Hi-Fi Rush

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Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Scraper »

Hi-Fi Rush was a surprise game from Bethesda that was released on Gamepass last week after the Xbox conference. It came out of nowhere since they kept it's development a secret right up until release date (I'm not sure how that's a good idea).

Anyway I've downloaded it and played about 4 hours or so and it's interesting. It's cell shaded to the point where it looks like a playable cartoon. As for the gameplay it's a mix of action platformer and rhythm game. Now normally I really suck at rhythm games like Guitar Hero and the like, but Hi-Fi rush is fairly fogiving when it comes to combat and timing your attacks. Everything in the game beats to the rhythm of the music, hitting attack buttons along with the rhythm increases damage and your score for each encounter. I'm usually pretty terrible at attacking in sync with the rhythm but even when you miss the rhythm your attacks still do damage.

The game world is linear and story driven so while there are collectibles hidden throughout each level this isn't a collect-a-thon like some action platformers.

So far I would call the game a pleasant surprise which I'm enjoying, but it's by no means a game of the year contender.
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El Guapo
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by El Guapo »

The thing that caught my eye is that the main character is named "Chai", which is hebrew for "life". Any indication that that was an intentional decision?
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Blackhawk »

It's also a very old Indian word for tea, and is often used today to refer to a type of spiced tea that was extremely popular a few years ago. It's a much better known use of the word, and is appropriately trendy.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Japanese studio but John Johanas was the writer. So who knows? Is the English version the original or localized?

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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by TheMix »

Blackhawk wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:25 pm It's also a very old Indian word for tea, and is often used today to refer to a type of spiced tea that was extremely popular a few years ago. It's a much better known use of the word, and is appropriately trendy.
Still in use. My boss is Indian. He has told me many times that "chai just means tea". There is no such thing as "chai tea" in India. It's all just "chai". We use "chai tea" to mean a type of spiced tea (drinking some right at this moment :D ). He did say that the tea varies in India depending on the region; but that they don't really have "spiced tea". More that different regions add different spices to their black tea - and it is all just "chai" in that region. Seemed kind of confusing to me, but it apparently worked fine for him.

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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by El Guapo »

TheMix wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:57 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:25 pm It's also a very old Indian word for tea, and is often used today to refer to a type of spiced tea that was extremely popular a few years ago. It's a much better known use of the word, and is appropriately trendy.
Still in use. My boss is Indian. He has told me many times that "chai just means tea". There is no such thing as "chai tea" in India. It's all just "chai". We use "chai tea" to mean a type of spiced tea (drinking some right at this moment :D ). He did say that the tea varies in India depending on the region; but that they don't really have "spiced tea". More that different regions add different spices to their black tea - and it is all just "chai" in that region. Seemed kind of confusing to me, but it apparently worked fine for him.
Either way seems like an odd character name. If the writer isn't Jewish, though, makes the Hebrew word less likely as an origin.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

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No idea on if his name has a double meaning. The game certainly has nothing to do with tea and i haven't picked up any other hebrew clues, but I haven't looked for them either.
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Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Isgrimnur »

Well, if he finds some tea, I hope hebrews it.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Alefroth »

I was surprised when I learned it was the same studio that did the Evil Within games.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Blackhawk »

TheMix wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:57 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:25 pm It's also a very old Indian word for tea, and is often used today to refer to a type of spiced tea that was extremely popular a few years ago. It's a much better known use of the word, and is appropriately trendy.
Still in use. My boss is Indian. He has told me many times that "chai just means tea". There is no such thing as "chai tea" in India. It's all just "chai". We use "chai tea" to mean a type of spiced tea (drinking some right at this moment :D ). He did say that the tea varies in India depending on the region; but that they don't really have "spiced tea". More that different regions add different spices to their black tea - and it is all just "chai" in that region. Seemed kind of confusing to me, but it apparently worked fine for him.
Because the chai we all know and love should actually be called masala chai ('tea with mixed spice'.) It did originate in India, and yeah - it varies from region to region.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

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Isgrimnur wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:04 pm Well, if he finds some tea, I hope hebrews it.
:lol:
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Scraper »

El Guapo wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:28 pm
TheMix wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:57 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:25 pm It's also a very old Indian word for tea, and is often used today to refer to a type of spiced tea that was extremely popular a few years ago. It's a much better known use of the word, and is appropriately trendy.
Still in use. My boss is Indian. He has told me many times that "chai just means tea". There is no such thing as "chai tea" in India. It's all just "chai". We use "chai tea" to mean a type of spiced tea (drinking some right at this moment :D ). He did say that the tea varies in India depending on the region; but that they don't really have "spiced tea". More that different regions add different spices to their black tea - and it is all just "chai" in that region. Seemed kind of confusing to me, but it apparently worked fine for him.
Either way seems like an odd character name. If the writer isn't Jewish, though, makes the Hebrew word less likely as an origin.
I played the game a bit more this morning. Upon paying attention I think Chai's name is clearly a reference to tea. Every good character in the game has a name associated with something edible. There's Chai, Peppermint, CNMN and Macaron so far.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Scraper »

And I like the game and the combat but there are a lot QuickTime events (because it's a rhythm game) and they are very hard for me. For some reason they spread the button prompts all over the screen with no rhyme or reason as to their placement and it makes it hard to see which button you need to press next. Literally God of War 3 figured out this wasn't a good idea 13 years ago when they always put the quick time buttons in the same spot which also corresponded with their placement on the controller. It made the quick time segments much easier.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by wonderpug »

I'm an hour or two in and liking it a lot as well. My main niggle right now is that there's not enough combat encounters compared to "walk around and smash open boxes" time.

And yeah, I'd agree with you on the QTE symbol placement. I failed an easy one recently on my first try because I didn't even see there was a final Y button prompt that had appeared on the screen.
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Re: Hi-Fi Rush

Post by Scraper »

I finished this up over the weekend. I stand by my thoughts that it's a good game but I don't think it's a 9/10 like a lot of the review sites have been giving it.

This might be controversial but I think people are so starved for a good Xbox exclusive that they're willing to look past all of this game's short comings and give it glowing scores. Heck Gamingtrend gave it a 95 which means it's damn near perfect. Trust me this game is not prefect.

The biggest issue I have with the game is the level design. To put it plainly the levels are all extremely similar and very old school, they have a PS2/Gamecube era quality to them. Literally every level has you traveling down extremely illogical hallways that eventually lead to a square or round room where you will have to clear the enemies to proceed. Rinse repeat throughout each level until you get to the boss. Apart from the graphics and art style the game is a huge step backwards when it comes to level design. That is probably my biggest complaint about the game other than the overly complicated and hap hazard placement of the quick time buttons.

Again, I enjoyed the game and found it to be worth playing. But it's definitely not the 9/10 that reviewers want it to be. I would give it a 7/10. Which for me means it's a good game. I honestly think they could make a sequel that is much better than this one if they just improve their level design.
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