Hi-Fi Rush

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***Hi-Fi Rush*** is a rhythm-based action game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks for the Windows and Xbox Series X/S platforms. It was announced on January 25, 2023 and released worldwide the same day.

The game follows self-proclaimed "future rock star" Chai (voiced by Robbie Daymond in English and Hiro Shimono in Japanese), whose music player is accidentally embedded in his chest during experimental cybernetic surgery, allowing him to sense the rhythm of the world. Labelled a "defect" and hunted by the corporation that transformed him, Chai bands together with new friends to defeat the company's executives and put a stop to their plans. *Hi-Fi Rush* includes licensed music from bands such as The Black Keys and Nine Inch Nails.

## Overview

*Hi-Fi Rush* stars Chai as a wannabe rockstar that fights against the forces of Vandelay Technologies, alongside his allies. While participating as one of the volunteers for Project Armstrong, during the procedure, Chai receives a robotic arm, but also unintentionally becomes fused with his music player. This causes him to be labeled as a "defect", making him a target for deactivation by the company. Now with the corporation designating him as a prime target, Chai must defend himself alongside the help of his allies to take the bosses down.

## Gameplay

The game revolves around Chai traversing and between the different departments of Vandelay Technologies, fighting against the respective bosses at the end of the respective level. Everything in the game, from the environment to the enemies to Chai himself is synced up with the music. This is most notable with combat, with attacks and dodges matching the beat of the current track. The game isn't locked to the music track and there are no penalties for playing off-key, but timing attacks to the beat grants increased damage and effects. Chai can differentiate using Light and Heavy attacks having different outcomes depending if the player delays the moves or not.

Chai can also collect Batteries to utilize his Reverb Gauge, functioning as a super meter of sort. Chai is capable of performing Special Attacks once the gauge accumulates (every Special Attack having different Gauge requirements), which then can be used in battle. Supers can vary between damaging blows to healing himself, but the gauge can only be saved up until the current battle ends. Chai is capable of having two supers at a time, being able to swap them out at either before the stage begins or at certain points in the stage.

Chai is also capable of summoning Assists to interact with the surrounding environment throughout the stages. This interaction is required to either remove an obstacle is Chai's path or access areas normally blocked off or unreachable without their help. They can also be summoned in battle too, being able to break through certain barriers or aid him with combos. Not every Assist is available initially however, with some parts of the stage requiring a replay to access them.

Some parts of the stage include Chai riding on rails. Depending on the obstacle, Chai will have to either move, attack or move to the next rail.

## Story

In a waiting room, Chai jams to music on his MP3 until he is called by a LU-C1LLE; he is waiting to join as an applicant to Project Armstrong, a cybernetic limb replacement program. Despite Chai's obvious slacker nature and least-than-impressive profile paper, the LU-C1LLE gives him his ID and sends him off to explore the company campus of Vandelay Technologies. He heads into a venue for the program, where Vandelay's CEO, Kale, sends the applicants off with an uplifting speech. Unwilling to wait, Chai cuts the massive line to be one of the early birds, as a security robot directs him to change clothes and turn off his music player. Chai, now in a hospital gown, walks into a machine, whereupon it pairs him with an LXDUST-75 robotic arm to replace his disabled right arm, but it designates him as a garbage collector. As Chai makes his way to the procedure, a displeased Kale complains to fellow department heads, Mimosa of Marketing and Rekka of Production, that he doesn't approve of the current applicants due to their background (especially Chai), warning them not to make any mistakes---especially not to make any defects. Kale throws away Chai's music player as the young man is strapped to the surgery table and a press machine scans him to start the procedure, the small device lands onto Chai's chest, and before he could process the situation, the surgery begins.

Some time later, the press machine lifts as Chai is catapulted off the table after waking up from the long procedure. After taking a gander at his new arm, Chai makes his way to the exit, retrieves his clothes, and gets dressed. However, just as he leaves, he is stopped by three SBR-001s, who examine Chai and discover a foreign object warning, branding him a defect. As the two other robots prepare to take him in, Chai's arm summons an electromagnetic grabber stick, causing the SBRs to mistake this as him resisting persecution. Once Chai takes a hit on the torso by a laser saber, the power unit for his arm (where his MP3 now sits) starts to generate an invigorating beat, causing the grabber to start shuddering as it attracts various pieces of scrap lying around to fashion itself into the shape of an Epiphone-brand guitar. With this new weapon, Chai fights back and dispatches the security.

