This review originally appeared on Backloggd
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Starting off with this: incredible goddamn game. Everything in the visuals, stage design, and even movement of the characters, keys you in to the beat of the music, so you can time your attacks and abilities even better for stronger hits and higher score. You can still button mash will no real penalty, but if you want a high score you need to stay on beat.
I want to get a minor complaint out of the way, and then cover how it's mitigated by the game itself. Due to my vision issues, sections of the game where it turns into an Osu/Elite Beat Agent style Quick Time Event thing were problematic for me. With the default settings, if you dropped the timing on one, you had to start the section from the beginning. Luckily, there were a few options in the Accessibility menu that gave me A) a bigger window to react and hit the button and B) it played out the whole button string so if I got back on pace I could still pass the scene, even without hitting all the right beats.
The game's final level does my absolute favorite thing in ensemble/crew/whatever group games in that you all split up towards the end, and the abilities that you were using for traversal get used automatically by the other people, reinforcing the role you all played together and showing more completely your teamwork. It rules.
Also lmao, two Nine Inch Nails needle drops for bossfights. Goddamn. I do think I need to look up some tracks from the band The Joy Formidable after this game though.