My only complaint with this game is that the movement outside of combat felt a bit awkward. Seriously, that's it. It's kind of insane to me that in a time where gaming produces nothing but AAA slop which doesn't even work as intended half the time yet still charges up the ass, this one manages to slip through the cracks and in some ways intentionally defines itself as a cult classic.
I'll start with the artstyle(s). Gaming has this obession nowadays of making everything look hyper realistic. I don't really have a problem with that, in fact I guess it's probably a good thing for mass appeal, but Hi-Fi Rush intentionally sticks to just using more cartoony artstyles throughout everything. More vibrant colors, more wacky animations, and more silly shenanigans happening both in the background and right in front of your face. It just gives more life to everything than just having your characters look over realistic looking grassy plains over the sunrise just like Breath of the Wild and every open-ish AAA game that came out after it. Very nice refresher.
I also never play rhythm games, yet this one made me stick to it. Everything, from Chai's movement (which felt a bit out of place I guess, especially with how his double jump works, but that's my only nitpick) to platforms opening up and then closing, fits to a rhythm. It's all seamless to the same beat, and it's even crazy to me how the enviroments around Chai also sync to that same beat. It's, again, such a nice change of pace from everything trying to be flashy action combat, because now you have to pay attention more in fight instead of just spamming buttons to win.
Oh yeah, speaking of combat, it's amazing how much emphasis this game puts on its combat system. It's almost impossible to go about it without learning at least some nuance to it. Sure, you can just keep spamming the same attack button over and over, but you actively get punished for that through both the score you get at the end of each fight and also through the amount of damage you do. It's quintessential to learn the intricacies. Once again, such a nice refresher from just spamming buttons to win.
The characters, while on the surface seem like the same old cliche of "let's use the power of friendship to overcome the insane odds we put ourselves unnecessarily against!!!!", leave such a lasting impression. Every single one of them grows through some way or another, where eventually I started feeling parallels to my actual friends in real life. Even the villains, while for the most part you don't really hear from them after they've been defeated, have their own quirky little goofy over the top personalities.
One small thing I want to mention; this game is CHOCK full of references to other forms of media. The one that stuck out to me the most was a reference to the sitdown "tell, not show" style of the second disc of Xenogears, which I immediately pointed at my monitor screen in shock as soon as I saw it, given that I had only just recently played Xenogears and also that I didn't really think they'd put such a niche reference into a game like this.
This game was almost shoved down my throat through a few friends of mine, and I'm gonna be honest that made me not want to play it, but I'm glad I eventually just forked over the money and played the game. Very rarely do you see actual passion projects come out like this where every single detail both big and small had some level of love put into it. I really wanna play more games like these which do everything in their power to stand out.
9/10. Please give me more.
I'll start with the artstyle(s). Gaming has this obession nowadays of making everything look hyper realistic. I don't really have a problem with that, in fact I guess it's probably a good thing for mass appeal, but Hi-Fi Rush intentionally sticks to just using more cartoony artstyles throughout everything. More vibrant colors, more wacky animations, and more silly shenanigans happening both in the background and right in front of your face. It just gives more life to everything than just having your characters look over realistic looking grassy plains over the sunrise just like Breath of the Wild and every open-ish AAA game that came out after it. Very nice refresher.
I also never play rhythm games, yet this one made me stick to it. Everything, from Chai's movement (which felt a bit out of place I guess, especially with how his double jump works, but that's my only nitpick) to platforms opening up and then closing, fits to a rhythm. It's all seamless to the same beat, and it's even crazy to me how the enviroments around Chai also sync to that same beat. It's, again, such a nice change of pace from everything trying to be flashy action combat, because now you have to pay attention more in fight instead of just spamming buttons to win.
Oh yeah, speaking of combat, it's amazing how much emphasis this game puts on its combat system. It's almost impossible to go about it without learning at least some nuance to it. Sure, you can just keep spamming the same attack button over and over, but you actively get punished for that through both the score you get at the end of each fight and also through the amount of damage you do. It's quintessential to learn the intricacies. Once again, such a nice refresher from just spamming buttons to win.
The characters, while on the surface seem like the same old cliche of "let's use the power of friendship to overcome the insane odds we put ourselves unnecessarily against!!!!", leave such a lasting impression. Every single one of them grows through some way or another, where eventually I started feeling parallels to my actual friends in real life. Even the villains, while for the most part you don't really hear from them after they've been defeated, have their own quirky little goofy over the top personalities.
One small thing I want to mention; this game is CHOCK full of references to other forms of media. The one that stuck out to me the most was a reference to the sitdown "tell, not show" style of the second disc of Xenogears, which I immediately pointed at my monitor screen in shock as soon as I saw it, given that I had only just recently played Xenogears and also that I didn't really think they'd put such a niche reference into a game like this.
This game was almost shoved down my throat through a few friends of mine, and I'm gonna be honest that made me not want to play it, but I'm glad I eventually just forked over the money and played the game. Very rarely do you see actual passion projects come out like this where every single detail both big and small had some level of love put into it. I really wanna play more games like these which do everything in their power to stand out.
9/10. Please give me more.