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Yeah, I thought Hi-Fi was kinda meh as well, DEAL WITH IT
Okay, so I’m super-lazy. I’m also coming off the back of a week-long cold. And mostly I just wanted to post something to troll HTV and Craig. SO, here’s my Steam Review, which more-or-less does justice to how I felt about the game. Tier 3, hope you have a good day, and tip your waiters on the way out.
Hi-Fi Rush is surprisingly mid.
As many have stated, the work the dev team did on this is very apparent. Animations are extremely crisp, character design is unique and entertaining, and the voice acting is good. But that’s the problem, right? This would be fine if I was watching an anime. However, these are all things that generally are a secondary feature in a game, with the primary being the gameplay itself. And the gameplay…? It’s just kind of meh.
This is less of a rhythm game, and more of a fighting game (akin to DMC, Bayonetta, No More Heroes etc.) with the mask of a rhythm game. Yes, everything happens on-beat. Yes, you can time your blocks and attacks in rhythm with the music but… that’s kind of it. I prefer Rhythm games that make you feel like the music depends on you–like you’re playing a song. This just felt like I was playing Kingdom Hearts, but Sora would only attack and defend on every eighth-note.
When it comes to enemies, some enemy attacks in Hi-Fi don’t feel terribly telegraphed, forcing you to just memorize what an opponent does. Others are better-telegraphed, but occur on a screen with so much visual noise that you’ll probably miss it anyway. Instead of each enemy feeling like a musical puzzle, they just come across as another thing you need to button mash your way to get through.
The platforming is serviceable, but only just. It’s the most basic of basic–jump on platforms, some move, others need timed switches. Dash when you need to close a gap, magnet-link when you need to close an even bigger gap. Use Blue Ally for blue switches, Green Ally for green switches, and Red Ally for red switches. The same ally logic applies to enemies when you fight.
The music itself was also fairly forgettable, apart from a level or two. It all blends together to sound exactly the same from one level to the next, which is sad since you could really build up a lot of good energy had the songs pushed for more.
The “vibe” Chai as a character introduces does a lot of heavy lifting to make things feel fun. Some of the scenes were amusing and a boss fight or two were mildly entertaining. When I step back and look at the big picture though, I’m left unsatisfied, wondering why I’d rather go and play BPM or Muse Dash instead.