This game feels complete. Like someone at the top had a vision for what they wanted, and the people working on it had the time and passion to execute that vision to a tee. Such a shame that this isn't the norm anymore, but I'm thankful it happens occasionally at least.
That's exactly how I feel about HFR as well! It is refreshing. A lot of games are trying so hard to be everything at once to where the scope of the project gets out of hand and starts to get fragmented. The experience doesn't feel cohesive as a whole.
This game is truly amazing and the industry needs more "out of the box" games like this. For the first time in a long time I wanted an Xbox just because of this game ( I only have the Switch and a PS4 as platforms, my PC is not very good and my internet is not the best for cloud streaming without input lag ) it's a shame that this game is only exclusive because of Microsoft's purchase of Bethesda, but still, I'm glad such a game exists.
The price speaks a lot to that with the base game only being $30 at full price. That's less than a 3ds game valued itself. The devs here knew exactly what they wanted to make, made it, and aren't pushing it too far or promising its worth more than it is (which ironically does make it worth more than its valued).
Some people don't like rhythm games but really, anyone can get the hang of this one. Just get used to pressing the button on every hit in order to keep the timing, have fun with this one guys.
I'm really bad a rhythm games, but this one's fairly forgiving, and the general gameplay just becomes an immersive thing after playing for a short while. But I have lost several times at the special challenge segments that punctuate the game (luckily the game typically just puts you right back at the start of those segments).
It also makes it really easy to achieve combo on the beat by always having your attack hitting on the beat, no matter when you press. So even if you miss the first beat, as long as you launch the second attack right when the first one hits, you'll be on time.
The way I recommend playing is like this: Chai is an extension of the player, and in his own words, he feels like he's on a stage when the music kicks in. While you play, you realize there's no lead guitar in the background music till you hit things. So... Be the lead guitar player. Play a song. Your team is your band, and your instruments are your moveset. Once you get that in your mind, you become intrinsically incentivized to follow the rhythm, because it's _your_ song at that point. The better you time your combo, the better the BGM becomes as a result. You're on a stage; give them a show.
agreed, i am terrible at any game that has any form of rhythm (i had to put jedi fallen order down to easy, got blocked in tunic at a big boss). I put hifi rush down to easy and have been having a blast, still struggle with the parry timing floating laser bots and it took me half a dozen tries to defeat each eye in the VR rooms in R&D. But the game is so much fun and so well executed i just keep playing :-)
Xbox treatment. They always do that when ever Xbox does something. You can check their library going back 7yrs.. before you refute.. If it was another published.... Nintendo/PlayStation... I promise you they'd be singing a different tune
@@borborkontri4837 OOOOOOOOR hear me out the game is just that good, so good infact that even on steam its overwhelmingly positive, even Xbox hater Imdontai who shits on Xbox every time it comes up actually enjoys it more than Forspoken, Maxamillian dood also likes the game.
@@ultracapitalistutopia3550 Worst of all, they´re starting to resort to AI to animate, something that baffled Hayao Miyazaki about a decade ago became the norm for animators...
@@eliotwildermann that's one of the biggest lies people keep saying. The same happened to psychonauts 2, and devs said that the polishment and final quality was met thanks to Microsoft support. Have you ever worked in something related with SW dev ? If you start a project in year 0 with a budget of 10$ , and then at year 1 suddenly you have a budget of 1000$ .... That won't impact the dev cycle? Come on, stop it.
ALL of those were mid-dev when M$ bought them. we will see, our corporate overlords dont care about art only $$$. You know how, I know M$ didnt believe/care about this game.... No marketing.
One of funnest and finest games I've played in years. The music, the artwork, the smooth gameplay and the great humor. This one has it all! What a masterpiece
I don't remember the last game I finished and then started playing again immediately right afterwards. Such a fun game! Definitely early GOTY candidate and will be hard to top. 👍
Xbox has a franchise in the making here, a sequel could expand on characters and even music, perhaps different tempo with different music... Some characters you meet can bring in pop , hip hop sounds etc, and you having to adapt your fighting style to the different tempos. There's a lot of possibilities for this to turn into a great cast of future characters.
This is the first example of video game cel shading I've seen that actually resembles drawn animation the way it's supposed to instead of looking like an awkward Photoshop filter applied to a 3D render à la Borderlands, and it's clearly the product of thoughtful artistic choices and attention to detail rather than any major technological advancement. Crazy impressive that they're on par with or better than cinema/television work in that regard.
Yeah, it's crazy how well they did here. I loved Borderlands and I enjoyed the artstyle, but it definitely doesn't "look like a cartoon," it looks like a filter. Here, every frame looks like a super-high-quality anime with elements of other cartoon influences (like Futurama in some of the environments, for example.) The limited character framerates for the cutscenes really sell it too, moving like hand-drawn animation, and overall, the cel-shading and outlines are extremely crisp and stable. To top it off, it all runs _incredibly_ well thanks to great optimization. It's a new standard for cel-shaded graphics and I'm excited for the future of this style!
