Game Review: Hi-Fi RUSH

Go to curator's main page for more reviews:
https://psteamproxy.yuanyoumao.com/curator/44130985-TDP%27s-Gaming-Escapades

Note: The game was played and completed outside of Steam, hence why the review is posted like this.


In my Battletoads (2020) review, I said that the game was the result of some out-of-touch executives getting ahold of a niche franchise and ruining it, because they have absolutely no idea about how to deal with it in a proper manner. Hi-Fi RUSH is the game that convinced me this type of behavior is not restricted to old and/or niche franchises, as even brand-new IPs with vast potential cannot go unharmed by the executives' seemingly infinite amounts of idiocy.
What makes the situation even worse here, is the fact that both Battletoads and Hi-Fi RUSH were published by the same company: Microsoft. They have repeatedly ruined most of their portfolio with their questionable decisions, to the point I think the current downfall of Xbox as a brand (at the time of writing this text) is pretty understandable and justified.


Hi-Fi RUSH was announced at Xbox and Bethesda Developer_Direct on January 25, 2023 and was released the same day, so there was practically no marketing done for it. Still, it went on to become a critically acclaimed game, even winning multiple awards. Microsoft and Bethesda/Zenimax suddenly had a new IP with an overwhelmingly positive reception. So what do you think they did with it? Told the team to immediately start working on a sequel? Planned to create comics, novels, a TV show or even a movie?
Nope! They closed the development studio in order to focus more on "high-impact titles", and even ignored their pitches for a sequel! Then they sold the studio and later even the game's IP to Krafton, a company that is infamous for initiating a voluntary resignation program after a record-high quarterly revenue, in order to reduce their staff and replace them all with AI. This is also the same company behind the messy situation of Subnautica 2, with its CEO admitting that he asked ChatGPT to brainstorm ways to avoid paying earnout bonus to Subnautica 2 devs.
This game is now in the hands of one of the most sketchy gaming companies on the Earth, simply because people at Microsoft and Zenimax acted like utter morons that they are. And while Krafton does own the development studio and IP now, I don't think it's ethical to support a company that values a bunch of 0s and 1s more than an actual human, and is reaping their rewards. So I really cannot tell you to go and immediately buy the game.
Obviously, you do you. I cannot stop you from doing what you want. But if you want to play this game and care about my opinion, try borrowing someone else's copy or get the game for dirt cheap in a big sale and/or from a trustworthy keyseller to give Krafton as little money as possible.


Alright. With that out of the way, let's talk about the game itself.
Hi-Fi RUSH's events happen in a world where technology has become an inseparable part of everyday life. Robots have sentience with different personality types, and mechanical augmentation is a usual thing for people to do. Chai, the protagonist of this game, enlists in a project in order to obtain a cybernetic hand and become a rockstar. Unfortunately for him, something goes wrong in the process which causes him to be branded as a defect and chased around, kickstarting the game's events.
Overall, the story is nothing special and you will see most of the plot twists coming from leagues away, but it's still serviceable and the game even makes up for the simplicity through other means. Nearly all of the characters in this game (even the NPCs!) are either very likeable or amusing, and have unique personality traits with a whole lot of well-written dialogues. Even the humor is very well-done, to the point that except for two characters (Rekka and Mimosa) I did not get annoyed by the main characters' jokes or the over-the-top performances of them and the antagonists. And complimenting these performances are the game's jawdropping presentation.
The audiovisual presentation in Hi-Fi RUSH is truly phenomenal. The environment and character models moving to the beat of the music and even reacting to your well-timed actions, the highly stylized and beautiful visuals, the smooth and detailed animations (to the point that even the lip syncing of in-game dialogues looks accurate), the spectacular 2D art, the almost seamless transitions between gameplay and gorgeously animated cutscenes, the harmonious soundtrack, the perfect sound design... this game is a work of art. And to put a cherry on top of everything, the game's optimization is brilliant as well, so you don't have to sacrifice the art for performance.


I also have nothing but further praise when it comes to the rhythmic gameplay.
Rhythm games tend to take themselves very seriously. You either play them however they want you to, or you should find something else to play. Hi-Fi RUSH does not do that for the most part. Aside from specific events that lock you in place until you do something the game wants you to, it really does not care about fighting to the exact beat of the music. You can freely start button mashing if you like, but trying to stay on the beat rewards you with a damage boost, a lengthier dash, more healing and a higher post-battle score. So, you are not forced, but encouraged to do better.
And if you really can't get comfortable with the rhythm, the game also gives you a lot of accessibility options to tweak your experience. You can use timings and visual indicators, make all rhythm minigames use a single button, or have combos and dodges happen automatically by simply attacking. So, even if you suck at these type of games, Hi-Fi RUSH still allows you to play it and that's something I deeply respect.
At first, you will run into a bit of trouble trying to do combos and timing them with the rhythm, but you'll eventually get a lot better and shred through the enemies with some practice. Coupled with how powerful you can get later in the game and the inclusion of small additions such as an invisible audience chanting Chai's name upon getting the S rank, it makes for a seriously entertaining combat system. The only problem with the combat is that the parrying events get really overused, so they will lose their novelty pretty fast.


Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about the level design as I am personally not fond of how it's handled. Hi-Fi RUSH has a very strong opening and a great finale, but everything in-between is less great; Especially whenever the pacing is slower for platforming purposes.
I think the platforming is very uneventful and straightforward. There's a lot of long and empty hallways, the game rarely challenges you in the levels, and your companion abilities are mostly used to pad the game time instead of allowing for clever stuff. Even when the game has the perfect means to go nuts with the level design, like Zanzo's final AR section, it just throws the same things you have already seen at you. And to make things worse, I can swear I have seen certain environments getting reused through a singular level.
This can easily cause tedium as you are going through the levels and severely impact the replayability; Especially when we consider that each level takes between 60-70 minutes on average, meaning it will take about 10-11 hours to be completed. As a matter of fact, the levels in the first half of the game felt so repetitive to me that I always started to lose steam while doing them, closed the game after beating a level and left the next one for another session.
Not only that, the game's preferred way of playing music in the levels might actually amplify this problem. Whenever you're going through a calmer, platforming section of a level, the game keeps repeating a music sample and adds extra audio based on your actions and what happens around Chai. This is a novel move, but if you don't do much or be off-beat, you will be hearing that music sample on a loop and slowly get tired of it.


Despite some issues, Hi-Fi RUSH is a phenomenal game that is now sadly stuck in the hands of one of the most sketchy and untrustworthy game publishers, thanks to Microsoft's incompetency.