Face to face with game director John Johanas, who tells us the background of the development of Hi-Fi Rush and what awaits us in the future.
For a week now, there has been talk of nothing but Hi-Fi Rush, the new title from Tango Gameworks. To lend a big hand in this process, for a studio that so far had come under the spotlight more for the name of the founder (Shinji Mikami, one of the fathers of Resident Evil) than for its successes, the launch arrived at the same time as the announcement of the game, in a communication and marketing technique commonly known as shadow drop.
We spoke about the shadow drop, but also about the distinctive stylistic code, the gameplay in step with the music and the future, both of the game and of the development team, with the game director John Johanas, in the same role already with the appreciated (and so extremely different) survival horror The Evil Within 2.
Hi-Fi Rush and the shadow drop —
The launch so on the spot, at least apparently, “was not an idea of Microsoft but of marketing and PR of Bethesda, who thought it was a nice approach for this game. Internally we were super, super confident in what we had. On the developer side you get a little nervous not doing a traditional release, but we knew that anyone who saw the game internally wanted to play it right away – the first thing they said to us was, where is it, I want to play it now”.
Clearly, part of the stress came from the possibility that a last-second leak could spoil the surprise. “Part of it happened, I think the name came up,” explains Johanas, recalling how the name Hi-Fi Rush had been around for a while. “We knew there were people who were digging into the ‘Xbox & Bethesda Developer Direct’ hoping to find out something, and we were like, ‘oh please, don’t find out everything.’ But, luckily, no assets were leaked so no one knew what it was going to look like or what.”
The style, between FLCL and Futurama —
Also because part of the surprise behind the title is represented by the truly unique artistic direction. The idea, the game director tells us, was that “we wanted it to be stylized and almost have a cartoonish feel”. “I gave the direction that it shouldn’t look like a Japanese anime but not like an American cartoon either”, and indeed “we looked at things like FLCL, but from an American perspective I always sent the team photos of things like Futurama, because it’s an American thing see the world in a silly and ridiculous way”. “It’s full of robots, but it’s not futuristic, it’s all a bit clunky and it hasn’t quite gotten to the point where everything feels as fluid and clean as it is now, from a technological point of view”.
Of course, there’s a lot of gameplay that makes Hi-Fi Rush so fresh. In a world of endless open worlds to explore, “the design goal has always been that we knew we didn’t want an open world, we wanted these self-contained levels. Each level is literally a song. The level’s intro is the song’s intro, there’s going to be a verse and a chorus with a climax, and we planned everything to work that way.”
Gameplay to music —
“The idea of a refuge comes straight from the experience with The Evil Within 2. If it was just constant nonstop music, you would feel overwhelmed, you would get tired, you always need a break. The action can get heavy in this game, especially in the boss fights, so we needed some time to cool things down.”
In this sense, there was no shortage of inspirations, always with the basic idea that “we wanted the rhythm aspect, but also that it wasn’t a rhythm game” in its entirety. For this reason, Tango looked to “games like Rez or Lumines, where it’s the background that dictates it for you. You feel like you’re doing something and it’s strong because you’re doing it to the music.”
“Then Crypt of the Necrodancer came out and we played it. Obviously, it’s a completely different game but we’ve seen that it’s a clicker game for some people, and yet, if you get it wrong, you’re almost punished and we knew not to do that too. We wanted something that was accessible for those who don’t have that sense of rhythm or find it difficult. Once we figured out that basic game flow, we decided, ‘okay, everything will be internally synced to the beat of the music, and you’ll get extra bonuses if you stick to that beat’. But it’s not really a rhythm game, it’s more of an action game with this sort of rhythm aspect to it.”
The Soundtrack… and the Nine Inch Nails —
Despite being an addition, certainly this rhythm aspect was not secondary, quite the contrary. “We knew we couldn’t just have licensed songs, first of all because it’s a very long and painful process, very, very expensive,” explains Johanas. “So we knew we obviously needed a standard soundtrack, because we didn’t want the game to be defined by its licensed songs, we didn’t want to be Guitar Hero, where you play just to play those songs.”
“We wanted to focus on the gameplay and the characters and the vibe” that comes with all these elements put together, “and not be a vehicle for licensed music. But we wanted to use those licensed songs as a cherry on top.” The choice of songs also took place in a way that is as original as it is natural. Have you wondered what Hi-Fi Rush looks like, in a way? Here you are…
“Initially, we wanted this nostalgic streak of an era when you thought about things like Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, when things were always so colorful and vibrant. This sort of late 90s, early 2000s, where games were just fun. So, I’ve gone back in time and I’ve got a playlist of songs and artists that make me think, okay, this takes me back to those years.’”
“The fact that someone accepted was incredible”, says the director about the contacts with the musicians, but “I think working with Nine Inch Nails was a dream come true for me, because I’m a huge fan. Using some of their songs was great.” But there was no shortage of gems: the Zwans, for example, “aren’t available digitally and we weren’t sure we could get them under license”, and there were those who asked “why don’t you choose the Smashing Pumpkins?”, while “on the side Japanese band Number Girl is not very established in the West but in Japan they have a loyal following and are very popular. We also wanted that Japanese aftertaste [anche se] Japanese music is traditionally extremely difficult to license.”
The future, of Tango and Hi-Fi Rush —
But, for a studio like Tango Gameworks that specializes in horror video games, where did the idea of creating such a project come from? “There were several factors. This specifically was a game I’ve wanted to make for a long time,” acknowledges the developer, with the team having just closed The Evil Within 2 at the time (of which he served as director) and was starting work on the exclusive PS5 and PC consoles Ghostwire Tokyo.
“In talking to Mikami-san, we wanted to show that we’re not just a one-trick pony in that sense. So I fired it big and proposed this idea for something completely different, also to cleanse the team’s palate a bit. But also as a chance for us as a studio to grow and try something new, and give players a fresh experience without copying from others. The idea came earlier, but then I was finally able to pitch it right after I finished The Evil Within 2 in 2017.”
And it is a road on which the Japanese development team intends to continue. “We will see more diverse types of games,” she adds. “It was like, if we can do this, theoretically we can do anything. It’s the feeling we have now, obviously looking at the positive reactions and how confident we were in launching the project. Of course, we just finished this project and we’re still focusing on taking a look at the reactions, fixing bugs and stuff like that.”
So, “of course, nothing to announce for the future, but I like to think that, since we’ve managed to do this, nothing is impossible” from now on for Tango. And Hi-Fi Rush itself, does it have a future? Whether it’s new content or a sequel, the ideas on the subject are less clear, also because Johanas candidly admits that he always answers “we just finished the game, can we have a vacation first?”.
“Nothing, for now. But we’re definitely looking at the community’s reactions to the game and seeing what people want most of and what they’ve liked, and then we’ll decide what the future holds. We love the game and we love the characters and, you know, from a developer’s perspective, we’re excited for what could happen.” Judging by how, and how much, they talk about it on the net, the players are too.
With the collaboration of Oliver Brandt of GLHF