RUSH is my first GOTY contender for 2023. upon rolling credits, it's become an all-time favourite for me and i've never been too keen on rhythm or DMC-style games, but the characters, the story, the world-building, the fluidity of the gameplay, the ingenuity of the battles & boss encounters, the seamless audiovisual design and feedback & the vibrantly dystopic world design won me over in a heartbeat, it all comes together flawlessly from start to finish. Tango has a real hit on their hands.
We need a 120fps performance mode. It would really smoothen up the gameplay, and I know that both of these machines are capable of hitting it and sustaining it with the right optimization.
Hi-Fi Rush is a sublime experience, and yes, for me a GOTY candidate - it's wonderfully unique and polished.👏 If they release a physical special edition on disc I would pick it up for sure.
@Michael Uncharted: Stopped being good after 3 GOW: Stopped being good after 3 TLOU: Only the first one, in 2013 was good Spiderman: Most overrated game of all time Ghost of Tsushima: Was actually good, I'll give you that one Bloodborne: My favorite game of all time, also released almost 10 years ago Infamous: Stopped being good after 2 Returnal: Just play Furi
Regarding the licensed music part, the game has a streamer mode with, well, “bespoke” music that could be used as a backup, so I don’t think it’s ever going away. They’re all solide tracks and covers, but it would nice to have the OG licensed soundtrack on disc though, I agree.
This game just bleeds heart and soul.... All the devs had an absolute blast making it you can just feel it... Don't blink... you might miss some cool shit
I agree that it seems like they had fun making it... but that also makes me think it'd be kinda funny if there was actually some development hell story to it. (since it all worked out/paid off in the end)
@@EdwardViaTomato There mostly is I think... But when a dev team has great leadership and are passionate about what they are making... Crunch just becomes another hurdle.
I'm about 6hrs in and it is definitely beyond impressive in every single aspect. Even the fact that the character always hit on beat is impressive. That would've been an enormous barrier for the not musically inclined. The Sony-like transitions between cutscene and gameplay makes this feel like you are playing a late 90's early 2000's cartoon. Music choice is amazing (having a boss battle while listening to Nine Inch Nails was so hyped) and the originals are great, it keeps the head bumping and as Oliver said, later in the game, it becomes second nature. I'm playing it on Very Hard difficulty and it is quite balanced, not frustrating at all. I hope this game gets the Limited Run treatment as I will love to support it as much as possible. It has the potential for an animated series and also it makes me think about what a sequel could bring to the table in terms of evolving this new approach.
This was truly a surprise. Love the art style and gameplay, and it looks amazing on a big screen TV. It's clear it pays homage to Jet Set Radio (which was one of my fav games on the Dreamcast). Also, this was a shadow drop, no marketing, no hype, no early previews and the best part, a day one GamePass release. Which makes GamePass clearly the best deal in gaming, everyone else is playing catch up. Looking forward to future shadow drops. This is a must play folks.
Definitely a game I did not know I needed, ngl when announced I'm like rhythm game not my thing, on my second play through right now lol, tango and xbox nailed this one.
This game is so well made, it seems like they managed to accomplish everything they wanted to do with the game. A solid work in pretty much every aspect, I will remember this game for a very long time
This is an early Game of the Year contender for me. It's not often that gameplay, art direction, graphics, soundtrack, story and controls all come together so seamlessly. Props to Tango Gameworks! I really hope Microsoft/Xbox allow their studios the creative freedom going forward to work on more games like this.
@Michael Lol, tell me that owning a Playstation is the defining characteristic of your personality without telling me that owning a Playstation is the defining characteristic of your personality 😂
Wanna say im blown away that I can run this maxed at 240fps 1440p on a 2080S and a smooth 60fps on the Steam Deck. Masterpiece of a game Oliver I love you but it's driving me insane that you don't jump or dodge on beat 😂
The characters in this game are the best I seen in many years. That cat? Lol each villian has such a distinct personality and even the robots in the world have their own personalities. So much to say about this game
Beat the game 2 days ago and had a blast the whole way through. Some parts were a little challenging but overall not bad. Loved the overall charm of the game and boss fights all felt unique and awesome.
What's especially funny about all of this is that this is a game you'd expect from Sony's Studio Japan. This game will age beautifully, just like Gravity Rush 2 and Wind Waker. Cel shading done right will always be timeless.
