The last game I finished—Mother 3—I felt enamored with just about everything besides its combat system. It feels right that the next game I beat is something that rides primarily on its combat system.
Okay, that's not entirely fair. Hi-Fi Rush is a game with a fuckton of style. The way the entire game moves to a singular beat: attacks coming out, the environment, the UI, the actions of the cutscenes. It all works together so seamlessly to keep you constantly on the beat. The way some of the cutscenes are choreographed around the music are genuinely impressive.
The game's story and characters are completely forgettable, and the game's writing is quite often eye-rolling. It feels like they were obligated to construct a story with some attempt at emotional resonance despite not wanting to and ended up constructing the most generic plot imaginable. I don't even want to get into how the game flaccid utilization of cyberpunk and anti-capitalist aesthetics. But it's fine. That's not what the game is about. It's about trashing robots to a beat.
The combat is absolutely divine. Very few games nail getting into the zone as much as Hi-Fi Rush does, helped in large part by the rhythm elements. Stringing together chains of attacks, launching the enemy into the air, summoning your allies to keep them up there, destroying them, then grappling to a new enemy to repeat the process, racking up a massive combo meter. It's the classic character action game feeling, and the game pulls it off perfectly.
The combat does have a few issues, namely the enemies with shields requiring you to use your allies' moves. This wouldn't be so much an issue if not for a trinity of issues: most shields take 2 ally attacks to take down, ally attacks are on a cooldown, and there's no lock-on system. If there aren't any other enemies at play, you're forced to awkwardly run around waiting for the meter to refill, ruining both your combo meter and the pace of the gameplay. And god forbid, Macaron's physical attack misses the enemy (since there's no lock-on), forcing you to wait longer. Once the shields are down, however, the gameplay is back to feeling like pure butter.
Outside of combat, the game consists mostly of "running around" sections where you're solving small puzzles, doing light platforming, talking to NPCs, etc. None of it is bad per say, but the running around:combat ratio is way too high and after the first level, most of the time in these sections I was wishing to be fed another treat that is the combat sections. Fortunately, the game strikes focuses more on the combat sections towards the end of the game, and really ends up shining with a set of 2 incredible levels at the end. Also, the jump sucks. I don't know who thought it was a good jump, but they should never be allowed to design a jump in a videogame ever again.
Despite honestly being pretty middling for most of its runtime, Hi-Fi Rush's combat elevates the rest of the experience a lot. The rhythm of the battles still flows within me even a couple hours after finishing the game, and I suspect it will continue to do so for the next few days. I would love to see the team be able to take a second crack at the formula with a bit of a higher budget. I think they have something special sprouting here, and if they do things right, they could have an all-time great on their hands.
Okay, that's not entirely fair. Hi-Fi Rush is a game with a fuckton of style. The way the entire game moves to a singular beat: attacks coming out, the environment, the UI, the actions of the cutscenes. It all works together so seamlessly to keep you constantly on the beat. The way some of the cutscenes are choreographed around the music are genuinely impressive.
The game's story and characters are completely forgettable, and the game's writing is quite often eye-rolling. It feels like they were obligated to construct a story with some attempt at emotional resonance despite not wanting to and ended up constructing the most generic plot imaginable. I don't even want to get into how the game flaccid utilization of cyberpunk and anti-capitalist aesthetics. But it's fine. That's not what the game is about. It's about trashing robots to a beat.
The combat is absolutely divine. Very few games nail getting into the zone as much as Hi-Fi Rush does, helped in large part by the rhythm elements. Stringing together chains of attacks, launching the enemy into the air, summoning your allies to keep them up there, destroying them, then grappling to a new enemy to repeat the process, racking up a massive combo meter. It's the classic character action game feeling, and the game pulls it off perfectly.
The combat does have a few issues, namely the enemies with shields requiring you to use your allies' moves. This wouldn't be so much an issue if not for a trinity of issues: most shields take 2 ally attacks to take down, ally attacks are on a cooldown, and there's no lock-on system. If there aren't any other enemies at play, you're forced to awkwardly run around waiting for the meter to refill, ruining both your combo meter and the pace of the gameplay. And god forbid, Macaron's physical attack misses the enemy (since there's no lock-on), forcing you to wait longer. Once the shields are down, however, the gameplay is back to feeling like pure butter.
Outside of combat, the game consists mostly of "running around" sections where you're solving small puzzles, doing light platforming, talking to NPCs, etc. None of it is bad per say, but the running around:combat ratio is way too high and after the first level, most of the time in these sections I was wishing to be fed another treat that is the combat sections. Fortunately, the game strikes focuses more on the combat sections towards the end of the game, and really ends up shining with a set of 2 incredible levels at the end. Also, the jump sucks. I don't know who thought it was a good jump, but they should never be allowed to design a jump in a videogame ever again.
Despite honestly being pretty middling for most of its runtime, Hi-Fi Rush's combat elevates the rest of the experience a lot. The rhythm of the battles still flows within me even a couple hours after finishing the game, and I suspect it will continue to do so for the next few days. I would love to see the team be able to take a second crack at the formula with a bit of a higher budget. I think they have something special sprouting here, and if they do things right, they could have an all-time great on their hands.