Hi-Fi Rush Q&A With Director John Johanas on Reception, Working With Mikami, and More

Once again, we find ourselves rockin' out to the echoing sound made by Hi-Fi Rush. Ever since its release, the game has become one of Xbox's smash hits. The game has also retained its audience through updates that added fun features such as Photo Mode and new costumes for the main cast. Today, Wccftech had the opportunity to talk with game director John Johanas about his experiences during the development of the game and his thoughts on the extremely warm reception it got.

Let's start right away!

Wccftech: What was the inspiration behind the creation of Hi-Fi Rush? Were there any other games that inspired your vision?

John Johanas: There are a number of inspirations but looking back, I think it just comes from my love of music and me growing up and playing in bands with my friends. I loved the feeling of playing a live show and even though we weren’t the best at our instruments, it’s a moment where you get a certain rush that is hard to describe.

But that feeling is something that I always feel when actions are coordinated to music, whether it’s walking in step or when trailers/movies/music videos do coordinated sequences to music. There’s that intensity when an action just works with the music. And so, in that way, I wanted to see if we could make an action game that doesn’t tell you what to do but makes it feel like YOU are the one pulling off those cool actions to the music, even if you aren’t perfect. 

As for other games, there is a clear influence in the character action genre in the way battles play out, but I wanted something that combined it with the music, and while there are other rhythm action games or music-oriented games, none of them gave me the feeling I was looking for, which was being in control of all your actions while simultaneously synced to the music to make every hit feel even heavier. Usually, one was sacrificed, the action element or the music element. I believed there was a way to do it without that sacrifice. It wouldn’t be easy, but there was a way.

Wccftech: What was your mindset when designing the scoring system? How did it influence the final product?

John Johanas: The scoring system was based on what we, as players, liked about action games, specifically ones that encourage you to play in a certain style. Most of the time it encourages combat variety in terms of the player using all their tools, so we wanted to incorporate that element, but with the game involving music and rhythm at its core, we needed to both encourage and give a reward for players to play in our ideal way, which is with the beat of the song.

We didn’t want it to be too complicated or difficult, so the Just Timing percentage was the rhythm-based portion of the battle. We did try some other parameters, but in the end, we went with the easiest ones for players to understand as well as what utilizes our battle system the best.

Wccftech: How was it working with Shinji Mikami? What did he contribute to Hi-Fi Rush's vision overall?

John Johanas: I’ve literally worked with Shinji Mikami my entire video game career, so I don’t have anything to compare it to! We are both creators so there are sometimes creative differences, and we may go back and forth about what we think is better, but I’ve always had so much support from him on all my projects even if he wasn’t hands-on, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him for that.

While on my previous projects, he was involved in making sure things didn’t veer off course while still allowing my direction to stay true to my vision, he was much more hands-off on Hi-Fi Rush compared to the other projects. Early on, we would show him versions and he would give small feedback, but he saw that we had a clear vision for the game and were moving ahead as a team without so much direct involvement. So, by the end of the project, he trusted the team and us to be responsible for the quality of the title and intentionally left the final call to us.

Wccftech: How do you feel about the people’s reaction to Hi-Fi Rush since its launch? Did you
have any expectations around its reception, especially with its lack of advertising in
advance?

John Johanas: The team and I have honestly been loving it! At this point, it’s been out for a few months, and normally, you think there might be some initial excitement, and then people start picking it apart. However, we still see new people pick it up and really enjoy it, and fans are excited about the game, the characters, and all the fun moments. 

I don’t want this to sound bad, but before release, we were very confident in what we were making. It’s a rare feeling since, at the end of the game production, all you can see are the flaws, and you start to get worried. However, we just kept playing the game right until the last minute for fun, and the staff was so positive about the whole game, even knowing that everything wasn’t perfect. We knew it would find an audience, but without revealing anything, it’s this lingering question mark in your mind. We wanted people to notice and were excited to show it off.

Luckily, the sudden announcement and release attracted many people to the game, and having it be lower priced and on game pass made it very easy for players to jump in and play the game without preconceptions. Who knows how it could have been with a traditional marketing cycle, but we are just incredibly happy about its positive reception. 

Wccftech: Do you like what the community has been doing with combos and other cool ways of exploring Hi-Fi Rush?

John Johanas: I LOVE it. Not only does it make us happy that fans are finding ways to use the depth we put under the surface of the seemingly simple gameplay, but the fact that they are a combination of cool-looking actions that create these great new rhythms born from combining you and your partner’s attacks.  There were a ton of combinations none of us even realized were possibilities when making the game, and it’s interesting to see them almost be a standard for those playing the games while we didn’t even know they existed!

But besides the combat, we love how fans are finding all the little secrets and small jokes we hid in the corners of the map, whether it’s reading every scrolling text on the walls or noticing some of the (not-so-serious) environmental storytelling we spent a lot of time crafting.

Wccftech: What wild ideas would you be inspired to add to Hi-FI Rush? 

John Johanas: Since we started the game concept by specifically creating a setting where we can go over the top with situations, I feel like there isn’t anything off the table in terms of what we could or couldn’t do. But no matter what we do, I feel like the core “essence” of this title is the rhythm action, so it would have to involve that no matter what. There is always a push to add more complicated mechanics and rhythms into the game, but it’s important not to lose what makes it accessible and approachable.

Hi-Fi Rush is available exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC. The game is included in the Xbox Game Pass library for subscribers. In our review of the game (9/10), I concluded that Hi-Fi Rush is a "fantastic game that combines two very popular genres and makes a wonderful and innovative game with a low skill floor but a high skill ceiling. The game is accessible to newcomers to rhythm games and very challenging for veterans looking to be tested in several other areas that don't necessarily have to do with just rhythm games."

Written by Ule Lopez