Quick tip for anybody experiencing lag on consoles: try changing to uncompressed audio. I had set my Xbox to Atmos, but there was a noticeable sync issue in this game, and swapping to 5.1 uncompressed made everything miles better.
tbh I dont think it needs FoV options, it already pulls the camera back quite a bit and there are several sections in the game that would be compromised by an increase in FoV.
I absolutely love how digital foundry just nails and brings to light what I'm thinking in the back of my head with these analyses, I hope the gaming industry tries to create more creative and complete titles after seeing this game's positive reception.
Aside from say, the Guilty Gear series, this might be the most visually appealing cel shaded title since Viewtiful Joe or Killer7, and it seems like a great time too! Also Oliver, your presentation and editing have been essentially top tier since your debut but your writing and pacing get better and better with each release, keep it up.
I think Killer7 suffers from character models having not enough polygons due to hardware limitations, yet the close-ups only exaggerate the low-polygon issue. Modern hardcares eat polygons (precisely "vertices") for lunch, but for Killer7 the technology wasn't there.
There just seems to be a ton of really impressive tech working both behind the scenes and on the screen in this game. I'm currently replaying missions and am still finding myself constantly impressed with the quality of the in-game cutscenes. They genuinely look hand-animated at times, which I feel is incredibly hard to do successfully when dealing with 3D models. Tons of passion and talent in every facet of the game, but the environments, animations, sound, and how everything works with the beat bring it to instant legendary status.
I think having a smaller focus bit AAA polish did a lot for this game. So much more interesting then another open world bloated piece of s#€%. I hope other devs take notice that its okay to have levels and be a bit more like a ps2/ dreamcast game.
@@Somewhere_sometime_somehow I can't help but think about Ubisoft whenever I hear this kind of complain. They simply dropped two of the best platformers of the last decade (Rayman Origins and Legends) and then jumped on the open world/live service bandwagon and started to release a bunch of crap until they find themselves at this shameful state that they are right now.
If this game doesn't get turned in to a cartoon series Hollywood is asleep at the wheel. This is the PERFECT setup for a super awesome kids show that has battle sequences to the beat and teaches kids about music. Also, it's the best game I've played in FOREVER and I'm still halfway through. For $30 this is just an 11/10 package.
Where have you been playing NEW enticing and interesting games at? I want that platform and I have all the systems released. All I have seen is sequels and remakes, so please let me know, but I'm guessing you are talking about the Switch.
@@Deehulk888 nah I love sequels and remakes if they are good lol. One of the games besides starfield I’m looking forward to is resident evil 4 remake. And I don’t play on the switch cause there is no achievements
@@Deehulk888 I've been out of the loop has the switch not just been sequels and remakes? I don't think it's a huge deal but more new IP would be nice. I think indie devs deliver well on that front but they don't get the public notice they deserve.
I'd look into Pentiment and Scorn. Definitely not everyone's cake, but definitely blow it out of the park for interesting and unique like Hi-Fi Rush (Pentiment got robbed not getting any awards or nominations for the quality of effort obsidian put in).
Hi Fi Rush looks so good and crispy on my LG OLED on my Xbox Series X that it feels like it’s in Augmented Reality. Xbox is making the most amazing games in the industry. I love the variety and uniqueness of Xbox games.
I think HiFi Rush is gorgous, but I really wish that, if it's not a baked in part of the animation, that there was an option to run the 3d cutscenes at an unlocked framerate. The on-2's animation style personally makes me a little nauseous when done in 3d, I have the same issue with a lot of CGI anime, Spiderverse, etc. I personally also just don't think the effect adds much: The cel shading, 2d overlays and smears, etc look great, but free on 1's in betweens is one of 3d's advantages as an animation medium and I wish that was leveraged. Cyberconnect 2's work on the Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm games, while somewhat dated now, I think shows how incredible using good cel shading and 2d overlays, smears, etc over full interpolated, on ones animations can look.
This game is such a gem. Ive had more fun running through this game than I have had playing gow or horizon. It's just so damn good. The devs knew what they wanted and completely embraced it.
I'm glad Tango Gameworks took a chance on this game because I'm loving it! Feels like great old action platformers of old while also being fresh and original. Instant GOTY contender in my book.
So far I'm loving this on Gamepass. So much so, that I purchased myself a copy on Steam. These are the types of games that NEED our votes if we want to keep seeing these kinds of gems release. And the only vote that matters is money. At $30, this is more than worth it, even if I weren't to ever play my copy on Steam after finishing it on GP.
Crazy that MS just shadow dropped Tango Gameworks as a legitimate Insomniac (and/or Sucker Punch?) competitor, in January. Maybe this will motivate Sony to allow Insomniac to make something original outside of licensed Disney games. (But probably not, because licensed Disney games sell.)
