Rift of the Necrodancer

About

Rift of the Necrodancer is a single player arcade role playing game with a comedy theme. It was developed by Tic Toc Games and was released on February 5, 2025. It received very positive reviews from players.

The NecroDancer's back in a brand new rhythm game spinoff! Help Cadence navigate the modern world while repairing the rifts that have torn her life apart. Do rhythmic battle via rift mode, minigames, and boss battles! All to the beat of a brand new soundtrack from Danny Baranowsky & friends.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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95%

Audience ScoreBased on 2,829 reviews

music649 positive mentions

grinding9 negative mentions

Unique and innovative rhythm game mechanics using monsters instead of traditional notes, adding complexity and depth.
Excellent and diverse soundtrack featuring talented composers; music is engaging and well integrated into gameplay.
Robust content with story mode, fun minigames inspired by Rhythm Heaven, boss battles, multiple difficulty levels, and extensive Steam Workshop support for custom tracks.

Steep learning curve and challenging chart readability, especially on higher difficulties due to dense notes and complex monster behaviors.
Inconsistent difficulty spikes in story mode and some charts favor memorization over pure rhythm skill, which might frustrate players.
High DLC cost relative to base game content and some players find the story mode and boss fights lacking depth or underwhelming.

music
1,568 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
41%
57%
2%
The music in Rift of the Necrodancer is widely praised for its diverse, catchy, and high-quality soundtrack featuring renowned composers like Danny Baranowsky and others, with many players considering it a standout aspect of the game. The integration of music and gameplay is praised for enhancing immersion, though some find the charts challenging to read at higher difficulties due to complex enemy note patterns. Extensive Steam Workshop support for custom songs adds great replayability, though some feel the DLC pricing is steep and that song quality varies across official and community content.
- “The soundtrack is a standout feature, featuring over 30 original tracks composed by Danny Baranowsky, FamilyJules, Alex Moukala, Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, and Nick Nausbaum. The music spans various genres, including EDM, chiptune, and synthrock, ensuring that each track is engaging and complements the rhythm-based gameplay. Additionally, the custom music mode allows players to import their tracks and create personalized rhythm maps, adding nearly limitless replayability.”
- “Danny Baranowsky returns and his compositions are better than ever, and working alongside Jules Conroy and a host of other artists, the music they have made for this game absolutely slaps.”
- “The music is top-notch, really well made and memorable, I've kept listening to it for a while now, and the various levels themselves are also very well designed and fun, but they can also be really tough, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (there are difficulty options, so if things look too hard or too easy for you, you can always change that).”
- “The DLCs for the game are also not the most worthwhile affairs, as the devs made the mistake of competing with games like Muse Dash where you can get 600+ songs for a one time 25€ payment, and decided instead to do collabs with five songs each, where each song costs two whole euro.”
- “It kinda just makes me want to go play normal Necrodancer or a different 3-key game instead of this weird hybrid of both that feels unsatisfying 95% of the time till you play a song over and over to get the different patterns down since they change song by song and there's not many recognizable enemy patterns besides some basic stuff.”
- “It feels like 80% of the songs are boring generic remixes and soundbites from Zelda and Crypt of the Necrodancer. These songs have bits that I recognize from the other two games but they are not very good. The rest of the 15% of songs are just generic. But having played the whole game and realizing that you can count the actual good songs with one hand is very bad for a music game.”
gameplay
487 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
53%
1%
The gameplay of Rift of the Necrodancer is widely praised for its unique blend of traditional lane-based rhythm mechanics and enemy behavior patterns drawn from its predecessor, Crypt of the Necrodancer. Players find it engaging and challenging, with a learning curve that rewards memorization and pattern recognition, though some note it can be overwhelming or difficult to read at higher difficulties. Complemented by varied modes, minigames, and robust community content, its mechanics provide a fresh and satisfying rhythm game experience that stands out in the genre.
- “The game mechanics are clever, utilizing different monsters from Crypt of the Necrodancer, which all had unique movesets and loosely adapting those movesets for equally unique charting opportunities, for instance: blue slimes which have to be hit on two consecutive beats to be defeated or harpies which go forward two spaces every other beat or skeletons which, on first being hit, are decapitated and sent back to the nearest enemy blocking their path.”
- “The way it adapts Crypt of the Necrodancer mechanics and enemies into its gameplay is so clever and makes it a treat for people coming from Crypt, and an incredibly fresh experience for rhythm game fans coming in from your traditional Guitar Hero/DDR style 'hit the arrows/notes' gameplay.”
- “The gameplay loop is very addicting and the mechanics really make this stand out from the rest of the rhythm game genre.”
- “The gameplay itself is... confusing.”
