As someone who isn’t a fan of rhythm games, Hi-Fi Rush single-handedly and after playing one level made me appreciate a rhythm game. Where the beat of the rhythm is interconnected in the level design, combat, tutorials, soundtrack, plot and more. Creating a weird mash-up I didn’t expect to play so well. And yet Hi-Fi Rush surpassed all my expectations to do so.
Level design is neither too complex nor too simple, and while it does conform to a linear fashion, it doesn’t overstay its welcome by injecting fresh level changes that work organically and don’t feel forced. This coupled with the combat to the beat makes it so fights don’t become fatigue battles, but genuinely work in favor to complement the rhythm to give off an extra dose of damage. And yet it is not strictly required to go in sync with the music at all. I primarily played off-sync and scored decently well in my rankings. There are even very tutorial-friendly and accessible options in the settings to help players like me who are extremely garbage at rhythm games. And it does work!
Gameplay isn’t just full of battles either. Platforming is here that isn’t too difficult nor too easy. As you progress further in the game, these sections evolve along with the combat to enhance the gameplay formula into something new and fresh. And I found the experience very enjoyable since it complemented the level design very well.
Hi-Fi Rush emulates colorful and stylish visuals reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite games: Jet Set Radio Future. And it works to its favor a great deal, making the setting come alive and vibrant with every color in the rainbow you can think of. Enhancing every corridor, cutscenes, and during boss stages. But not to the point of oversaturation or adding new colors to cross off a checklist. It is balanced equally, to create a varied amount of levels here. And thereby eliminating copy-and-paste design.
I liked the main cast and all of them integrated well into the plot with enough screen time to be relative and not used as a character for the sake of having them to induce a plot device. They feel human, developing alongside Chai(The protagonist) to make the game become something more than just a “videogame.” Also, I adore the references upon references here from so many other games and media. I won’t say any here, but it's best to experience that for yourself. It’s not as plentiful as ready player one does. Where it stacks references and references for the sake of doing so. Here it is integrated fluidly and makes the writing and dialogue great.
Storywise, I feel it was executed wonderfully. It doesn’t win any awards for most wacky or playing it too safe. But the story beats were enough to hold my interest and continue playing more and more. And I think at the end of the day that is what’s most important. To keep players invested in not just the gameplay, music, world, story, and characters. But, the act of playing on and on and holding your interest is a major design philosophy developers keep in mind.
The whole world and NPCs are fascinating to learn about and provide interesting dialogue to flesh out the background of the corporate work structure for new and old Vandelay robots. And as I continued further into the game, it is not all set in one point of view either, there are multiple stances each bot has to say about their job, unsavory practices, or just general gossip here and there. It enhances the game to the point I wanted to learn more about the Vandelay corporation.
Overall there is a lot of care and thought here by the developers of Tango Gameworks, and I am very interested in the next game they’ll release moving forward. I genuinely believe this is a very strong GOTY contender for 2023. And in my honest opinion a must-play for anyone who desires to see an idiot try to take down a big corporation. Watch how that turns out.
9.5/10
Level design is neither too complex nor too simple, and while it does conform to a linear fashion, it doesn’t overstay its welcome by injecting fresh level changes that work organically and don’t feel forced. This coupled with the combat to the beat makes it so fights don’t become fatigue battles, but genuinely work in favor to complement the rhythm to give off an extra dose of damage. And yet it is not strictly required to go in sync with the music at all. I primarily played off-sync and scored decently well in my rankings. There are even very tutorial-friendly and accessible options in the settings to help players like me who are extremely garbage at rhythm games. And it does work!
Gameplay isn’t just full of battles either. Platforming is here that isn’t too difficult nor too easy. As you progress further in the game, these sections evolve along with the combat to enhance the gameplay formula into something new and fresh. And I found the experience very enjoyable since it complemented the level design very well.
Hi-Fi Rush emulates colorful and stylish visuals reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite games: Jet Set Radio Future. And it works to its favor a great deal, making the setting come alive and vibrant with every color in the rainbow you can think of. Enhancing every corridor, cutscenes, and during boss stages. But not to the point of oversaturation or adding new colors to cross off a checklist. It is balanced equally, to create a varied amount of levels here. And thereby eliminating copy-and-paste design.
I liked the main cast and all of them integrated well into the plot with enough screen time to be relative and not used as a character for the sake of having them to induce a plot device. They feel human, developing alongside Chai(The protagonist) to make the game become something more than just a “videogame.” Also, I adore the references upon references here from so many other games and media. I won’t say any here, but it's best to experience that for yourself. It’s not as plentiful as ready player one does. Where it stacks references and references for the sake of doing so. Here it is integrated fluidly and makes the writing and dialogue great.
Storywise, I feel it was executed wonderfully. It doesn’t win any awards for most wacky or playing it too safe. But the story beats were enough to hold my interest and continue playing more and more. And I think at the end of the day that is what’s most important. To keep players invested in not just the gameplay, music, world, story, and characters. But, the act of playing on and on and holding your interest is a major design philosophy developers keep in mind.
The whole world and NPCs are fascinating to learn about and provide interesting dialogue to flesh out the background of the corporate work structure for new and old Vandelay robots. And as I continued further into the game, it is not all set in one point of view either, there are multiple stances each bot has to say about their job, unsavory practices, or just general gossip here and there. It enhances the game to the point I wanted to learn more about the Vandelay corporation.
Overall there is a lot of care and thought here by the developers of Tango Gameworks, and I am very interested in the next game they’ll release moving forward. I genuinely believe this is a very strong GOTY contender for 2023. And in my honest opinion a must-play for anyone who desires to see an idiot try to take down a big corporation. Watch how that turns out.
9.5/10
Poet
19 days ago