INFINITE GUITARS

There's a lot to love here, great visual design and art (I love how the characters look in particular), a setting that inspires curiosity, and a really fun combination of mechanics that, at least on paper, seems like it should be something that really appeals to me. The problem is that, due to a combination of design decisions and what I assume must be technical issues, in a lot of places, the rhythm elements just do not work. The overworld action sections are the worst offender in terms of functionality. Early on I was getting some kind of desync that was leading to attacks being fired off-beat, possibly tied to high framerate, but what's worse is that even when it works properly, it's broken. Attacks are [i]fired[/i] on the beat, they don't [i]connect[/i] on the beat, which means you can't actually fall into the sort of rhythmic flow it wants you to, you just have to see the attack coming and dodge entirely based on visual cues. This isn't something that could be fixed with a quick tweak either, because most of the overworld attacks in the intro section are expanding rings, which based on your position and speed can connect with you at literally any time, rendering the rhythm element pointless at best and counterproductive at worst because you need to force yourself to ignore it in order to time the input properly. The RPG battles aren't safe either. I usually love a skill element being tied to RPG combat systems, it adds a little extra spice and engagement that helps me feel more like an active participant, but dodging enemy attacks is nightmarish because they seem to fire and connect regardless of what the music is doing, and they lack the same kind of visual cues you get in the overworld. The game wants you to time your dodges down to the last second in order to build up charges you need for more powerful attacks, but it doesn't give you the tools you need to understand that timing, they aren't reliably or clearly connected to the beat, and there isn't a visual cue to fall back on, a targeting reticle just starts following you and you need to guess when it's going to turn into damage. It's possible there [i]is[/i] a reliable connection to the beat here that I'm just failing to process, but if it exists it doesn't have the FIRE two three CONNECT clarity that I would need to dodge with confidence or even notice its existence, and considering the desync issues I was getting in the overworld, the problem may be as much in technical reliability as design. The only attacks I've been able to dodge reliably are beam attacks that sweep across the screen, because then, at least I have a visual cue that I can trust. The only rhythm element that seems to work properly without any kind of drawback, technical problem, or key failure of execution, are the places where the game just goes full rhythm game, with a track of notes sliding toward inputs, but considering how many other rhythm games have executed that concept competently, it's not surprising that it works here too, the devs had a lot to pull from. I really want to love this game, and I'd be willing to force myself past the overworld stuff, it's annoying but tolerable, but more damningly I just don't find the RPG battles in this RPG fun, and it's entirely a consequence of feeling like the dodge window doesn't reliably sync to the beat. These are things that can be done well, the recent Hi-Fi Rush shares a lot of stylistic DNA with Infinite Guitars and that's a game I adored, but Infinite Guitars is a title that needs some pretty substantial adjustment to the execution of its combat before I'll feel like I can come back and play the rest.

Was really stoked for this game leading up to release but it there were too many visual and audio glitches and the rhythm portions of battles and overworld interactions drop inputs like crazy. Refunded, unfortunately.

Vamos lá Infinite guitars tem uma história cativante e um sistema de batalha que mescla RPG de turno com Quick time event, tendo em seu ponto forte o sistema de acerto de notas de música totalmente sincronizado com a trilha sonora para ser recompensado com mais dano , seus pontos fracos são alguns bugs e a repetição exarcebada de modelos de mobs, que inclusive até no fim do jogo repete erroneamente em grande escala , também há infelizmente a falta de localização pra pt-br

Not too far in, but what I've played so far is utterly fantastic. Incredible style, gorgeous art, interesting story and characters, very fun and varied game-play, but the music? My god, the music is what sells this game for me. To be quite frank, this game feels like the brainchild of a neurodivergent kid from the mid 2000s listening to their favorite OSTs and also a sprinkling of what their parents listened to while drawing OCs on all the sites that people host OCs on and this is exactly the thing my body craves right now. Can't wait to keep playing more, and I hope that this game is the kickoff to an era of nostalgia that I can personally feel. I'll try to update this review with more play time under my belt. Thank you Nikko Nikko! (Also, I did run into one bug so far that forced me to completely restart, JJ lost all input when I ran into a wall, but if people forgive Bethesda for bugs, I can certainly forgive this game!)

