– Ooh. Finally! A No. 90 Dark Note! I’m probably gonna trip all over the place. XD ……….. And the game gives me some stupid simple pattern for Zanarkand. 9__9 Perfect Chained the thing on first try.

But the Movement is “level” 71! Let’s see how crazy it is.

Edit #1:
– Of course the BMS had to have a billion slide triggers. 9__9

– Oh dear lord. I wanted No. 90 and above but not accompanied with a Mv. that was as high!

– HOLY CRUD. The slide triggers rotated at the beginning of the FMS! WTF? Still S-ranked the thing though.

– AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. So did the ones in the BMS. GODDAMN.

Edit #2:

– Bloody hell. This particular pattern for Battle to the Death always destroys me. I somehow managed a B though.

Edit #3:

– Wahaha. Most of the BMS Ultimate Scores kill me. FMS are okei though. I just ignore the EMS altogether. :3

Edit #4:

– The Man with the Machine Gun Expert Score is not what I expected. It’s not particularly hard but the pattern seems a bit more suited for Ultimate. I dread to see what the Ultimate looks like.

……… *is curious*

*taps Practice*

Haha. HP bar is completely gone after the Feature Zone. XD

– Wow. Shame. I’ve never gotten an A before on Awakening Expert Score before. (I only played it once. :B)

Edit #5:

– Hate the EMSs so much.

– Unlocking the Expert Scores for the Series Courses for fun but I kind of refuse to play One-Winged Angel again.

Edit #6:

– Baaawww. Stupid FFVIII EMS Expert. That was the first time I didn’t get an Extended Version. 😡 I wish I wasn’t so distracted by the ballroom dance. I love FMV so much. ^^

– Cid’s so cute. ^o^

Edit #7:

– Finally managed to get from a C straight to an A for the damn tune. Playing along with the demo helped.

– Haha. Almost died on the Ultimate Score. Still got a B somehow.

Edit #8:

– Defiers of Fate EMS Expert is difficult for me. My timing’s usually off at the left corner sliders for the reason which result in a lot of Bad grades. Ultimate is actually much easier. X___x;

Additional gameplay updates for today will appear in this post as edits~!

– Just spent a few minutes getting Holofoils for the first 3 pages in the CollectaCards binder by entering passwords from GameFAQs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/635802-theatrhythm-final-fantasy/cheats. They are case-sensitive and the punctuation must be typed in exactly as shown on the page.

Now everyone on page 3 is jumping in the air. XD

Edit #1:

– Herp derp. None of the BMS Special tracks in Challenge mode are S-ranked except Something to Protect. Also Perfect Chained it too. ^^

– Ooh. Finally got the trophy for getting all CollectaCards. Muhuhu~!

– Ergh. Trying to A-rank FFIV Battle 1 and JENOVA is hard for me. Stupid slide triggers. >o<~ (Also, why the hell was the title changed from J-E-N-O-V-A?)

Edit #2:

– "I guess, we laugh mistakenly for all time!" Some of the random lines are just too silly. ^^;

– Finally A-ranked FFIV Battle 1.

Edit #3:

– Crappy gameplay video or JENOVA~! Finally got an A rank. XD

Gameplay updates for today will appear in this post as edits~!

– Unlocked Faris. I briefly swapped out the party for her, Terra, Lightning, and Shantotto. … Then we realized how annoying it would be to level them from ground up and switched back to the current all-male party. I’ll eventually level up the ladies but I just didn’t feel like it then.

– Swapped in my level 99 group and equipped attacks that only activate when bosses appear. I actually managed to kill a Boss No. 3 in the tougher Dark Note score this way. I didn’t do it earlier since I was levelling up characters but I decided I wanted to finally kill some bosses instead of watching them slide into the screen and slide back out moments later.

– Still wish the game would stop unlocking music and movies and give me more goddamn shards. Even ProfiCard unlocks are getting to be an eyesore now.

Edit #1:

– Hmm. It seems like lightly touching the touch screen works better for slide triggers. At least that’s what it seems like to me.

