YMMV / Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Believe it or not, Paris actually DOES have a brigade of roller-skating police officers. Granted, they can't quite pursue thieves running atop buildings, but still.
• Anticlimax Boss: The final battles against Napoleon and Jean-François aren't nearly as hard as the star ratings seem to suggest.
• Awesome Music:
  • Being a rhythm game, this is pretty much a prerequisite. Some examples include "Moon Princess", "Emperor Napoleon Showdown" and "Borduoin vs Chevaliers". Throw "Showtime" in the mix just for being the first stage of the game with catchy tunes.
  • "Mastermind". Dancing to stop a Doomsday Machine from killing everyone never felt so epic.
  • All of the violin songs played by Maria, but especially the Bonus Level "Phantom Notes".
  • "The True Chevaliers", possibly the catchiest Climax Boss music ever.
  • The game finishes off the Hanging Gardens of Babylon sequence with "Flight From the Gardens", playing a kick-ass remix of the main theme as Phantom R and co. escape before the whole place falls apart.
• Cult Classic: In spite of positive reviews from critics, the game didn't sell very well, but it still managed to find itself a loyal following.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Despite the game's fandom being small, it has a large overlap with that of Persona 5, another Sega-owned game with a Phantom Thief motif. Some Rhythm Thief fans are hoping for a crossover that can increase this game's profile.
  • The game also commands a lot of respect from Professor Layton fans, as both games share very similar mechanics outside of puzzle or rhythm mini-games.
• Memetic Mutation: Rhythm Thief but cursed ^Explanation A trend of videos using a partially corrupted version of "Looting the Louvre", where relatively normal-looking images (shown during the unedited parts of the song) are contrasted with "cursed" ones (briefly shown during the corrupted parts). The unedited song itself is also used in the "cursed guns" meme over at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare where cursed guns such as an M4A1 with a sniper scope, M203 grenade launcher, .458 SOCOM 10-round magazines and no stock; and an AK-47 with both a bayonet and an underbarrel shotgun are made with the game's Gunsmith system.
• Narm:
  • Raph's dancing is either way too cheesy, or appropriate. Which is, well, up to you.
  • The English voice acting is frankly quite awful and makes the cutscenes much cheesier. For instance, Maria's deadpan "Yahoo, I did it" feels like a lampshade at how she doesn't really accomplish much after her minigames are done. There's also instances in which the voice actors are speeding through their lines due to dubbing quirks. R30 "Battle on the Eiffel Tower" provides the most obvious instance, where Phantom R is practically blazing through his line so he doesn't get cut off by the end transition.
  Phantom R: Show's over folks! I'llbetakingMarieback thanks!
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Your grade in minigames is based solely on how much health you have left, rather than your score. No matter how many inputs you nail, your grade plummets if you miss even a single one at the end of a minigame.
  • The tilt controls are awkward and imprecise enough to ruin the few minigames they are used in.
  • Drawing circles in a rhythm game is more time-consuming than slides or taps, especially when the timing windows get very tight. It may take a while before one realizes the command is recognized once the circle is closed.
• Signature Scene: Three words: Looting the Louvre. By far the most popular, or at least most well known part of the game. Sneaking around the museum and avoiding highly incompetent guards by just hiding behind statues by mimicking their poses, all to infectiously catchy music.
• That One Level:
  • "Gone With Wind" uses both movement sensors and buttons, and timing is pretty hard until you get used to it.
  • Just about any level that uses the finicky tilt controls, really - though particularly "Enter the Waiter" in the postgame, which requires powerful tilts and accurate timing. The music's great, at least.
  • Most gamers who are new to Rhythm Games will have a tough time with "Faux Phantom R" and "Return of the Faux Phantom R", which are a Shout-Out to the Nintendo Hard Space Channel 5 series. It doesn't help that the minigame uses the touch screen rather than button inputs.
  • "Operation: Love" and "Operation: Power of Love" are believed to be the hardest levels to complete, in part because the female dog's barking sounds a bit off-beat.
  • It's extremely difficult to keep track of all the commands flying your way in "Feel The Magic" and it doesn't help that at certain points you have to hold the 3DS upside down or above your head to mirror the maracas.
  • "Vergier vs the Chevaliers" is easy enough until the absurd Zerg Rush at the end. You may need to look up a guide just to figure out the pattern! ( L, R, R, L, R, R, L, R, L, R, R, LR) Don't think you can just whiff it and take the bad grade either. There's enough guys here to make you fail the game very easily.

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