Let me start this by professing that, despite being a huge fan of video game music and rhythm games, I’m not as proficient at them as I’d like. I can follow the rhythm fine, but when I get completely overwhelmed, the mistakes start piling up. Which is a big part of the reason that I have yet to immerse myself in the original Crypt of the NecroDancer, the universe in which Rift of the NecroDancer is set.
Despite that, I’ve been eagerly following this adventure from Brace Yourself Games since I saw it being showcased at PAX West. Not only did this adventure appear less stressful, since it’s more akin to something like Guitar Hero than the rogue-like mayhem of the first game, but it also features gorgeous artwork and an incredible soundtrack by Danny Baranowski and friends.
The fact that the good folks at Tic Toc Games (B.ARK, Adventures of Pip) also lent their talents to the game made it impossible for me to miss out on playing it. The question, then, is simple – did Rift of the NecroDancer live up to all my hype? The answer is that, yes, it did. For the most part.
From Baddie to Burger King
The plot of the game, which you’ll encounter in the expansive Story Mode, is all about Cadence and friends finding themselves whisked to a strange new place – Earth! They’re not entirely sure why they’re there, but they do their utmost to fit in and live their lives. Dove becomes a Yoga instructor, Heph shares his art, and the like.
Then, strange rifts start opening up randomly, unleashing monsters from our heroes’ homeworld. Worse, even when they close the portals, the humans nearby begin becoming zombified. All that would be plenty stressful, but once Cadence discovers that her nemesis, the NecroDancer himself, is also on Earth, she loses her cool. Strangest of all, he spends most of his time flipping burgers at the Magic Burger, but he swears that he’s not behind the rift phenomenon.
I was really charmed by the cute and humorous story of the game, which is full of clever turns of phrase and plenty of puns. Each of the characters was distinct, from Heph being a ditzy art dude to Dove being sweet and soft-spoken. By far my favorite thing, however, was how brash and cranky the NecroDancer was.
He’s not happy about flipping burgers, nor does he particularly want to work with the same heroes that helped defeat him before his mysterious resurrection. His interactions with Cadence are especially spicy, and it kept me invested in the lighthearted premise through the few hours it took to finish the story. This is all fantastic, but let’s talk about how the game actually plays.
Fight to the Music
If you’ve played Guitar Hero or something similar, you won’t be surprised by too much in Rift of the NecroDancer. When notes hit the action row, you hit the corresponding buttons, either Left, Up or Right, or Down to hit all three at once. But here’s the catch – you’re not just hitting notes, you’re hitting monsters! And depending on what type, they’ll behave differently.
Plain old skeletons just take a single push of a button to destroy, but then there are others that lose their head and keep on dancing. Or take the differently colored slimes, which take additional pushes of a button to smoosh, or the bats that fly in the direction they are facing. Then there are stretchy Wyrms, which are this game’s example of hold notes.
There are also devious, trigger-happy harpies, vicious Blademasters that warp right at you, Skulls that explode into skeletons, and so much more. If that wasn’t enough, there were some monsters that were offbeat, which really messed up my timing, as well as the monster’s general tendency to wrap around the field of play in sneaky ways. Lastly, there are devious traps that change monster behavior, speeding them up, moving them around, and even hiding their identity.
As you can probably imagine, it’s a lot to keep in mind, and sometimes, when I was really stressed out by a song, I forgot monster behavior and paid the price with a chunk of my health. You can take 10 hits before Cadence crashes and burns, though thankfully, you can also recover health with food items, ranging from apples to cheese wedges and even drumsticks. You’ll just have to om nom to the beat, lest you lose your current combo count and your score implodes.
The main thing you’ll have to keep in mind, though, is Cadence’s Vibe Power. By defeating monsters that are glowing with energy, you’ll fill up one of your Vibe meters. Once you activate it with spacebar, you’ll become temporarily invincible, as well as doubling your score multiplier while active. This is vital to getting a good score on any song. At first, I got a lot of D’s, C’s, and B’s, but once I started not missing any notes and using my Vibe effectively, I was able to finally get a few coveted S scores.
That’s not all, though! There are also fun little mini-games you’ll play in Story mode. These reminded me a lot of WarioWare, since they’re simplistic yet challenging. They range from Cadence doing yoga stretches to making hamburgers, taking a snazzy photo shoot, dancing as a children’s mascot, and even practicing her breathing. They’re all pretty enjoyable, though they can be sneaky in how exacting they are. I wasn’t able to beat any of the mini-games without making any mistakes.
A Simple Game of Chess
Lastly, there are boss battles against mysterious entities who are working with the Rift. These involve dodging boss attacks (represented by purple icons) by pressing the corresponding buttons with good timing, then stunning them and unleashing before they recover. This part of the game was the most visually stunning, with lots of neat effects happening on screen. While they start pretty easy, by the end of the game, you’ll be struggling to keep up with these wily foes.
The majority of my time with the game was spent getting through Story mode, but there’s plenty more to keep you occupied. That includes freeplay of any of the songs, modifiers you can unlock with Diamonds you acquire, incredibly demanding Challenges, a Remix Mode, and Daily Challenges. Not enough? Well, there’s also Steam Workshop content, meaning you can make your own songs and play those from others in the NecroDancer community!
Lush and Beautiful
You probably can already guess how I feel about the game’s visual style, but let’s talk about it quickly. The short version is, Rift of the NecroDancer is stunning, with gorgeous cartoony flair and lots of bold colors. It almost reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon from my childhood, which is a huge compliment.
Musically, the game fares even better, with tons of tunes I’d be happy to groove out with on a dance floor. If you aren’t already a fan of Danny Baranowski’s musical talents, you will be after you play. There’s also great music from assorted other folks, including recent DLC songs from Super Meat Boy!
And Now for Some Pain
I don’t have many complaints after my time with the game since I found it mostly charming. The crux of my issues is based on a common refrain of mine: the game’s balance. While Rift of the NecroDancer is a ton of fun, I feel that the difficulty is pretty steep, even on Medium. I was losing again and again just a few songs into the game, and finally relented and tried it on Easy. Despite the moniker, even that difficulty was pretty steep, though definitely more fair.
I’m honestly too intimidated to even try Hard or Impossible. I just wish that the developers had fine-tuned the difficulty just a bit more since it can get really complex really fast. On a related note, I had many times where playing with a keyboard was hard since the directional buttons were too close together, and sometimes I hit the wrong button as a result. While you can use a gamepad to play it, I haven’t yet, so I can’t comment on whether that works better or not.
Rock Out with the Rift
My complaints about the difficulty aside, Rift of the NecroDancer is a hell of a good time. This is a colorful, charming, and unpredictable story that’s a lot of fun to experience. Not to be outdone, there’s a ton of content here, from 20+ main songs to DLC tunes, Steam Workshop music, and more. While I wish the game had been a bit more precise about the difficulty selections, I think any fan of rhythm games will find something to enjoy in the latest from Brace Yourself Games.
Final Verdict: 4.5/5
Available on: PC (reviewed), coming to Nintendo Switch; Publisher: Klei Publishing; Developer: Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games; Players: 1; Released: February 5, 2025; MSRP: $19.99
Editor’s note: The publisher provided a review copy to Hey Poor Player.
