Rift of the NecroDancer

To put it bluntly, the game is awesome. It's 3 lanes and on-beat focused gameplay differ it from other games in its genre. Given the simplistic approach, they had the idea to make it so there are different types of monsters which each have their own quirks instead of "1 monster = 1 note = 1 tap" approach. And it works phenomenally. The game does come with a story mode, which is serviceable at best, but it's more of a way to introduce the player to the world and the mechanics. Each track in order is curated to gradually introduce you to the concepts of the game and different monsters you can encounter them. If still feeling overwhelmed, it is possible to choose one of the lower difficulties amongst the offered four (EASY, MEDIUM, HARD, IMPOSSIBLE). Each difficulty offering different levels of challenges one can find by playing the same track. As you get better at the game, you will start aiming for the higher difficulties, maybe even challenging yourself to clear the tracks without breaking your combo, and maybe just even play the tracks with one of the two modifiers: [list] [*]Remix Mode allows you to play the same track but with different, randomized monster layout. [*]Coda Mode where only perfects counts and single mistake is fatal. [/list] Alongside the track you will most likely spend the majority of the time on, the game offers also Rhythm-Heaven-like mini-games and boss battles which you can encounter in the story mode, and additional Shopkeeper challenges where the goal is to play parts of the now familiar tracks with special modifiers (all enemies are question marks, only perfects counts, you cannot see last 2 rows, etc.) And, to top it all off, the game offers the ability to create and play custom tracks via the Steam Workshop. The quality of things you can find in the Workshop varies, of course, you should be able to find more than plenty of stuff to play (especially if you're into anime and J-Pop). In the end, why not try creating your own tracks? DLCs, however, are a different story and I do not recommend them unless you want to support the developers. Vastly overpriced compared to the base game, and the quality of the DLC tracks matches those you can easily find in the Workshop (which is free, by the way). All in all, an amazing game worth playing.

Interesting take on the rhythm formula that is actually not fun to play. All the enemies and their colors and auras and variations plus everything bouncing make sight reading a massive pain in the ass. Hit this slime 2 times, hit this slime 2 times with a delay in the middle, hit this slime 3 times fast. Hit this bat and reappears on another lane. Throw in enemies that are off-beat on top. Now we just mix em all up and throw handfuls of them at you. More like pattern memorization than rhythm... The music is cool. The visuals LOOK cool. The gameplay is doodoo.

This is genuinely one of my favourite rhythm games. It just oozes style and has such a stellar look about it. But on top of that, it's also one of the few rhythm games I've played that genuinely has a new take on the genre. Instead of basic notes, each note is an enemy with different patterns after hitting them, causing them to move about the board or need to be hit multiple times. It turns each song into a puzzle of sorts. It is genuinely very challenging at higher difficulties and I do think it suffers a bit from the tracks being hard to sightread, therefore requiring you to practice and learn patterns on a per-song basis. However, mastering a track in this game is truly second to none in satisfaction. On top of its standard rhythm mode, it also has a story mode (I have never touched it, sorry), Rhythm Heaven style minigames (they're pretty fun) and Punch Out!! style rhythm boss fights (they're very fun!). It also has Remix Mode that you can enable for ANY song that shuffles the enemies on the board while keeping the beat of the original track. I find this mode exceptionally difficult and don't play it much, but if you truly master the game it increases its longevity. And finally, if you find that you've mastered every song, DLC included, and can clear Impossible Remix tracks with ease, never fear: There is a constantly growing Workshop of custom tracks you can dip into as well! The quality of them varies, of course, but the cream tends to rise to the top of Popular if that's your concern. Otherwise, just look for some songs you know and have fun! Maybe make some songs, yourself, if you're up to it! I highly recommend this game to any rhythm game fan. There's a lot on offer here, and it was clearly made with love. It's gonna have a bit of a learning curve, but I promise it's worth it!

