Hi-Fi Rush was the large surprise to leave the Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct, a game title both announced and released in the same breath – and widely accessible too, because of Xbox Game Pass. It was a perfect storm that helped Hi-Fi Rush dominate chatter on social media and games publications, with a sentiment that was virtually unanimous – it’s wonderful, and you need to play it.
But even though the ‘shadow drop’ of Hi-Fi Rush went as well as it possibly could have, thanks in no small part to the resources of a publisher like Bethesda, game director John Johanas told GamesHub: ‘I personally would not recommend it. It's very stressful.’
Johanas miraculously found himself joining Tango Gameworks, headed up by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil, God Hand, Vanquish) during its formation, after coming to Japan to show English with the country’s JET programme, as well as dealing with some small translation projects.
With no real game development experience, he committed himself to learning everything about this, then eventually found himself focusing on DLC content for The Evil Within. ‘I really took that as a chance to end up like – I don’t want to make my coworkers feel bad – but I want my level to become the very best level.’ He did this type of good job, he ended up directing The Evil Within 2.
Even though Johanas says he arrived to Tango without any strong skillset, he puts his journey down to having the ability to listen and communicate well with people – what about a consequence of his strengths in translation. ‘It’s a real lot about communication, talking using your ideas, and finding out how to present these questions method in which enables people to readily accept them, or understand what you’re trying to do. And that’s a skill that’s not quickly learned.’
Hi-Fi Rush was something that have been kicking around in the go to a little while, with music culture and the films of Edgar Wright being a big a part of his life – much like an entire generation that came old during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Plenty of people who literally game remarked on Hi-Fi Rush’s throwback feeling – it feels like a game title that should came out throughout the Dreamcast or GameCube era. ‘That was 1000% a conscious decision,’ Johanas told us. ‘It had been literally within our pitch document.’
That duration of games was ‘a time where games were just fun, as well as experimenting with visuals, but they were also super, super memorable,’ said Johanas. ‘Therefore we wanted something which felt enjoy it could exist now at a very higher level, and that we can go back to it and it’ll still look kind of good, it’ll still play good.’
The obvious influences from the era are titles like Jet Set Radio, but additionally, it draws on games like Marvel Vs. Capcom, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, along with other titles from Capcom’s legendary but now-defunct Clover Studio, many of which Tango founder Shinji Mikami done. (Coincidentally, Resident Evil 4, another Mikami title from the era, is being brought back for 2023.)
The Matt Groening show Futurama also played a big part in Johanas’ imagining of the world. Both share a futuristic, comedic universe full of metatextual elements and goofball characters. Consequently, Hi-Fi Rush is filled with lots of neat references, including setpiece and script elements that act as tributes to things like Edgar Wright films, Jo Jo’s Bizarre Adventure, Twin Peaks, and Johanas’ favourite: the SquareSoft RPG classic, Xenogears.
‘So there’s a part later hanging around where we make use of a reference from one of my favourite games, Xenogears… where they just have the character sitting in a chair talking about what they did.’
‘And we actually contacted Square Enix – and that i wish to give a shout to them simply because they gave us approval – they’re like, 'Yeah, okay. That's weird. But okay.' Most of us were fans of that, therefore we arrange it shot-for-shot.’
‘People were much like, 'Why shall we be doing this?' And I’m like, 'Oh, God, please just let me!' … there were some other people who really loved that game and loved that reference, so that they took the additional effort to make sure it had been perfect.’
More insight on the development on Hi-Fi Rush, including its inception, surprise release, and also the myriad of references and influences can be found in our full interview transcript below.
Hi-Fi Rush is available now on Xbox and PC, and it is included as part of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.
Hi-Fi Rush interview with John Johanas, Game Director
Note: This interview continues to be edited for clarity and brevity.
GamesHub: There is a shared sentiment on offer, about how Hi-Fi Rush feels like a game in the early 2000s. It reminds people of Dreamcast and GameCube games like Jet Set Radio and Viewtiful Joe. It features bands from the era like Zwan, and it has Edgar Wright film references – was everything a conscious decision in the get-go?
John Johanas, Director, Hi-Fi Rush: That was 1000% a conscious decision. It had been literally in our pitch document. We used Edgar Wright as an example of that kind of kinetic action and comedy feel. We used the games that you described, like Jet Set Radio, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and such things as that as a genre of games or time period, such as the Dreamcast era, Xbox era. A period when games were just fun, and also tinkering with visuals, however they were also super, super memorable. We still discuss them today to be super high quality, right?
The trend of likely to very realistic graphics is just everywhere. It's also tough to keep up with a trend, and in a couple of years, those styles get outdated. Therefore we wanted something that felt like it could exist now at a very higher level, and that we can go back to it and it’ll still look kind of good, it’ll still play good.
We ensured it's fun first, gameplay first, after which these memorable visuals that could theoretically, hopefully, stand the test of time and be like one of those games that you simply kind of remember.
So yeah, that was definitely right from the start, which was the goal we were aiming for. So, to see people react like that is simply absolutely phenomenal to listen to.
The technical engineering of Hi-Fi Rush feels so precise. Everything is obviously set towards the beat, however the seamless transitions from gameplay to cutscene and back again without missing that beat… it’s so perfect. I’ve seen lots of game developers especially just being amazed with that. Was that a painstaking process?
Getting to that level was extremely painstaking, but not in an exceedingly negative way- just in a type of 'figuring everything out' way.
Right at the start, it had been just myself and something programmer. And that i started designing this system where all the animation would need to kind of interpolate to the rhythm, regardless of if this happens – because we have different BPM different speeds like that. And then the whole idea was that everything has to match, and that we don’t wish to lose that rhythm at all. It would be such as the music cutting out, it just ruins the vibe.
