Hi-Fi Rush takes the concept of a rhythm game to the next level, making it so that not only the player has to perform actions to the beat of the music, but the whole universe does. This, fused with a very good art direction, results in a colorful, interesting, and very alive world, which is excellently complemented by absolutely wonderful combat mechanics.

In terms of level design, we generally find a linear path with small optional routes leading to simple but useful rewards(gears or pieces of equipment) so that the player wastes little time and gets worthwhile rewards. This added to the great value of the gears, something that I will go into later, encourages and facilitates exploration to a level that is difficult to find in other video games, especially considering the little patience that we players have nowadays due to the large doses of dopamine to which we are exposed. Personally, it has reminded me quite a lot of Lego games level design, which is very positive.

On the other hand, we find very interesting characters in visual design and personality. This can be applied to both protagonists and antagonists. The story is quite basic but it fulfills its function and stands out thanks to the charisma of the characters themselves, who except for the final part of the game, have very good dialogues, helping the player to humanize and empathize with them. This, added to some incredible cinematics brings great interest to the story and its world.

Lastly, let's talk about combat and its mechanics, which without any doubt, has been the part that has surprised me the most in the game. This game offers extremely polished and satisfying combat, but it can also become very complex. For that reason, it would have been very easy for the player to feel overwhelmed by the large amount of mechanics and combos available, but Hi-Fi Rush manages to create a ridiculously good learning curve, making you suddenly find yourself executing complex combos and mastering the huge amount of combat options it offers.

This is achieved by introducing new mechanics at a perfect pace, supporting the player with sounds, flashes, and colors that help to understand what is happening on screen, and with an incredible enemy design, which forces you to learn and use the wide variety of mechanics offered by the game while maintaining the player's autonomy to choose their combat style. Even so, the game offers a number of combos that could be intimidating if it weren't for its excellent shopping system.

The store offers the possibility of buying new combos and skills, but thanks to the limited amount of gears available to the player, he is forced to choose the most attractive combos and buy them at a reasonable pace, which means that he can choose the complexity of the combat and his learning pace, thus avoiding the intimidating factor of the game. In addition, the fact that you can buy not only statistical improvements but also combos and skills that bring fun to the game gives a much higher value to the gears, something that encourages exploration and arouses interest towards the optional content.

Hi-Fi Rush is a breath of fresh air, a game with incredible attention to detail and focused solely on maximizing the fun the product offers, not on reaping microtransactions or sucking the player's attention for hundreds of hours with junk content to pull them away from the competition. It is short but intense, offering new enemies and mechanics in each level that keep the player interested and expectant at all times.

Without any doubt, it enters the ranking of my favorite games, completely recommended.

PD: sorry if the redaction isn't great, my native language is Spanish. :)

Sin ninguna duda este se ha convertido en mi survival Horror favorito. Encontramos un estilo artístico y diseño de sonido absolutamente increibles, que llevan al jugador a ser absorbido en una atmósfera tensa, oscura y en muchos momentos melancólica. Esta se complementa con un gameplay que encaja a la perfección con la atmósfera, caminando lentamente por pasillos laberínticos, intentando optimizar los limitados recursos de los que dispones y gestionando un sistema de combate intencionalmente aparatoso que ayuda a introducir al jugador en un estado de tensión y supervivencia. (el único punto negativo en este aspecto es la falta de slots en el inventario, que a veces te puede obligar a ir y volver de sitios muchas veces)

Esto se suma a un sistema de puzzles muy ingeniosos e interesantes, que obligan al jugador a estar atento y dar importancia a todos los objetos y textos que encuentra. Además, el nivel de dificultad de estos es perfecto, son suficientemente difíciles como para que el jugador sienta satisfacción al resolverlos pero sin llegar a un nivel de dificultad en el que este se quede atascado y tenga que buscar la solución en internet, cosa que empeoraría mucho la experiencia.

Para redondear esta excelente experiencia encontramos una historia muy bien contada, abstracta y emotiva que captó completamente mi interés, con personajes con los que empatizé muchísimo aún y sus pocas líneas de diálogo. Yo acabé con el ending "Promise", que personalmente me pareció un final perfecto para un juego maravilloso.