Elite Beat Agents is one of my favorite games all of time. It combined comedy, rhythm
and excellent music into the most quirky game I had ever plopped into my Nintendo DS. So,
when I first glazed eyes at a French themed Sega rhythm game for the 3DS I was hopeful.
Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure looks to be close to what I want out of a
rhythm game for 3DS. It also has its own seems to veer in different ways than just a sequel to EBA would provide.
You play the rhythm thief known as Phantom R. By day Phantom R, goes by secret
identity Raphael. This being from outside knowledge as the game demo gives no direct
acknowledgement of any story. The game looks to have its great amount of the ridiculousness
as one moment you're dancing on stage and on the top the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile the next.
The actual gameplay is more a mishmash of Theatrhythm Final Fantasy and Elite Beat
Agents, instructions on when to tap and how to such as a slide to dance are all displayed on
the upper 3DS screen. You do all the actual work at the bottom screen with the stylus, it takes
a little time to separate the two in your head, but it quickly becomes as just as easy.
While it has typical dancing, the game has much more variation and that is what has me excited.
In the second stage, you are robbing a museum and have to be sneaky by running and timing
stylus presses with statues. This was easily my favorite stage as it was entertaining
seeing the timing of you moving from statues quickly one after another.
For the final stage you fight who I assume is the main antagonist and his swarm of
soldiers. You fight the soldiers with actual physical button presses in rhythm. This is important
as it moves beyond just what a touch rhythm game traditionally is. The game play is definitely
showing its shine in this demo. I'm still jusr a little confused why it lacked so much context
on the story. It bothers me but it could easily be a limitation of demo size. Rhythm Thief &
the Emperor's Treasure looks like a grand haul when it comes to rhythm games and I look
forward to seeing more.