Edit of my original review (Which can be seen at the end) after a full playthrough. There are some bugs, but only encountered one 'game breaking' one. Luckily I keep 1 or two spare saves, but that was deep into the game at chapter 10. Otherwise, game is fun and kept me entertained. At first the game was super easy, with the notes on your abilities' riffs required to perform them for full damage being very forgiving, yet during my playthrough there was an update that made the single notes less forgiving upping the difficulty a bit as it stopped me from perfecting as much as I was and as such may have even required an extra attack or two. I never felt tired of the game even if the combat was a bit repetitive, but if you are smart about it, once you get a full party due to the status effects (-def on enemy, +att on team) you can two-tap most enemies with the right status then a damaging attack. Pacing a levelling was appropriate if you are in the habit of hitting most overworld enemies than avoiding them. The last bit having 90+ enemies when I just hit 89, myself, and by the end I was only a couple levels under the final boss. In terms of a quick "How this game works' it is an turn-based, active timed-hits system. I consider this as that is how Super Mario RPG was back in the day. Your primary attack is almost never going to be used if you are skilled. You avoid attacks by the character with the lowest health being targeted by the enemy (Always only one enemy in combat), and you have to either move (left/right) with a 'run' button to reposition and a 'roll' button to do a dodge roll. You can just avoid the attacks if you remember them or are good at spotting them by moving but it's more valuable to time a roll right because if you succeed by it you get 0.5 of a charge, which is a resource to heal you or to empower your attacks (up to 3) stronger. The attacks are either your basic attack which gives you some charge and deals some damage with a timing mechanic to make you able to critical hit when you get over 95% on the bar when you hit the confirm button. The special attacks start a rhythm minigame which depends on the track that is playing. This is what makes it fun, the turned-based active battles. On the overworld you occasionally encounter an action section where you can hit enemies for initative otherwise they get a hit and get a first attack. Unfortunately, though I liked the action section, I felt the damage dealt by getting hit by the various hazards was a bit too little, especially with how much charges, which act as an HP restore of 30% your party's life when you use them for healing rather than additional damage. The story is entertaining and I could follow the idea, but it does kind of have flat characters, for the most part, but that is still kind of fun, does remind me of the old RPGs that were still trying a bit to learn their place. I think that this could be a very interesting thing to go through with a bit more polish for the story as the setting is quite fun for me. Overall positive experience and glad I got it! As a note I played on Hard/Hard/Hard(Turn-Based Battles/Action/Rhythm) as they separate the various sections difficulties. ----Original Review---- Game is a combination of my favored genres rolled into one. Only in chapter to at time of writing, but it is amazing and something I've been wanting over time. The only other RPG-Turn-Based kind of games I played/know about is ECHO and I wasn't a big fan of how it was handled, and the Rhythm/Action I played was Falling For You but I didn't feel it as much as this game, too. It's fun, so far, interactive and I have had no issues since playing it. Hope to see a similar style like this picked up more.

This game needs more good reviews. I'm really loving it so far. it's fun and the music is wonderful. I would highly recommend it.

MOVE YO FEET TO THE BEAT

This game is simply astounding. I love the graphics, the sound design, the characters, the story, the game play, and even the range of difficulty options. All of these make the game amazing and so much fun. The moment I found this game, I couldn't wait for the moment it was released. And now the time has arrived, and the game lives up to my expectations while being worth the price. Simply get this, even if you don't like rhythm, story, or action games. Since you are given the option to change your difficulty per category, even during the game, the game is fun and accessible for everyone.

The combat feels really good and it can be a bit tedious because of perfect timing, visuals are great but I couldn't say less about the environment. Venturing around the world feels sluggish because the dev put collissions on the smallest sprites so you can get obstructed by smallest thing. I give this game 8/10

This is a fun little game! I love the concept, it has some great music, and the story elements I've experienced so far have been interesting and entertaining. The art style is great, and it translates well to both the narrative parts of the game and the combat sections. It is definitely a bit rough around the edges (like some weird audio balancing issues like certain sound effects being suddenly louder in specific cases), but it does seem the devs are actively responding to reports of issues pretty quickly. I do think some of the musical challenges within an area get a bit repetitive, however that does also mean you start to learn them and get better at passing them when they come up. Maybe that's intentional, but I wish there was a bit more variety in those encounters. It's not enough to not make me want to keep playing, and overall I'm enjoying the experience.