The game is quite long for how limited the gameplay is. Combat had an interesting rhythm gimmick but it should have been a 5-6 hour, tight experience, not 10-12. It really outstayed its welcome for me given that the game is just combat arenas and cutscenes.
Apart from that combat could be broken by spamming companion abilities once you unlocked them all, it didn’t feel like there was any reason to use different combos than 2 or 3 that worked fine.
I end up with the feeling that the hype around the game comes mainly from the unfair closure of a studio that did something that wasn’t just following trends.
People hold the game up as an example of what’s wrong with the cash grabbing nature of big publishers in the industry, but I just don’t think it’s a good game at all.
Apart from that combat could be broken by spamming companion abilities once you unlocked them all, it didn’t feel like there was any reason to use different combos than 2 or 3 that worked fine.
That right here is sus, TBH. Let me ask you:
- Did you play on Rhythm Master?
- Did you try to S-Rank levels?
If you did not, then this is pretty much the good ol’ DMCV dilemma: game is so uninspired if you are not internally motivated—no bun intended—to style on your enemies, but styling comes out a bit more naturally on higher difficulties… except the typical non-action game fan will play a game once on normal difficulty and move on, so the real depth of the combat system is superfluous to almost everyone who played it.
Not that Hi-Fi Rush’s combat is as deep or wide as DMCV, but it’s more or less the same underlying concept here in terms of player experience.
In general, this type of action game requires some kind of intrinsic motivation—we could argue this is a design flaw, and I’d be inclined to agree to an extent; however, you’re approaching this with way too much cynicism for no apparent reason, I think.
It just sounds like this game isn’t for you, TBH, which’s fine, it just doesn’t make it a bad game. Also complaining about how limited the game is only to announce one sentence later you’ve been mashing the same two or three combos throughout the entire game kind of undercuts your criticism.
And let me be clear: your experience with the game is valid; I just think the logic behind your criticisms doesn’t totally hold up.
Fair enough feedback.
I think it’s up to the game designers to motivate certain playstyles. If there was a reason beyond the personal self imposed challenge to attain S rank in every fight, that would be a motivation, but there isn’t a style rank cutoff for completion.
I didn’t play Rhythm Master but it sounds like that should be the default difficulty reading the wiki now.
To be more accurate, I refrained from spamming abilities for 90% of the game and did use more than 3 attack combos. But the option to just do that was there. It was not my main criticism of the game anyway.
I should say I approached the game with an open mind, maybe a little too hopeful by the hype, and I grew up in the 5th/6th gen of consoles, so understand the game is a PS2 throwback in terms of the design.
Never have I given DMC a fair shake, maybe that’s the kind of audience the game was going for.
Ultimately yeah, I’m saying the game isn’t for me. But I often hear the game in discussions of what the industry is missing in terms of game design, and I don’t think I agree that it’s worth that level of praise.
I think it’s up to the game designers to motivate certain playstyles. If there was a reason beyond the personal self imposed challenge to attain S rank in every fight, that would be a motivation, but there isn’t a style rank cutoff for completion.
I’m gonna go ahead and agree with you on this: Hi-Fi Rush was released in 2023—22 years after the first Devil May Cry game and we’re still using some variation of the same goddamn style meter with little to no improvement. This needs to be addressed by action game designers at some point.
And tying ranks to points to unlock moves faster is not a strong motive, IMO, because you typically end up unlocking everything in your first playthrough anyway. What about “style to regain health” or something? Gungrave has a similar mechanic with demolition shots.
On the other hand, I still think part of it is on the player. I think ignoring the style meter while playing an action game is akin to having no desire to Catch’em All™ while playing a Pokémon game. Like, you don’t have to complete the Pokédex, but this is kind of understood to be the ultimate goal and is in itself the reward, or at the very least, it’s probably on your mind while playing through the game.
There would be lots of ways to make the style meter matter more that didn’t feel too forced.
Agree that maybe you could lose health if you’re not on beat, and gain it back for being on beat.
Nerfing move damage if you’ve used the same one too many times could also be a way. I know you get more style for varying your moves so it’s almost there.
Creating intrinsic motivation in the player is a tricky one to pin down. The player needs to be invested themselves to want to do a self-guided goal, almost by definition. Pokemon nailed it by having an anime, banger song, and gambling-adjacent card collection game (all of them being insanely popular) surrounding the gameboy games. That fed into the desire of players to catch em all massively.
It is tricky, I agree.
Another point I think I need to try and comment on:
Ultimately yeah, I’m saying the game isn’t for me. But I often hear the game in discussions of what the industry is missing in terms of game design, and I don’t think I agree that it’s worth that level of praise.
