![]() ![]() This game may have benefitted from an option to reduce some of the visual cues, to simplify its visual language.įor comparison, I recently discussed a music rhythm game called Melatonin, which contained in its accessibility settings the option to have a single clear visualiser on screen for the beat of the music, as well as a basic and clear metronome sound. Some people I have spoken to, including a close friend of mine, found the sheer degree of visual reinforcement of the beat distracting, and found it made it more difficult for them to focus on playing. While I personally found this degree of feedback really useful in keeping track of the beat, something I often find difficult in music rhythm games, and even more so in music rhythm mashup games like the First Person Rhythm Shooter “Bullets Per Minute”, I recognise that experience is not universal. Shouts in the soundtrack tell you if your attack landed on beat, little music notes appearing next to your character show you are on beat, and visible words on screen tell you if your timing was, or was not, perfect. Game elements on screen bounce to the beat, the player character walks and runs to the beat, pressing Select on your controller brings up a metronome at the bottom of the screen, and by pressing the attack button when your last attack connects with the enemy, you can be confident that your next attack also hit on beat. Hi-Fi Rush, as a game does a lot to try and support the player being able to find, and play on, the beat. Being on beat provides bonuses, but you are never punished with failure to execute basic attacks by being off beat during combat. Some kinds of parries require you to be on beat to get a little in battle bonus. Certain flashy finishing moves need you to be on beat. Certain combos will get extenders on the end of them if you are on beat. Hitting the attack button perfectly on beat doesn’t determine whether or not you get to attack, but it does come with some rewards. If you press the attack button too early you’ll still hit the enemy on the beat. The way that Hi-Fi Rush works is that when you press the attack button, your attack will always connect with the enemy on the next beat of the music. ![]() ![]() There are exceptions, most notably minigames where the player must press specific buttons with decent accuracy to do things like restarting a generator, but during most combat on easy and normal difficulty, rhythm accuracy is not necessary for progression. Hi-Fi Rush rarely, during regular gameplay, requires the player to attack on the beat of the music to execute attacks, and get through combat, at least on lower difficulties. The combat system is similar to many other games, but what sets it apart is how it incorporates music rhythm elements into combat. The player, who controls a young man fighting capitalism using his magnetic trash guitar and an ipod built into his chest, is tasked with defeating waves of enemies using combinations of light attacks, heavy attacks, dodges, blocks and parries, special moves, and combo moves. Hi-Fi Rush is, at its core, a character action game in the vein of titles like the Devil May Cry series and similar contemporaries. So, to start, let’s talk a little bit about how the game plays, before digging into the accessibility settings. For me, it really opened up the game and made it more playable, but I can see the areas where its approach to accessibility isn’t going to be universally helpful. However, one aspect of the game I didn’t talk about last week, due to wanting more time to mull over some thoughts, was the game’s approach to accessibility, which looks good on paper, but has a few issues in its execution. I’m loving the game, despite usually struggling with both the genres it’s mashing together. I put out a video last week discussing the fact that, despite some small issues, Hi-Fi Rush made such a strong impression on me that, only a month into the year, I consider it likely that the game will end up on my game of the year list for 2023. Learn combos, beat up enemies, and get bonuses for acting on the beat of the soundtrack as you play. While the studio’s previous titles such as The Evil Within were very much horror themed affairs, Hi-Fi Rush is a colourful and cartoonish mashup of character action and music rhythm gameplay. It’s fair to say, over the last couple of weeks, I have been a little bit obsessed with Hi-Fi Rush, the newest game from Tango Gameworks. ![]()
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