Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove 3D has been on my list for a while. It looked cute and the customization seemed interesting so I was really tempted to try it. Despite that, I only finally picked it up recently due to one reason: It’s a rhythm game.
I have nothing against rhythm games. In fact, Zed is pretty awesome at them and it’s always fun to watch him play. I’m just awful at them.
And despite my awfulness, something always makes me want to try one and then I buy it and I never complete it and it’s always pretty depressing. That said, I’ve never regretted my purchases… though, my wrists sure have.
Parappa the Rapper is about the only rhythm game I can think of that I finished… which may be because my dad helped thinking about it. My first rhythm game since that was Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure as it’s story elements made me think of Professor Layton. I heard some people complain about the story and/or voice acting, but I actually really enjoyed both.
I had done well enough at first to the point where I thought maybe I’d have a shot… but as I got further along, the failing started happening. I HAD to have power-ups to get a score high enough for me to be able to progress in the story. And even then there was no guarantee I’d pass.
I’m pretty good with music–I love to play piano, I’m fairly good with hearing the different tunes and pitches, but that is also part of my weakness with these games–I heard each part of the song and never know exactly which part I’m supposed to be hitting along to. Then there’s ones where I get nervous and do the opposite of what I’m supposed to hit. I managed to beat Rhythm Thief, but just barely and because I was not good enough to get a better rating, I ended up having to look up the bonus scenes online. I just couldn’t do it.
Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove almost saved me due to the fact that it’s just hitting one button in the center with my stylus. Which would be good if it stayed that way, but nope, of course it doesn’t. More mechanics get thrown in as you go and as usual when it comes to slide mechanics, I’m just terrible. I always screw up the timing or my stylus somehow ends up in the wrong place or I’m too slow. And like every game I’m done, I had that “Maybe I CAN do this” moment only to hit a point where I can’t or just am not good enough. And it stinks as I really want to see what happens next or unlock something in particular and just no matter how hard I try, I can’t unless I manage to get lucky.
Theatrhythm was a game I almost passed on, but ended up getting once I heard Aerith could be unlocked. She’s my absolute favorite Final Fantasy character and I was ecstatic to get her on my team… and then I learned she wasn’t there from the beginning and then I learned how I needed to unlock her and other than completing each song once (most rather poorly), I didn’t get much further in the game. I had bought some DLC despite that as I really love some of the songs in the game, but I wish I could’ve unlocked Aerith and had her as part of my team. But I couldn’t do it–I was so awful at the Chaos songs and I could never get a good enough score for her shards even if I did manage to complete the whole thing.
And that’s the issue, either I’m too slow or get nervous and mess-up and it really stinks. The sad part is, if I had no fear of failure I’d probably do much better (not perfect, but much better)–the amount of games where I suddenly do amazingly better due to having an invincibility power-up to the point where people wonder why I even need it is absolutely ridiculous. And yet I just can’t get it down.
As for Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove 3D, if it wasn’t for my complete failure in everything that is Rhythm Games (despite having a good sense of rhythm!), it’s a cute game. A really sad (though, I expect it to have a happy ending) story though that makes me regret entering my name in for the character.
For those who are curious what happens and have not gotten the game:
Gabrielle sneezes too hard (something I can relate to T__T) and ends up sneezed out of her body. Her body falls asleep and her mom puts her in bed, but it’s been days at this point where I am (Lab–3rd level area) and her mother is panicking, Gabrielle is getting colder, and it’s just incredibly sad seeing the mom worried and yelling for her to wake up and I’m going to cry if I keep going so I’m currently in a “oh my god rhythm games why” mood but also a “I need to finish this or I am not going to be able to sleep because this is so sad” and “too much use of the stylus is killing my wrist”.
But yes, off to fail again I suppose…
Edit: I did beat it! And it thankfully had a happy ending.
I don’t expect to 100% it though…