Apart from that combat could be broken by spamming companion abilities once you unlocked them all, it didn't feel like there was any reason to use different combos than 2 or 3 that worked fine.

That right here is sus, TBH. Let me ask you:

1. Did you play on Rhythm Master?
2. Did you try to S-Rank levels?

If you did not, then this is pretty much the good ol' DMCV dilemma: game is so uninspired if you are not internally motivated—no bun intended—to style on your enemies, but styling comes out a bit more naturally on higher difficulties… except the typical non-action game fan will play a game once on normal difficulty and move on, so the real depth of the combat system is superfluous to almost everyone who played it.

Not that Hi-Fi Rush's combat is as deep or wide as DMCV, but it's more or less the same underlying concept here in terms of player experience.

In general, this type of action game requires some kind of intrinsic motivation—we could argue this is a design flaw, and I'd be inclined to agree to an extent; however, you're approaching this with way too much cynicism for no apparent reason, I think.

It just sounds like this game isn't for you, TBH, which's fine, it just doesn't make it a bad game. Also complaining about how limited the game is only to announce one sentence later you've been mashing the same two or three combos throughout the entire game kind of undercuts your criticism.

And let me be clear: your experience with the game is valid; I just think the logic behind your criticisms doesn't totally hold up.

Low skill floor and high ceiling. The game won’t force you to have fun, it expects you to want to

I loved hi-fi rush. I loved the soundtrack, I loved how satisfying the combat system was while still being challenging to pull off consistently well. I always felt I was incentivised to vary my combos because of the DMC-like style meter. I loved the old-school 3d platformer feel as that was nostalgic for me. It was also just such a joyful game. Ok the story has down beats but overall it's a really happy game. I absolutely loved my time with it.

If you're a casual player, have you SEEN the aesthetics? The game looks fabulous and is just pure fun. Of course the majority loves it. Persona 5 is a pretty mediocre game in terms of strategy, and yet it's carried by its style into being one of most popular JRPGs. I quit Hi-Fi Rush after the main story, but I think it was worth the experience alone, and I felt like the bosses were spicing things up enough.

If you're a more into skill, of course that's there too. It's an "easy to play, hard to master" game like many others, and what I'd argue most games should be. The final boss kicked my ass, and I generally couldn't manage consistent S ranks in the later parts of the game. The game didn't grab me enough that I'd want to master the combos, timings and replay stages multiple times, but that's just me, I felt the same about Metal Gear Rising and still had a lot of fun as a casual player.

On the other hand, last year I spent some extra time in Shadow Generations and a lot more time in Spark the Electric Jester 3 to get higher ranks, despite the games being very simple, because memorising the stages and replaying them was just fun.

nah, i absolutely adored it

HiFi Rush is a pretty good game.

Honestly, I agree. The game is really short and really simple. The gameplay loop just isn't that rewarding for me, because I couldn't care less about scoring 100% on murder difficulty.

HiFi Rush is basically Guitar Hero with a different set of visuals. It was made for completionists who like to learn the ultimate moveset, because some people really enjoy that sort of game. I personally just consider it mediocre timewasting for a few hours on the level of a mobile game, except MUCH more expensive.

Apart from that combat could be broken by spamming companion abilities once you unlocked them all.

That's the big point for me. Ive seen another one play the game this way and I agree with that the combat can be broken this way. It propably is the most effective way to get through combats but its IMO not the must fun one and does not embrace the intended gameplay flow.id even go as far as saying that this way actually works against the intended vibe and since the combat is such a mayor gameplay part of the game I can see how a dissapointing combat might ruin the whole experience for you.

This strategy is one of the prime examples for me where adapt gamers will optimize the fun out of a game because they focus on efficiency rather than fun.

It's online-only, so once I can get my hand on a permanant copy, I'll let you know what I think ;)

I couldn't finish the game myself. I thought it was a good game for sure, but it just isn't something that I like. I'm not much of a hack-n-slasher. As far as rhythm game genre mashups go, my favorite is still Crypt of the Necrodancer

Microsoft did, that’s why they canned the studio. I think game has a niche cult following but overall it sold poorly.