Press B 214: Hi-Fi Rush

[00:00:00] Critical Acclaim and BAFTA Award-winning game. Still not enough to save the Dev Studio. Today on... Hello, and welcome to another episode of Press B To Cancel. Today I'm joined by Sick Jake. It's just the two of us. How are you doing, sir?

[00:00:36] There's a song there, but I don't know it. So I'm not going to make a joke about it. That's too great for this Friday. Oh boy. Yeah, he knows one's all but slapping. Yeah.

[00:00:49] No, just the two of us. I thought that's what you were talking about. Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm terrible. Okay. Not on the same page. Well then. That'll be great for a two-man topic. Sure.

[00:01:04] We'll get through it. We always do. And at least this is a game that I think we both like for the most part. So this is always a good time.

[00:01:14] Today, we are talking about Hi-Fi Rush and it is quite the subject, honestly. Do we want to just jump into it? How do we want to handle this today?

[00:01:26] Let me just start off by saying that I have not beaten the game. This is one that I played originally when it got released. I played it on Game Pass and then it was on sale. Steam Summer Sales Bad for me.

[00:01:37] So I picked it up there and I played through a portion of it. But I think this is one that you've pretty much thoroughly 100%ed, I think at this point. No, I did not 100% it.

[00:01:48] No. But I did play through a number of levels quite a few times. I tried to find all the collectibles at the very least. And I did some of the extra content that was tied to the plot.

[00:02:01] Okay. I didn't do the extra tower game or anything like that. I decided to move on from that. And I'll kind of explain that in a little bit as best I can for someone who hasn't touched that mode.

[00:02:13] But I mean, it's good to talk about this game. Hi-Fi Rush. It came out last year from Tango Gameworks. And I remember what it first launched, right? 2023, I think it was. Yeah. And a January 2023 is when it launched.

[00:02:30] Right. And I remember when it first came out, the first impressions was the Hell of a Style and Jim and Matt Music. It just hits you right front and center with what it's all about. And I really dig the style of this game.

[00:02:43] So I know I want to do an episode on this before, even more so now because part of this episode is also to talk about how, even though it did so well, the studio still got shut down this year, which is really disappointing.

[00:02:55] Well, so there's a number of things I think linked to that. Let's first talk about the Dev Studio Tango Gameworks. They're the studio responsible for the Evil Within, the Evil Within 2, Ghostwire Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush.

[00:03:13] So, you know, Evil Within did well enough to garner a sequel and Evil Within 2 was rated even higher than Evil Within. Ghostwire Tokyo had a decent reception as well. However, that game also did not sell well, as I understand it.

[00:03:33] Right. This is a studio that was started by Shin Mikami, which for, I mean, viewers are into this kind of stuff. He's like the daddy of Resident Evil. He was the director of the original franchise.

[00:03:44] He's got a lot of roots with Capcom. He moved on to God Hand. He did Vitable Joe, like a number of different things. I mean, he's also had his hands in founding Platinum Games and all these other things.

[00:03:54] I think he's heard Clover back in the day as well. So, he's definitely got some pedigree with Capcom. And I guess he started this studio Tango Gameworks and went independent, but was immediately bought by Zenimax or Bethesda. Bethesda. I can never say that. Bethesda. Bethesda. Okay.

[00:04:12] It's named after the city in Maryland. Yeah. So, it's interesting because it's like an American studio that owns a Japanese game studio, but it's an American parent company, I guess, which is interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it seems like there's a number of contributing factors that really compounded on this.

[00:04:28] I know it's easy to just jump on the bandwagon and be like, you know, there's the whole meme of Tango Gameworks got shut down. And then days later, Phil Spencer was saying, oh, we want to focus on making games that are critically acclaimed and award-winning.

[00:04:46] And you got high-five rush that you just shut down their studio two days earlier. And that game, you know, it scored 90s for the most part. It was nominated for dozens of awards, won at least five that I came across, maybe six. Yeah.

[00:05:07] The big one to me was it won the BAFTA for animation. Like, I mean, the BAFTAs are a pretty big deal when it comes to media awards. I mean, film and TV, sure.

[00:05:14] But the game section of the BAFTAs has been pretty prestigious and it's not as popular, I guess, to look at for fans like the game awards are that, you know, Jeff Keely does. But I always love watching the BAFTAs and seeing who wins.

[00:05:27] And yeah, they want, they took home best animation for good reason. And they still got shut down. The animation in high-five rush is spectacular. Yeah. And especially how fluid it is between, you know, the 3D cell shading to actual hand-drawn 2D animation at points and back and forth.

[00:05:48] Like they do a great job of making it fairly seamless, really surprised me. And it's funny because like I've noticed in the cutscenes when it goes from gameplay to cutscene that's still using the 2D cell shading,

[00:06:02] they drop the frame rate to match that of the 2D animation so it looks hand-drawn. Yeah. Like I say this, the most endearing and positive way possible, but when I first saw the opening scene and for those watching YouTube, I'm showing it now.

[00:06:17] It reminds me of a Canadian cartoon show. In the 90s we had a few Canadian animation studios in Elvanna and whatnot making a good number of the 90s cartoons. And this is what it reminds me of that style.

[00:06:29] Like it's a lower frame rate, but very fluid and really animated characters. And that's what I got a real vibe of Saturday morning cartoons. I wish this was like an anime show or a cartoon or something. This could be a Netflix series to be honest with you. Yeah.

[00:06:46] And like the quality of the storytelling throughout the gameplay really just, it feels like you're playing a cartoon, really. It's just so over the top and silly. And yet it might lean into a few tropes of anime and cartoons in general, but that's not to its detriment.

[00:07:03] Like it handles them well. It doesn't play them out. It doesn't overuse them. Instead it's more about like character archetypes really in that regard. And I mean you got the big guy who doesn't want to hurt a fly. He's a pacifist.

[00:07:21] He's a character who's kind of an oblivious, impulsive goofball. You got the first character he meets who's kind of a hothead, but she's like really driven to accomplish her goals.

[00:07:34] So like the character archetypes are really, you know, you've seen them before, but the writing for this game is great. Like from villains, the protagonists, everybody, like it's all really well written. I really appreciate it. And the voice actors nailed it.

[00:07:51] Voice acting is definitely a highlight of this game. And I think this is because it was a Japanese game studio, they also had a Japanese cast as well. But it's just it's nice to see that there's quality put in on both sides.

[00:08:03] Like there's nothing spared when it comes to the voice acting in this game. Because I think of Shin Makami's studio, I'm thinking Resident Evil and I love Resident Evil, but there's some bad voice acting and Resident Evil and some Capcom games. But for this one, all good.

[00:08:16] It's kind of hard to compare with Resident Evil 2 because like when you think of Resident Evil, the original Resident Evil, I mean the voice acting, like all the acting in that was bad on purpose. It was supposed to be a B movie.

[00:08:27] But as you come into the more recent Resident Evil's, they're generally better acting. Like there's still a few spots here and there. But like Resident Evil 6, it had its moments where it was not the best acting and moments where it was decent and good.

[00:08:43] You know, it just depends. But I mean, they're also working with the writing they were given. This game was really well written.

[00:08:50] And again, going back to the the awards, like this game was nominated for if there's a sound or audio award from that you can think of it was probably nominated for it. If it classifies for video games.

[00:09:04] Animation or visual design also nominated for a bunch of those won the BAFTA for animation. And it even was nominated for Game of the Year, sometimes with a qualifier, you know, action game or Xbox game. But I mean, it had a few Game of the Year nominations.

