Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure is a game developed by Xeen and published by SEGA on 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS. The game follows a young phantom thief named Raphael who steals items to find his father who disappeared mysteriously.

An abridged port for the IOS, titled Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper was released for the IOS on 2014 worldwide.

Plot
Raphael, known by his alias Phantom R, is a phantom thief who steals items from museums and returns them for an unknown reason. One day, he steals a bracelet which he believes is a clue to his father (who went missing 3 years prior to the game's events) and encounters a girl named Marie who bears a violin with the same symbol as the bracelet, however they are chased by a man claiming to be Napoleon Bonaparte, who demands an item labeled "The Dragon Crown". Raphael and Marie then investigates Napoleon, his appearance, and the Dragon Crown

Why it Rocks

 * 1) This game has a lot of elements of other video games, most notably Professor Layton, but it manages to spin those elements and make something unique, as detailed in the pointers below.
 * 2) Fascinatingly weird story. The story sounds ridiculous, however the story seeps mystery in and manages to handle such a peculiar plot, making the story very charming. Combined with the art style, the animations, and the elements of gameplay (explained in the pointers below), the story becomes well developed and beautiful. The pacing of the story is good as well.
 * 3) Beautiful anime-esque art and animation, akin to the Professor Layton series. The quality of the art style and animation illustrates Paris beautifully, and it makes the story so hard to look away from. The characters also look very charming with the art style.
 * 4) Artistically and story-wise, the characters are well designed and likeable, especially the main character, Raphael/Phantom R. The voice acting isn't too top notch, but it does add a lot of emotion to the characters and make them more likeable.
 * 5) The rhythm games hold a lot of variety and utilizes the system controls well, beautifully bundled with good music (explained in WIR#9). The games incorporate the stories into the games itself, adding to the variety of all the rhythm games, such as football duels, dancing, cooking meals, dog shows, and many more.
 * 6) * The rhythm games even pays homage to previous SEGA rhythm games. Some games adds elements from Samba de Amigo and Space Channel 5. One minigame even uses the theme from Feel the Magic: XY/XX.
 * 7) A stunning rendition of Paris, made possible with the accuracy of the landmarks and the beautiful art style. You are able to explore around Paris, including major real-life landmarks. Most of the story takes place in those said landmarks, and the minigames even take place around them. They are illustrated beautifully thanks to the art style.
 * 8) Gameplay is simple and easy to understand, the controls are explained well, and the exploration is simple too.
 * 9) Replay value is relatively high, with a marathon mode, a hard mode, and many more. There are also a lot of collectibles to get at the end, and finding all of them earns an extra chapter.
 * 10) The music is very well written. As to be expected from the sound directors of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, it is filled with very good music, especially the theme song at the beginning of the game.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The puzzles and side quests are overused, and they feel too much like a chore. The puzzles fail to test players' mental skill, and the side quests feel too tedious to deal with, with the "find the hidden object trope" (previously found on the Professor Layton games), causing exploration to be tedious.
 * 2) This game isn't very original, it had gathered elements from other games, more notably Professor Layton, as mentioned in WIR#1.
 * 3) The music is unfortunately not too memorable, despite being well written.
 * 4) The infamous gyroscope levels, which use the 3DS gyroscope. The levels feel unstable and feel like they are not designed for the 3DS' design. The paragliding game isn't explained too well and is very complicated until you get the hang of it. Thankfully, only around 2 levels use the gyroscope.
 * 5) The grading system is not very bright either, as only a few simple mistakes can bring your grade from an A to a D. This can especially be hard for people who want to aim for the highest score.
 * 6) This game is unfortunately short at a length of 6 hours, however as mentioned in WIR#8, it has high replay value which will make up for it.

Reception
This game received fairly positive reviews, with a 76/100 metascore and an 8.1 userscore on Metacritic.