Tutorial: How to play Social Theatrhythm Final Fantasy online

If you're at all like me, you're chafing at the bit waiting for an announcement that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will be released outside of Japan. With two demos now available for Japanese 3DS owners and the official release only a few days away, I for one am feeling even more anxious to get my hands on this adorable-looking title. 

Luckily for all of us lacking in the Japanese 3DS department, Square Enix has opened a special promotional website for the game where you can select a character and play along... It may not be anywhere close to the real Theatrhythm experience, but it's the best we're going to get for now! The site and game, called Social Theatrhythm, will be open until March 30th. Click on the link to head on over to the site, and use this tutorial so that you can join in the fun!

Upon loading the page, you should be treated to this: 

Click on the image to view a larger version

Before we get started, it should be noted that the "social" aspect of Theatrhythm requires you to allow the application to be linked to either your Twitter or Facebook account. I signed in using my Twitter, but either is fair game! 

Click the left-most orange link to get started! It's worth noting that the greyed-out link at the bottom that says "coming soon" will eventually lead to a number of promotional commercials and movies. Knowing Japan's knack for creating some of the wackiest and most adorable commercials in the world, it'll definitely be worth checking out later on. 

The next screen will have two options, highlighted in orange (sorry, I don't have a screenshot). It should be easy to make out – one will say "Twitter" and the other "Facebook" followed by some Japanese. This is where you select which account you would like to use to play the game. Clicking on the link will then take you to a pop-up window where you must authorize Social Theatrhythm to access your account. When it's finished, just close it and return to the previous window – if everything's linked correctly, then you should next be treated to the character select screen.

Now you're free to select the character of your choice out of the heroes from the numbered installments in the series. Click the left and right arrows and, when you're happy with your selection, simply click the orange button on the bottom there to proceed. I meant to select Zidane (the hero of my favorite Final Fantasy, of course!), but for some reason my web browser didn't register my click and went ahead and selected the Hero of Light for me. Bummer! 

Next you'll see your character profile page! There's my character, the Warrior of Light, on the left, and you can see I'm signed in as me from my avatar up there next to "apricotsushi" on the top. In order to level up your character, you must select the orange "training mode" button on the bottom and fight against your friends – or anyone who happens to pop up on the user list, really. Just for kicks I "fought" a level 2 Japanese Twitter user, and upon defeating them I had enough experience to level up to level 2. 

If you feel like kicking my butt with your rhythmic prowess, be sure to follow @apricotsushi over on Twitter! People who you are following will appear highest on the list, and even your friends who haven't signed up will appear with randomly-generated characters. I assume the system works the same for those of you who choose to sign in using Facebook, but I can't say for sure. Upon defeating a player, a message will pop up asking you if you want to post a status to your Twitter/Facebook – click the left button to simply return to your character screen, or if you want to really confuse your friends with a Japanese status update, go ahead and click the right one. 

After you've leveled up some, click on "monster mode" to go off and fight Final Fantasy monsters alongside other users!

The gameplay is pretty straightforward – simply click the mouse at the appropriate time to line up the colored circles over the grey one on the right to deal damage to the enemy. A miss results in your own HP being depleted. The screen is exactly how it would appear in the game, but as this is a browser-based game and not being played with the stylus, all you're required to do is click the mouse and occasionally click and hold it down for the longer actions. 

And there you have it! After defeating a few of the monsters, you'll be treated to a fight with the last boss, who's face takes on the appearance of a famous Japanese comedian. Some players who manage to defeat the final boss will be randomly selected to receive a free 3DS, but I'm sure you must be a resident of Japan to participate. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I'll let you know when I do!

If you leave the page and come back later, remember that you will need to authorize your account all over again, but this doesn't mean you'll start from scratch. After it's done doing its thing, you'll bypass the character selection screen and return to your profile page.

Be sure to tell me what you think of the game when you give it a go! Of course it's very rudimentary, but it's cute none the less, and you're treated to some snazzy Final Fantasy tunes. 

Let me know if you have any questions or experience any problems! 

Tutorial: How to make a Japanese iTunes Account to Download 'Pokemon Ie Tap?'

UPDATE: It looks like Pokemon Ie Tap has been removed from the iTunes store! It's too bad, but you can still use this guide to create a Japanese iTunes account and download other free apps.

Today marks the release of Pokemon Ie Tap? ポケモン言えTAP?, a free smartphone app where you tap the screen to the beat of the Japanese Black & White anime's Pokerap (known as "Pokemon Ieru kana?" in Japanese). 

I went through all the trouble to write up this tutorial for VGW, only to find that my iPhone is too old to get the update that allows you to play Pokemon Ie Tap?! Rather than trashing this thing, which took me a good hour to write last night, I'm going to post it for your free-Japanese-app-downloading pleasure. Someone please download Pokemon Ie Tap? so I can live vicariously through you! Well, without further ado: 

How to Create a Japanese iTunes Account and Download Free Apps

1.     To start, open the iTunes store on your computer. Once it’s loaded, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the flag displaying your current regional settings on the right.

2.     A list of countries will appear, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Japanese flag at the bottom left to access the Japanese store.

3.     You will now be in the Japanese iTunes store. Before creating an account, you need to select the FREE app you want. In this case, that’s ポケモン言えTAP？so copy and paste that into the search bar at the top right.  

4.     Pokemon Ie Tap? should appear in the search results. Click on the “free” button to be prompted to make a Japanese iTunes account. 

5.     Click on “Create new account.” Then select “continue.” 

6.     At the top of the page it will say: “If your billing address is not in Japan, click here.” Disregard this, as you will not be entering your credit card details and do not need to provide an address.

7.     Agree to the terms and select “continue.” 

8.     Fill out your personal details and select “continue.” If you already have an iTunes account for your current region of residence, you will need to use a different email address when creating a Japanese account.

9.     For “Credit Card,” select “none.” If the “none” option doesn’t appear, that means you’ve made a mistake somewhere along the way­–you probably didn’t select Pokemon Ie Tap? in the iTunes app store. Remember, you need to have started from a free app in order for the “none” selection to appear. 

10. You’ll have to enter an address, so use your Google-fu to look up a legitimate Japanese zip code (example: 100-8994). The rest of the address can be made up, as you won’t be using it. For your phone number, you must also come up with a legitimate-looking number. One possible area code is 03 and then the following number should look like this: xxxx-xxxx. 

Note: For Phonetic First and Phonetic Last, you can just reenter your name. This is for Japanese kanji where there can be more than one potential reading for the same characters

11. Click “continue,” and if you have entered the address correctly, you will be met with a screen telling you to verify your Apple ID by checking the email address you provided at the beginning. 

12. You should have received an email from Apple. The subject will be in Japanese but will begin with the words “Apple ID.” Open the email, and click the link highlighted in the image below to verify your account. 

13. You will be directed to a page where you need to sign in using your email address and password. Click in the blue button after you have done so.

14. A green check mark with text will appear. Click the blue button to return to the iTunes store. If iTunes doesn’t open automatically, go ahead and access the store in iTunes yourself, and sign in by clicking “Sign In” at the top right corner. 

      Congratulations, you now have a Japanese iTunes account! Now you’ll need to find Pokemon Ie Tap? again to download it. Paste this: ポケモン言えTAP？ into the search bar one more time to find the app again. Once it comes up, all you need to do is click on it to be prompted to enter your password and start the download! Don’t stop with Pokemon–try all different types of searches to unearth some fun and quirky free Japanese apps! Enjoy!

I hope this was useful to someone, at least! Let me know what you thought in the comments, and thanks for reading.