The game is quite long for how limited the game is. Combat had an interesting rhythm gimmick but it should have been a 5-6 hour, tight experience, not 10-12. It really outstayed its welcome for me given that the game is just combat arenas and cutscenes.
Apart from that combat could be broken by spamming companion abilities once you opened them all, it didn’t feel like there was any reason to use different combos than 2 or 3 that worked fine.
I end up with the feeling that the hype around the game comes mainly from the unfair closure of a studio that did something that wasn’t just following trends.
People hold the game up as an example of what’s wrong with the cash grabbing nature of big publishers in the industry but I just don’t think it’s a good game at all.
mohab@piefed.social 1 day ago
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 High-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.
overload@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Fair enough feedback.
I think it’s up to the game designers to motivate certain playstyles. If there was a reason beyond the personal self imposed challenge to attain S rank in every fight, that would be a motivation, but there isn’t a style rank cutoff for completion.
To be more accurate, I refrained from spamming abilities for 90% of the game and did use more than 3 attack combos. But the option to just do that was there. It was not my criticism of the game anyway.
I should say I approached the game with an open mind, maybe a little too hopeful by the hype, and I grew up in the 5th/6th gen of consoles, so understand the game is a PS2 throwback in terms of the design.
Never have I given DMC a fair shake, maybe that’s the kind of audience the game was going for.
Ultimately yeah, I’m saying the game isn’t for me. But I often hear the game in discussions of what the industry is missing in terms of game design, and I don’t think I agree that it’s worth that level of praise.
mohab@piefed.social 1 day ago
I'm gonna go ahead and agree with you on this: Hi-Fi Rush was released in 2023—22 years after the first Devil May Cry game and we're still using some variation of the same goddamn style meter with little to no improvement. This needs to be addressed by action game designers at some point.
And tying ranks to points to unlock moves faster is not a strong motive, IMO, because you typically end up unlocking everything in your first playthrough anyway. What about "style to regain health" or something? Gungrave has a similar mechanic with demolition shots.
On the other hand, I still think part of it is on the player. I think ignoring the style meter while playing an action game is akin to having no desire to Catch'em All™ while playing a Pokémon game. Like, you don't have to complete the Pokédex, but this is kind of understood to be the ultimate goal and is in itself the reward, or at the very least, it's probably on your mind while playing through the game.