Hi-Fi Rush Interview Sheds Light on the Surprise Action Adventure Hit
Feb. 3, 2023Hi-Fi Rush Interview Sheds Light on the Surprise Action Adventure Hit
Hi-Fi Rush is an action-adventure that was released out of the blue to critical acclaim. A developer interview sheds more light on the choices behind success.
Hi-Fi Rush is great. Its success is highlighted even more since the title seemingly come out of nowhere, and from a developer that is not traditionally known for this genre. Tango Gameworks’ action adventure traded spooky and terrorizing vibes ofEvil Withinand Ghostwire Tokyo for a beautifully cel-shaded rockstar’s journey.
An exclusive interview with IGN shed some light on the title, and how it was announced. Specifically how Hi-Fi Rush was released just 5 hours after the surprise announcement. And it has reached critical acclaim.
Players are thrust into the shoes of Chai, a budding rockstar that has been branded as a “defect” by evil corporations. After suddenly having a music player embedded into his chest, Chai gets to control a robotic arm. He then gains the power to attack things while going with the beat.
This creates exceptionally stylish action combat scenarios that are sure to get your head rocking to the beat. Chai’s hits will need to be perfectly timed to the music, giving off a sight to behold and music to experience.
It also helps that Hi-Fi Rush is really gorgeous. Its cel-shaded art style invokes memories of games of the PlayStation 2 era, where tons of games took on that look due to computing power. Hi-Fi Rush is absolutely full of vibrant, rich colors that pop out and invoke many unique sights. Thick outlines on almost all important objects and characters make it seem like you’re watching a Saturday morning cartoon, just like in the old days.
So how did this sudden hit come to light? Developers Tango Gameworks is definitely known for dark, gritty, and serious horror games such as Ghostwire Tokyo and both of theEvil Within games. Having the studio come up with a colorful, musical adventure is a far cry from what they’re used to. “I think it was important to just show that we can do something more than horror and do it well”
Game director John Johanas definitely wanted a change of pace from creating horrific titles. The game’s premise wherein attacks are perfectly timed to the beat comes from the idea of game and movie trailers that do the same thing. The sense of impact exuded by that extremely simple yet effective effect is quite large.
The scope of the beat is also not limited to just the combat, but to almost the entire game itself. Hi-Fi Rush’s cutscenes are also perfectly timed to the music’s rhythm. According to Johanas, this was an extremely challenging undertaking as the team had to basically rework the way that they did animations.
Johanas also briefly touches upon the choice of the cel-shaded art style. It was definitely the idea to create a game that “feels like a throwback, but not retro”. They also wanted to create something entertaining, visually remarkable, and memorable. It seems like they were able to nail this aspect perfectly.
Definitely, the other biggest highlight of Hi-Fi Rush is the game’s killer soundtrack. Chai will take on robotic drones, and other foes in rhythm-based combat that need moves expertly timed to the beat in order to deal the maximum amount of punishment possible.
Chai and the players will rock it out to a mixture of original tracks, but also hear some familiar songs from Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, The Joy Formidable, and more. It was actually Johanas that selected the majority of the musical scores in the game, as pushed by the team.
He thus tried to go back into the late 90s to early 2000s for nostalgic reasons. This was also the era in which the original PlayStation and Xbox as well as the Dreamcast (RIP) were at peak popularity.
Tango’s sudden and unexpected “shadow drop” release for Hi-Fi Rush has also been one of the biggest conversations in gaming right now. In a day and age where news cycles, hype pieces, and torrents of previews and trailers are the norm, it is quite unheard of for a game to come out with little to no marketing.
The idea to silently launch the game after the Xbox showcase was the marketing team’s idea. Since Hi-Fi Rush is nothing like what Tango’s known for, they wanted to create a very special way of announcing the game.
Xbox Game Passalso helped quite a lot in the developer’s confidence in trying something new, just like it did forPentiment. If not for the platform, people would more likely lean on skepticism of a product since the developers never worked on a cartoony action game before.
Hi-Fi Rush is available now on Xbox and PC (via Windows Store, Epic Games, and of course, Steam). It is also available on GamePass. The standard edition is selling for $29.99, while the digital deluxe is going for $39.99 instead.
For more news, check outAtomic Heart Gets Extensive Gameplay Overview TrailerandHogwarts Legacy Global Release Times Explained.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
