Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure
"It's Showtime!" — Raphael/Phantom R
Protagonist(s): Raphael/Phantom R Genre(s): Rhythm Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS iOS Release Date: Emperor's Treasure: JP: January 19, 2012 EU: April 5, 2012 AU: April 12, 2012 NA: July 10, 2012 Paris Caper: JP: October 30, 2013 WW: January 9, 2014 Developer(s): Xeen Publisher(s): SEGA

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure is a rhythm game developed by Xeen and published by SEGA. It was originally released in Spring/Summer 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS, while an abridged version titled Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper was released on October 30, 2013/January 9, 2014.

Why It's Showtime

1. While the game takes a lot of cues from other franchises, such as the Professor Layton games, it uses them in unique ways to create its own identity.
2. While it may sound ridiculous, the story is deeper than one can expect for a game like this and even incorporates mystery elements into it. Coupled with the art style, animation, and gameplay elements, the story is well-developed and is handled in a way one may not expect from this type of game.
   • The story's pacing is also good; not too fast and not too slow.
3. Beautiful animesque art style and animation that is similar to the Professor Layton series. The quality of the art style makes Paris a vibrant sort of place in day or night, and the characters look charming as well.
   • Relating to the city of Paris, you can explore the major real-life landmarks, as the story and minigames mostly take place around them and the art style makes them really pop out at the player.
4. A cast of well-designed and likable characters, especially Raphael/Phantom R (the main protagonist), Marie, Inspector Paul Vergier, Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. While the voice acting isn't too stellar, it is decent for what it is, especially Bruce Sherfield (Raphael), Loïs Parker-Smith (Marie), Saul Jephcott (Vergier), and Paul Bandey (Napoleon).
5. Gameplay is easy enough to understand, the controls are explained well, and the exploration of the overworld is simple yet complex when finding medals and specific objects.
6. The rhythm games have good variety and utilize the 3DS' hardware well, and are often incorporated into the story. Some of the minigames you participate in include dancing, stealth areas with color-coded objects, cooking meals, soccer duels with Charlie, dog shows, and many more!
   • Many of the games also pay homage to other SEGA rhythm games, such as Samba de Amigo and Space Channel 5, while others take cues from rival game series Rhythm Heaven (in particular, the soccer duel is reminiscent of Rhythm Rally/Cosmic Rhythm Rally from Rhythm Heaven on DS) and platforming sections inspired by HarmoKnight. One minigame even uses the theme from Feel the Magic: XY/XX.
7. The music is very well-written, as is to be expected from composers Tomoya Ohtani, Naofumi Hataya, and Takahito Eguchi, all of whom are Sonic sound designers. Many of the tracks are well-written, especially the song played during the beginning of the game.
8. The replay value is high, as the game contains a Marathon Mode, Hard Mode, and many more special modes to challenge the player. There is also a major side quest where Raphael must record sounds to power up the Master Instrument, as well as one where he must collect the Royal Notes, and collecting all of both sets will unlock a bonus chapter.

Bad Qualities

1. While not too bad, the puzzles and side quests sometimes feel like a chore to get through, as the former fail to test the player's mental skills while the latter are rather tedious, as the player must search every little pixel to find specific things (taken from the Professor Layton games), which makes exploration a nightmare at times.
2. The game itself isn't very original, as it takes cues from other games such as Professor Layton and Rhythm Heaven (as previously explained).
3. Despite being well-written, the game's music isn't very memorable.
4. The minigames that utilize the 3DS' gyroscope are unstable and don't feel like they were designed with the 3DS' tilt controls in mind. Thankfully, only the dog meat, Alfred duel, and paraglider games use tilt controls.
5. The grading system isn't always the best, as it can take only a few little mistakes to bring your grade down from an A to a D, which can be frustrating for players who want to get a high rank in each minigame.
6. The game is very short, clocking in at about 6 hours, although the high replay value and bonus chapter more than make up for this.

Reception

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure received generally favorable reviews from critics and audiences (scoring 76/100 and 8.0/10, respectively, on Metacritic). Critics praised the game's soundtrack, art style, gameplay, and story, with minor criticism directed at the use of tilt controls for two minigames.

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