This game is such an experience, highly recommend for those with hack and slash AND rhythm skills to play on hard diff, encounters were so short for me!! Game on PC looks and feels just perfect with TSR from my pov, I had some rare stutters. Also this shadow drop on gamepass even with subbed audio for different languages on day 1 is something so unexpected and a huge W for the gaming community. Great job tango games and DF for the amazing positive review!
Beautiful game and I wishlisted it in a heartbeat (backlog's too big!) on Steam though I'm quite surprised there isn't a 120 fps mode on the consoles given the artstyle. Either way, hoping to see more surprise bangers from Xbox!
@@harrierdubois9961 even the series s should be able to lock it at 120fps, a Ryzen 5 2600 can do it 99% of the time so i'm sure the Series S could do it at 1080p (and obviously the Series X as well)
Full agreement, this was so refreshing after so many games seem more expensive and less complete or interesting. I can't imagine a GOTY much better than this, I really hope people remember it in time to nominate! My only complaint was that it cloud-syncs your graphics and audio settings, so if I play it on my steam deck and then go back to the desktop, I have to set the resolution, graphics, and audio settings again each time, it's a pain.
I suck at rhythm games. But sticking with this has been so worthwhile. The characters are all so well written, the voice acting is top notch, the visuals and sound track work so well and most importantly I have a huge grin while playing this.
It's the best game I've played in a long time. I can't stop singing it's praises to everybody I speak to. As somebody who had been playing games since the mid 80s, it's everything I want a game to be. Fun, funny, immediate, fast, simple, exciting etc. Whilst playing it I am reminded of: Persona 4 and 5 Viewtiful Joe Space Channel 5 Catherine Jet Set Radio Scott Pilgrim Okami Paper Mario Not just in game style but in terms of the writing, the wit, the thematic concepts and the execution. Gotta stop writing now... Need to play more Hi-Fi Rush 🤟
Reminds me those times when cell shaded games were prominent because they didn't have a big impact on performance but as technology evolved they didn't realize how nice they looked and moved on to more demanding and complex graphics gameplay. I am glad to see a game like this coming back being simple yet taking full advantage of modern consoles and TVs, I hope it starts a trend of games inspired in consoles from the early 2000s.
The way they handled AO, shadows, and reflections in a cel shaded game is genius. That cross hatching AO is so cool. And reflections can be done in a cel shaded game without being out of place.
It's been a while since i have so much fun playing a game from start to finish. Hi-Fi Rush is a god tier game and i especially love the character animations, Chai's idle animation is definitely my most favorite idle animation ever and watching Korsica circling around you during her boss battle is just glorious.
The robots in this game have more personality and life in them than most photrealistic humans in AAA games using cutting edge tech. Facial pores and sub-surface scaterring skin and RT are nice but I'll prioritize luscious style and rich animation any day.
January Hi-Fi Rush, February Devil's Third 2... I mean Wanted: Dead, March Wo Long Fallen Dynasty. Hack n Slash action game fans are definitely getting their fixes in the early part this year.
when they announced this i rolled my eyes i cant lie, but just looking at the gameplay and seeing hiw unique it looks, it makes me want to play it, i miss when publishers released unque games like these
@@DTheVigne haha just because I thought the game was trying to be like quirky and 4th wall breaking, and I don't know it didn't peak my interest at that time.
@@bubbag3332 I see where your coming from. It sure looks like that type of game. But at least we got a great game with some jokes here and there that aren't eye roll worthy. I don't like 4th wall break either
Great video, Oliver, it was nice to see Hi Fi Rush being featured in DF. However, I would appreciate it if for the PC segment, you used a PC that was more representative of what the average person has instead of something so top of line
I was impressed by Microsoft with the Xbox Developer Direct, especially because of Hi-Fi Rush. Thanks for the review, it confirms my earlier impression. Should I ask about 720p 60fps? Know where I'm heading?
Been loving the hell out of this game, it's easily GOTY for me this game has so much style and charm to it that its tough to put down after I start playing it. Only thing I want from it is a Boss Rush mode and I'll be set.
I’ve always been curious how hard it must be to replicate anime in 3d and funny enough even 3d anime can’t properly replicate 2d anime like this game and guilty gear can. Real-time finally beat pre rendered visuals
I've been singing Tango's praises since the start, and John Johanas' praises since TEW2. Possibly my favorite dev studio currently and y'all been sleeping on em.
5700X / 3060 Ti / 64GB DDR4 Game was running at over 500 FPS at 1080p. I'd be able to run this at 60 FPS in 1440p and probably even 4K but I only have a 1080p monitor. Since I have a 144Hz monitor, I locked the framerate to 144.
Yeah the game isn't very demanding with it's timeless art style. Im playing it on at 4K 120 fps locked on a 4090. Only 30 to 40% gpu use. Youd probable be able to do 4K 60 with a 3060ti Im sure not to mention the game supports DLSS too