[00:09:22] So like it was a good game. The downside to that is the game had almost no marketing budget. And so there was one shot in the foot right there. The game also was dropped day one on Game Pass.

[00:09:38] So people were like, well, I'll just play it here instead of buy it. But I mean, if there's no marketing budget behind it, you're not going to expect a whole lot of like the conversion from Game Pass players to buyers. Probably not that big.

[00:09:53] And it's not going to be a title if you drop it on day one with no marketing. It's not going to be a title that's going to surge Game Pass subscriptions either. Yeah, this is one of those.

[00:10:01] I mean, from what I saw, it was two million downloads, I guess. But that also includes how a number of Game Pass players and they don't distinguish from the two is. So the term they use was players by March. It had two million players by August of 2023.

[00:10:19] It had three million players. Three million still is pretty good for this kind of game. But it's a lot of players. However, you know, if the majority of them are on Game Pass, how many of them are beating the first boss and sticking with the game?

[00:10:32] There's I mean, I've downloaded Game Pass games and then try it out and was like, ah, this isn't for me. Which that's going to be the case with a game like this where it had no marketing.

[00:10:42] So like until I got this game in the humble bundle last month, because that's how I got it, you know, I'm sure a good chunk of the sales that have happened recently are through that. Or just on on sale during the summer sales on the various platforms.

[00:11:01] And after Tango went under, people wanted to try and support it. But I don't think it's going to like that's not going to retroactively do anything, unfortunately. But I didn't know what type of game it was.

[00:11:14] Like I knew there was rhythm involved in the combat, but I thought it was like a JRPG with rhythm combat. Oh no. Yeah. I did not know this was a beat them up. I didn't know it was an action game.

[00:11:25] So once I started playing it, I was like, well, this is not what I expected. However, it was definitely a enjoyable surprise, right? Right. Going into it, I knew I was all in on the style and like initially.

[00:11:41] And I know I think it was it came out along the same time or was revealed around the same time as bomb rush cyber funk. That was the jet grain. Jet radio style. Yeah. And this one also kind of gives Jet Set Radio style vibes to it.

[00:12:02] You know, a lot more detailed, not the super chunky thick lines and everything, but it also very much reminds me of an anime called If you've never heard it pronounced, you probably know it as FLCL or Fuli Kuli or Fuli Kuli. Depending on how you're familiar with it.

[00:12:21] So if you've heard of it by one of those three names, you've heard of the anime, but like the music and the just the feel of the world very much Fuli Kuli inspired to me.

[00:12:36] Like I got a lot of and I like I tried to convince my brother to get it by throwing that out there because he loves Fuli Kuli. And it's definitely got a style to it.

[00:12:46] And like the idea of no marketing budget is interesting because I think from what I understand, the studio was trying to pivot away from survivor horror as a stereotype for their studio because they've done so much of it.

[00:12:58] And a lot of people in that studio have that experience. So they kind of wanted to do this one in development in secret to a degree because I think the quote I saw was there worried that fans might expect too much or think it was something it wasn't.

[00:13:11] So they I think they kind of deliberately kept this one under wraps to kind of shadow drop it.

[00:13:16] But they definitely could have done more to push it out there because like most of the most reviews are fairly positive and there's a ball marks against it, which we can talk about later.

[00:13:24] But for the most part was well received by everybody and I wish they pushed it more. But I think Microsoft when they they owned they own the setup at this point.

[00:13:34] And I think at that point they didn't know what to do with some of the properties that were coming out.

[00:13:37] Like where there was going to PlayStation, where there was going to switch, was originally a VMPC how they were going to juggle those and by putting them on Game Pass.

[00:13:46] They had a lot of stuff they were trying to put on Game Pass quickly and say look at the value we have in Game Pass. But they didn't really highlight anything.

[00:13:53] Like this came out at think at the same time when they were putting Doom and Quake and stuff on Game Pass at the same time at the same time. It was a weird a weird flub by Microsoft. I don't think they knew the value what they had.

[00:14:05] This is definitely the type of game that needs a marketing budget so that you can show off what it is and also explain to a degree what it is and get hype behind it.

[00:14:17] Because if it had a marketing budget, I think it would have been a lot more successful. And yeah, it was it was like a side project while they were working on Ghostwire Tokyo.

[00:14:26] But after Ghostwire Tokyo came out there was plenty of time between that they could have been like hey check this out. And like there was a reveal trailer I think at Xbox something two years ago.

[00:14:39] You know the summer games fest stuff but that was kind of it you know it wasn't huge. And so it was kind of it was either that or Bethesda either way like I saw it and I was like oh that looks neat.

[00:14:53] But I didn't know what it was like you know like I told you until a month and a half ago I thought that's thought it was an RPG.

[00:14:59] It's tough to try and sell rhythm games I think to a degree right because when you say it's a rhythm music game you're going to automatically think guitar hero or something.

[00:15:11] Or you're going to think like Crypto the Neckard dancer and it's nothing like those like you said it's a beat them up.

[00:15:15] There's also a heavy element of Quick Time events in this game which yes has a stigma to it that people don't like so it's tough to kind of say what it is right not driving.

[00:15:25] Right in defense of the Quick Time events you know usually Quick Time events are just kind of frustrating and out of nowhere and you don't expect them.

[00:15:33] In this the Quick Time events are always somehow in tune with the music you know if it's a little Quick Time event where you just got to hit a couple of things to turn a power switch back on OK fine it's just in the beat with the music.

[00:15:46] But the Quick Time events during bosses are in line with this song like it's not just there it's you know a good example is during the first boss you've got one million by nine inch nails playing.

[00:16:03] And the beat that you're hitting the music like the Quick Time notes at is in line with the song so that it fits with it.

[00:16:12] And like even the cutscenes between phases are in line with the song like it's it's cool how they did it instead of just just being and like oh here's a Quick Time event. No it's all in the beat with the music and sometimes with the song specifically.

[00:16:30] And I thought that was really cool like between phases with this boss when he's whipping out the cannons the cannons are coming out at the drum beats.

[00:16:40] And that's so cool to me how they did that and they do that kind of thing throughout the whole game and it's really cool.

[00:16:49] Like in between the combat sequences right like in between combat sequences where you're free to walk around a little bit everything in the environment is still moving to that drum beat right. It's that yeah I mean there's a metronome feature in the game.

[00:17:00] You don't really need it when the lights are going in sync with the music or the trees are bopping with the music right. Everything is in time.

[00:17:08] You see everything in the background and there's video with us just pop pop pop up and down and that's that's in time with the music like every single song in the game is it the same beat. And that's it doesn't hurt it and the songs don't sound identical.

[00:17:25] They don't sound extraordinarily different from one each other one one another either but they they don't sound like the same song from stage to stage. Right.

[00:17:37] And it is it is really cool to just see the world around you just constantly at that beat of the metronome to and yeah you could like you said you can activate the little metronome on the bottom that shows you what the timer is.

[00:17:49] But you've also got the little cat head floating around with him 808 that's constantly lighting up with the beat of the music. Every step he takes is with the beat of the music.

[00:17:59] I mean it's it's really obvious what the beat is like the health the health bar even as well and just if you're in combat and you're actively attacking things you just kind of get in the groove especially light attacks you just it is boom boom boom boom boom boom boom like it just feels pretty natural to do the light attacks.

[00:18:15] The heavier attacks I had a little bit of struggle with but I never felt like I was overwhelmed with the timing because even if you mess up the timing a little bit it's it's not the end of the world is still place fine.

