Oh man where to begin, like a LOT of people are saying this feels like a long lost game from the PS2/XBOX era. It is absolutely filled to the brim with love and confidence. It's the absolute perfect marriage of rhythm and character action gameplay, in the first level or two things get pretty simple but as you progress the game unlocks more and more gameplay elements and it feels just so satisfying to get those S ranks. It somehow manages to be very busy and fast paced without feeling overwhelming or clunky, I occasionally see some people complain about the lack of a sprint button but everything is done to the beat, try DASH DASH DASH LIGHT ATK, you will move extremely fast and can do that infinitely. For anyone curious I played on steam swapping between my desktop (on surround sound) and steam deck (headphones) and I got a solid 60fps on both the entire game with default settings, the game is insanely well optimized.
The character writing is just absolutely great, every cutscene had me smiling and one cutscene actually made me a little emotional, this cast is absolutely solid and the voice acting is top shelf, Chai is one of my favorite protags in AGES. There are a lot of references in this game, hearfelt references the game wears proudly on its sleeve that brought me a lot of joy when I'd find them hidden around a level or in a cutscene. The game is built on the inspirations of a lot of games and other media that came before it and its proud to display that love in very caring homages that are great without ever taking you out of the world of Hi-Fi Rush.
Without going into spoiler territory there is also quite a lot to this game, there are three difficulties with a fourth unlockable, each has its own challenges and scores, completing challenges gets you unlockables in the post-game in the form of lots of character customization. There's also quite a bit more to the game after the credits roll it seems but at the time of writing I haven't completed the post game just sampled a bit of all of the unlockable things.
As you can probably see if you check my profile, I play a LOT of games but, at the same time, I am quite poor and I have to be very picky with my purchases and Hi-Fi Rush delivered in spades. I can't recommend it enough, it's a new favorite, between Hi-Fi Rush and SIGNALIS I am starting to feel as though we are entering an era of games that captures something completely new while being a love letter to classics of various genres. I sincerely hope there is a sequel in the future I wanna see these characters again, in the meantime I'm going to chip away at getting every achievement! I might edit this review with feelings on the post game and higher difficulties down the line :)
The character writing is just absolutely great, every cutscene had me smiling and one cutscene actually made me a little emotional, this cast is absolutely solid and the voice acting is top shelf, Chai is one of my favorite protags in AGES. There are a lot of references in this game, hearfelt references the game wears proudly on its sleeve that brought me a lot of joy when I'd find them hidden around a level or in a cutscene. The game is built on the inspirations of a lot of games and other media that came before it and its proud to display that love in very caring homages that are great without ever taking you out of the world of Hi-Fi Rush.
Without going into spoiler territory there is also quite a lot to this game, there are three difficulties with a fourth unlockable, each has its own challenges and scores, completing challenges gets you unlockables in the post-game in the form of lots of character customization. There's also quite a bit more to the game after the credits roll it seems but at the time of writing I haven't completed the post game just sampled a bit of all of the unlockable things.
As you can probably see if you check my profile, I play a LOT of games but, at the same time, I am quite poor and I have to be very picky with my purchases and Hi-Fi Rush delivered in spades. I can't recommend it enough, it's a new favorite, between Hi-Fi Rush and SIGNALIS I am starting to feel as though we are entering an era of games that captures something completely new while being a love letter to classics of various genres. I sincerely hope there is a sequel in the future I wanna see these characters again, in the meantime I'm going to chip away at getting every achievement! I might edit this review with feelings on the post game and higher difficulties down the line :)