![]() ![]() ![]() It’s an entirely unique fusion of rhythm and hack-and-slash action, turning Devil May Cry into a music game. It’s not a run-of-the-mill AAA game featuring an expansive open world and obsessive hooks meant to keep consumers logging in (one could argue that Tango’s own Ghostwire: Tokyo fell victim to some of those trappings). ![]() Hi-Fi Rush itself feels like a rejection of the capitalistic restrictions that major studios like Tango Gameworks often face. That theme isn’t just reflected in its story. It’s a message that feels especially relevant to the year it’s releasing in, as the gaming industry inches closer to mass unionization. One of my favorite text logs is a poem written by a maintenance robot forced to ceaselessly clean company floors that never get dirty. The dystopia is filled with corporate propaganda posters and lore logs that paint a picture of the world’s exploited working class via loaded gags. Biting satire is baked into its colorful world, as it makes some heavy themes more digestible for a range of age groups. Though its story can be a bit “anti-capitalism 101” at times - and loaded with the same quippy humor that plagues games like Forspoken - much of its narrative decisions work in the context of its light aesthetic. That kicks off an alt-rock-fueled journey to take down the company’s top brass with the help of some allies and a metallic guitar blade. Set in a metropolis run by an oppressive megacorporation, the story focuses on a worker named Chai who’s deemed defective after having a music player fused to his chest. Narratively, Hi-Fi Rush is a cyberpunk game wrapped up in cartoon aesthetics. It’s the rare major studio game that breaks free from the monotony of a stagnating medium to deliver something that truly, earnestly rocks. It has all the style of an anime, the long-lost creative energy of a GameCube game, and the bright-eyed exuberance of a 2000s teen at their first indie rock show. Hi-Fi Rush rockets to the top of the rhythm-action genre thanks to a stellar combat system that goes far beyond simple beat-matching. Steady beats serve as an invisible force that powers its vibrant cyberpunk world, but I can hardly ever feel that restriction in a musical quest that plays like a creative improv session. Rather, everything about it is built around that music, like a band naturally locking in after a drummer’s opening count-in. Tango Gameworks’ rhythm-action game, which surprise-launched on PC and Xbox last week, doesn’t just throw players a good playlist and ask them to keep time over it. While some music games could stand to learn a thing from that video, Hi-Fi Rush is a model student. Then, she switches over to the rhythm, replicating the actual pattern of notes that weave around that tempo. In one clip I stopped to watch, the teacher starts by pointing out a song’s beat, steadily tapping out its tempo like a metronome. For a few weeks, all of them seemingly latched onto the same trend as they put out quick videos highlighting the difference between beat and rhythm, two specific terms that get mistakenly interchanged with one another. So there is a direction.Last year, the app’s unknowable algorithm briefly decided that it should only serve me reels from music teachers (a passive-aggressive move, if you ask this self-taught guitarist). Some of the people I work with have their own style, maybe we built it together, but they do. Then you just do fit and complete the Hi Fi Rush Chai shirt moreover I love this look. I keep in touch with brands and they send me picks and I know what works for someone and what they will like. Dressing others is actually much easier than dressing yourself. Yes, it works for some people, and sometimes I have something that works for them, and sometimes I use it, but I don’t think so. Hi Fi Rush Chai shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt It’s not about what I’m doing, but how I feel at that moment, on that day. I think what I love about styles and clothes is that they allow you to grow with them instead of being bound by something because that’s who you are. I’ve gone in so many directions and it’s always changing. I used to be a drab, all-black, full-faced man, past the Hi Fi Rush Chai shirt moreover I love this age of the nude, the age of the oversized. How has your style evolved since your first gig? Is there anything you started doing that you just stopped doing? OH. ![]()
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