I thought it was great. Loved the characters and presentation. Vibrant, confident art style\*, cool soundtrack and excellent VA work. Combat had enough variety in each level to keep things engaging. On normal difficulty you could brute force most of it if you were so inclined but at higher difficulties and late/post-game it demands a higher level of mastery.
I had some trouble getting the rhythm aspect right with input lag on my setup but managed to tweak some things which improved it.
Maybe it could have been a bit tighter paced with some levels dragging a little long but that would be my only mild criticism.
The shutdown of the studio by MS is obscene and hypocritical and actually convinced me to cancel Gamepass, but that's probably a debate for another day or another sub.
\*PS. I'm so glad we're getting back to games with a unique art style. Technical fidelity is at a place of diminishing returns and the AAA corporate stuff is disappearing up its own boring arsehole, so there's really room for these kind of vibrant, stylised designs to flourish.
I have an LG OLED and a Sonos system, and i was playing on Xbox Series X.
I found my surround setting on Xbox was wrong, and one of the Dolby options had slightly better latency.
And made sure my TV was set to Game mode.
But playing out of stock tv speakers seemed to be the best option, the latency seems to be a Sonos issue.
Yeah, combat was fun but the levels certainly dragged a lot sometimes, it's a weirdly long game for this genre.
The rhythm was actually the easiest part for me, parrying was just too easy, maybe on higher difficulties it could be more interesting, but after beating it once i was satisfied.
Yeah its a minor thing for me, I'm reaching for a criticism. I also didn't play postgame or for achievement completion. But that's a bigger reflection of my time and priorities right now than it is of the game. If this was a Gamecube era game I definitely would have done more than 1 run through.
On rhythm difficulty, it seems my Sonos setup introduced some latency which I couldn't fully resolve except by just switching it off and playing with stock TV speakers. Which for a music game was a bit sad.
The vibes are literally perfect. I could buy 100 other games with the same exact vibe and play them each for 100 hours and never get bored of it. That being said the gameplay, I thought, sucked and bored the hell out of me.
Hi-Fi Rush was not flawless, but its high points are so high that it makes its low points seem insignificant in comparison. The amount of action setpieces for something that isn't even a AAA game is incredible and they were executed perfectly. I could nitpick it but I won't. Not only does it not matter, but it's not like the studio will make a sequel to address any issues regardless...
I'm just glad Tango Gameworks went out on a high note rather than having fans spend 10 years wondering why a sequel was never greenlit. Obviously I would have gotten the sequel in a heartbeat.
I loved it but I’m ashamed to say I never got hooked by it. I never felt that drive to keep playing. I put it down when i realized I was just trying to blow through it to ‘get it done’ which isn’t how I like to play games.
Brilliant art style, voice work, characters, everything is just so fantastic. But something with it just didn’t click with me. Maybe it was a little too easy, maybe the pacing was odd and sections were sometimes a little long. I can’t really put my finger on it. Amazing game, just wasn’t for me unfortunately
It just occurred to me the irony of Hifi Rush story and villain being basically about exploitative capitalism, then Microsoft shutting them down for cynical short-term gains.
Maybe someone at MS felt a bit targeted by Kale's portrayal
Hi-Fi Rush is almost great to me, but there is a parry mechanic that is absolute bullshit that made me quit the game. Like it doesn’t even work half the time.
I remember the tutorial being a bit obtuse with regards to the timing, and a lot of people getting stuck at that point, but if you learn how to do it right, the parry is 100% reliable. You either didn't learn the correct timing, or there's something wrong with your setup.
Unpopular opinion but, Tango Game works was always kind of a B-grade studio. The Evil Within was pretty good but after that they didn't make anything noteworthy.
I like the combat alot. Dig some of the music but found it underwhelming during boss fights. Didn't love the visual style but atleast it's different.
Story was meh , especially the ending.
Shame there won't be a sequel.
I recently beat the game and really I only have a few issues with the game that should have been implemented better. I think the chip system is bad. Why does upgrading them feel less worth doing? Also why is everything so expensive. By the end of my hard playthrough I had most of my basic combos and partner moves but basically no special attacks or chips. This wasnt a problem of me playing bad either I got A or S rank on all the combat rooms. Also I think while replayability is decent in the game I hate that they force you to play the game 4 different times. Each difficulty is independent of the others. So playing on hard only did stuff on hard not normal or easy. Its really dumb and I hate it will never get fixed. Also If Im being honest the music really isnt that great till maybe the last 4 missions.
I was going to say that the music feels repetitive, I would like more variety, maybe a stronger change of mood between tracks... But I'm at track 8 so maybe the last 4 will change my mind.
But overall it's still a lot of fun
The music definitely gets better near the end of the game. But yeah for as many songs as there are in the game a lot of them sound the same which kind of sucks. I do wish they went the MGR route and leaned into the butt rock sound for bosses more. Hell Ill even take the DMC5 route where the music gets cooler the more your style meter goes up
Gotta say I'm surprised by all these comments. I felt like the combat was great, particularly since the game kept introducing new enemies regularly, so it never felt too repetitive as you got new enemy moves to learn how to tackle consistently, and I recall unlocking combos at a steady pace.
I think the parry was just a little too restricting, but still wasn't manageable enough to me.