[00:18:26] Like you don't have to be exactly in tune with the beat every single attack string so it was generous anyway. Yeah and I mean it's I didn't even bother listening to what the music was for the unlicensed tracks if you go into like streamer mode.

[00:18:41] Like I said the first boss is a nine inch nail song there's also another nine inch nail song toward the end.

[00:18:47] The opening cutscene has lonely boy by the black keys playing so there's there's a fair amount of licensed music in this and if you turn on streamer mode it trades that out for another song that's original.

[00:19:02] I didn't even check those out but I would imagine they're also good.

[00:19:06] Yeah they are pretty solid. I think they got the bands called the glass pyramids and they're the ones hired by the studio to do with the original music and yeah they have replacements that are not sound elikes to the licensed music but they have a similar beat so it fits and they're fine.

[00:19:23] I have no issue there's still lyrics to a lot of those songs they're still pretty groovy even if it didn't have the licensed soundtrack I think it would have been just fine on us honestly.

[00:19:31] It's nice to have nine inch nails in the first boss fight that's really damn cool but I don't think it's necessary.

[00:19:38] Oh I completely agree like the first boss is a nine inch nail I'm not a huge nine inch nails fan like I don't dislike them but I also don't go out of my way to consume their music.

[00:19:49] But hearing that song it's a song I've never heard by nine inch nails before but going into it I was like at the beginning of every new track you get the little music video stamp at the bottom left that says like who the music is by the name of the song who owns the music you know all that stuff like it's all down there which is kind of cool it makes it feel like you're playing one big music video.

[00:20:14] Well we'll even call the stages tracks in this game right you play 12 tracks and it's just every track is basically an extended music video I dig the vibe I like what they did with that I thought it was pretty cool.

[00:20:25] And then you get into like the idea behind who this main character is right like you don't get much backstory on him at all he the game opens he's got his arm in a sling you have no idea what's up with him.

[00:20:38] And you know he makes it kind of clear he's super into music he wants to be a rock star.

[00:20:45] And then he's going into this project Armstrong thing and I'm just gonna kind of touch on the opening story here so don't worry too much about spoilers people but I'm going to explain a little bit of what's happening so that if anybody is mildly interested.

[00:21:00] We've peaked your interest at this might go a little further for you. He ends up getting his arm replaced with a robotic arm.

[00:21:09] And in the process his little iPod zoom whatever you want to call it his little music device ends up falling from where it was by you know a few stupid mishaps and lands on him just before he gets his robotic arm.

[00:21:28] And so that also sort of becomes implanted into his body with the arm. And now he's got I think what he described magical robotic music powers. I think that was the term he used.

[00:21:43] Well and they any throughout the story they cut to the iPod in his chest basically like think like Iron Man but it's an iPod and that's yeah the constant beat to the game right the rhythm. So it fits.

[00:21:56] But I mean it's it's a really fun idea that's clearly over the top but the whole game is over the top right and they don't shy away from that sort of thing you get just every single character in this game is a big personality.

[00:22:12] You got the first boss not the first boss but the first like corporate level executive with the company that you fight. She's like basically over the top the way WWE is that's her persona.

[00:22:28] She's just loud and mean and wants to smash things right and it's fun the way they portray her.

[00:22:34] It really reminds me of Scott Pilgrim and how it's like the seven evil Lexes it's like that but their corporate goons right and yeah she's got the wrestler vibe very buff the wrestling belt that says boss she's got gloves on.

[00:22:47] Like there's a scene with her later on where she's like alright the gloves are coming off and you're like okay sure but when she takes the gloves off literally she has mecca hands. Yeah she's got giant mechanical hands.

[00:23:00] Yeah because I guess that the overall story with this role is like it's it's the future prosthetics are a big thing and yeah everybody's getting limbs replaced with robot limbs I guess and it's it's neat how they handle it.

[00:23:10] It's neat how they handle it I don't necessarily need a background story of all the characters.

[00:23:15] Like Chai can be the nameless or the background list protagonist and it works in this in the story but you do get background on the other characters in the story and that's I think is probably better right like the first lady in meat who owns 808 the cat Peppermint right you get her back story throughout the story and it works and that's the focus and you're kind of the protagonist and I like that.

[00:23:36] That's definitely the game we have doing a story.

[00:23:38] It's it's it's really cool how they handle it because they sort of imply that you know Chai is always looking for shortcuts to get from you know A to C instead of having to go A B C but other than that we don't get a whole lot of backstory on him he's just impulsive likes to have fun that's that you know otherwise he is that sort of you know background less hero which works to help the player just feel like you're embodying Chai and going through the game.

[00:24:07] And then it's so dumb it took me too long to realize that a bunch of the characters if not all of the characters have food names.

[00:24:17] Yeah at first I thought they were named after tea because you have Chai tea of course Peppermint tea but then the other characters are not tea but you're right they're almost all food right I think yeah there's macaron there's cinnamon.

[00:24:30] Cinnamon the robot C. M. N. C. M. N.

[00:24:35] He's called cinnamon yeah you got kale good you got yeah yeah I love that that's that's pretty cute that's a very Dragon Ball Z type of thing right just name and it's not all the characters because you've got like rocks and Vandal a cheese and I will say the first time I started playing through this and they're like Vandal a technologies all I could think of was Seinfeld Vandal a industries.

[00:25:00] Yeah I make sure wonder where they pulled some of these names from and how much of them references.

[00:25:05] I mean last week char was telling us that when we you mentioned 808 cat 808 and nine inch and nine inch nails is the first track in a later track he's like really nine inch nails 808 we're like what's up.

[00:25:16] It's like well nine inch nails is pretty famous for using a Roland 808 drum machine in his music so they named the cat after the drum machine and this game that that's totally rad I would not have gotten that reference it's not for char telling us.

[00:25:29] Yeah but I mean some of them are just a little more like all their names have a little bit of cheese to them in somewhere or another like a wreck. She's she literally just wrecks things right.

[00:25:42] Rex things the one thing that was kind of annoying for me though was the stupid tutorial fridge right. Smidge.

[00:25:50] Smidge yeah he's a smart fridge he's a smidge I found that kind of stupid and there's a few times where I ducked him I didn't want to talk to him because I figure I can figure it out.

[00:25:59] There's one section where he literally moves to block you and forces you to talk to him any guilt trip she for not talking to him about the tutorial parts is I thought that was pretty funny.

[00:26:09] I will say for all the things I love about this game it's a little bit heavy handed with tutorials and like the first two levels. Yeah.

[00:26:19] A few of them you can probably skip I didn't skip any of them but a few of them are also like they're just there and you have to deal with them like one of them literally and it's it's funny how they handle them because the first time you do it.

[00:26:34] You see that you're taken to like an alternate tutorial room in the middle of the story right and Chai is just like beating things up and he's got this announcer he's doing all this on a stage with an audience that's just cheering him on and he's like.

[00:26:49] Basically fantasizing about being a rockstar and kicking ass and then the second time that happens after you've met peppermint. He comes back out of it and your peppermint going hey did you just black out for a minute he's like don't worry about that I got an idea like.

[00:27:08] Yeah it's a neat way of doing it and I understand why they have to have the tutorials because it is a rhythm game and it's central to the combat and.

[00:27:17] The mechanics are a bit unusual so I dealt with it because I didn't like it was something that's different it's not it's literally not just you know beat them up use the combos as fast as you can it's everything has to be timed.

[00:27:33] A little bit planned and you also have to react to what's going on around you with parries and dodges and you can counter attack which it took me entirely too long to figure that out.