– Got a StreetPass Mii from someone else that was playing Theatrhythm but I didn’t get a ProfiCard or Dark Note. I guess he didn’t have StreetPass enabled. 😦

– It sure is hard to mess up the FMS when you have a beefy party. I guess the trick is to have someone or an item that can refill the health bar when you’re falling all over the place. A Hi-Potion doesn’t seem to cut it.

– Huh. It seems like when you’re doing Dark Note BMS and you defeat 2 cycles of 3 regular enemies plus Boss No. 3, Boss No. 2 might get cycled in. I didn’t manage to defeat the second boss in time so I don’t know if I could have gotten an item drop from it too.

Edit #2:

– I think I may have got Boss No. 2 cycling in before because I was kind of bombing toward the end. ^^

– Whoa. For another Dark Note, I managed to fight Boss No. 3 twice and killed it both times. Got the remaining 2 drops which were 2 shards. ^-^!

Edit #3:

– ARGH! Stupid tonberry wouldn’t die! It was the second monster. I wasted the summon on it. Sigh. But this is what I get for swapping out someone else that had a boss attack ability.

Edit #4:

– Hey, I just got 50,000 rm and what did I get rewarded with? More bylines for the ProfiCard!

– Ooh. I just unlocked Yuna. :3

Edit #5:

– LOL! Got all 3 versions of the CollectaCard of Ozma.

– Incidentally, GameFAQs has a lot of passwords: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/635802-theatrhythm-final-fantasy/cheats I’m not 100% that they all work the codes for the Goblin, Cid, and Faris (both codes) are correct. These are case sensitive, BTW.

This post will be updated throughout the day with various thoughts~!

Huh. It’s actually easier to deal with hyphens than bullets since I don’t have to fight with the buggy WordPress system when editing lists.

– The character unlock system is insanely annoying. I believe Square will make a sequel and when they do, I hope the unlock system or at least shard collecting won’t be so random and time-consuming.

– Got Rydia this super early morning. I need one more female character to make an all-female team. Er, is Shantotto female? *checks wiki* Well then! I guess I can make that team now. I still want Faris though. I got one more Crimson Shard. I still feel kind of goofy thinking that she was Edgar. XD

– I actually kind of want every version of Cid.

Edit #1:

– My first and will probably be my only all critical clear. Didn’t bother with the Stoic Bonus. Maybe I’ll do it one day:

Edit #2:

– I’ll probably be taking a break from the game for a bit. Kind of burnt out from constantly playing the same songs over and over and over. Going back to Taiko no Tatsujin DS 3 instead. I think Theatrhythm should have played like the game’s RPG mode more. Or maybe at least had a little RPG/adventure mode instead of just the Chaos Shrine. Lookee~: Taiko no Tatsujin DS: Dororon! Yokai! Daikessen! Walkthrough – Part 1.

Like my previous post, I will be updating this throughout the day~! Additional comments will be preceded by “Edit” and then a number so if you’re following my Theatrhythm babbles here then be sure to check back at some point later on. :3

• Dark Notes! Why are you depriving me of shards!? I must have played at least 10 Dark Note scores in the past few hours and I only got one measly shard.
  .
• Current party is Tidus, Minwu, Cecil, and Locke.  They’re not my favourite characters but I’m sticking to an all-male party until I unlock female characters. Well, I like Cecil and Locke — both characters were among my favourites in their respective games, never played FFII so I don’t know anything about Minwu, and Tidus … I remember not caring about the entire cast of FFX at all except for Wakka.  Oh, Lulu’s character design was kind of neat.  (Ah, Nomura. You and your obsession with belts.)

Edit #1:

• You know, I don’t think I’ve ever summoned Bahamut yet … I have his Magicite though. Hmmm …
  .
• Do abilities stack? I mean, if one character has Protect Lv 1 and another character has it as well. Or maybe abilities of different levels will be treated individually? I guess I’ll have to dig through forums to find the answer to this.

