Sapphic Sonic the Hedgehog with rhythm game elements that also features motorcycles, anime battles between women that use both martial arts AND sword-fighting, AND it has robots AND lasers AND skeletons; as a one-and-done aesthetic experience Sayonara Wild Hearts is pretty fucking awesome. It's got cute themes going on too, but it is pretty lucky it's such a short game cuz otherwise it'd be kinda frustrating that it takes so long to get to its specific thesis. And I'll be honest here: I don't think the gameplay is very good, as an action game nor as a rhythm game. The controls and camera were especially aggravating during certain sequences; it's really only saved by the game's rather generous checkpointing system. I don't know if it was just the Switch version or what, but the controls would also just hang up a lot for me causing a lot of unavoidable deaths, mostly happening when the player character model gets caught up against a wall/boundary.

That said, I do love how confident it is in its storytelling and diversity of gameplay stylings, and the best chunk of the game was probably towards the middle where the game mixed up the gameplay almost on a level-by-level basis (and also where I think the best song in the game happens). Relying on the player to form their own interpretations of the events unfolding was smart and I think pretty effective, but sometimes the visual homogeneity/repetition feels like it's potentially undermining the distinct narratives they're portraying, alongside muddying the visual clarity in a game that's already extremely difficult to parse in the moment-to-moment.

But I suppose a lot of that just doesn't really matter in the end though, huh? It's definitely been designed to be an aesthetic experience first, a narrative experience second, and a gameplay experience third (emphasized in how the game really doesn't want you to die and how performing perfectly seems overall deemphasized as there's only three possible achievable ranks on top of there being seemingly no possible fail-state). I dunno if I'll ever revisit this one, but I'm glad I finally picked it up on a whim. Also Queen Latifah sounds like she's having a lot of fun yelling the title of the game, and that kinda rules lol

Talvez uma review não devesse ser pessoal como o que eu estou prestes a escrever, eu nem sequer acho justo validar esse jogo com esse sistema de estrelas, não vou me aprofunda em termos técnicos nem nada do tipo, exemplo como o ritmo funciona, como as musicas são sensacionais e o visual deslumbrante.
Eu joguei esse jogo pela primeira vez em uma madrugada aleatória, em uma fase da minha vida onde tudo estava mudando, havia desfeito amizades de muito tempo, feito novas, conheci novos amores, perdi esses amores, todas essa mudanças não fizeram bem para minha cabeça de adolescente, pra ser mais direto, eu estava em uma fase depressiva da minha vida, fazia constantes mudanças de casa, mas sempre na mesma cidade, não sorria com tanta frequência como sempre foi, me distanciei da minha mãe, que era com quem eu morava na época, via meu pai com menos frequência ainda por conta do divorcio de alguns anos atrás, eu acho que só era coisa demais para minha cabeça na época...
Os jogos sempre foram uma fuga para mim, mas quando eu entrei nesse jogo e entrei na primeira fase, eu senti algo que nunca havia sentido antes jogando algo, eu não sei explicar o que era, mas o sorriso no rosto não saiu de lá em nenhum momento, desde que eu comecei a jogar, ate quando eu zerei ele, ele eh um jogo rápido, eu precisava me concentra, não podia fica pensando em todos os problemas da minha vida se eu quisesse aproveita a trilha sonora perfeita desse jogo, e então, por 2 horas em uma madrugada aleatória, todos os problemas haviam sumidos, minha ansiedade, me tristeza haviam sumido, e eu conheci pega no sono e segui em frente no dia seguinte.
Desde então, esse jogo foi o meu meio de fuga, quanto meu coração apertava e eu não conseguia respira direito, quando eu sentia que nada se resolveria, e principalmente quando eu me sentia sozinho, esse jogo representa muita coisa para mim, e eu finalmente consegui ele de forma legal, eu recomendo esse jogo para qualquer pessoa que queira se desprender um pouco da realidade, ele é fantástico.

Sayonara Wild Hearts is like if someone made the crazy twisty Mario Kart 8 courses into a playable music album and it is just an awesome experience. So lovely that I immediately played through it again after finishing. {I do wish the continuous mode you unlock after finishing the game was just the original experience}

This game is so fast-paced, dazzling and creative. The gameplay is precisely the right amount of engaging to let the banger soundtrack and incredible visual spectacle shine. I adore the style here and quite literally enjoyed every second.

It's amazing how the heart collectibles throughout each stage are the exact thing needed to make the high-speed fair while also being the perfect way to test skill. I love the scaling collectible scoring system

I adore how much this game is optimized for sight-reading, they really nailed being able to react to things for the first time while they came at you at lightning speeds and surprise you in flashy ways.

