East which was held in Boston , MA , between April 6th - 8th , 2012 , a sample of " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " was playable at Boston Convention and Exhibit Center . " Social Rhythm " . As part of its promotion for the game ' s release , Square Enix released a game called " Social Rhythm " whose gameplay system was similar to that of " Theatrhythm Final Fantasy " . In " Social Rhythm " the player could link his or her Facebook or Twitter account to create a character and team up with other players to fight monsters and eventually reach the final boss , Yama - chan ( head is attached to a Tonberry ' s body ) from real life Japanese comedy duo . The game was accessible here and was only available from February 10th to March 30th , 2012 . Production credits . The staff credits roll after Chaos is defeated , and after that will be available in the Settings to rewatch . Special Thanks - Yoshinori Kitase , Akitoshi Kawazu , Hiromichi Tanaka , Takashi Tokita