After the fight, Chai discovers the music-powered energy core in his chest, putting together the pieces on how the music player powers up his arm and synchronizes his attacks to the beat. He laments the feeling of the music making him feel as if he's performing onstage to an audience, imagining himself in the same environment; this introduces the player to the first tutorial on Light and Heavy Attacks, and how to perform said attacks on the beat. As Chai revels the audience cheering his name, the scene is yet revealed to be a hallucination, where two more SBR-001s watch confusedly. One of them clears their throat to get Chai's attention, and after a failed attempt of diverting the robots, Chai summons the grabber and rebuilds his "guitar" for another fight!

With the security disabled, Chai makes his escape, being threatened by Rekka appearing in an announcement, ordering all security to attack him in sight. Chai then meets Smidge, a robot fridge that gives Chai neat advice about fighting on the beat, even giving him extra practice for his Light and Heavy Attacks (with a minor but obvious dose of creepiness). After a bit of platforming, three more SBR-001s watch a cat lick itself until Chai distracts them, allowing the cat to escape. Once he defeats them, Chai laments his next move, until a female voice calls out to him and asks if he needs help as thanks for saving her cat. He agrees, but before she could continue, Chai interrupts her, asking to speed things up. She agrees, giving Chai a few platforms to jump onto.

Once he gets into a room, he searches for the owner of the voice, revealed to be coming from the cat from before. The girl explains she is able to speak through her robot cat, named 808, but Chai states that he may be better off on his own. The girl tries to explain that something is off with the company, but when Chai places his hand on 808's head, he accidentally synchronizes to her as her host. As a result, 808 attains a ball-like form. The girl angrily interrogates Chai on what he's done, but he ponders the same beat from before, initiating the second tutorial for the introduction to Beat Hits.

After completing the second tutorial, Chai decides to rethink the girl's offer to help, but in exchange for borrowing 808 for the time being. Despite her apprehension, the girl agrees. Chai activates a Combo Switch, sending him up an elevator and initiates another fight with security.

After Chai clears the way, the girl directs him to an exit in Production's QA Center, warning him that they may be expecting him. However, the overconfident Chai fails to listen to this. Once he jumps onto a silo, its support beams give way, giving Chai a one-way ticket to Pain Express as he suffers a brutal fall. Recovering from the plummet, Chai introduces himself to the girl, but she refuses to tell him her name. As Chai continues on, he stumbles into a battery production factory, and once the manufacturing completes, he curiously touches the battery, causing his arm to be imbued with electric power, introducing the player to Special Attacks.

Chai then enters a production line, but the power goes out. The player is introduced into the rhythm-based quick time events, where Chai hits the generator back into full power. He fights his way to the QA Center, where he (despite being warned beforehand) ends up into a trap set by Rekka, who reveals that, as per the Project Armstrong EULA's fine print, recalling defects is part of the job. To get rid of Chai, Rekka unleashes the quality assessor, the destructive QA-1MIL. After an arduous battle, Chai defeats the violent robot, narrowly escaping an explosion caused from a last-ditch self-destruct sequence.

After escaping the QA Center, Chai is led to a hideout, where he falls into a rope snare trap set by the girl, named Peppermint. She discovers the source of Chai's powers and frees him from the trap. Peppermint negotiates with Chai that she will help him escape the island if he helps her look into a conspiracy behind Project Armstrong, to which he reluctantly agrees. This introduces the player to the Hideout, as well as the Shop to buy new attacks, Special Attacks and items. Once Chai was ready, Peppermint explains that the conspiracy involves a top-secret program known as SPECTRA. According to her inside source, the project is only known by the department heads. She sends Chai to sneak back into Production and infiltrate Rekka's office to steal her files on SPECTRA.

Once he arrives outside the entrance, it doesn't take long for their low profile to be blown by Security, amd even Rekka personally alerts the department of Chai's appearance. As he continues on his mission, discovering the magnet link in his arm in the process, he asks Peppermint about SPECTRA. She explains that the project involves an AI, and notes that a project like this was never kept under wraps before. However, Chai reprimands her, thinking he's following a "dark web hunch." Peppermint tries to argue further, but Chai cuts her off. He soon ends up on lockdown by Rekka, and after he destroys more security, Peppermint leads him to an alternative but longer route, but Chai decides to use his magnet to ride a transit rail. As Chai boasts his excitement to Peppermint, she directs him up to find an AIR-1N drop a bomb, where its resulting explosion breaks the track, catapulting Chai and 808 into a back room, inadvertently getting them closer to Rekka's office. Moving on, Chai finds a electric barrier blocking the path, but Peppermint shows off one of 808's hidden features; she temporarily appears beside Chai, dispelling the barrier, leaving him in awe. After some more platforming, Chai closes in on Rekka's office, where the two argue about Chai ruining their low profile and allowing Rekka to know they're after her.