So from an animation technical level, we had to rethink the way we made all our animations – and we couldn't obtain that kind of clunkiness inside because again, that would simply take us from the mood, and that we didn’t want that to go away.
So yeah, they spent an enormous amount of effort onto it, and in all likelihood hated me after i was being very picky, like, 'This is an eighth note past too far, I’m sorry, you have to do it again'.
But luckily, it all joined together in the end. For a while, we were doing this without just a click track (with no musical track) and individuals were like, 'is this going to work?’ However when all the pieces get together using the animation, the background music popping in, the visual effects come in, and everything’s synced- everyone’s like, 'Okay. Now I get it. I see it.'
I wouldn’t recommend anyone you need to be like, 'Oh, this seems quite simple, let's just give this a try' – it was extremely difficult. Just assume everything took 3 times more than it should took.
Was that it is hard to get individuals to trust you that it would really exercise?
In the start, everybody was a bit nervous, but I showed them [a vertical slice] to show it can be done. However the issue was like 'okay, now we have to get it done for that whole game?'. And I’m like 'yeah,' and they’re like 'oh my God!'
But again, everything was super calculated. I ensured that all the documents we did were very, very specific on such things as when we’re likely to cut, when things would happen- It had been almost like a bar graph where we’re dividing the sport stages into verses and choruses, that is totally different than anything we’ve ever done.
So it was similar to relearning how to make a relevant video game. I want to say all of our skills led as much as this, but we kind of needed to rethink everything we did when we made this.
So understanding how dramatically various and difficult this project was going to be, was it a tough sell internally?
Yes, it had been. (Laughs)
When I pitched it, I did not pitch it internally towards the higher-ups. I pitched it to my boss (Shinji Mikami) and our producer, and that i was like, 'Here’s something that is, the most un-Bethesda-like game that could possibly happen. So I don’t think this really is going to get approved, however i wish to pitch it.'
But I knew in the case of my boss, he hasn’t just done survival horror. And that i know he has an array of experience working in action games, so he’s very open to new, interesting ideas. That’s why I thought I possibly could a minimum of take this primary step into doing it.
And only then do we were able to prototype the idea, And that we made this prototype which was essentially that core loop of fights that matched up towards the beat – you hit a beat hit, environmental surroundings type of moves to the rhythm, also it was all grey boxed.
We passed that off internally to Bethesda, a few people played it, and then they’re like, 'Hey, you gotta check this out.' And then they talked about it and shared it, and it type of became like a weird underground, watercooler conversation starter at work.
So then when we finally came to present it, they previously knew about it. After which they’re like, 'This is really weird, but everyone says it’s really fun, so let’s try it out.'
This was a pre-Microsoft acquisition thing, so at that time, it was something which had not been done before. It had been an enormous risk to allow them to take, so I’m totally grateful on their behalf approving this crazy idea, but everyone saw the possibility inside it too. So I want to think that they deemed in it.
So you announced and released it on the same day – a shadow drop. Would you recommend it?
I personally would not recommend it, it's very stressful (laughs).
Because you’re located on it for some time without actually being capable of seeing people see it. But all of the credit for the shadow drop needs to visit the marketing and PR team because that was their idea.
As developers, we think it’s great, and we’re very happy with it. But we’ve always made horror games – What if people see it, plus they react negatively into it? So we can see the advantages and disadvantages of both sides.
Internally, we were very nervous. We didn’t understand how it could be received, but we knew we had something. Therefore we hoped that it will come out, people could play it instantly, and then any theoretical misgivings or fears that it's a of poor quality game, or something that we’re incompetent at doing, would be immediately dismissed due to the access they had.
So we think it went as great as it possibly could have been in that sense.
We talked a bit already about the comparisons to some couple of other media, but they are there any other reference points you employed for the sport that you simply haven't seen mentioned just as much?
There’s a ton of stuff – we were simply looking at very, colourful throwback things from those years around the Dreamcast, Ps2, Xbox, especially games that my bosses done.
Even fighting games like Marvel Vs. Capcom – we've you summoning your partners to complete attacks and things like that, and it's a team effort.
We also really just wanted these really fun characters that you simply wanted to play with, because we knew i was creating a character action game, and individuals stay with those characters. But a good influence were comedy shows like Futurama, for instance, as this inherent goofy world that has a ton of opportunity to have fun with these ridiculous scenarios like a kind of tonal piece as well. They likewise have lots of characters, with lots of different arcs, and also the main character can also be not a superhero but a goofball- so those were good quality inspirations too.
Being a comedy game there are a lot of metatextual elements and references, have you got a favourite nod?
A lot of those notes actually came from people inside the team – some of them I didn’t even place in, they kind of worked themselves in!
But there is one which I had been very adamant on doing, and i am not ashamed to be honest, because we wanted to chop the stage, and I didn’t wish to work initially. But I’m like, 'if we’re likely to work, we’re going to work and we’re going to make sure people know we cut it.'
So there’s a component later in the game where we use a reference in one of my favourite games, Xenogears from Squaresoft – well, at that time Squaresoft, now Square Enix – where they simply possess the character relaxing in a chair talking about the things they did.
And we actually contacted Square Enix – and that i want to provide a shout to them simply because they gave us approval – they’re like, 'Yeah, okay. That's weird. But okay.'
But a lot of us were fans of this, therefore we set it up shot-for-shot. There’s the entire seated thing, there’s like a mural in the background, instead of a rosary bead it's a very good music player swinging from the earphone.
And again, everyone was just like, 'Why are we carrying this out?' And I’m like, 'Oh, God, please let me!' To ensure that was certainly one of the best ones, but there were some other individuals who really loved that game and loved that reference, so they took the additional effort to ensure it had been perfect.
Hi-Fi Rush is currently available on Xbox and PC, and it is included included in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.
