Hi-Fi Rush mini review

Tango shadow dropped a bomb, my mini review:

+Unique new IP
+Intuitive gameplay mechanics
+Good physics
+Collision detection
+Majority of enemies and bosses stagger
+Enemy design
+OST
+Flawless performance
+Mo cop/animations are silky smooth
+Linear but with side routes allowing  some exploration for collectibles, money, life gauges etc.
+Light and heavy attack buttons
+Over 20 combos/attacks
+Charge attacks, pause combos, air combos, multi-button press combos prevent combat from becoming repetitive
+Probably the best platforming in a stylish action game
+Good mix of intermittent platforming between encounters
+Decent story/characters
+Genuinely funny
+No walking sections or squeezing through gaps
+New game+ where you can carry over everything to next difficulty like DMC


-Visual pollution during combat
-Normal mode kinda easy
-Could benefit from more than 1 weapon
-Art direction and visuals ok but I would have much preferred something more akin to Sunset Overdrive or Astral Chain.
-Triple dodge attributed to beat timing.
-Dialogue sometimes cringey
-QTEs
-One of the boss fights is shite
-I don't like the rhythm mini games

Overall: 9/10

Good to see so much love for the game, very interested in playing it (and wanted:dead) when I get back from Taiwan. What I find really interesting so far is that literally everyone seems to enjoy it. From the most casually casual, to fans of combo-videos to action-fans to difficulty-fans - it really seems like a banger for everyone.

Also love seeing such a complete release right out of the gate. No patches. Just straight difficulty modes, bloodypalace etc.

Yessir! The game is super polished and has not required any update since release, this is literally unheard of nowadays. Triple A games need about a year to reach the same amount of polish

And you're right, even normies are loving it lol

This is a good review format. I may steal it for the future.

I heard it also runs well for a UE4 game. No stutters. The epitome of "released when it's done." I don't know if I'd like it, since I'm put off by rhythm games. I bought Way of the Passive Fist (Royal Guard simulator) recently, and it's secretly a rhythm game. But it shouldn't be surprising that Shinji Mikami made a good action game.

Black Adam wrote:This is a good review format. I may steal it for the future.

I heard it also runs well for a UE4 game. No stutters. The epitome of "released when it's done." I don't know if I'd like it, since I'm put off by rhythm games. I bought Way of the Passive Fist (Royal Guard simulator) recently, and it's secretly a rhythm game. But it shouldn't be surprising that Shinji Mikami made a good action game.

Tbh, I'm not into anime/cartoon style games nor am I into rhythm games lol plus I hate fighting robot enemies in games....and I STILL loved it. 

Give it a try, it's free on gamepass, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Fair enough. I gave it a 10/10 score and honestly this game is an almost-perfect masterpiece, I was having fun even outside of the combat, it's very complete and it looks like the antithesis of "development hell", if that makes any sense.

But I do have some problems with the gameplay.

1. The 1-dash limit mid-air is very annoying and I think it should work with the same rules as in the ground, like, triple dash inputted on beat
2. Triple jump would be cool
3. The companions are neat but I would like to see more than 4 moves
4. Air combos are kinda restricted to finishers
5. It should have a devil bringer added to the magnet
6. The rhythm part of the game is kinda poorly implemented, mechanically speaking. It's very, very aesthetically satisfying, everything moves in harmony with the music and I love it. But mechanically, the on-beat system is only there for damage bonus and ranking system, there is no nuances and this is a missed opportunity, imo. Something like "dash -> Y it's a launcher, but it becomes a juggle if you input both on beat" would be pretty cool, for example.

Been playing the game myself for a bit now (at stage 6). I like it, but in other cases also don't. It feels extremely polished and its usage of the beat is fantastic, making even randomly walking through stages very fun. The combat gets more mellow for me as the game goes on though. I don't like how every fight is in a pre-determined arena, there's so much platforming and walking in between fights, I'd have hoped to see some random 1 or 2 enemies in between to just derp around with (i.e. like DMC, NG, GoW, any action game really). Instead they are only in those arenas.

The biggest kicker for me currently though is the "use the blue attack to break the blue shield". I have no clue why they put this in and having those abilities be on a cooldown is even more of a headscratcher. Pair that with only one weapon and while fun I think you can burn out on this game pretty fast (also probably why nobody is talking about it like a month later).

Agree with Lenz that the beat could've also been used for bonuses to attacks, currently it's just score and a bit damage.

That negativity aside, it looks and runs fantastic, and is genuinely funny. Cai is hilarious and a lot of the cutscenework is a joy to watch. Combat is smooth and unique. Just wish it wasn't so restrictive is all.

I got to chapter 8 a month ago and stopped (Though I will go back to it), and I mostly agree.

I don't have an opinion yet regarding having one weapon simply because I haven't played enough, but the color-coded cooldown abilities for breaking shields really annoy me, I honestly don't get why this is a thing. It only serves to make fight drag and limit freedom and creativity.

On the plus side, I love how there are many different combos that each of them has a different use case, and that using the combo finishers in an effective manner encourages good positioning and timing before starting the combo, especially since they aren't i-framed so they also have a nice risk-reward element to them.

Yeah a lot of the finishers and chains in general all feel like they have a usage, which is neat. But the colored-shields really make me scratch my head. How or why was this put in?

Royta/Raeng wrote:Yeah a lot of the finishers and chains in general all feel like they have a usage, which is neat. But the colored-shields really make me scratch my head. How or why was this put in?

Yeah that's western game design shite lol shouldn't even be considered at Tango, no idea why this was included. 

The game does have its flaws but man, it's so much fun at the same time. It's gameplay is very unique and the characters are genuinely funny.