What to say about this masterpiece?

The rhythm game par excellence. Almost everything is on time to the music: the environment, the enemies, you, your attacks. There’s never been a more gratifying reward for going with the flow in a game, and the songs are all absolute bangers.

Hi-Fi Rush is stylish, lighthearted, colourful and constantly fun. The jokes don’t feel forced, the writing and characters are snappy, and the movement and fighting mechanics are an absolute pleasure to explore. I loved all the little references to other media that inspired the game, I loved being able to parry almost everything, and I loved the dynamic between all our heroes.

We are blessed to get this level of creativity still happening these days.

well I think after playing for 5 hours and after my last log I have to drop this one. I think this has been a great example of why stylistic choices are so important in games for me, the gameplay itself is great but every other choice in this game feels like it was designed specifically to aggravate me. I think one of the villains said something so cringy that I paused during combat just to take in what I just heard, died, alt F4ed the game and decide I'm done with it.

I'm the kind of person who likes to replay levels for high scores in these kind of games and I'm going through on the hardest difficulty my first try so that means lots of retrying, which means lots of having to hear the same god awful dialog over and over again. Even skipping the cutscenes I just can't ignore it, there is no way I want to hear any of what the characters are saying even once let alone many times, which means I know I'm never going to replay these levels, especially since a lot of them have very long lulls inbetween the combat just to have more time for the characters to say "uh... guys?" at me.

I know action games aren't known for having great story but there's a difference between a mediocre story or an overly campy one which is at least somewhat entertaining, and then an actively aggravating one like this.

Finally for a rhythm game the soundtrack was really disappointing, most of the game is a similar sounding guitar riff and then there's a few Dadrock licensed tracks for the bosses.

If you put this gameplay in a different stylistic package this could have been a 5/5 game for me but that's not the world we live in unfortunately.

I just wanted to write a first impression on this, I'm absolutely loving the gameplay but this game has maybe the absolute worst case of millenial writing I've ever seen. It somehow hits every note at once. Obnoxious main character, really over the top voice acting with characters hitting awful quips constantly to the tune of "so... that just happened" and "don't stand under the crushers... obviously...." and "You better pay me extra for this! - But I'm not paying you at all..."

To top it all off the story is an extremely on the nose and shallow critique of capitalism that boils down to constant jokes about how hard the villains overwork their labor force. It's crazy that this was all done unironically and not as some parody of terrible Marvel Cinematic Universe style writing.

If I could ignore it it wouldn't be a big deal but this is one of those games where the characters constantly talk during gameplay, additionally the game bombards you with unskippable tutorials constantly that treat the player like they are 5 years old and don't know how to navigate a UI to buy shop upgrades, and all of these tutorials also are bombarding you with the terrible terrible dialog.

It's a shame because I'm really picky about action games and there's very few that I feel set themselves apart enough from Devil May Cry to the point where I enjoy them, this has been one of the few due to the rhythm game aspect but everything except the gameplay has left such a sour note so far. I'm hoping to trudge through it and see if it'll get better.

Decidedly one of my favourite games in recent years. I’ve always had a love for when things line up to the beat in games and movies, and no game I’ve ever played has committed to it by this much, to where the entire game is built around it.

The story isn’t anything too special and doesn’t ever take itself super seriously, but I absolutely loved the characters, and I think this comes down to how much heart and passion was poured into this game. The animation, the music, especially the voice acting all sell it perfectly. It gets away with a lot by how genuine it portrays itself. For example, the writing can be very quippy and pun-riddled, but thanks to the voice actors all doing an excellent job and the fact the game plays it straight and sticks to its guns, it all comes off more charming than annoying. The writing in itself is very well done, with it hitting all the right notes in terms to set the appropriate mood for every scene, be it goofy, climactic or more emotional.

The entire world is so vibrant and full of life, literally bopping to the beat alongside you. With an action game entirely based around hitting enemies on the beat, it’s so easy to get into a flow-state that never lets up, since everything in combat is dedicated by the music. Said music can get a little bit samey at some points, but it’s always good, with especially the tracks by the end of the game really getting dang good. Only downside I personally had is that because it requires such constant focus on hitting things on the rhythm, it can end up a tad tiring for longer play sessions, so no harm in taking a few breaks. Though it’s not a point against the game in my opinion, that constant focus also made it so that I didn’t really experiment with the different combo’s much. Since it takes quite a bit of focus to stay on beat and the basic combo’s do the trick just fine, I rarely had to change it up, but that didn’t make getting those S ranks any less satisfying.

Its greatest strengths really lie in the passion that the game practically exudes as you play. All the love, time and effort put into the animations, the cutscenes, how it all syncs up with the music flawlessly, the amazing voice acting, the character designs… there’s just a general optimism at play that put me in a good mood while playing it, and the humor, both visually and in writing, landed often enough to make me chuckle and even sometimes laugh out loud a bit.

I have nothing but praise for Hi-Fi Rush, and I think everyone owes it to themselves to at least try it. It might just be your jam, just as it was for me.