I think when people praise Hi-Fi Rush, they basically mean: “Hurray, a mid-budget, FINISHED action romp from a big publisher with a cool gimmick and no intention to drown me in microtransactions!” which is why you see the PS2/PS3/Xbox 360 catalog comparisons.
I don’t think anyone actually means Hi-Fi Rush is the Jesus Christ of gaming—and if they do, I completely disagree.
We could use similar games though—specifically in the action game genre. We get very few of those nowadays.
It’s the sort of game I think we should praise for those reasons, I agree. I’m definitely in the no-buy camp if a game has a cash shop. The indie game space is where truely high risk creative design is happening, AA is the space for slightly more ambitious titles that require that polish but can still take some risk. I respect Tango for that and definitely think they were done dirty BTW.
Low skill floor and high ceiling. The game won’t force you to have fun, it expects you to want to
I loved hi-fi rush. I loved the soundtrack, I loved how satisfying the combat system was while still being challenging to pull off consistently well. I always felt I was incentivised to vary my combos because of the DMC-like style meter. I loved the old-school 3d platformer feel as that was nostalgic for me. It was also just such a joyful game. Ok the story has down beats but overall it’s a really happy game. I absolutely loved my time with it.
If you’re a casual player, have you SEEN the aesthetics? The game looks fabulous and is just pure fun. Of course the majority loves it. Persona 5 is a pretty mediocre game in terms of strategy, and yet it’s carried by its style into being one of most popular JRPGs. I quit Hi-Fi Rush after the main story, but I think it was worth the experience alone, and I felt like the bosses were spicing things up enough.
If you’re a more into skill, of course that’s there too. It’s an “easy to play, hard to master” game like many others, and what I’d argue most games should be. The final boss kicked my ass, and I generally couldn’t manage consistent S ranks in the later parts of the game. The game didn’t grab me enough that I’d want to master the combos, timings and replay stages multiple times, but that’s just me, I felt the same about Metal Gear Rising and still had a lot of fun as a casual player.
On the other hand, last year I spent some extra time in Shadow Generations and a lot more time in Spark the Electric Jester 3 to get higher ranks, despite the games being very simple, because memorising the stages and replaying them was just fun.
nah, i absolutely adored it
HiFi Rush is a pretty good game.
Honestly, I agree. The game is really short and really simple. The gameplay loop just isn’t that rewarding for me, because I couldn’t care less about scoring 100% on murder difficulty.
HiFi Rush is basically Guitar Hero with a different set of visuals. It was made for completionists who like to learn the ultimate moveset, because some people really enjoy that sort of game. I personally just consider it mediocre timewasting for a few hours on the level of a mobile game, except MUCH more expensive.
Apart from that combat could be broken by spamming companion abilities once you unlocked them all.
That’s the big point for me. Ive seen another one play the game this way and I agree with that the combat can be broken this way. It propably is the most effective way to get through combats but its IMO not the must fun one and does not embrace the intended gameplay flow.id even go as far as saying that this way actually works against the intended vibe and since the combat is such a mayor gameplay part of the game I can see how a dissapointing combat might ruin the whole experience for you.
This strategy is one of the prime examples for me where adapt gamers will optimize the fun out of a game because they focus on efficiency rather than fun.
The game is not as broken as you’re making it sound on higher difficulties—specifically S-Ranking Rhythm Master—and “adept gamers” will be aiming for high ranks on higher difficulties.
I think for OP it’s not about getting good ranks but getting through the combats. I agree tho, S-ranks are pretty hard
It’s online-only, so once I can get my hand on a permanant copy, I’ll let you know what I think ;)
I couldn’t finish the game myself. I thought it was a good game for sure, but it just isn’t something that I like. I’m not much of a hack-n-slasher. As far as rhythm game genre mashups go, my favorite is still Crypt of the Necrodancer
Thanks for the recommend. My favourite rhythm game is Sekiro.
Microsoft did, that’s why they canned the studio. I think game has a niche cult following but overall it sold poorly.
some people also dont realize, the guy who founded Tango, Shinji Mikami, had already left Tango to found a new company before the selling of the studio.
If anyone lived throught the 6th gen of consoles and earlier. Theyd recognize a lot of his works at capcom.
Wow he directed a bunch of Resident Evil, and Dino Crisis. And worked on Aladdin on the SNES. Respect.
He also directed two action GOATs: God Hand and Vanquish.
He did not direct Hi-Fi Rush though—that was John Johanas.
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