- “Also blademasters suck absolute farts; they are both mechanically redundant (harpies serve the same function of being an enemy who "jumps squares") while also being the only enemy whose position is irrelevant to their actual attack timing, the only enemy that uses an audio cue for its timing instead of visual, and the only enemy with a badly desynced miss animation.”
- “It's not just the mechanics that are way too many to remember, but honestly I just wasn't having any fun at all.”
story
480 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
67%
4%
The story mode offers a light, simple, and humorous narrative that mainly serves as a framework to guide players through the game's tracks and introduce its mechanics. While not deeply engaging or complex, the story is complemented by charming characters, fun rhythm heaven-inspired minigames, and unique boss fights that add variety and pacing to the experience. Overall, the story is enjoyable but not the main draw, with many players focusing more on the gameplay, music, and custom content.
- “The story mode is 90% of why I'd recommend this game.”
- “The story is short, sweet, and simple, serving as a guided tour of the game's library with fun rhythm heaven-inspired minigames sprinkled between chapters.”
- “The story mode so far is great fun and it's difficult not to be charmed by the personalities of characters you met in the first game; the beatmaps are fun and decently challenging at higher difficulties without feeling impossible and the music, of course, absolutely rules.”
- “The weakest part of the game is the story mode; while the core group of characters are great, the side characters have infinite amounts of wasted potential and their story arcs make no sense.”
- “The story is completely predictable and uninteresting and I'm not really sure why the game even has one.”
- “The writing behind story mode is unrelentingly cutesy, vapid and saccharine, and worse, you're constantly forced to play cringe-inducing minigames to progress.”
graphics
176 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
43%
2%
The game's graphics are widely praised for their charming, vibrant, and polished cartoonish art style that complements the energetic soundtrack and lively animations, adding significant character and appeal. While some find the aesthetic less to their taste or occasionally impacting chart readability, most appreciate the visual customization options and overall visual polish that enhances the engaging rhythm gameplay experience.
- “The visuals are phenomenal!”
- “The graphics are beautiful and masterfully animated, and you even get fully (and very dynamically) animated intro and ending cutscenes.”
- “Wonderful visuals, charming original music, and an amazing art style!”
- “Guitar hero with this aesthetic is... yikes.”
- “I've given a negative review, not because I hate the game, there is nothing wrong with the game outside of the visuals clarity and of course the annoying elements since it's using a mixture of up, down, left, right using all four directions and then sometimes just three, making it annoying to follow along.”
- “High-graphic requirement games I could no longer play without having to endure crashes and freezes that would force me to restart my PC.”
replayability
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
49%
46%
5%
The game offers exceptional replayability through multiple features including daily challenges, a remix mode that procedurally generates new charts, and extensive workshop support for custom tracks and opponents, enabling near-infinite content. Multiple difficulty levels, modifiers, leaderboards, and a level editor further enhance its longevity, appealing to both rhythm game enthusiasts and high-score chasers. While some find the remix mode less compelling than handcrafted charts, the strong community content and variety of play options ensure lasting engagement.
- “The custom songs feature will give this years of replay value, and even without using that the game feels polished, complete and fun to play.”
- “The game offers a lot of replayability (similar to its predecessor) thanks to the remix mode, daily challenges and custom tracks.”
- “Built-in support for custom levels also allows for virtually infinite replayability, and if you want to try your hand on making your own levels, the level editor is included for free with the game!”
- “Cool storyline, and the game tries hard to be replayable, but there really isn't any replayability to this.”
- “The remix mode as an attempt to add replayability is kinda weak, too.”
- “But the replayability is mainly from mastering the harder tracks and playing custom tracks.”
humor
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is widely praised for its genuinely funny and charming story, quirky characters, and rhythm heaven-style minigames that range from amusing to hilarious. Players appreciate the clever writing, playful concepts (like an immortal lich flipping burgers), and the comedic variety adding charm to the gameplay. Overall, humor significantly enhances the experience, making the rhythm game both entertaining and memorable.
- “The story of the game is serviceable plot-wise, but genuinely humorous and fun.”
- “Characters are adorable with their low frame animations, monsters add a ton to the gameplay, and the minigames are just way too funny.”
- “People can say rock band or guitar hero are better and that's fine, but this is one of if not the single most fun classical rhythm game I've ever played, everything is so damn perfect, from each difficulty not just making things harder by boosting the tempo of the song or adding more notes, but actually mixing up the monsters and effects each song has, to the rhythm heaven style mini-games that are abundant, varied and insanely fun, all the way to the amazing, short and sweet story filled with brilliant character moments, hilarious writing, and obviously some of the best songs in any rhythm game, plus with custom workshop support and a built-in song editor that's relatively simple and easy to use, this game's going to last a long time.”
