Theatrhythm Would Be Named ‘Final Fantasy is Music’ if Not for Tetsuya Nomura

Square Enix kicked off a series of Theatrhythm Final Bar Line developer diaries from Series Director Masanobu Suzui, and the first entry reveals the spin-off almost had a different name. It’s because of Tetsuya Nomura that it got the title it did. Originally, the series almost kicked off with the name “Final Fantasy is Music.”

Ichiro Hazama, who worked on multiple Final Fantasy games and is the Series Producer, came up with the idea for this new spin-off. When indieszero and the team were working on it, the tentative, working title for the project was Final Fantasy is Music. Suzui then noted Nomura came up with both the original entry’s name, as well as the subtitle for the 2023 installment.

Here’s Suzui’s exact quote from the development blog.

The tentative title we came up with was the rather grand sounding “Final Fantasy is Music” (pained laugh).

The name “Theatrhythm” was proposed by Mr. Tetsuya Nomura during development on the first game. It’s a very unique and distinctive name, which sounds like nothing else out there, so I think it’s a great title for the series.

Incidentally, the subtitle for this latest game “Final Bar Line” was also decided upon in a conversation with Mr. Nomura.

The key words “final line/ double bar line” came to mind from the music related motifs used in the stave notation UI design, and that led on to the final title.

Suzui also shared design documents showing the project under the Final Fantasy is Music working title.

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is available for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.