[00:27:47] You can counter attack I didn't know that you can counter attack I didn't figure that out until one of the spectra rooms after I completed the game and was going back and it was like use this and I was like how do I do that I didn't even know that was a thing.

[00:28:03] So I don't know if I just tuned out of some of the tutorials.

[00:28:08] And didn't really pay attention or if I just missed it or what because after a time like they just start throwing stuff on screen that you can skip through real quick and I was like I don't want to read all this especially on my steam deck the text is tiny I don't want to struggle with that so skip skip skip let's go on.

[00:28:22] Yeah like it's fine like I mean because for me it was like oh I can dodge okay that makes sense for a game like this and then yeah the different combos and you can mix the combos they have a tutorial for mixing the combos.

[00:28:34] A bit much but at least there's humor with the dialogue and talking with the fridge and peppermint giving you crap for blacking out at least they try to make it fun.

[00:28:42] But would have been nice if you could just skip some of that especially I imagine if you're playing this more than once the second is probably not as not as fun as playing it the first time.

[00:28:52] No well I mean if you're playing on the same file and going back and trying to find everything when you've already done it it gives you the option to skip the tutorial.

[00:29:02] Okay it'll take you to the little his little blackout stage room and then before it does anything it'll be like do you want to skip the tutorial and the first option that it's already highlighted so you don't even have to go out of your way to pick it is absolutely.

[00:29:18] Okay that's good then.

[00:29:20] That's good then so you can choose to play it if you want but if you're just spamming the button to get through it it'll just automatically skip the tutorial and keep going so subsequent playthroughs you can wander right by smidge he doesn't even respond or react so I didn't even know about what you talked about.

[00:29:36] So I'm curious then what are the moves and because I didn't play as long as much as you did so I know that you have light and heavy attacks and there's different rhythm beats for those.

[00:29:43] Yeah like light attack is on the beat one two three four and then heavy attack is one three five rates delayed. Yeah dodge I think there's a dash I think and special but what else is there move wise the dash is the dodge.

[00:30:00] Okay because you can do that right. Yeah and then there's Perry which is literally like putting your weapon up in the way to absorb the hit not take damage.

[00:30:10] Which I used Perry a lot going through the game but I didn't realize you could there are two types of counter attacks there's Perry counters and there's dodge counters so if you time the attack like you Perry on the next beat you can bring in one of your buddies to attack as long as they're not cool down and it doesn't eat the cool down and they do more damage than you can do.

[00:30:32] So you can do damage than they would if you just pulled them in like with Macaron's for timing up properly. Right so like with Macaron's Perry counter he'll come in and smash things twice instead of once.

[00:30:47] And so what is you know one of the other characters has a wind move that sort of it tires people out well when she counters it sort of throws them up in the air so it stuns them longer.

[00:31:02] Okay with peppermints she just she goes wilder with the guns and gets more hits in quicker.

[00:31:09] So that's the sort of thing that's happening in this game right but then the dodge counters are the same thing if you time the dodge it's a different counter attack from these characters but it's also a counter attack in the same way. Okay.

[00:31:22] And you'll see like I didn't even realize it was happening when I was playing but you do see like little colorful circles happen after you dodge your Perry and if you time the summon with that because that's what you do is you summon in your buddies it's not they don't just like.

[00:31:37] You can't just summon them whenever but they're basically not with you you summon them in they appear do their thing and go well with the counter attacks yeah you time it with that and then they jump in and smash things and be on their way.

[00:31:50] But yeah and that's the game it's like an interesting rhythm combat right like yes it's a beat them up but you don't just go and blindly blindly mash buttons although I played an easy and I was doing a lot of button mashing.

[00:32:01] But you are definitely rewarded for getting in the timing right on those attacks. Yeah. It's funny because I thought I was playing okay my first time through on normal and was consistently getting like. A's at the end of a stage.

[00:32:16] And then on hard mode because I had a better a better idea of how to play the game and you're really rewarded for pushing buttons in time with the beat. So most of the stages on hard mode I got S's after only getting A's in normal so. Okay.

[00:32:34] I chose to go back and do a stage on on hard the second time I did it. And if I had to go back again I was like I'm not going to very hard or.

[00:32:43] I don't remember I think the last one was like maniac or something I don't recall there's five difficulty levels I was not going beyond three I went like if I had to go back again I went to easy because I just wanted to barrel through and find the thing but.

[00:32:58] There's even jam I went straight to easy yeah I went straight to easy because just I was playing this mostly for the experience the graphics the music.

[00:33:06] I like rhythm games right like a crypto the answer is fun for me and all that stuff and in case of high roads a lot as a blast but at the same time.

[00:33:15] I get really really frustrated when I can't nail those combos and it penalizes you for it so I kind of just didn't want to deal with that. It's on the steam deck. Just going to play it on easy and go for the ride.

[00:33:26] And I learned a lesson about my steam deck playing through this game as I tried to play with my Bluetooth headphones and apparently Bluetooth headphones on the steam deck don't get along so well there's a pretty heavy delay on the audio so.

[00:33:43] And like there's apparently people have figured out ways to tweak it and I tried that and then when I didn't want to play with the headphones I was having to mess with the audio settings to have audio come out of the steam deck speakers so I said screw it and I figured out how to put the audio back and I'm using corded headphones if I play something.

[00:34:01] Yeah and that's to be fair that's not just a steam deck thing that's just that's a Bluetooth thing right the difference between like one blue suit Bluetooth headset versus another.

[00:34:11] The like me night or day and that's like that with Bluetooth anything right like I the controllers is big thing for me the difference between one Bluetooth controller from a bit though versus another one.

[00:34:20] Some are like 20 milliseconds some of them are up to like you know 70 it's crazy audio is definitely a bigger leg so I see why it is what it is.

[00:34:30] So definitely wired headphones or played on a TV most of my gameplay was playing it docked in the TV that's the best way to go.

[00:34:38] Yeah I played the entire game on my steam deck and it looked beautiful played great like I said the only issue was using Bluetooth headphones but once I started using wired headphones it wasn't a problem when I because I will say a warning for people combat.

[00:34:59] For me I didn't mind it because I knew it was going on but having the sound up with my wife in the room not seeing it she just felt like it was an attack on her senses. So that's why I tried to do it busy.

[00:35:16] Yeah well the audio she wasn't even see on the screen she was just hearing the game and she was like what is that noise that is awesome.

[00:35:24] Well that's true because his weapon is I mean it's not it's not actually guitar but it's definitely shaped like a guitar and it makes it makes like you're whacking the guitar sound right that the bang and then the notes that can see that being distracting.

[00:35:37] So there's the banging of the guitar sound there's the smashing into things there's the enemy shooting or attacking there's you parrying there's all the talking peppermint get over here got you child you know there's a lot happening so.

[00:35:50] It can be a lot if you have issue with a lot of sound at once. But other than that like they I felt like the audio was great and honestly most stages only have what maybe. 8 to 10 combat. And then it's a lot of platforming and exploration.

[00:36:14] It's not a terribly long game I think I think time to beat says 8 hours if I'm not wrong how long it take you to beat this one.

[00:36:22] It took me quite a while I would say probably about 12 hours and then going back and doing the extra stuff probably another 10 to 12 hours.

[00:36:32] Yeah but you're definitely right it's not it's not it's not combat heavy I mean there's definitely it's a focus but it's kind of a mix of quick time events.

[00:36:42] And then kind of like an exploration platforming to a degree and then there's there's the battles they kind of mix it up quite frequently even to the point where sometimes you're exploring a 3D environment other times it's they kind of make it 2D where it's like a 2D platformer in certain spots which is kind of interesting they definitely take.

