Infinite Guitars Review

Infinite Guitars is a rhythm game, an action game, and a turn-based RPG all rolled up into one. Developed by Nikko Nikko and published by Humble Games.

In a world ravaged by a great mech war, where there’s little left but floating islands and music powers everything, main protagonist JJ wants nothing more but to play her guitar. However, once her grandfather is kidnapped, she's thrust into an adventure where she along with three other girls – Sam, Kaylee, and Ru – must set out to find answers and gain the power to save the world.

The story is fine. Serviceable for what it tries to do, but has a few unamusing clichés, and it feels like some important details are left out. I’m actively talking to every NPC and interacting with every detail I can find, but it feels like some things come out of nowhere. I might be missing something, or I haven’t been paying close attention, but given the completion time and scope, it does its job. Dialogue choices can affect your stats, but it felt a little unnecessary. It doesn’t do enough to be something to think about when your choices boil down to being aggressive or defensive.

However, I think the gameplay and music is what most people would buy this game for because it is phenomenal. I wanna spend this paragraph just talking about the soundtrack because every song is a banger worth listening to on your own. Featuring such artists as Shady Cicada, Izuna Drop, Nikko Ronsayro, and Twinkle Park, each song is enjoyable and you won't get sick of even after hours of playtime – which is great because those very songs are what the entirety of the game is powered by. Literally. Personal favourites include “Light Beams”, “Modular Echoes”, “Reflect”, and “Hyper Current”.

You will be playing a lot of rhythm minigames while both exploring and in battles, so let’s talk about them. You’ll be exploring a variety of locations, filled with enemies to fight, secrets to discover. All the explorable areas are fine, but I do have issues. The map only shows you what area you’re in, and it's sometimes not very clear what you can and can’t walk on. It’s a little too easy to miss the path forward, which isn’t great considering you’ll encounter various obstacles in your way in certain sections of a given level.

These action sections have obstacles that follow to the beat of the current song sort of like Hi-Fi Rush. However, while I can see it, I relied more on visuals than the beat and some sections are flat out annoying to navigate, especially when backtracking for a side mission. I felt like some parts were just a little too unfair, having lasers appear out of nowhere, or letting you take damage in the middle of cutscene. I was playing with action sections set to Hard, so maybe it’s better on Normal, but it was really irritating to get knocked down, get up, then get knocked down again. You can get through these sections faster by sprinting, which causes the camera to move in close but makes it harder to avoid obstacles. I liked the idea of it, but some areas have the camera already too close for comfort and sprinting just makes it worse. Now despite all my complaints, it’s not bad and I enjoyed some of the challenges presented, however I felt like it could be done better.

Eventually though, you will need to fight. Battles are all about risk and reward. Almost every attack costs HP and you need to play a rhythm minigame. If you play it perfectly, you regain that HP and your attack deals the full damage. Sacrifice your charge (which also heals party members) and/or sacrifice even more HP to add more notes to the rhythm minigame, and you deal even more. Even when you're not attacking, you still need to remain focused and take risks. Enemy turns will allow you to dodge their attacks, which is necessary considering they can deal 100% of your health even on Normal. However, if you dodge at the right time, you get half an additional charge. This isn’t the type of battle system where you can just spam the confirm button, or set it to auto. Actually, it’s the worst thing you can do as enemies do get stronger the longer a fight lasts so it’s best to nail those rhythm minigames, which aren’t the same every fight. It’ll be based on the battle music, and some tracks are trickier than others. I love this battle system because it isn’t mindless, or feels like a grind. I’m active in every fight from beginning to end, and when you perfect a minigame and one-shot an enemy, it’s earned. Not because your numbers are bigger but because you’ve become better at playing. And the animations used for attacks, while some are reused, are amazing.

Onto technical performance, the game ran perfectly fine. 60 FPS all the way, no frame drops or stuttering or anything. However, what actually ruined my enjoyment were some of the glitches present. Some were minor but notable, such as audio issues, sprite glitches, and objects being on the wrong layer. Others, however, forced me to Alt+F4, such as interacting with some NPCs in the later parts of the game would cause a softlock. Also, mashed notes in the rhythm minigames are hit or miss…quite literally. It’s consistent if I’ve successfully hit the note or not.

While I do overall love Infinite Guitars for its music and gameplay, it’s let down by various glitches and issues I’ve encountered that hampered my enjoyment. Still, once those issues are cleaned up, you’ll find a stellar game to rock out to for about 15 hours.

Infinite Guitars is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.