Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush art (Bethesda launch article)

It was 25 January 2023. It was an ordinary day for me and should be so for the next couple of weeks & months, since I had no anticipated games on my list that I want to try in the near future. There was a Xbox & Bethesda Developer Direct that I didn’t really care about, since I am not an Xbox user & usually not interested in games that they are releasing. Then, Hi-Fi Rush got announced there and it got released 1 hour after the Direct ends. I still didn’t know about this game at this point, until the next day when a Reddit user creates a post in r/gaming about this game. After reading the initial wave of reviews on Steam, I finally jumped on the band-wagon and buy this game, albeit still feeling a bit unsure whether I make the right decision to purchase this game or not.

My unsure-ness about the game comes from the fact that there are not a lot of rhythm games that I would call as “good”. As a matter of fact, I used to dislike rhythm games. It was not until I try Crypt of the NecroDancer and Cadence of Hyrule that I finally dip my hands into the genre and finishing rhythm games like Rhythm Heaven Fever. My last foray into the rhythm/action game was with No Straight Roads, and I didn’t really like it and didn’t finish it. So, I was afraid that I was just going to waste my money on Hi-Fi Rush and not going to complete this game. To my surprise, I actually enjoy this game. After beating the game, I can say that this is now definitely one of the games on my favorite list. Yes, this game is definitely not perfect, but this game is a great way to start the year strong.

The writing team deserved some kudos on writing the characters for this game. Even though the overall story is just okay, the dynamics between Chai and other squad members (not going to mention names here…) are delightful. I just love how Chai is just a complete dud and the other squad members are reefing on it. The jokes bouncing from every characters (even from the villains) gave me a light chuckle every now and then. Even though some of them feels a bit cringey, I feel like it makes it even on-brand, since Hi-Fi Rush does not take itself seriously.

One of my favorite cutscene. (Not my most favourite, cause I believe that one counts as a spoiler...)

We can definitely see more love & passion from the developer when making Hi-Fi Rush. The environment of this game feels immersive, where every little things in the environment bounces to the beat of the music. Every character, be it the main characters, the side characters, even the robotic enemies feels like they have, well, their own characters…! There are lots of hidden references & easter eggs the developer puts in the game as well. And, if you return back to the hideout on various points in the game, there’s special dialogue between Chai and other squad members! Remember that all of these are things that can be easily missed by the players (us), but they definitely care to put those things in the game, and that just shows how Hi-Fi Rush is one giant labor of love from the devs at Tango Gameworks.

I also love the art direction they took for Hi-Fi Rush. It reminds me of the Spiderverse-style movies, comic/manga-style graphics with vibrant colors. The design of the characters looks great. The environment also looks fantastic, as I am finding myself easily immersed in the game.

The environment in one of the chapters.

Now, onto the battle/rhythm mechanics. After my disappointment with No Straight Roads that only the enemy attacks on the beat of the music, I find it pleasing that in Hi-Fi Rush you are encouraged to attack & perform actions on the beat. Again, you don’t have to — if you attack not on the beat, the game will still process it and Chai will perform the attack on the next beat — but, if you attack on the beat of the music, you will receive attack bonuses. At first, the combat feels repetitive since the actions are limited, but further in the game, the combat mechanics expands & deepens, making the combat interesting (and also, quite challenging). Hit combos feels great & satisfying to pull, especially when you can pull of a long chain of combos. There are special attacks that you can use, but I find myself not using it that much and just relying on normal attacks & parry.

A clumsy battle I recorded after not playing it for a while...

Outside of battles, there is a shop where you can purchase upgrades for your “loadout”. You can buy more health bars, more special meters, or more slots to equip more Chips (a thing that give you passive abilities). More attack combos and more special attacks can also be purchased here.

Also outside of battles, to progress throughout the game, we need to navigate through obstacles and platform our way through the environment. Luckily, Chai can jump, double jump, dash, and jump-dash to go through to the next battles. While the level design itself is great, I feel like the movement feels a bit clunky. Every time I try to jump to the next platform I feel like I won’t make it and I have to always do a double jump and dash. The 2D section that pops up every now and then also feels the same. I feel like these don’t really add a lot of value to the game, but then again, if they take out these platform-ing sections, the game would feel hollow, so I can’t really complain that much…

A little slice of gameplay between battles.

Now, it’s not a rhythm game without some great music, and Hi-Fi Rush delivers some great musics. In my opinion, they are definitely jam-worthy, even though they are still not the best game soundtracks I’ve heard. They fit great into the game’s environment and battles, that battles feels immersive. I sometimes jam too hard to the music that I forgot to do a hit/parry in battles… One of my favourite music in the game is the Invaders Must Die, played when [SPOILER ALERT] Chai landed on the cafetaria on the Vandelay Tower .

Bethesda also grace us with a Spotify playlist to listen back to some of the music easily. Finally, a game that has banging soundtracks that is available on Spotify for easy re-listen!

Performance-wise, this game runs pretty well. Granted, I was using my PC that has a Ryzen 7 5800X and a RTX 3080 in it, but it definitely can pull off 3440x1440 at 144 FPS (or more), with DLSS Quality and high preset. I haven’t really checked whether it will run at 144 FPS without DLSS, but my guess that it probably can. Throughout my playthrough, the game runs very smoothly. I did encounter some minor stutters, but I did not find any crashes, glitches, or bugs in my playthrough. I guess that is something that we cannot take for granted anymore in this day and age (looking at you, Pokemon).

My biggest gripes with this game, and this seems pretty minor, was that in cutscenes, the video and audio would sometimes desynced. I’m not really sure why this happens since if I go back and replay it, it may happen again or it will play out just fine. Also, since I am playing on an ultra-wide monitor, cutscenes did not play covering the whole screen, since cutscenes are pre-rendered videos that are mastered in the more-traditional 16:9 aspect ratio. This I didn’t really mind that much since other games are doing so.

Another issue that I also encountered is that the game seems to be expecting you to input early from the beat. This is an issue that I haven’t really noticed until I reached a point where I am required to parry attacks, and failed miserably since my input was deemed “too late”. Even though you can adjust to it, it definitely feels weird that you are giving input not exactly on the beat. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that Hi-Fi Rush did not come with a latency calibrator/tester, a feature I say is important for rhythm games.

Hi-Fi Rush is such a great and fun game to play. Hi-Fi Rush is able to combine the action hack-and-slash genre with the rhythm genre really well, while also building a world that feels immersive and characters that feels fresh. Even though that I feel this game is not for everyone, I will still recommend people to try this game out. Maybe, just maybe, you will also like this game as well. Maybe, if you haven’t previously played any rhythm games before, this will be your first introduction to the rhythm genre…!

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Writer’s Notes: Not really much to talk about Hi-Fi Rush, hence the shorter article. I mean, it’s a pretty good game, but the game itself is not really long, so I don’t have much talking points here…

Hmm, now, what should I write next…? There’s probably going to be another tech-related topic or another old game that I’ll write here, but no promises on that…! But, I guarantee that I’ll see you here in May for the launch of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!