This is perhaps my favorite rhythm game and one of my overall favorite games of all time. While it's easier to pick up than the original Crypt of the Necrodancer, it is so much harder to master. The skill ceiling is so high that after a year and a half of near daily play, I'm still somehow managing to improve my personal records consistently. Some would call it a Guitar Hero clone, but it's so much more than that. What sets Rift apart from other rhythm games is that you literally have to think several steps ahead. It's not just about rhythm, it's about predicting WHERE the notes will be when you hit them. In that sense, it's almost as much a puzzle game as it is a rhythm game, and it really scratches a certain itch in my brain. There are few things I can think of that are more satisfying than finally cracking a song after you've struggled with it for hours, and when you really get a good combo going, it feels amazing. The base game's alright on its own, but the true beauty is in the workshop. That's what keeps me coming back every day. If today the workshop suddenly stopped in its tracks, you'd still have literal thousands of songs to play, and a lot of it is just as well-charted as the official content! It's quite possible that we may never run out of content for this game, and it is super fun to work your way up the leaderboards, or even just go for all S-ranks. If you like music and you want a game that makes you think and that you can strive to constantly improve at, you owe it to yourself to play Rift of the Necrodancer.

oh my god i love this game its so good dude I love it so f***ing much PLEASE BUY THIS GAME PLEASE PELASEPLEASPLEEPALSPLAPLALPALPALEPWALEPALPELA

i try to not to leave reviews that are negative, but this was a game i was really excited to play that i unfortunately ended up having to refund. i’m not new to the rhythm genre, and i played a decent chunk of the other necrodancer game on deck. i find this game really difficult to read, honestly. i understand that a lot of its appeal is the fact that there’s different monsters that do different things, but i feel like there’s just *too* much going on. i only played for about an hour and a half but every time i played i was stopping in a mood much worse than when i started. it’s hard to “sight read” like one usually does in a rhythm game, and it honestly felt more like a “memorize the pattern for this song” kind of game? i had a lot of frustration with off-beats, too, since the game is so focused on hitting *on* beat. i’m definitely not locking myself out of buying it again or trying it again in the future, but for now, it’s a game that just left me frustrated trying to have a good time. it has a demo, try it out! i tried the demo and deliberated on it for a while before buying. i can for sure see why people love this game, but it can be frustrating for a lot of people, too.

This game is a game I actually have enjoyed playing and will continue to enjoy playing. The issue I have with it is that the devs have switched from being focused to releasing new songs for the people who bought the game, and are instead focusing on releasing new DLC packs for people to waste more money on. It feels like a slap in the face, since workshop accomplishes everything you could need. For example, every Undertale song is available and charted really well on steam workshop, but the DLC pack for undertale officially only has a handful of songs, and some new portraits. Additionally, some of the DLC packs (celeste is the main one) have charting that just doesn't feel good imo. Idk, just feels like the game is being kept interesting for me purely off of the playerbase creating workshop charts. Either way, I'll keep playing occasionally, but I would really like if there were more songs from Crypt freely added to the game.

Just try the demo to see if it's your cup of tea. From a mechanics standpoint, this is really awesome. Ignore people complaining about difficulty, there is plenty to do leading up to the actual madness (I have 20 hours and I can’t even consistently beat intensity 14-15 levels). The game has a rather lacklustre tutorial/intro. I think if you’ve played the predecessor before (that game is so good omg), it makes complete sense, but if this is the first of the two you play, it’s quite confusing. It’s a bit funny they kept the awkward submenu to access the individual monster tutorials in between the games, haha. I recommend just starting on Easy and working your way up, try to play the story on Medium, see where it goes. You can always go up to Hard and see if it kicks your ass. In regards to the story (something I only realised this had 4 hours in), I think that it’s pretty bad. Like, so bad it circles back to being hilarious (is that on purpose?). I was very entertained. Just don’t think about any of the implications. The visuals are nice! I don’t know how I feel about any of the DLC, personally I prefer not making a lot of separate purchases after my initial one, so I doubt I will get any more of the paid DLC unless it’s something special to me.

This game is mad fun and has a banging sound track. Also, I appreciate the way this game does calibration. Its very user friendly and was fast and easy. Trouble is, its hard. Really hard. But not so hard that it ruins the fun. I recommend this game!

I downloaded the demo a month or so ago and thought Id try it, then i proceded to continusly play ravevange over and over for that month until now when i finally decided i NEEDED the game. 10/10 would recomend