[00:36:58] Liberies with the format of the movement and the perspective of how you move it around the world it's kind of it's kind of interesting they try a bunch of different things.

[00:37:06] I guess they experiment a lot in this game which is nice to see yeah but I mean they did a lot of great stuff. But gosh I don't even know what I was going to say now.

[00:37:18] Oh the you know mixing up the gameplay a bit like I said the stages it's not all just run free and combat like when you're in combat you're in a game. It's like you're in a arena that gets closed off.

[00:37:31] And then when combat over you're back to platforming or maybe avoiding lasers that are being shot at you or stuff like that they mix it up a lot of points where you're on a rail and you've got a dodge things that are coming at you as you're sliding along the rail there's

[00:37:46] segments where you're just being chased by a giant robot or lasers and you got to keep moving and not miss your platforming. Sometimes you've got X amount of time to get through a circuit of area and you have to manage all the obstacles in the time frame.

[00:38:03] Otherwise, you get sent back to the beginning but anything you unlocked like let's say you needed peppermint to shoot something. If you did that your first time she doesn't need to do it again. That saves you a little time and you can move faster.

[00:38:16] So, it's not, it's a pretty forgiving game. It's not punishing for sure. The one thing, the one, the only negative I have about this entire game is that I love everything about this game. This is a good game. The only negative is the platforming doesn't feel very great.

[00:38:35] The combat being what it being a rhythm based, it's fine if it feels a little bit off because it's very deliberate pacing. But I can't forgive the damn jump. Like it's not, it's not Mario. I mean it's 2024 or 2023 when this came out.

[00:38:48] We've solved the idea of jumping in platforming games right? You hold the longer you hold the button down the higher you're supposed to jump. Not in this game. You tap the button, you hold the button, you're jumping in the air like a freaking superhero and it's,

[00:39:00] it was off putting enough that it kind of messed me up on his into the platforming sections and they didn't quite like it. The controls felt a little bit off because of the jumps. I don't know if you felt that way or not.

[00:39:09] I did not. Like that kind of tied into the whole idea of the beat of the music. Because if you jump at the top of his arc, if you hit jump again, it's in time with the beat.

[00:39:24] So there's all that. And then, you know, at the top of that arc will be, will again be the beat and then you can dash and that's in time with the beat.

[00:39:33] So it's all, it's the whole game is really designed about being around the beat of the music, which I'm completely okay with.

[00:39:41] It was a little jarring in the first stage, but by the end of the game, I like every single maneuver I made, I was like jump, jump, dash or jump, dash, jump. You know, it was always with the beat if I could get it.

[00:39:56] Right. And yeah, it's when you go against the grain of the music that it kind of messes you up. Even something as simple as you're exploring a room and you want to break some crates.

[00:40:03] I like jumping in the air and smashing down with heavy attack to break a bunch of crates. But just hitting that jump, you go way up in the air and then you attack. You can't just do a little bunny hop and then smash.

[00:40:14] Like I'm used to doing that in other games and I kind of wish I could do that here. But you're right. It's the style of the game. It's definitely at its core rhythm game and everything, everything ties into that mechanic.

[00:40:25] Right. But again, it's not the rhythm game like you think. It's just everything is really built around the beat of the music, but it is at its core an action platformer.

[00:40:36] It's when calling it a rhythm game is almost misleading to a degree because it's like you said, it's not just dance. It's not rock band. It's not guitar hero. It is just everything is in time with the beat of the music.

[00:40:52] It's that simple. And so you're rewarded for doing things in time with the beat of the music. You don't have to, but you're going to have a much easier time and probably a better experience if you can.

[00:41:04] And it's not only that, but then the whole game, the flow of the stages like we were talking about before, some of its combat, some of its platforming, some of its other stuff.

[00:41:18] And then they just throw in cutscenes and completely voice acted plot points in the middle of the stage. Like you've got a stage that's probably going to take you 45 to 60 minutes to beat.

[00:41:28] And it's going to be all over the place as to what that stage offers, which is great. Right. Like you're not going to get sick of doing one thing in any given level.

[00:41:41] Yeah, there's a term for what they do in this game where it just it's constantly something new. Right? Like you're never standing still. You're never wondering where you're supposed to go or you're never getting lost and you never feel bored.

[00:41:53] It's just it's a constant go, go, go. There's beats pun intended, I guess. There's always beats of how you're going through the game. And you're only wondering, you're only wondering where you're supposed to go if you're looking for all the secrets and the hidden objects.

[00:42:06] And some of them, they're really well hidden and some of them are hidden in plain sight. And then you'll go back and you'll be like, how the hell did I miss that? Yeah, so I guess so I didn't play too deep.

[00:42:19] I wasn't interacting with the environment too, too much. I wasn't in the mindset of, oh, I better explore for secrets everywhere. I know that there's the currency in the game that you can pick up and sometimes they hide the better the better gears and other way spots.

[00:42:33] But I didn't think I was missing secret doors or anything, but I guess that's the thing in the game. There's secret doors you can unlock.

[00:42:39] Yeah, there's sort of like hidden pathways and not hidden like you go up to the wall and smack it and now there's an open space.

[00:42:46] Most of the time if it's a hidden path, it's literally hidden by like, you know, it's up and out of the way on top of a shelf that you maybe wouldn't think to look at or it's in the ceiling.

[00:42:59] Or you're coming up a path and you see the route continue straight ahead, but you turn around behind you and there was something above where you came from. You didn't even notice it. It's a lot of stuff like that.

[00:43:10] There's also areas that, you know, as you're going through the game, you'll unlock companions who will join your adventure. Let's say like you get peppermint on the first stage so anything she can do you can do from pretty much the get go.

[00:43:26] Macaron you don't get until like stage four, like three or four. So you can't go back and do earlier stages at that point.

[00:43:34] So there is stuff he can interact with in the first three stages that you can't just go back and get right away has to be after you beat the game. Same with the next character.

[00:43:43] They have stuff that they could interact with for all like seven stages before you got them. And so again, you got to go back after you beat it to unlock all those pathways.

[00:43:55] But there's also just a lot of stuff that's just easily missable and just kind of decently hidden because you wouldn't think to look there. So I'm skimming ahead in the video.

[00:44:08] I know that one of the neat things I found was that there's cosmetic items you can get in the game like different shirts and t-shirts. I think you can get a crown for the cat I saw in one video, different outfits.

[00:44:21] If you buy everything, you can get the princess crown for the cat. Okay. If you... What was it? I think I went back and... I think it was buying all the regular attacks or something unlocked the punk rock outfit for the cat.

[00:44:38] So I have that on the cat. I went and bought a whole bunch of silly stuff. And it's also kind of cool because there's full outfits you can buy for Chai. And you'll see the full outfit. The full outfit probably cost you like 15,000 gears per outfit.

[00:44:56] Well, all of them except for one are not treated as an outfit. They are an outfit that you buy but then you have to equip each part of it individually. So it's not like when you buy a full outfit, you're stuck with the full outfit.

[00:45:09] If you see something from that outfit you like, it'll be equipable with everything else in the game. So if you don't like the hat, you can... you don't have to wear the hat. You can put something else on.

[00:45:19] Right. There's literally just one outfit that he is stuck having to equip the entire thing and that's because it's a bodysuit. Okay. Yeah, it's... the cosmetic stuff is neat because especially for a game like this where

[00:45:32] as cool as the scenes of the cutscenes are, they're all in engine, right? This engine runs the cutscenes. It's the same engine that when you're doing the gameplay. So it all ties together.