Edit #2:

• Ended up using Bahamut’s Magicite. Got the summon trophy now. XD

Edit #3:

• Woo. Cleared 48 Dark Notes so far. I’m still failing in either reaching the first boss or defeating it in the later ones though. Sigh.  Gonna go back and replay some earlier ones to try and nab stuff from the 1st and 2nd bosses instead.  It’s unfortunate that the early Dark Notes have patterns in the BMS that I can’t play well. =___= But … I think tripping up all over the first part of the battle is the way to trigger the 2nd boss???
  .
• Finally decided to use my digital camera instead of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to take photos. Now you can sort oftell my 3DS is purple! XD  Anyway, the game kills my neck since I do marathon plays (re: several hours in a row) so I’ve resorted to using the DS Lite stand. Unfortunately, the 3DS won’t stay in place due to the lack of a GBA cart slot so this is what I did:

  

• The game was nice enough to hand me a Rainbow Shard for getting 40,000 rm.
  .
• Oh yeah, using Protect as an example for my stacking question was kind of dumb because it’s the equivalent of two characters in an FF game casting Protect twice on the same person (but in the case of Theatrhythm it’s the whole party). However, a Cure and Cura equipped on the same character DOES work. And why anyone would do this is cuz there’s not enough points for other abilities so might as well just fill the slot with something useful. 😛

Edit #4:

• Threw together a cheat sheet for reaching the Dark Note bosses. If anyone can be more specific on the requirements or point out any errors, please do so~!

  

• The first half is defined as the part just before the silver triggers of the Feature Zone come in. I’m not entirely certain if the notice of “Boss No. 3” showing up is dependent on the number of enemies defeated before the Feature Zone though.

Edit #5:

• Oh shit. It may actually be dependent on the number of enemies kill as bombing TOO MUCH in the BMS will cause you to not fight ANY bosses. ^^;
  .
•  Bloody Anima. It’s not giving me the first drop item. I fought it at least 3 times already. It’s content on giving me the Magick Lamp. >:/

Edit #6:

• I wonder if someone’s already tested the conditions to obtain a Boss No. 2 already? (Given that the game’s been out in Japan for a while, I would think so. ^^) Anyway, my current findings are that around 15 misses + maybe defeated 3 regular monsters will get you the boss.  I say maybe because I’m not entirely sure it’s necessary.
  .
  All right. After checking three Japanese blogs, Boss No. 2 seems to be triggered when your party’s HP is below the 50% by the time the BMS reaches the Feature Zone. This is also typically the third enemy that comes onto the screen so missing triggers or just getting Bad really is the way to go.  Of course, I shouldn’t attach a number to the misses or Bads because once you get into the No. 70+ Dark Notes, it’s possible to die with just 3 – 5 misses without abilities to lessen enemy attacks or a party with high HP. =__=; I guess I should edit the image now. :B
  .
  Image has been edited~

Edit #7:

• I think the reason I sometimes never fight a boss is that I get stuck on the second or third enemy and don’t kill them off even after a successful summon.

Edit #8:

• ………. Well, fuck. I just did a BMS stage that disapproves the whole hitpoints condition. I could swear that my HP didn’t fall below 50% at any point but I still got Boss No. 2. I did get Bad a few times and maybe a miss or two. *confused* I suppose I’ll do this Dark Note a few more times to test things out. Or maybe I should just go and search English forums. The problem is that some forums have a craptacular search function.
  .
• Bah. Not strong enough to defeat Boss No. 3 in the higher Numbers and Movements.

