Rhythm games will always be a top 3 genre for me. It’s so satisfying to play, so empowering to get full combos, and of course, so cool to listen to new music too, built from the ground up for one specific game. Now what’s better than your traditional rhythm game? A rhythm game that breaks the mold; turns the traditional to the untraditional. Games like Rhythm Heaven, Beat Saber, Parappa the Rapper, and of course, Rift of the NecroDancer. Rift of the NecroDancer takes its identity from their previous game, Crypt of the NecroDancer, and flips it on its head. Take the monster patterns, change the free form movement into a 3-key game, and you get a rhythm game unlike anything I’ve played.
As I mentioned, Rift is a more traditional rhythm game with four inputs: left, right, up, and down. It’s technically a 4-key game, despite there only being three inputs on screen, since the fourth input that you choose in the game settings will trigger all three at once. Monsters then come at you from rifts at the top of the screen, and it’s up to you to memorize monster colors and species to strike them at the right time. This may seem easy, but MAN does this get hectic. Different monster combinations can make certain parts difficult to learn, and on top of it, the different colors for each monster change how you press the button at what time. It gets TRICKY. In addition, there’s also shapes that the monsters stand on that determine what beat they fall onto too. PLUS, there’s traps on the beat maps that affect the monsters behaviors! So that makes four things to pay attention to: the monster species, the color they are, what beat they land on, and traps that potentially change everything I’ve said above. It can be a nightmare keeping track of so many things, while also listening to the music as well. It’s a sensory overload, but that’s what makes it so FUN. It feels like you’re so powerful physically after nailing monsters and extending your combo for a high score… buuut it can then be a struggle if you’re stuck on even beating the level in the first place. Luckily, the devs thought of that. Sometimes monsters can stand on yellow shapes. If you’re able to strike each monster in the series of yellow shapes, you get a bar of your super meter, which grants invincibility and a better score upon use. This helps a ton, whether you’re on the brink of losing, or want a huge score multiplier during a busier part of the song. It’s great. It gives me a huge sensory overload with everything to keep track of, but I really do like it. It’s one of the coolest gameplay loops I’ve seen a rhythm game do.
Aside from the core gameplay, there’s plenty of content to listen to as well. For one thing, there’s a story mode! It follows Cadence and friends all being trapped in this rift, and they try to figure out who’s behind it, and how to save everyone in this world that’s taken over by other rifts. I actually never beat Crypt of the NecroDancer, so a lot of call backs and references to the first game flew right over my head, but the rest of the game can definitely be played without any other prior knowledge. The story mode consists of the usual Rhythm Rifts found in the main game, boss fights that bring a rhythm element to PUNCH-OUT of all things, and mini games, which are more akin to Rhythm Heaven’s kind of gameplay, with visual cues that correlate to the music. While there are only four mini games, they're still nice to have. They have this cute art style that makes them feel fresh, and are different enough from the main game, you can’t help but appreciate them being there. The story mode is short and a little barebones, but a great way to get the gist of the game. There’s also a built in level editor with a lot of detail to it, which makes sense since they advertise this feature as the same tools the devs used. It gives the community the same quality as the game itself without the use of mods, and that’s always something to praise.
And of course, this wouldn’t be a complete blog post without touching on the music. There is plenty of variety to hear from, from so many different artists, with each song blending into their own levels, while also just being banging songs beyond the game. They all give their own vibe and personality to each track, while still maintaining that iconic electronic EDM-esque soundtrack these games have been known for. My personal favorite songs of mine are Elusional and Om and On.
But yeah, Rift of the NecroDancer is an easy recommendation for anyone. If you play any sort of rhythm game, play this. If you were a fan of the original game, play this. If you like the artstyle across the main game and the minigames, play this. If you're a fan of MUSIC, play this. In all honesty, there’s no major complaint I have with this game. The negatives I’ve pointed out (missing references to the first game, and getting too overwhelmed with some of the levels and mechanics) aren't really towards the game, and are just me-problems. They’re even updating the game to have more songs and levels, so the continuous support makes this a very easy recommendation for anybody! I like this game a lot, and I hope the team gets all the praise they deserve on this love project of a video game.