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So I bought this on sale the other day because I'm fairly into Hello Kitty stuff & I love Rhythm games
I've put about 8 hours into it so far and I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised!
It's more of a rhythm-action game, as you have to press buttons in time with the beat, but everything is to the beat! Activating character abilities, moving left and right to dodge enemies and obstacles, while also trying to pick up coins and power-ups.
So, that could all be considered pretty typical for a rhythm game. However, Happiness Parade is also a fairly deep and engaging Roguelite & party-based RPG!
You form your party of Sanrio characters and then begin the story mode
I say "story mode", but it's more akin to a towers or arcade mode from a fighting game, complete with multiple endings depending on the path you take. Each song you finish lets you advance 1 tile, allowing you to move upwards on the grid for more difficult stages, or downwards for easier ones
Your characters have health bars, can be KO'd and also act as your lives in the current run. You can finish a run as long as one character remains alive, but a total party-wipe results in a game over.
Forming your party is also deeper than I expected, as each character has their own unique role & abilities, as well as a range of unlockable costumes and accessories for customization!
Party management involves managing ability cooldowns, figuring out which character abilities work best together and levelling them up through story mode runs. Characters can be levelled up by collecting coins & character cards during song stages, and new characters can be unlocked by progressing through story mode.
Another big surprise to me was the challenge of picking harder stages in story mode. The songs don't require any additional button inputs, or become faster-paced. Instead, they add more difficult enemies and obstacles to avoid, and increase the damage your party takes. It often takes only one mistake to lose a character on the harder stages!
My favourite Sanrio character is only unlocked by advancing through the most difficult path three times, and I've only managed it once so far in 8 hours of playtime!
The last and perhaps most surprising thing to me about this licensed video game that was originally released on mobile phones: NO DLC OR MICROTRANSACTIONS! Every character, song, costume & accessory is included in the game and unlockable through regular play!
This is a very fun game that surprised me in many ways. The licensed soundtrack is also pretty good and varied. I would say if you like rhythm games then maybe keep an eye out for it on sale, even if you don't care much for Hello Kitty as a brand!
I've put about 8 hours into it so far and I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised!
It's more of a rhythm-action game, as you have to press buttons in time with the beat, but everything is to the beat! Activating character abilities, moving left and right to dodge enemies and obstacles, while also trying to pick up coins and power-ups.
So, that could all be considered pretty typical for a rhythm game. However, Happiness Parade is also a fairly deep and engaging Roguelite & party-based RPG!
You form your party of Sanrio characters and then begin the story mode
I say "story mode", but it's more akin to a towers or arcade mode from a fighting game, complete with multiple endings depending on the path you take. Each song you finish lets you advance 1 tile, allowing you to move upwards on the grid for more difficult stages, or downwards for easier ones
Your characters have health bars, can be KO'd and also act as your lives in the current run. You can finish a run as long as one character remains alive, but a total party-wipe results in a game over.
Forming your party is also deeper than I expected, as each character has their own unique role & abilities, as well as a range of unlockable costumes and accessories for customization!
Party management involves managing ability cooldowns, figuring out which character abilities work best together and levelling them up through story mode runs. Characters can be levelled up by collecting coins & character cards during song stages, and new characters can be unlocked by progressing through story mode.
Another big surprise to me was the challenge of picking harder stages in story mode. The songs don't require any additional button inputs, or become faster-paced. Instead, they add more difficult enemies and obstacles to avoid, and increase the damage your party takes. It often takes only one mistake to lose a character on the harder stages!
My favourite Sanrio character is only unlocked by advancing through the most difficult path three times, and I've only managed it once so far in 8 hours of playtime!
The last and perhaps most surprising thing to me about this licensed video game that was originally released on mobile phones: NO DLC OR MICROTRANSACTIONS! Every character, song, costume & accessory is included in the game and unlockable through regular play!
This is a very fun game that surprised me in many ways. The licensed soundtrack is also pretty good and varied. I would say if you like rhythm games then maybe keep an eye out for it on sale, even if you don't care much for Hello Kitty as a brand!
