Rift of the NecroDancer Review (bmhv)
I've reached chapter 3 on Hard as of this writing
I have completed the main story on hard
It's essentially three rhythm games in one.
First, we have the main content: the Rift stages, which is essentially 3-button Guitar Hero. The gimmick here is that each "note" has various health and their own way to move about on the track. It's an interesting way to do beat maps, and you have to decipher the notes on the fly as they run down. In this regard, it's somewhat similar to what made CotND fun, where you have to use your noggin' while stay on beat. The stages shined better on Hard, where you can't rely on visual alone.
As someone who greatly enjoyed CotND for the reason above, the first time around for these stages were fun as I had to learn to read the beat map. But as I "solve" the pattern underneath, it transitioned to a more traditional rhythm game, where it became muscle memory and perfectionism. This is where REMIX MODE came in and saved the day. Press R while in play menu to switch to a mode where the tracks are randomly generated with roughly the same timing as the original.
Second, we have minigames. They're Rhythm Heaven -like games, of which there are five total. I'd put the difficulty similar to the later stages in Rhythm Heaven. On the other hand the timing is quite lenient. It's a simple and effective design, and I wish there are more games in here, both for more Rhythm Heaven minigames and cute slice-of-life animations of the gang.
Finally, the boss fights. It's Punch-out but on a rhythm (not that Punch-out didn't have rhythm segments). You memorize the attack patterns from the animation prompts, dodge accordingly and attack. A novel concept, though I have to say it's still mostly Punch-out, where the rhythm game part is only kind of relevant on longer dodge sequences, and on the whole it didn't elevate the concept as much as I hoped.
I strongly recommend to play these stages on HARD, because on normal difficulty they straight up show you when to hit which button on the screen, which makes you ignore the gorgeous animations and pattern recognition aspects, thus vastly reduce the enjoyment of these fights.
All the songs are certified bangers, Most of them are remixes of songs from CotND (shout out to Jules, your guitar rules!) plus some new ones. If you like metal, I think at least a few of these songs will be on your playlist. I will rock the whole album on my personal playlist for sure.