character development
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
39%
11%
The character development is highly praised for its stylish, charming, and expressive designs that bring vibrancy and personality to the game, complemented by excellent voice acting and animations. While the writing may be considered less memorable by some, the overall passion and innovation in character presentation significantly enhance the player's engagement and enjoyment.
- “The art in general really stands out to me. I love the way these character designs have been updated both to fit their new setting and to carry them into a more polished art style than the distinctly 2010s indie look of the original, with lots of fun expressions to be seen.”
- “Wonderful character designs all over the board, and a fun story mode with even more fun minigames and boss fights.”
- “The story mode is cute and the character designs are gorgeous, not to mention the excellent voice acting.”
- “This game as a whole has no connection to its previous installment other than character design.”
- “I came to play a rhythm game and I didn't find myself interested in the very simplistic dialogue and character design.”
- “The art and character designs are incredibly charming but the writing is a bit forgettable.”
grinding
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in this game is a divisive aspect; while some players appreciate it as a break or enjoy the challenge of memorization and skill improvement, others find it tedious and repetitive, especially when aiming for high-level achievements or full combos. The reliance on pattern memorization can make the experience feel more like a chore than fun for some, with the grind-heavy nature potentially diminishing long-term enjoyment.
- “Some Steam achievements for this game are way too hard and challenging, while others are a bit grindy. There's no way I am getting them all.”
- “The first month that I played, I loved almost every song. Only after starting grinding for full combos did I start to hate many of them.”
- “You can turn off visual effects, but that lowers the quality of the experience. Medium difficulty is too slow and tedious, while hard is too complicated if you didn't play through easy and medium practice modes; at that point, the game is mostly memorizing patterns and following along, making it somewhat fun but the polar opposite of what I expected.”
monetization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
88%
The monetization is criticized for its high cost relative to value, with multiple paid DLC packs that feel necessary but add significant expense beyond the base $20 game. Despite quality content and developers' effort, the frequent and intrusive ads and DLC promotions create a frustrating experience and give the impression of a misleading or aggressive monetization model.
- “The high price-to-value ratio and the five-track release nature ensure apprehension to purchase due to cost and limited content. Coupled with the presence of the Steam Workshop at release offering hundreds of free songs, the monetization scheme of the game feels quite bizarre.”
- “Why are they advertising DLC packs to me on the song select screen?”
- “All right, these obnoxious ads on the main menu have officially pushed me over the edge and made me give you a red thumb.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players feel a strong emotional connection through natural yet challenging gameplay that fosters a sense of improvement and accomplishment. The game evokes genuine feelings, highlighted by impactful moments like the reaper boss fight, resonating deeply with both rhythm game veterans and newcomers.
- “Just going for all A's then all S's on medium has really made me feel like I have improved a ton from where I started 24 play hours ago.”
- “I cried during the Reaper boss fight.”
- “A heartfelt thanks to Brace Yourself and Klei for giving us another winner at just the right time.”
optimization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
60%
The game offers innovative mechanics and a unique adaptive performance feature, but optimization remains a concern, causing strain on PCs and awkward controller support. Despite impressive content, performance issues detract from the overall experience.
- “But the genius part comes after, where it gives you a bit of gameplay and based on your performance suggests to tweak it a little one way or the other.”
- “Tons of content at release with no such performance issues is a rare sight these days.”
- “The game has many new mechanics compared to testing, but optimization remains a concern as it can be demanding on PCs despite good gameplay.”
- “The game is good, I see many new mechanics compared to the testing, but the optimization is very worrisome – I don't want to damage my PC despite the gameplay being good.”
- “I don't understand why they optimized it for keyboard... playing with a controller feels really weird and I don't like the adaptation.”
- “Performance issues.”
stability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The game suffers from frequent freezes, stutters, and lag that significantly impact play sessions, often requiring restarts. While some appreciate quick level replays and practice modes, overall stability issues remain a major drawback.
- “Can't forget freezes and stutters that plague the game.”
- “I get lag, I get freezes, and it's not occasionally, it's pretty much every time I have a play session.”
- “High-graphic requirement games I could no longer play without having to endure crashes and freezes that would force me to restart my PC.”