[00:45:42] I think the only spot the costumes don't show up in is the pop-up portraits for the dialogue. I think it doesn't show up there, but all the major cutscenes have you wearing the outfit, which is kind of... it's kind of neat. It's a neat style.

[00:45:54] Yeah, I'm trying to... yeah, I think you're right about the cutscenes. Like how you see their faces popping up in the video there during gameplay. I think that's always the face they use. That doesn't get updated. But yeah, in the cutscenes...

[00:46:09] And it's funny because when you play back through the first stage, my chai had green hair after I customized him. And in the opening, he's got... he's just in like this medical gown. And he's just got his brown hair again. And I was like, well, that's weird.

[00:46:27] And then once you collect all your stuff and put your clothes back on, now he's got his green hair. I was like, all right. But as soon as you get past that first part in that stage,

[00:46:38] then yeah, he's running around in all the gear you equipped him with. Yeah. And I think 808, the moment you come across 808, they look however you've dressed them. And same with the other characters in engine, like during gameplay. Right.

[00:46:57] And there are some DLCs that you can buy to add new costumes and stuff. It's totally not necessary. There's so many options for costumes in this game. You don't even need to worry about that. I didn't even think to look for DLC for this game.

[00:47:11] It doesn't surprise me that it's there, considering the parent company that owns this game, the studio. But yeah, I didn't feel like there was anything lacking that was already in the game. There was quite a bit more in the game, cosmetic-wise, and I think I expected.

[00:47:24] My only issue with it was I kind of wish you got it right from the get-go in a way. I kind of wish I could customize the characters and how they look right from the beginning. Yeah, the only thing... I get why it's not that way.

[00:47:36] The only thing you can customize early on is just his t-shirt. You can just change his t-shirt and you've got like eight options or something. And that was kind of disappointing to just see that as I played through the game.

[00:47:47] Just I could change his t-shirt now and then. And then at the end, all of a sudden it's like, here's all these things you can do. And I was like, aww, I wouldn't like to have that during my first play through.

[00:47:58] But I guess maybe they didn't want it to sort of detract from the gameplay or something. I don't know. Maybe. Because this is a game where I'm going to beat it because I know it's not very long.

[00:48:08] So there's no reason for me not to because I do like it. But it's not a game I think I'd want to play again. Again, I don't think I'd ever want to play it a second time.

[00:48:17] Like, now that it's bad, I think it's one of those it's a one and done type of thing, which is why I thought it was great for Game Pass as in terms of value.

[00:48:25] Because I think there's definitely value in playing it once, but I don't see the repeating... I don't see a repeated gameplay or replay value. I think you mentioned there's an unlockable modes, I think, a rhythm mode later on. I think you can play arcade mode.

[00:48:39] Yeah, it's called the tower. And you can... I never actually played it because I was so just trying to find all the stuff. But it's sort of an arcadey mode where you find upgrades as you play through

[00:48:56] and you have a loadout you can pick from the get go. And so if you clear X amount, you unlock one reward. If you clear the whole thing, you unlock another reward. And one of those rewards... Because you get to see what the rewards are.

[00:49:12] They're not just hidden away. No, you don't get to know what it is. You get to see what it is. If it's a monetary reward for accomplishing something in the game, they show you that it's going to be the gears or whatever.

[00:49:23] If it's a costume, you'll see what the costume is. And one of them is like... He's just a sketch. He's just white with line drawing around him. That's neat, yeah. And I would love to get that, but I just... After 28 hours with the game, I'm like,

[00:49:39] I am ready to move on to my next game. Yeah, that's the thing. I'm glad it's there, but I wish if something that you got earlier, I'm with you. But at the same time, I'm not disappointed that I put 28 hours into the game

[00:49:53] and went and found all the stuff that I did. I was really enjoying it out of it by going back and finding all the goodies in the levels and doing the extra content that was plot-related. Other than that, I didn't bother with the tower mode

[00:50:05] because I was just like, I don't really care. Yeah, for me, this is not a game that I like because of the gameplay. Like the gameplay's fine. It's good, but it's for me, it's just the story and the animation and the music.

[00:50:18] That's why I wanted to play this game. The gameplay is secondary. The gameplay is decent. It doesn't super stand out in my mind. It's everything around the gameplay that makes it a standout entry, just a release title, whatever. It is really good in that regard. So...

[00:50:38] I had actually tweeted it the other day. There's some Internet discourse, shocker, but some folks are complaining that the new Dragon Age game coming out later this year has a bunch of difficulty sliders and combat modifiers, the point where you can make it as no-death combat

[00:50:56] if that's what you want to do. And I don't understand why people are upset by this kind of stuff in this decade at this point. Like is anybody really playing games like Dragon Age for the gameplay? I'm sure there are some, yeah.

[00:51:07] But for me, that series, a massive effect too. The gameplay was always not why I liked those games. It was always the story, the experience of the atmosphere. So it was always weird to me that people get upset with the difficulty stuff. It's bizarre.

[00:51:21] Yeah, that kind of goes back to the... The gatekeeping episode we just did with regards to Elden Ring. But yeah, and there was even another thing, like there was controversy this last week because I don't remember her name, but there's a Twitch streamer or just streamer.

[00:51:40] I'm not entirely certain. She was talking about accessibility in games and disabilities, and there was a term for a disability that's just for a short amount of time. And I can't remember the word for it. Oh, that was Alana Pierce's comment.

[00:51:59] Yeah, people took her out of context, dude. Alana Pierce. She works, she's an influencer, but she works for Sony, I think now. But yeah, she basically wanted to have Pausing. She'd be in Elden Ring. I agree. The sentiment behind her message was there.

[00:52:13] But the way she was describing having a kid as a disability, even like a temporary disability or whatever the term was, I was like holding a child. Yes, that is whatever it is. But having... The child's existence is not that disability. That's where she was not making clear

[00:52:36] what she was trying to say. If your kid is on his way to stick a fork in an outlet, the fact that the kid exists is not a temporary disability. And I know that's not the term. Just bear with me here. It's...

[00:52:52] If you're holding the child and trying to play a game at the same time, okay, yeah, I get it. But the child's existence is not that. If you watch the full video, it's fine. She explained, I understand what she was getting at and it was fine.

[00:53:05] But people were cherry picking that one quote and it was stupid because yeah, I'm like, where would I say my kids are a disability or a hindrance? Yeah. I'm playing Elden Ring and my wife walks in

[00:53:17] and I'm in a cut scene and she's like, I need you for a minute. I'm like, give me three seconds. I can't pause. I wish I could pause. But it's not a disability. Yeah. Her message was great. I'm completely on board with that.

[00:53:31] It was just the wording that was bad in that regard. You know? I'm not saying that I'm somebody for nothing. It was very over-planned. It really was. The way people were jumping on her. I actually like her on YouTube. She's been fantastic and everything I've seen her do.

[00:53:48] But yeah, the internet is stupid. The internet is dumb. They jump all over things like this and it drives me nuts. This is number one... When we say games are art and there's been that struggle to have games considered art for many, many years.

[00:54:03] We're at the point now where we have games that are high-five rush where they're clearly in art form. Just the animation alone. It's such high caliber. Tied with the music, the design of the stages with the music. You can't not call a game like high-five rush art.

[00:54:17] And just yes, the gameplay is important to a game. Sure. But it doesn't have to be the focus of a game to me. I think there's other things you can enjoy with games. Yeah. To me, high-five rush really is you're playing a cartoon. Right. Yes.