He soon arrives at Rekka's office, where the boss herself appears on cue from her hype man. Challenging Chai, she removes her gloves, revealing metallic arms with strength-increasing hydraulics. Chai brandishes his guitar and fights Rekka; although she uses a variety of ways of attack him, such as supercharging herself with electricity and even using service pipes, Chai eventually defeats her, leaving behind her personal passkey, which Peppermint uses to discover that SPECTRA is programmed to use Project Armstrong's robotic implants as a back door for mind control.

When a mysterious button starts ringing, Chai presses it, answering a group call with the five other bosses: Zanzo, Korsica, Mimosa, Roquefort, and Kale. Chai shows off his victory against Rekka, but accidentally reveals Peppermint's involvement, forcing her to abruptly end the call and drag Chai away from the scene. Back at the Hideout, Peppermint scolds Chai for recklessly calling her out to the other department heads, forcing her to rethink her entire plan. She soon shows Chai an in-a-nutshell demo of how SPECTRA works by commanding Chai to insult himself and compliment Peppermint. He asks if Vandelay could use SPECTRA for research, but Peppermint tells him they indeed can, so she must figure out how to stop that. Once Chai attempts to leaves, Peppermint sends a threatening glare at him, scaring him into going all in on the mission. She then introduces the special Chips that give Chai special effects.

Peppermint announces that their next target is in the underground R&D department, run by Zanzo, noting his perfectionist flaws in running the department. Their plan is to infiltrate the branch's AI Labs, find and destroy SPECTRA, and escape. Chai makes his way underground and fights his way to R&D. Upon entering, a LU-C1LLE announces that access to the labs will be prohibited as some research tests are being run. Chai decides to go into the test room, where Zanzo initiates the first test for some new security lasers. Before Peppermint suggests being called in, Chai gets an idea, leading the player into a tutorial for the Parry. Using this new skill, Chai counters the laser blasts, destroying the mechanism. Zanzo reprimands one of the programmer robots for their failure but congratulates Chai on surviving the test (albeit not knowing his identity due to an unknown hacker disrupting the cameras). As Zanzo's programmers attempt to fix the hack, Chai is left confused after discovering that this isn't Peppermint's doing. Chai enters the second test room, where he falls into another obvious trap to become a punching bag for Zanzo's creations. Using the Parry, Chai survives the second test.

Chai makes his way to the next test room, but the hacker strikes again as the programmer fails to counter the hack affecting the door in front of him. Peppermint then tells Chai she had received a private e-mail revealing a side route to take, leaving them both even more confused. In the third and final test room, Zanzo tests Chai's battle skills, but after defeating a wave, Zanzo tries the lasers again, but are subsequently destroyed by Chai's Parry. Zanzo unleashes one last robot on our hero--the BRUT-1L, a tall robot with retractable saws on its hands. Once Chai defeats it, Zanzo gives his congratulations before letting Chai out of the test room, leaving he and Peppermint to wander who was picking on Zanzo with the relentless hacking. As Chai closes in on the AI Labs, Peppermint informs him that Zanzo took over R&D after Kale took charge, going from their charitable nature to protecting their bottom line. Chai's ongoing venture is impeded as he runs into Zanzo, who expresses interest in Chai's musical powers, thus sending in yet another wave of robots to test his abilities. Once Chai defeats them, Zanzo sends in a new robot, outfitted with a reinforced armor dubbed Z-Shielding. Chai nor Peppermint are unable to penetrate the armor; Peppermint suggests a different approach, so Chai disarms his weapon and tries to negotiate with the robot, who only throws a devastating punch that sends Chai crashing through a series of walls while bitterly regretting his idea. He slides onto a glass platform, which breaks upon his feet hitting them, and he falls deep into the facility, where he sees nothing but darkness. Then, a pair of sinister red eyes emerge, stepping closer and closer to Chai and 808 until he reveals he's been looking for him, causing Chai to panic.

The lights turn on to reveal a large yet compassionate man and a robot drawing an expression on its face, the latter criticizing the repercussions of Chai's failed attempt of negotiation. Peppermint rushes in to find Chai, stopping and noticing the man, leaving Chai even more confused. Peppermint introduces Macaron, who was her inside source from before. Despite being an employee, he was formerly the head of R&D before Zanzo usurped him. Macaron also reveals he was behind the hacking fiasco at the test labs, wanting to mess with Zanzo purposefully, but his robot companion suggests that may need to do more than that. As a pacifist, Macaron tries to find a different solution, but a reinforcement of stress causes him to easily demolish a Z-Shielded wall with a single punch, finding another useful ally for Chai and Peppermint. Macaron talks with Chai about his nervousness toward fighting but introduces the upgrade module for the Chips. Chai also meets Macaron's companion, CNMN.

