Ok, now that I've finished the game I can do an actual review. First of all, this game has been an absolute joy from beginning to end. If you take nothing else from this review know that this stylish action + rythm game hybrid takes the best parts of Gen 6 design and tone with some mid 2000s western cartoon theming and smashes it out of the park with some QOL improvements which will make it THE rhythm action game others get judged on going forward.
The whole rhythm game + other genre combination seems to have creeped on us a bit huh? I swear it was only yesterday stuff like No Straight Roads and Sayonara Wild Hearts were seen as groundbreaking (I'm sure there are games which precede them, but personally those are the ones that made me aware of the subgenre) I loved BPM: Bullets Per Minute when it came out, the combination of quake 1 with a rhythm core was a blast, reloading a revolver in time to the beat, but it did slighlty suffer in the learning curve being a bit steep in the beginning.
The problem which HiFi rush solves is that whilst in BPM fucking up the rythm meant you could do pretty much nothing but relatively slow movement, in HiFi your actions are pulled off to the beat regardless of input. This also means you can inmediately get back to hitting in rythm by using the character's own moves landing as a metronome. In theory this could have made the game a watered down version of the concept but the key is that pulling off the moves in time to the beat, dodging, parrying etc fits in super nicely to the style action points system of DMC, Bayonetta (or fittingly for the executive producer Shinji Mikami, God Hand) of rewarding good execution of the system with better combos, higher score etc. This is the very definition of the old standard "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master". By the time the game starts to demand you consistently hit stuff to the rythm with the longer parry chains and boss fights you're already a pro at the beat combat. Add to that the multiple visual indicators of your companion 808 and the various assets across the level acting as metronomes and the onboarding is absolutely masterful.
Story wise its nothing super special its your typical scoooby gang vs evil corporation making your way through 6 colourful bosses with a fairly generic evil scheme. I can see the tone given by the trailer giving people pause, especially given the current (mostly deserved) backlash to the whedon/roiland etc sardonic "ha ha we are so clever and self aware" style of writing but its honestly not quite on that level, its fairly subdued other than in the optional logs and NPC dialogues which can sometimes vere into slightly patience testing : "Cos videogame, am I right?" territory. However it gets away with it 90% of the time because a) the main character is canonically kind of dumb and b) the cartoon show tone makes it a lot more endearing and less annoying. The absolute best thing I can say about the story is that the following exchange occurs : Bad Guy - "You're all losers" Protagonist "Maybe, but together we're unstoppable" And my reaction to this dialogue was to have a stupid grin on, rather than wince at its cheesiness.
One slight flaw is in the voice acting, its a bit underwhelming for one slightly baffling decision. They cast american voice actors and then had them do accents, but they can't really pull them off? Its hard to say without coming off as mean but what is Macaron's accent supposed to be? British? American? Very strange decision.
As for why it doesn't get 5 stars, the song selection isnt my favourite, ironically some of the original tracks were the ones I liked the most, but music taste is so subjective I don't know if theres a soundtrack on earth that will please everyone. Also of all the various mechanics, the fire one you have to deal with is the only element I found unfun. Part of the combat involves you temporarily summoning allies (and yeah that is explained within the games fiction funnily enough) to break through certain enemies defenses. The fire enemies however feel particularly annoying with this, it always feels like they are much more overwhelming than the shielded enemies and armoured ones.
In conclusion HiFi rush is an excellent rythm action game and strong early GOTY contender that will become the exemplar of its particular subgenre going forward. Its 30 euro at launch and whilst I rarely buy these games at launch I did so and have absolutely 0 regrets, what a banger.
The whole rhythm game + other genre combination seems to have creeped on us a bit huh? I swear it was only yesterday stuff like No Straight Roads and Sayonara Wild Hearts were seen as groundbreaking (I'm sure there are games which precede them, but personally those are the ones that made me aware of the subgenre) I loved BPM: Bullets Per Minute when it came out, the combination of quake 1 with a rhythm core was a blast, reloading a revolver in time to the beat, but it did slighlty suffer in the learning curve being a bit steep in the beginning.
The problem which HiFi rush solves is that whilst in BPM fucking up the rythm meant you could do pretty much nothing but relatively slow movement, in HiFi your actions are pulled off to the beat regardless of input. This also means you can inmediately get back to hitting in rythm by using the character's own moves landing as a metronome. In theory this could have made the game a watered down version of the concept but the key is that pulling off the moves in time to the beat, dodging, parrying etc fits in super nicely to the style action points system of DMC, Bayonetta (or fittingly for the executive producer Shinji Mikami, God Hand) of rewarding good execution of the system with better combos, higher score etc. This is the very definition of the old standard "Easy to Learn, Hard to Master". By the time the game starts to demand you consistently hit stuff to the rythm with the longer parry chains and boss fights you're already a pro at the beat combat. Add to that the multiple visual indicators of your companion 808 and the various assets across the level acting as metronomes and the onboarding is absolutely masterful.
Story wise its nothing super special its your typical scoooby gang vs evil corporation making your way through 6 colourful bosses with a fairly generic evil scheme. I can see the tone given by the trailer giving people pause, especially given the current (mostly deserved) backlash to the whedon/roiland etc sardonic "ha ha we are so clever and self aware" style of writing but its honestly not quite on that level, its fairly subdued other than in the optional logs and NPC dialogues which can sometimes vere into slightly patience testing : "Cos videogame, am I right?" territory. However it gets away with it 90% of the time because a) the main character is canonically kind of dumb and b) the cartoon show tone makes it a lot more endearing and less annoying. The absolute best thing I can say about the story is that the following exchange occurs : Bad Guy - "You're all losers" Protagonist "Maybe, but together we're unstoppable" And my reaction to this dialogue was to have a stupid grin on, rather than wince at its cheesiness.
One slight flaw is in the voice acting, its a bit underwhelming for one slightly baffling decision. They cast american voice actors and then had them do accents, but they can't really pull them off? Its hard to say without coming off as mean but what is Macaron's accent supposed to be? British? American? Very strange decision.
As for why it doesn't get 5 stars, the song selection isnt my favourite, ironically some of the original tracks were the ones I liked the most, but music taste is so subjective I don't know if theres a soundtrack on earth that will please everyone. Also of all the various mechanics, the fire one you have to deal with is the only element I found unfun. Part of the combat involves you temporarily summoning allies (and yeah that is explained within the games fiction funnily enough) to break through certain enemies defenses. The fire enemies however feel particularly annoying with this, it always feels like they are much more overwhelming than the shielded enemies and armoured ones.
In conclusion HiFi rush is an excellent rythm action game and strong early GOTY contender that will become the exemplar of its particular subgenre going forward. Its 30 euro at launch and whilst I rarely buy these games at launch I did so and have absolutely 0 regrets, what a banger.
4 Comments
I watched the trailer recently and it starts with a record-scratch freeze frame and a “yup, that’s me! You’re probably wondering…”
@Gare I know, theres a reason why its missing half a star from my score
Yeah, I think that’s worth half a star too
Weatherby
1 year ago