[00:54:33] It very much feels like you are playing a cartoon. You're running around with this guy just bashing things up with this weird guitar thing made out of trash. Yeah. Literally, it's a trash pickup poker thing. It's a trash fork that you use and it's magnetized.

[00:54:49] Yeah. His arm is designed for waste collection. Just a weird concept of a character, man. I dig it. It's cool. But yeah, this game had so much charm and charisma. The story is a lot of fun. And yeah, if you look at reviews,

[00:55:07] you'll find that odd person who's like, ah, the story is definitely great. Okay. If you don't like having fun and enjoying yourself, sure. Well, it's very much like a lighthearted anime story, a cartoon story. It is. I'm not kidding when I say this,

[00:55:25] this literally could have been a Netflix mini series, six episode story and people would have eaten it up. Yeah. And then, you know, it's like a cyberpunk thing. That's what it feels like to me. Something like that where it was like action packed, cartoon, fun story, fun characters.

[00:55:41] And that's what this could have easily have been. Like I said, I keep likening it to Fudikudi and that was like a four episode anime. Or maybe six. I don't remember. It was really short. But either way, if this were an anime, it would not have been 12 hours.

[00:55:59] It's a lot of fun. And just the honestly, like even just the banter as you're playing through the game and the characters arguing with each other or, you know, their growth as characters and people like it's all there. They really nailed the storytelling aspect of this game. Yeah.

[00:56:17] I love how the cat when the cat transforms into an orb, like basically when somebody, a character, one of your friends is speaking to you through the cat, the lights on the cat are different colors for the characters. I thought that was really good touch.

[00:56:29] Like a really detail-oriented. Yeah, the banter is really great. Like I finished Final Fantasy VII Remake earlier this year and one of the things I hated was the freaking party banter. I did not have that problem with Hi-Fi Rush. The Hi-Fi Rush party

[00:56:43] banter was entertaining. It was fun. It didn't feel annoying. It didn't drive me nuts. There's no barret situation. I liked all the characters in this. I also really love the bad guys. There was a scene early on where you meet the bad guys, the corporate goons.

[00:56:57] And it's like a zoom call and the one guy is making gesturing talking and then you can't hear his voice and then the other lady is like so-and-so, you're on mute, darling. Yeah. He's got to unmute. That kind of gag is funny to me

[00:57:13] and they captured it really well. Yeah. And you see him while he's muted he's going off and he's super animated and frustrated and pissed. And they're like, you're on mute and then he comes back and he looks all like ugh, so annoyed about it

[00:57:29] and so he's much more mellow about what he has to say. Yeah. They really did a good job and the plot reveals I thought I had nailed what the plot reveal would be for the main characters for the peppermint. I was not quite there. I was close

[00:57:49] but not quite there. Yeah. I won't spoil it but yes, when I saw her and some of the bad guys I thought I could tie it in together it seemed pretty obvious but then it was definitely a different relationship than I thought it was and it was good.

[00:58:07] I thought it ended pretty good. And then let's talk about the extra content that's plot related. That's funny because the reward you get is very on brand for this game. It was also not the most rewarding ending cutscene in the world. Okay.

[00:58:31] Not worth the extra dozen hours of gameplay? If you enjoy the challenge it is. If you don't just look up that video on YouTube if you enjoy the games brand of humor and storytelling it's 100% fits with the game's storytelling. But oh my gosh,

[00:58:51] that was it? That was what we got? That's how we resolved this? Okay. Okay. This is one of those things where you look at a game like this, a brand new IP and it's great. I would love to see more of this and in a better world

[00:59:09] I would have looked forward to a high-fri rush 2 right? What do you do with the characters in a story? It's theorized that they were working on a second high-fi rush. Tango was working on two games when it closed. They were just never revealed

[00:59:27] what they were. So it's theorized that one of them was high-fi rush 2 and one of them I think was ghost wire 2. I think that was the prevailing idea. Because for Tango, I know so the founder Shimakami he had left the previous year the studio. He kind of took

[00:59:47] a back seat. He kind of just wanted to create a space for younger game developers to make games. It was my impression but he did leave the studio earlier before this release to thank her close to it and then the lady who was

[00:59:59] behind, I can't remember her name. I remember at the game awards though she's very fun personality Akumi I think her name is but she's one of the ghost wire Tokyo and she also left last year before the studio shut down.

[01:00:11] So they had a few notable people leaving the studio last year. That had to be a factor but the guy who was helping high-fi rush Chohanneson I think his last name is he was with them right to the end. This was definitely his baby from one understand.

[01:00:29] I would love to see what he does next because this game is out there but not it's out there in all the ways you would want a game to be without feeling alien or foreign or unplayable. We had a real bad run where all the big game studios

[01:00:51] were doing rehashes of the same games right? They had a formula, UbiSoft I can't stand UbiSoft for this but every time they get something that works they just reiterate it again and again in Hammer at Home as much as I want to like Assassin's Creed

[01:01:05] Valhalla or whatever it's the same damn thing again and again they just hammer home the same things until you're sick of it. There's not enough risk taking in games it's gotten better recently but this is a game where they've taken risks, they've experimented

[01:01:19] not just visually but also gameplay wise and I love it for that right? I'm always willing to like pay for a game that at least tried something different because not enough games are different these days right? There's too much of the same crap.

[01:01:33] This is a game that I would love to see get licensed out as an animated series. For sure. We get to see the world explored more like that because I don't think we're ever going to see another Hi-Fi Rush game and

[01:01:49] I don't think many people are going to play this one you know the studio closed, people don't want to support things like that which is unfortunate because the game is fun but at the same time I'm not going to like try and kill people

[01:02:03] you should have bought this because I bought it in Humble Bundle last month after the studio closed so I'm you know I mean I played on Game Passer and it first came out Yeah right? Is it still on Game Passer? They took it off

[01:02:17] I think they took it off. I thought they took it off which is stupid because they own the IP but I mean it's on sale for 20 bucks Canadian I think right now on Steam totally worth the money and this is a game that Microsoft will put on discount

[01:02:31] for the next five years and they're going to keep coming back and say look how good Hi-Fi Rush is sure wish we had more of these right? and right now as of this moment because the Steam sale and all the summer sales I think it's 18 on Steam

[01:02:45] it's 18 on PlayStation it's 18 on Xbox it's 20 bucks like so if it sounds like it's up your alley and you got 20 bucks to throw it a game when you got nothing else going on play it please it's a struggle for gaming over the next few years because

[01:03:03] the industry is basically bumping up the price of games like full AAA games what the hell that means are now going to be $70 US and that's a bump whether you like it or not I mean you can argue how long games have stayed the same price

[01:03:15] for so long but $70 is still a hit to the wallet there's definitely room for games that are not full price and this is a perfect example like this game was totally worth $30-40 US it's a dozen hours secrets cosmetics all in the game it's a tight package

[01:03:33] which I appreciate everything in this game you're probably going to be spending about 40 hours which is great for the price point that I came out at for sure and like you want more of these I want more games like this I don't want every game I buy being $70

[01:03:49] I just can't afford that yeah and then there's something to be said for unique games that still cater to the single player experience too because that's something that's going away as well like you see single player games where not to shit on Elden Ring

[01:04:07] but yeah I just learned that you couldn't pause the game and I was like it's a single player game what the hell so you know you got that or you got the games that you have to connect to servers or whatever to play a single player game

