(08/08/24)
Eh I'll get my critiques out the way first, I don't like how the game just drops you into the tutorial level at a high difficulty. I think it should of either started out at normal/beginner difficulty or have a rhythm heaven-styled practice round beforehand. Also skipping cutscenes would be nice. BUT ANYWAY HOLY FUCK THIS GAME IS SO GOOD OTHERWISE.
Literally EVERYTHING you could want out of a story-based rhythm game. It's got style, juice and a banging soundtrack. I love just about any game that has that sorta punk rock vibe to it. Also very suprised I've never seen a game before try to do that very specific aesthetic 90s anime has, it's very nice. Just good vibes all around, I'd fuckin' breathe the art direction if I could. Gameplay is pretty simple (kinda), it's basically just a beefed up Taiko, but GOD is it satisfying. There is absolutely wonderful vfx to every action you do, making keeping up your combo SOOOOOO good, especially when you're hitting notes in quick succession. Then THE MUSIC, OMG THE MUSIC! Like I said near the start, PURE PUNK ROCK VIBES. You feel like a fucking GOD when you play a song well and it's all because of that music. It's like, empowering I guess???
Other types of gameplay are shown in the trailer and aren't in the demo, like that rail grind traintrack part, but GOD they are so hype. I wanna play them SO bad! They look like little music videos and such. I guess you could refer to them as quick time events, but that is NOT doing them justice (and they're likely be rhythm based so also that label is innacurate) cause I bet they're going to be SICK! They oughta have a killer track for these.
That's all I have to say, now go play the demo!!!