First of all the gameplay, I think the main question is how much does conventional rhythm mechanics add to a character action moveset, given the complexity of movesets like Dante's or Bayonetta's there is always some element of rhythm already embedded to these characters, dogde timing, offset combos, pause combos, parry timing, etc. all that is about a "rhyhtm" paced by the player and the enemy one interacts with. So in Hi-Fi Rush, it should add, in theory, more difficulty to the execution of these combos, but it doesn't, I would say that for at least 80 to maybe 90% of it, you can get by, by just mashing through it, undermining that aspect of the game for most of its run. I guess the biggest downfall of the idea from a mechanical stand point, is that it is pretty accessible for people that don't have much rhythm, but it also means that its main thing doesn't really push more in terms of execution compared to other action games.
The fundamental game feel is solid at least, it feels fairly satisfying to pull off combos in the game, but there is a lot of details that make the game less enjoyable to me. There is no form of lock on that I could find, so you either let the auto camera turned on, or you turn it off and have to move it to an adequate enough location every encounter; since there is no proper lock on, the game will soft lock itself to a nearby enemy, and you'll have to move around to be able to soft lock into another, it makes it a lot more finicky than it really needs to be. You can call companions in the middle of the fight to help you, they are on a cooldown, the issue is that some enemies can't be really damaged until you call the correct companion, there are some fights where all the enemies would be ones you can't damage from the get go, so is a fight where I just have to move around, do the ability, wait for it to charge again and then do it again, is not really that engaging or challenging, is a time waster; there are strong enemies that will always have a forced QTE move before you are able to defeat them, it wasn't good in Metroid Dread and is not good here either.
While Chai's speed is fine during combat, he feels needlessly slow outside of it, all you can really do is time dashes, the jumping is not the most ideal one, and there is a decent amount of platforming to do, is not hard, but it doesn't really feels good to play either in these segments either.
Level design is fairly simple and straight forward, some nooks and crannies here and there for extra items and upgrades, there are locked doors that aren't accessible until you get the right companion, don't know how to feel about that.
The presentation, at a surface level, is great, pretty colorful, a nice animated look to it, some good transitions between 2D and 3D cutscenes (idk if completely necessary, the 3D models have more polish than the 2D cutscenes, and those 3D models look 2D-ish enough), it commits to the rhythm aspect here by making as many elements as possible bop alongside the music, but honestly, is rather repetitive to look at, spending most of the time at samey looking factory areas, there are a couple of stand outs as contrast, but for the most part it has a rather uninspired setting, and kind of a sterile vibe to it.
I also didn't vibe with most of the music, I think that is probably a big enough factor in terms of how much you get out of the game, and sadly, not my thing. Guess the highlights would be the licensed stuff, and a couple of the original compositions, besides that, mostly forgettable.
And then there is the story, I'm a weirdo that cares about that a decent amount in this genre, and everything is kind of flat, there is not much in the form of over the top scenarios fitting for a character action game; besides the banter between Chai and Peppermint, which is a pretty basic trope but is done well, every other character feels pretty paper thin, one of them is just a Jojo reference, and while I love Jojo, is not really enough to make an entire character; there isn't really much in the form of themes or tangible development, it doesn't even really feel like it has as much fun with itself as it could, making for very simplistic humor, the kind of jokes that won't hurt me, but also that I won't chuckle at; there is a couple of non boss fights, but I don't think there is enough of a roster of proper fights to pull some No More Heroes stuff in this game. It at least gets building up the bosses across their levels well enough. I see the sentiment that the game is like a playable version of an animated show, and yea, I get that vibe, but it comes off as one of those very simplistic cartoons that I don't get much out of, one that I won't remember much if anything as time goes by.
The game also feels too long, for the simplicity of the game, it should be more like a DMC1, rather than a Bayonetta or modern DMC game, it suffers from a similar issue I had with Travis Strikes Again, you could shave off one or two segments from each level and the pacing would be very much improved, plus maybe a rework of most of the middle game.
And that is about it, I'll say that I don't regret playing through it, but I was also hoping/expecting to like it a lot more, and not being able to makes me sad, because it really appeals a lot to me on a surface level.
The fundamental game feel is solid at least, it feels fairly satisfying to pull off combos in the game, but there is a lot of details that make the game less enjoyable to me. There is no form of lock on that I could find, so you either let the auto camera turned on, or you turn it off and have to move it to an adequate enough location every encounter; since there is no proper lock on, the game will soft lock itself to a nearby enemy, and you'll have to move around to be able to soft lock into another, it makes it a lot more finicky than it really needs to be. You can call companions in the middle of the fight to help you, they are on a cooldown, the issue is that some enemies can't be really damaged until you call the correct companion, there are some fights where all the enemies would be ones you can't damage from the get go, so is a fight where I just have to move around, do the ability, wait for it to charge again and then do it again, is not really that engaging or challenging, is a time waster; there are strong enemies that will always have a forced QTE move before you are able to defeat them, it wasn't good in Metroid Dread and is not good here either.
While Chai's speed is fine during combat, he feels needlessly slow outside of it, all you can really do is time dashes, the jumping is not the most ideal one, and there is a decent amount of platforming to do, is not hard, but it doesn't really feels good to play either in these segments either.
Level design is fairly simple and straight forward, some nooks and crannies here and there for extra items and upgrades, there are locked doors that aren't accessible until you get the right companion, don't know how to feel about that.
The presentation, at a surface level, is great, pretty colorful, a nice animated look to it, some good transitions between 2D and 3D cutscenes (idk if completely necessary, the 3D models have more polish than the 2D cutscenes, and those 3D models look 2D-ish enough), it commits to the rhythm aspect here by making as many elements as possible bop alongside the music, but honestly, is rather repetitive to look at, spending most of the time at samey looking factory areas, there are a couple of stand outs as contrast, but for the most part it has a rather uninspired setting, and kind of a sterile vibe to it.
I also didn't vibe with most of the music, I think that is probably a big enough factor in terms of how much you get out of the game, and sadly, not my thing. Guess the highlights would be the licensed stuff, and a couple of the original compositions, besides that, mostly forgettable.
And then there is the story, I'm a weirdo that cares about that a decent amount in this genre, and everything is kind of flat, there is not much in the form of over the top scenarios fitting for a character action game; besides the banter between Chai and Peppermint, which is a pretty basic trope but is done well, every other character feels pretty paper thin, one of them is just a Jojo reference, and while I love Jojo, is not really enough to make an entire character; there isn't really much in the form of themes or tangible development, it doesn't even really feel like it has as much fun with itself as it could, making for very simplistic humor, the kind of jokes that won't hurt me, but also that I won't chuckle at; there is a couple of non boss fights, but I don't think there is enough of a roster of proper fights to pull some No More Heroes stuff in this game. It at least gets building up the bosses across their levels well enough. I see the sentiment that the game is like a playable version of an animated show, and yea, I get that vibe, but it comes off as one of those very simplistic cartoons that I don't get much out of, one that I won't remember much if anything as time goes by.
The game also feels too long, for the simplicity of the game, it should be more like a DMC1, rather than a Bayonetta or modern DMC game, it suffers from a similar issue I had with Travis Strikes Again, you could shave off one or two segments from each level and the pacing would be very much improved, plus maybe a rework of most of the middle game.
And that is about it, I'll say that I don't regret playing through it, but I was also hoping/expecting to like it a lot more, and not being able to makes me sad, because it really appeals a lot to me on a surface level.