''Theatrhythm Dragon Quest'' is a

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

developed by

indieszero is a small video game development company headquartered in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded on April 21, 1997, and has developed video games for other video game companies, including Nintendo, SEGA, and Square Enix. Overview The n ...

and published by

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

for the

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...

. It was released in Japan on March 26, 2015, and was the first game of its type in the ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

'' series and the third ''Theatrhythm'' game after ''

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy ''Theatrhythm Final Fantasy'' is a Rhythm game, rhythm video game, developed by indieszero and published by Square Enix for Nintendo 3DS and iOS. Based on the ''Final Fantasy'' video game franchise, the game involves using the touch screen in time ...

'' and '' Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call''.

Gameplay

''Theatrhythm Dragon Quest'' features 65 musical pieces selected from the ''

'' series, all originally composed by

Koichi Sugiyama was a Japanese composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was best known for composing the music for the '' Dragon Quest'' franchise, along with several other video games, anime, film, and television shows. Classically trained, Sugiyama was ...

. Additional tracks were released as

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...

via the

Nintendo eShop The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...

. There are three game modes: challenge mode, music-play and Casino. While tracks can be unlocked in challenge mode, playable characters can be unlocked in Casino.

Development

''Theatrhythm Dragon Quest'' was first announced at Jump Festa 2015 on December 10, 2014, with a playable demo. A trial version was released on March 11, and a smartphone app called ''Intro Quiz Battle'' was released on March 20, 2015. The app has players listen to songs from ''Dragon Quest'' games and answer questions about them until the app was shut down on April 30, 2015. Producer Ichiro Hazama mentioned in an interview that developers would monitor fan feedback as to what additional songs would be included as

. The first collection of DLC was previewed a week before the game was released in March 2015 and featured five songs, one from each of the first five ''Dragon Quest'' games. A second DLC song collection from ''Dragon Quest''s III through V was released in April 2015. A fourth DLC packet of four songs was made available free of charge in May 2015.

Reception

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' scored ''Theatrhythm Dragon Quest'' a 35/40. More than 76,000 copies were sold in its first week, making it the best-selling Nintendo 3DS game in that week.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Theatrhythm Dragon Quest 2015 video games Dragon Quest spin-off games Indieszero games Japan-exclusive video games Multiplayer and single-player video games Music video games Nintendo 3DS eShop games Nintendo 3DS games Nintendo 3DS-only games Nintendo Network games Square Enix games Video games developed in Japan