Rift of the NecroDancer Review
Move To The Beat
It’s always interesting to see RPG mechanics incorporated into other areas. While mixing RPG elements with a rhythm game isn’t a new thing by any means, the modern nostalgia that is evoked with Brace Yourself Games’ Rift of the NecroDancer is just a joy to experience. While a familiar, Guitar Hero runway stretches into the background, its fresh take comes from instead of just buttons flying by, there are moving monsters. This adds a layer of complexity and thoughtfulness to keep in mind beyond just keeping track of chords, as each monster has its own way of moving along with the beat themselves.
Cadence finds herself in a world that seems like her own, but something feels off. As she explores the town, she notices rifts beginning to appear. She soon learns that these rifts also bring forth monsters. Fortunately, friendly faces have been going around closing some of them while Cadence had been wandering aimlessly for a long time, preventing the monsters from gaining a foothold. These friendly faces have been struggling to keep some sense of normalcy, however with Cadence joining them, it brings hope that they’ll figure out the cause of the rifts and hopefully engineer one to take them home.
Cadence has some moments with each friend that she’s able to find, but only a few of them have more than an introductory chapter dedicated to them. The overarching story is just about finding more rifts and making sure the stress of being in this world isn’t too much for Cadence or her crew. There are beat-based mini-games for each of these crew members that fit within the story and are just fun breathers to take part in. As the only moments where vocals are mixed in to the beat, even if it’s just directions, they become pretty catchy in their own right. The story doesn’t take itself too seriously, but there’s enough comedic moments and interesting dialogue to keep the interludes enticing.
Rift of the NecroDancer gives players three prompts on the screen corresponding to the left, right, and up keys, while down activates all three spots at once. It is important to recognize the tempo that each track is in, as each beat moves the enemies down a space from the rift to Cadence’s button prompts. There’s such an eclectic variety of tempos at play as well from slow jazz, heavy guitar riffs, and powerful piano pieces that it’s a joy to see what track comes next. Enemies frequently come down in pairs, needing more than one direction to be hit at a time. Learning each track’s pattern takes trial and error, which is made more difficult because Cadence only has ten health points to work with. Mitigating this are collectable pieces of health that need to be struck like the enemies to obtain. Every missed enemy takes one health off and this often results in losing the tempo, quickly meaning defeat, though the game offers to let players move on with the story and return to the stage later. This makes understanding the song just as important as dexterity to get everything working in order. With a basic sense of tempo, the enemy patterns can start to be learned and the song slowly mastered.
Rift of the NecroDancer has a hugely impressive track variety, with each track weaving through the genres with a deft hand. It feels tailor-made to work with the game’s combat to great effect. They all feel loosely arranged to the story beats creating a setlist that eclipses the story itself that is downright a harmonious symphony that is a blast to go through each song many times. There are some issues with some tracks nailing that balance between dexterity and difficulty as easy mode can throw off the tempo a bit, while more challenging songs have more prompts than musical notes. This gets ramped up even further in hard or impossible modes, which can easily cause hand cramps trying to keep pace on the keyboard. Things feel more at home on a keyboard, but with or without a controller, the pace can be difficult to maintain since the enemies move in different patterns and make for some mental gymnastics to get everything correct.
What makes Rift of the NecroDancer distinct from other rhythm games is how the enemies move along with the beat in different way. A single enemy type can have three different varieties acting just differently enough to require that players pay attention to their colour coding. Regular skeletons go down in one hit, gold variants lose their head and retreat in the same line up the ramp until they meet another enemy, and the black skeletons need two hits before they backpedal headless. That’s just one enemy type, there are also long notes for lengthy snakes on screen, swordsmen that stop at various points to slash forward at the button prompt, bats that change direction, zombies that hop from one line to another, and many more. The speed and amount of enemies constantly moving around are where things can be difficult to keep track on higher difficulties. A practice mode lets players work through the entirety of a track to get the timing down, allowing players to master it much more quickly than relying on incremental progression in the story mode.
After dealing with the blistering pace of the tracks played in the rifts, mini-games feel like a breath of fresh air, even if their much slower pace takes some adjustment. Once players get the hang of the slower speed, each of the mini-games is fun to play around with, bringing out the playfulness of the visuals wonderfully. Some include Cadence joining a yoga class, making various hamburgers, joining a kid’s show as a giant mascot, or just undergoing some breathing exercises all to differing beats. The emphasis on music is still on display with each of these, but the way that the visuals are brought out shows a playful creativity that makes them welcome to play through.
Every story chapter follows the same basic order. Rifts appear, followed by a meeting with a new ally before a mini-game calms their nerves, then a mental downturn with that character, which involves more rifts, then finally a boss battle. Boss battles fit in between rifts and mini-games in both tempo and difficulty. As with the mini-games, there’s some visual flair that makes things look like a traditional RPG in execution. The camera is positioned behind Cadence with the boss on the other side of the screen and they utilize the beat to launch various attacks on the screen that are dodged with arrow prompts until an option to counter attack appears. One hit and they are staggered, which allows for a few quick follow up strikes. Once the tempo, which is again slower than the rifts, is mastered then boss fights can be a breeze. Bosses have a health bar and undergo various phases that increase in difficulty until they are defeated. These fights are far more forgiving than the rifts and provide a fun interlude to hopping back into more tracks.
Rift of the NecroDancer offers players plenty as there are free play modes, unlockable in-game currency to get tougher versions of the tracks, and a mode where people can incorporate their own songs in to the game. Modding will help give the game a long shelf life, as there are a lot of ways to fit music into this unique combat system. Daily challenges, leaderboards, and a separate challenge mode that can all bring a competitive nature into the game at every difficulty stage so there’s something to strive for no matter the particular skill level.
Rift of the NecroDancer continues finding ways to integrate amazing music into fun gameplay that creates a lovely blend of art and artist interaction that is just a joy to experience. It can be difficult to find a perfect spot of tempo matching hand dexterity for some, but each song ages beautifully as practice matches zip by, with incremental mastering. There’s challenge every step of the way as mini-games and boss battles throw in some curveballs along with the rifts. As a result getting lost in a soundtrack has never felt more fun, challenging, and rewarding then it does here with these well composed tunes leading the way.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Wonderfully catchy soundtrack that is easy to hear on repeat
Innovative way to include monsters in to a traditional rhythm game
Mini-games and boss battles showcase some adorably colourful visuals
Difficulty balancing is a bit hit or miss
Extended sessions can be physically punishing
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