And so, Peppermint announces the next phase of their plan to continue their siege through R&D, using Chai's assumed death as a cover. Upon making his way from Macaron's lab, he encounters a Z-Shielded wall, which marks the perfect time for the tutorial on using Macaron. Reaching a large drill, Chai climbs up while Macaron reveals more about SPECTRA; only Kale and the other department heads have access, but Korsica only has limited permission. Chai returns to the room near the AI Labs, where the robot plays tic-tac-toe against itself before noticing Chai. In the ensuing bout, Macaron uses his incredible strength to destroy the robot's Z-Shielding, allowing Chai to defeat it.

Chai reaches the AI Labs, finding it locked. Peppermint tells Chai to find another path, her attention diverted from a personality test by CNMN. He takes an alternate route to the AR Labs. Her results were not what she expected, as she is labeled unsympathetic and hotheaded, her reaction only proving CNMN's point. Peppermint tries to get Chai to vouch for her, but he decides to stay out of the affair. Upon calming down, Peppermint realizes where Chai is, and a large lens in the room Chai enters glows a sinister red before Zanzo reveals himself, upset at not witnessing his creation's defeat. In an act to make up for it, he activates his newest invention, the Vandelay Alternate Reality Recreation Technology (VARRT for short). Chai blasts through two tough waves of enemies before the simulation degrades, and he rhythmically slams against the lens to destroy it, decimating a quarter of the budget. As R&D pulls in more money from the yearly bonuses, Peppermint reveals that Zanzo is burning through his budget with the overly spontaneous changes.

Events after the main story reveal that SPECTRA has begun restarting by itself, with the AI appearing to be a replica of Kale. However, SPECTRA is abruptly turned off after a SCR-UB accidentally pulls the power plug. Chai declares the problem solved and leaves a warning note not to touch the plug.

In the game's first major update, Vandelay HR sends Chai an arcade machine left over from the defunct department Vandelay Gameworks, as thanks for his efforts in saving the company. With its completion, the arcade machine is revealed to contain coordinates to Vandelay Gameworks, but with all of its employees deactivated or damaged beyond repair, Chai can only read about the department's chaotic history and "obtain" the last of Zanzo's gift baskets.

## Reception

The game received generally favorable reviews upon release from critics, who praised its visual style, art direction, humor, characters, and combat, though some noted its hard-to-follow combat, platforming level design, and limited soundtrack.

## Trivia

* The game doesn't take place on Earth as we know it. Though references to mythology and real-world animals imply it is an alternate version of it, the characters don't actually come from any existing countries, instead having accents that resemble real-world ones. For example, though Korsica's accent resembles Scottish, Scotland as a country doesn't exist and instead she comes from a region that underwent similar voice quirks - something her voice actress describes as "accent erosion". This decision was made as an attempt to keep the game's cast "international" but avoiding unintentional real-life comparisons.
	+ This can be also seen in screens and monuments with globes - "Earth" consists of one large continent and hundreds of smaller islands and archipelagos.
	+ Korsica references the Trojan Horse, implying at least some of its history is shared with the real world. A divergence exists before the events of the game in the form of a global energy crisis solved by Roxanne, but no details about it are known.
* Many of its characters' names are named after foods and beverages.
* The 2D animated cutscenes were made by Titmouse under director Douglas de Azevedo, with a mix of western and anime techniques. They were made utilizing a metronome to sync up with the soundtrack until it was properly finalized, so the cutscenes would transition perfectly from 2D to 3D. Some character designs also slightly change in 2D, to accomodate for the style's detailing.
	+ Both the game and its 2D animated cutscenes were inspired by the anime *FLCL* and the movie *Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse*, though the latter appeared sometime into its development.

## External Links

* Official Website
* Standard Edition of Hi-Fi Rush on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox, Windows, Steam, and EGS.

## Reference

1. ↑ Skinner, Tom (2023-01-26). 'Evil Within' studio releases rhythm-action game 'Hi-Fi Rush' (en-GB).
2. ↑ Tomakic, Izabela (2023-01-26). All Hi-Fi Rush English voice actors (en-US).
3. ↑ Behind the Voice Actors of Hi-Fi RUSH (en-US) (2023-01-26).
4. ↑ Peters, Jay (2023-01-25). Hi-Fi Rush, a new rhythm-action game from the developers of The Evil Within, is out today (en-US).
5. ↑ Eggplant Podcast 111: Finding Your Groove with John Johanas
6. ↑ Interview with Douglas de Azevedo