I'm so glad a friend recommended this game to me. It already was on my radar, since I got it in some humble choice, but I hadn't touched it yet, and wouldn't have for the foreseeable future otherwise.

Well, it was an absolute blast!

It took a bit to get used to the rhythm style combat, but once I got in the zone it actually wasn't too hard. I played at normal difficulty, as I usually do, and I found that being balanced enough for a first playthrough, not too frustrating but also not too easy and therefore boring.

The combat system is great, being a Japanese style hack and slash with rhythm and timing requirements. It’s easy to pick up but hard to master if someone actually wants to learn all the combos / special attacks and get the highest scores at the hardest difficulties. The main story isn't very long, but the game has tons of replayability in the form of challenges, higher difficulty and so on, therefore it fits both for a casual playthrough and for more “grindy” players who want to perfect games.

The story is well written, with fun and original characters, and we'll get to know them and their backgrounds. Bosses are also well written and each section of the game will climax up until the boss fight.
All the boss encounters are different in mechanics and they all felt new and original.

The game has an iconic cartoonish style, with a futuristic cyberpunk theme. Everything is masterfully designed, from the levels and landscape, always different and often really epic, to the characters, who are very peculiar and detailed. Some of them actually blew me away, such as, for example, the “werewolf” boss, which at some point we will fight in a huge place full of money (most likely a reference to Scrooge McDuck’s Money Bin).

Locations are varied and a lot of effort was put into designing detailed rich levels, full of environmental storytelling elements. Colors are vibrant and there are lots of moving elements which give the feeling of a living, breathing world.
Although that's gorgeous, sometimes I had a bit of a sensory overload caused by all the moving stuff (the world also “breathes” to the rhythm of the soundtrack). Nonetheless, the overall game presentation was really breathtaking.

Finally the soundtrack, containing a variety of songs both original and licensed, is masterfully crafted and integrated into the game. For me, it reached the absolute maximum during the section where we fight on the notes of “Invaders must die” by Prodigy, but I also loved the boss fight with “Wolfgang's 5th Symphony”, among others. In general the music pumped me a lot and I was keeping the rhythm all the time with my foot.

In conclusion, this game is an absolute gem, a must play for anyone! A true pity that after the success of the game Microsoft decided to close Tango Gameworks Studio. At least we still get brilliant Bethesda games though… Am I right?

Well, anyway… totally recommended and one of the best games I played in 2024!

this masterpiece deserve a sequel

Awesome game, great mashup of hack&slash with a rythmn game. Now if I could just find my rythmn