[01:04:21] stuff like that it's frustrating and you see single player games kind of going away what crazy taxi is it's gonna be an MMO yeah what the fuck is that it's an arcade racer basically and they're like no MMO join the crazy taxi community I don't want to

[01:04:41] like I'm excited about crazy taxi I'm excited for a new jet set I'm not excited for shoehorning in aspects of the current gaming market that I can't stand into an IP I love so I didn't buy Chocobo GP because they ruined it

[01:05:01] I was so excited for it until microtransactions I was like nope I'm out it's stupid like I saw the Witcher the current rumor is that they're adding a multiplayer mode to the Witcher the game is coming out why I don't Witcher 3 is one of my favorite games

[01:05:17] of all time and at no point I think to myself G I wish I could play online with people like never I don't play online multiplayer with Witcher just give me the damn story like Mass Effect did that right Mass Effect 3 had multiplayer

[01:05:31] and it was not bad I'm sure Dragon Age Inquisition had multiplayer it was fine that's not why I play these games give me a single player story I gotta give a crap about online but I mean this game Metacritic Open Critic it's got 90s so definitely

[01:05:51] worth a look at if you've not thought about it before and if it looks even remotely up your alley give it a shot it is a fun one I've been recommending it to friends and family and I think my brother likely picked it up

[01:06:07] after I talked to him about it because he was like I've seen that it looks fun as soon as I said foodie could he was like I guess I'll go buy it I haven't spoken to him after that but he's into music too heavily isn't he

[01:06:19] like doesn't he play instruments he plays the guitar okay yeah I feel like if you're into music in any degree then this is definitely something that would push them buttons for a person yeah it's it's a good one like if you appreciate games as art this is one

[01:06:37] of them and just and like I said greatly claimed I just I know the games industry is hurting right now like a lot of tech companies there's lots of layoffs a lot of closures but I just look at I mean it wasn't just this but

[01:06:51] I think it was roller roller dome from 505 also one awards last year small studio I think this is one the few games they made award-winning correctly claimed people were loving it a lot of hype for it and then they got shut down like when studios that make

[01:07:07] award-winning games like high for rush when they're getting shut down what does that say with the industry right now it's it just sucks it can all be Ubisoft it can all be it can't be all the same crap and franchises we need new IPs like this

[01:07:23] that to kind of get in there it's really frustrating this is a this is a and it's not even small studio like tango was a subsidiary of the Sada I mean they're it's not an indie

[01:07:35] game I think that was the complaints of you might have had with this one as I thought it was the indie game at first it's not it's a trip it's a double-a game yeah experimenting in a smaller team in a smaller you know game yeah but it's

[01:07:49] this should this should not have been shut down then this should this should have a sequel like it deserves a sequel it's that good it needs a sequel yeah this is one of those unfortunate things where it's like you know Microsoft and Bethesda had the money

[01:08:05] to keep this studio alive for one or two more games to see if they could turn it around make something of the IP because I mean while Hi-Fi Rush may not have nailed sales quotas a Hi-Fi Rush 2 probably would have been a big deal

[01:08:21] I mean it's hard to tell when Game Pass is a factor with these releases right you never know how well they could have done if they weren't on Game Pass especially for the price point it was being sold at

[01:08:31] I mean it seems like Tunik did well but Tunik also had a following right I think more people knew of Tunik than Hi-Fi Rush which is wild considering Tunik was what is like a handful of people and one guy one guy and a Q18 yeah and

[01:08:53] Hi-Fi Rush had 1400 credits so I mean two thirds of them were Bethesda Centimax and not Tango but even still like you're looking at 450 people at Tango like it's obviously not as cheap but when you're throwing that much money to the game maybe market it a little bit

[01:09:13] yeah just you know I mean I understand they were trying to you know maybe not get fans over hype for something I guess but I know that they had a pedigree as being Survival Horror Specialists I get it but this is something that could have been

[01:09:27] deserving of a Yanad or some more eyeballs because it really is quite good and like I said risk taking experimental interesting stuff that you don't see other companies doing and it's just it's just wild it's really I am really frustrated when

[01:09:41] games that win awards games that are good and the studio still gets canceled it's just overly frustrating and if everything that's happened in terms of tech layoffs lately the closing of Tango bothers me I think the most

[01:09:53] like I'm not even a survival horror guy I don't really care about evil within I'm sure it's great but the fact that they shut down a studio that made this is really frustrating to me because yeah I get it like it's a bummer to see

[01:10:11] a game that takes a risk and the studio gets shut down instead of surviving it you know it's really just disheartening because then it just it tells the publishers oh yeah let's just keep pumping out Call of Duty let's pump out more of the same

[01:10:29] because that's what people will buy yeah like even like when you look at the company fricking the guys who make Skyrim and fall out and they bring out Starfield a game that was 15 years in the making feels like and you know what not that great I mean yes

[01:10:47] they took some different changes with the story of the sci-fi Skyrim but man is that game really one of those games in terms of just the systems that are within the combat the maps like it just feels just like the Skyrim and they barely did much to it

[01:10:59] like it just feels like they haven't took any risks and that's weird because it's an elder scrolls in space to a degree it's kind of disappointing yeah well I I could probably gush about this game more but I don't want to spoil it in case anybody

[01:11:17] wants to play so I will leave it at that but the characters are a lot of fun it's a silly really just it really does ride the line well between sense of humor and drama and making you feel things as you play

[01:11:35] through like it does a good job of it yeah yeah I mean this is definitely one of those games where you have to play it when it's on Steam sale for 20 bucks it's hard to say no I'm sure it will go

[01:11:49] even more of a discount in the years to come it's definitely one if you see it for five bucks there's no reason not to play this one it's not lengthy it's not long it's got killer soundtrack it's fun just it's all around worth playing

[01:12:03] the shame that we're not going to get sequel but like you said earlier it's the main lead on this Joe Honest it's he's definitely a guy to follow on Twitter and to watch what he does next whether he opens a new studio

[01:12:15] a smaller team or if he does indie stuff on the side whatever he does will probably be definitely be interesting because he was definitely invested in how he made this this game and his team has definitely got some chops that you don't see in other studios for sure

[01:12:29] yeah I for me it's usually about the project more than the team but you know there are a handful of people out there that are worth following and he he is one to follow for now I think yeah all right I think we've talked

[01:12:47] about this game for a little over an hour now and we didn't met we managed to not spoil the story so whoo yeah I think we can wrap it up well I mean that's the focus of this game I think we've done this game justice yeah

[01:13:03] yeah I'm with you like the story to me is essential part of this game and I don't want to I don't want to dive too much into it like just just put the focus of the ending comment of the story is what makes this

[01:13:13] game it's the experience the journey of it is so good the characters are fun yeah it's got to play it yeah so with that I think we'll go ahead and wrap up this episode thank you guys for listening check us out on Discord find us at press B

[01:13:29] to cancel.com or press B.org for the time being thanks very least come talk to us about this game on discord or wherever you might find us leave comments here in the video on youtube or wherever

[01:13:49] let us know what you thought of this game if you enjoyed it or if you intend to play it like curious to see what people think about this because this was one that really flew under the radar for me

[01:13:59] even though I knew what it was before it came out well I knew about it before it came out but it wasn't enough and I think that was the case with a lot of people so tell us how you feel about it and

[01:14:11] with that I think we are good to close this off what do you think no I'm with you 100% if you are listening to this audio episode please do drop us a review reviews are free and they help the show out

[01:14:23] or if you're watching us on youtube yeah please drop that follow we're trying to grow up based on youtube as well but this has been a great episode for a great game alright thank you everybody have a good one see you next week