Geek Interview: Tango Gameworks Leaps From Horror To Rhythm Action With Critically Acclaimed ‘Hi-Fi RUSH’

Being successful, especially for video game developers, is often the aim. After all, being well-known for doing something consistently excellent is a great calling card, but it runs the risk of limiting your options moving forward. That definitely hasn’t stopped Tango Gameworks, a studio synonymous with the horror genre, from breaking the mould and delivering a high-octane and colourful rhythm-based action adventure in the form of Hi-Fi RUSH.

“The studio was never established to be a horror-making studio. And Mikami-san was always thinking about how else can we branch out and do different things,” shared Game Director John Johanas.

“So when I pitched what became Hi-Fi RUSH, he understood we wanted to do something different. But also, this is kind of like a personal pet project that I always just wanted to make at some point. So I was lucky enough to be able to pursue something I really, really want to do. And it worked out with the direction of the studio and trying something new and other people want to try it as well.”

It is not just that the latest offering from Tango and Bethesda is not a horror title, but an action-adventure that makes music a core component of the gameplay and the world. The universal acclaim for Hi-Fi RUSH suggests that it was an inspired move, but for Johanas, this idea has its origins from way back in the day.

“I’ve always played music growing up, I played in bands and I love music, and I wanted to capture that in a game that I never felt was captured correctly. A lot of games use music as like an experience, or they’re just a straight-up rhythm game where you pretend you’re playing a song. But I really wanted to combine what I thought made sense, that sort of action piece like a fighting type game with the feeling of everything going to the music, so it just feels like every punch hits harder when it lands with the beat type thing.”

That is certainly the case when it comes to the gameplay experience in Hi-Fi RUSH, with hero Chai making full use of the musical device stuck to his chest. It may be a ridiculous premise, but it is also how it allows Tango Gameworks “to be very playful” and “think of new ideas” for development and gameplay.

“In general, when you think about music, you can’t freely create a soundtrack on the fly. But the worst thing is for players to feel like they’re restricted in what they can do. So the initial concept was how do we keep players feeling like they’re in control, while realistically, we have to sync everything up to the music,” the game director said.

“And so in a weird way, we actually made everything backwards. So we looked at everything from like, where the beat would land, and then basically reverse engineered so no matter when you input the button, it’ll actually hit on the beat. And so for people then came in later who had experience with action games, they say, this is weird. Why would you do this? This is totally different. And I say we know, but this is the only way it’s gonna work.”

Of course, the potential problems do not just stop there, with the vibrant and eye-catching style of Hi-Fi RUSH proving to be an obstacle, at least at the start. No one at the studio had the experience of creating something stylised, as opposed to the realistic visuals that are on display in The Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo.

“So we knew that when we came up with this art design, it just required a lot of trial and error. The team put in the hard work and studied and looked at other examples and looked at what the engine was capable of doing. And maybe because we didn’t have experience in it, we did a lot of experimentation and just found something that maybe works for us,” Johanas explained.

“It definitely feels like every step was a new learning process. We kind of did it in a way that it didn’t happen all at once, which I think was a good way as we were able to slowly refine what we were making.”

This approach allows gameplay, music, and visuals to come together in a complementary and seamless fashion, contributing to how Hi-Fi RUSH is as an entire package from start to finish. For Johanas, seeing what is likely to be his dream game come to life is as surreal as it gets, one that is enhanced by just how well the gaming community has taken to his idea and the quality on show by the studio.

“It was enjoyable to see it all come together, I’m sure. For the team, it was a little bit frustrating sometimes, because they had to look at everything in such deep detail that they weren’t used to before. The whole team put so much effort into like every little corner of the map and made sure that everything was unique and felt like it was a living cartoon and one that had real attention to detail. So it was a lot of work, but I think it came from the kind of love for what the project was becoming where everyone wanted to make sure that the quality was so high.”

For a game that was shadow-dropped as part of a precise marketing rollout, Hi-Fi RUSH‘s popularity is proof that not everything has to be flashy and big, so long as there’s a truly engaging and interesting experience underneath it all. No live service plans, no microtransactions, just pure fun out of the box or in this case, a digital download; what could be more breaking the current mould of gaming than that?