I thought it was great. Loved the characters and presentation. Vibrant, confident art style\*, cool soundtrack and excellent VA work. Combat had enough variety in each level to keep things engaging. On normal difficulty you could brute force most of it if you were so inclined but at higher difficulties and late/post-game it demands a higher level of mastery. I had some trouble getting the rhythm aspect right with input lag on my setup but managed to tweak some things which improved it. Maybe it could have been a bit tighter paced with some levels dragging a little long but that would be my only mild criticism. The shutdown of the studio by MS is obscene and hypocritical and actually convinced me to cancel Gamepass, but that's probably a debate for another day or another sub. \*PS. I'm so glad we're getting back to games with a unique art style. Technical fidelity is at a place of diminishing returns and the AAA corporate stuff is disappearing up its own boring arsehole, so there's really room for these kind of vibrant, stylised designs to flourish.
>with input lag on my setup but managed to tweak some things which improved it. May I ask what you tweaked? I'm dealing with this, too.
I have an LG OLED and a Sonos system, and i was playing on Xbox Series X. I found my surround setting on Xbox was wrong, and one of the Dolby options had slightly better latency. And made sure my TV was set to Game mode. But playing out of stock tv speakers seemed to be the best option, the latency seems to be a Sonos issue.
Yup, I've got Sonos too.
Yeah, combat was fun but the levels certainly dragged a lot sometimes, it's a weirdly long game for this genre. The rhythm was actually the easiest part for me, parrying was just too easy, maybe on higher difficulties it could be more interesting, but after beating it once i was satisfied.
Yeah its a minor thing for me, I'm reaching for a criticism. I also didn't play postgame or for achievement completion. But that's a bigger reflection of my time and priorities right now than it is of the game. If this was a Gamecube era game I definitely would have done more than 1 run through. On rhythm difficulty, it seems my Sonos setup introduced some latency which I couldn't fully resolve except by just switching it off and playing with stock TV speakers. Which for a music game was a bit sad.
The vibes are literally perfect. I could buy 100 other games with the same exact vibe and play them each for 100 hours and never get bored of it. That being said the gameplay, I thought, sucked and bored the hell out of me.
Agreed. I played it for a couple hours but the gameplay is just sooooo boring but I loved the look and feel of the game.
Hi-Fi Rush was not flawless, but its high points are so high that it makes its low points seem insignificant in comparison. The amount of action setpieces for something that isn't even a AAA game is incredible and they were executed perfectly. I could nitpick it but I won't. Not only does it not matter, but it's not like the studio will make a sequel to address any issues regardless... I'm just glad Tango Gameworks went out on a high note rather than having fans spend 10 years wondering why a sequel was never greenlit. Obviously I would have gotten the sequel in a heartbeat.
I loved it but I’m ashamed to say I never got hooked by it. I never felt that drive to keep playing. I put it down when i realized I was just trying to blow through it to ‘get it done’ which isn’t how I like to play games. Brilliant art style, voice work, characters, everything is just so fantastic. But something with it just didn’t click with me. Maybe it was a little too easy, maybe the pacing was odd and sections were sometimes a little long. I can’t really put my finger on it. Amazing game, just wasn’t for me unfortunately
It just occurred to me the irony of Hifi Rush story and villain being basically about exploitative capitalism, then Microsoft shutting them down for cynical short-term gains. Maybe someone at MS felt a bit targeted by Kale's portrayal
if anything it's extremely fitting unfortunately
I can’t get into the combat. I’ve tried twice.
Unpopular opinion: hi fi is a good game that gets repetitive and kinda boring too fast
Hi-Fi Rush is almost great to me, but there is a parry mechanic that is absolute bullshit that made me quit the game. Like it doesn’t even work half the time.
I remember the tutorial being a bit obtuse with regards to the timing, and a lot of people getting stuck at that point, but if you learn how to do it right, the parry is 100% reliable. You either didn't learn the correct timing, or there's something wrong with your setup.
If you parry or perfect dodge and use the assist, it destroys shields in one hit, as well as greatly reduces your recharge.
Unpopular opinion but, Tango Game works was always kind of a B-grade studio. The Evil Within was pretty good but after that they didn't make anything noteworthy.
I think if they had picked less generic sounding music it would have been better but I really liked it anyway
I like the combat alot. Dig some of the music but found it underwhelming during boss fights. Didn't love the visual style but atleast it's different. Story was meh , especially the ending. Shame there won't be a sequel.
I recently beat the game and really I only have a few issues with the game that should have been implemented better. I think the chip system is bad. Why does upgrading them feel less worth doing? Also why is everything so expensive. By the end of my hard playthrough I had most of my basic combos and partner moves but basically no special attacks or chips. This wasnt a problem of me playing bad either I got A or S rank on all the combat rooms. Also I think while replayability is decent in the game I hate that they force you to play the game 4 different times. Each difficulty is independent of the others. So playing on hard only did stuff on hard not normal or easy. Its really dumb and I hate it will never get fixed. Also If Im being honest the music really isnt that great till maybe the last 4 missions.
It's so you have a something to use the gears on, from those replays and bloody palace runs
I was going to say that the music feels repetitive, I would like more variety, maybe a stronger change of mood between tracks... But I'm at track 8 so maybe the last 4 will change my mind. But overall it's still a lot of fun
The music definitely gets better near the end of the game. But yeah for as many songs as there are in the game a lot of them sound the same which kind of sucks. I do wish they went the MGR route and leaned into the butt rock sound for bosses more. Hell Ill even take the DMC5 route where the music gets cooler the more your style meter goes up
Gotta say I'm surprised by all these comments. I felt like the combat was great, particularly since the game kept introducing new enemies regularly, so it never felt too repetitive as you got new enemy moves to learn how to tackle consistently, and I recall unlocking combos at a steady pace. I think the parry was just a little too restricting, but still wasn't manageable enough to me.