Quite a snazzy little game, I must say.
So before I type anything, this game reminded me a LOT of the Professor Layton games and yes, I mean a loooot.
First off, the graphics were remarkable. I loved the artwork done on the city of Paris. Heck, it made me want to buy a ticket for France, but alas I am nothing but a broke college student. The music was absolutely enchanting, but the voice acting was a little funky. Marie sounded like an annoying little pansy, although the attempted French accents were very cute. I understood the French in the game that occasionally popped up (don't worry you don't need to understand French to enjoy this game) and I thought they did a good job with the random French interjections..The game's dialogue is really silly and I liked the sense of humor. The cutscenes are very well done! WAY better than many cut scenes I've seen on Wii and PS3. Bravo! Raphael (the protagonist) is a very likable character, which is good, because playing games which have a nasty lil twerp of a protagonist can be excruciatingly painful. And lastly, the plot was very well done yet a little classic, but overall, I felt very engaged in the story and motivated to solve the mysteries.
And about the Professor Layton comment earlier, you get to explore the city of Paris via a map, and if you click around on random parts of a map, you can unlock CDs, phantom notes, and find medals (game currency). So yeah that's what I spent half of game time doing.
However, there were many times throughout the game I really wanted to toss my 3DS out my window....or more specifically during some REALLLY annoying stages. I did not enjoy the tilting stages...and some of the rhythm punching ones are a little frustrating. There's a certain position you have to adjust to when you tilt your 3DS. And to shake a whole console to the beat? A little silly in my opinion. It's scary to shake a 160+ dollar item like that, in fear that it would slip out of someones hands. UGH SO ANNOYING@(*(&@@. But in contrast, the BEST stages were the violin ones. They made me really happy and glad I bought that game. That tilting air one can die in a hole.
Many people complain that this game is too short. And I think it's true but after you do all the post-game content it should add up another couple hours for the extra chapters.
But ultimately I think this game is worth the buy. It's like a weird version of DDR and definitely download the demo. And on a side note, the demo games are some of the easiest stages in the game, so do expect some challenge!
I congratulate SEGA on an interesting game well done and for picking a beautiful setting such as Paris and using the tourist attractions of Paris to their advantage. And for those of you buying Rhythm Thief (and you should) you're in for a lot of good surprises.
Merci, for reading this review and bonne chance (good luck)!