I know I kind of get annoyed from seeing a billion tweets about a game I’m not playing so I can imagine a few of my followers feel the same. (I’ve yet to receive any complaints but I think that’s cuz everyone’s being nice about it … or ignoring me. XD) I think I’ll start a new WordPress post each day and keep it in the Post screen so I can continually update it. ^.^~

I’m getting into the habit of deleting any Dark Notes that are No. 70 and above. The reason is that they are all on Ultimate Score speed! Re: damn zippy fast. I’m not up to that level yet so reading and reacting to the triggers — especially the slide ones — are difficult for me. My comfort zone is between Basic (No. 1 – 40?) and Expert (No. 40? – 70?).  Of course, that’s not to say that the lower numbered scores have easier note patterns.  Anything with a hold + slide at the end + slide trigger immediately after still murders me most of the time. 😛
.
But, as with most rhythm games, faster speeds can be beneficial at times since the notes will be spaced out more.  I mean, try playing some of the more complicated note charts in DJMax on 1x or 0.5x speed. (MX or SC charts on either of those speeds is basically suicidal. :P) I actually wish that we COULD select speeds in Theatrhythm.  I know I’d most likely perform better on some of the “slower” stages.

• Edit: The following DOES NOT WORK. See edit #1 below: Hrrrrngh. I think, unless I get rid of some of the No. 60+ ones, the game will continually give me higher level Dark Notes. I don’t feel like removing all the ones in the 60 – 70 range since some of them have shards that I want. However, I may not want to replay those particular ones over and over just for the shards. Sigh. ….. I suppose I COULD since I would think that the shard drops from bosses are randomized so they could still be available in lower numbered Dark Notes. Hopefully.
  . 
• I wonder what the requirement is for getting to the 2nd and 3rd bosses for Dark Notes No. 60 and above?  I can S rank the FMS and STILL not pass the sign that points to either boss. I wonder if it has to do with the number of Goods, Bads, and Misses?  I would throw on every speed boosting ability for FMS stages on my characters but I would also like to survive the BMS that follows too. 😛  Speaking of which~
  .
• Lv 3 Lance is a godsend in these tougher Dark Note BMS stages. While it IS dependent on actually HITTING the notes on the character’s lane, it’s been very useful so far! The only member in my party that has it at the moment is Cloud. I think I’ll hang onto him even after he reaches level 99. ^^  I don’t think I have any items that allow characters to learn it. I wonder if there is even such an item? 😮
  .
• Would slide triggers work better as flicks instead? I wonder how well I’d react to those since, in Utacchi, flicks kill me too. XD

Edit #1:

• Deliberately messing up and making my characters trip and fall all over during an Dark Note FMS sure is hard. I have to make sure not to overdo it. ^^;
  .
• Well, that seemed to be a bust. Removing all the higher number Dark Notes doesn’t really do anything. It seems like once your most recent Dark Note reaches a certain point, all the Dark Notes that come after will continue to increase in number from there regardless of whether or not you remove the newer ones. .____.;; I could have sworn it worked before. 😦

Edit #2:

• Using my index finger in place of a stylus now. I want to see if it makes any difference. X3

Edit #3:

• FMS is harder to do when using a finger. ^^

Edit #4:

• Due to my goofy experiment with the Dark Notes, I am now forever stuck with Something to Protect, Ending Movie (FFXII), and Defiers of Fate. 9___9  Even the new No. 80+ Dark Notes are giving me the same tunes. FFUUUUU, Theatrhythm!
  .
•  Wow. I actually didn’t even fight any particular boss in one Dark Note score.

Edit #5:

• Bizarre. It was always my assumption that the maximum is No. 99 Mv. 99 but now it’s gone backward.  The gap between my DN Scores is strange too. I nuked everything after No. 29 Mv. 48 which was originally filled with No. 30 – 70. So now, it reads like this. Bear in mind that I didn’t delete anything after No. 85:

  

• To date, I have cleared around 37 Dark Notes, I think.

Since I can’t post this on Instagram due to its width, here’s an unfiltered picture of all 3 versions of the Mandragoras CollectaCard. (My favourite card.  ♥)

To get Holofoil, a card needs to be a level 4. Once it reaches level 7, the Platinum version is unlocked. Levelling simply consists of getting the same card multiple times. Cards unlocked through passwords also count toward the levelling.

Can’t wait to get the Holofoil and Platinum versions of Ozma~! (How can a sphere have different poses? I take it it’ll change in size or the colours will be in a different position?)

Working passwords: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=39522544&postcount=1312