Each level feels so distinct, yet the whole game is an incredibly cohesive experience. The variations in how you move and perspective shifts pack a lot of punch in adding subtle diversity

I have a favorite level, but that feels like a fundementally unfair concept given how good they all are.

It's like this game was engineered specifically to my tastes. I love visual albums. I love good pop music. I love games. If you love these things too, do yourself a favor and get this game ASAP.

You've probably already gathered it's an interactive pop-album. More specifically it's part rhythm game, part Bayonetta-like cinematic QTE sections. It's visuals are impeccable, pure fireworks. This game had it's hooks within seconds, and my excitement held all the way through to end. I don't think this happened to me before. Granted, it's a rather short game, but that's how it's able to achieve being this flawless. Plus, replaying this game is like relistening to an album, with the added bonus of trying to get a high score. And there's also something to unlock for getting a gold rank on every chapter. I blasted through the whole game on christmas eve 2019. My eyes got a bit watery at the end, that's how gobsmacked I was.

The creativity on display here is unmatched. Every level is so unique, and stylish in a way I haven't seen before. This is the kind of game that reminds me why I love this medium so fucking much. Games forever!

on a sidenote: go play this stoned

Fun and largely intuitive gameplay, and it can get pretty challenging (but if one fails a segment of a track a few times, the game will let one skip past that segment). This game sure has (super queer) vibes! It's extremely flashy, though. It was kinda hard for me to look at, and my partner couldn't tolerate looking at it for more than a couple of minutes. Sound sensitive and photosensitive players are likely to have a bad time here.
I would like to learn other players' interpretations of Little Death... I didn't really know what to make of that part.

I have been falling for so long I have forgotten what the ground looks like.
This was a digital euphoria I genuinely needed to help me float, at least for a short while.

An audio-visual feast, bite sized tabs of purple acid for my way too sober mind, hungry for a meaningful stimulation. Loose, soothing and forgiving.

I'll have to admit, the synth pop OST was hit or miss for me. I caught myself nodding along only three seperate times, but maybe I was just too enthralled in the whole experience to notice all the other times and nothing overstayed it's welcome anyway. It also reminded me that Debussy fucks hard.

Also crazy they got Queen Latifah in this to tell me I got a bronze rank.

Play this if you want a short but warm hug from a person rubbing some LSD onto your skin.

I really loved this game despite being challenging for me and being disheartened I will not get a platinum. I just know I will never be good enough to get gold rank on every level.

The game is really short if you only consider a single play through. Most levels take a few minutes to finish.

The game is still difficult - and to really enjoy it you’ll have to play some levels over and over to get the right achievement - gold rank, all hidden tokens and solve riddles.

It’s like a love child to sonic type speed collecting games and old school racing and rhythm arcade games. It might not make sense til you are 2-3 levels in why I describe the game like that but it’s got a classic appeal of perfect timing, trying to decide paths to take for points, or which will safely get you to the end. You have to be an extremely fast, recognize patterns to make decisions that will net the objective of you play through. Quite the strategic game when you really put the effort in.

The levels are visually beautiful with a cool moody almost cyber/retro vibe. The music is enjoyable with it fitting perfectly with the game play.

The concept of fighting through a tarot deck is intriguing and how it all comes together because of heartbreak.

Even though I was terrible at the gameplay I adore this little gem.

And can we just give a shout-out to Queen Latifah for narrating the game! She was perfect to set the final tone.

I can’t even get into the game play because it’s just unique from skateboarding to floating cards to sword fighting and avoiding obstacles hurled by a multi-headed wolf and even making your way into a VR game.

Give this immersive game a chance and just play through such a unique narrative.

Visualmente incrível e gostoso de deslumbrar, músicas bacanas e que vou revisitar com certeza, o meu maior problema com esse jogo é jogá-lo.
Variedade é interessante mas mesmo assim sempre sinto um real controle, o jogo quer que você seja “perfeito” mas faz controle soltos e deslizantes. A variedade de cada “mundo” é muito bacana mas realmente não consigo apreciar e nem me desligar da pontuação que tá sempre lá pra me desligar de aproveitar a experiência.
Sinceramente todo a minha “gostosura” do jogo foi tirada de olhar e sentir as fases e a história e não da gameplay. A experiência ser contida e curta com muita variedade faz com que no fim mesmo o controle não sendo bom acaba não impactando muito a experiência.