In Hi-Fi RUSH, the levels you play through are called tracks, and while fighting does make up a good chunk their gameplay, they also have their fair share of exploration and platforming. Almost every track has exploration segments between the fights (which are called choruses). These are mostly made up of walking (or rhythm dodging (which is dodging on the beat), if you want to get around quickly (you can add a light attack at the end of a chain of dodges, then immediately get into another chain to go even faster) and platforming. During these, you can talk to NPCs and find collectables.
There are twelve tracks total, with two of them being dedicated to boss fights specifically. They are as follows:
The different tracks are dedicated to different sections of Vandelay and the people that run those sections. Most of them get two tracks dedicated to them and their specific zone; the only ones who don't are Roquefort (with the lowest amount at just one track) and Korsica (with the highest at three). Only two of them have one of their tracks dedicated to their boss fight specifically, those being Mimosa and Kale.
Most of them end with some kind of boss fight, which can take the form of a fight against one of the heads, multiple waves of enemies with increasing difficulty, or, in the case of track 4, a race to escape. Throughout a few of them, you are tasked with doing specific things in order to progress, whilst in others you simply have to follow the many bright, glowing arrows to keep moving forward.
One of the NPCs you can talk to is named VA-SF07, though everyone calls them Smidge. They're an overly friendly smart fridge who you can talk to to learn more about the game's mechanics. They appear not long after tutorials, and provide advice and extra information about whatever you were just taught about. Being a fridge, they have energy drinks (which is what the health pick-ups are) stored inside themself, and will give them to you after you talk to them, though they don't do this for every mechanic.
There's a particular duo of NPCs you can encounter in almost every track. Their names are SEB-AAA and JSF-001. They work in HR, and can be found discussing matters related to it. Or, at least, sort of related. These two are a reference to the Evil Within, another game made by Tango Gameworks, and are based off of Sebastian Castellanos and Joseph Oda.
In tracks 2, 5, and 8, there's one NPC for each that you can talk to that gives you a side-mission. Once you complete the mission, they'll reward you with a collectable.
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As you explore the tracks and pick up collectables and gears (the game's currency), you'll also occassionally find batteries. There's three kinds, but the most interesting is the very large ones. Upon picking these up, you hold onto them until you use them, but you can only have one at a time and you lose it upon beating a track. Using these gives you two full bars/gauges of reverb!
NPCs to talk to, collectables, gears, and batteries aren't the only things you'll find, though. There are vending machines and golden busts of Kale that you can whale on and break. Doing so rewards you with gears. Some of the vending machines can also give you health and batteries. What they give you partly depends on the difficulty you're playing on, though some will always give you health and batteries regardless.
Keen-eyed explorers may also spot Tango-Chan! They're a small, snail-esque, black creature with a large, green circle on their "shell." They appear in almost every track, and can be found doing numerous different activites, such as bouncing a ball against a wall or dancing. They can't be interacted with, but it's fun to keep an eye out for them! They were Tango Gameworks' mascot.
In-between some of the tracks, you return to the hideout, which is your base of operations. You also get sent there if you back out to the menu, then go back into your save. Whilst there, you can chat with the other characters and buy a variety of things (which you can learn about on the shopping page). Backing out in the middle of many of the tracks, then going back in activates unique dialogue from the characters, most of which is rather meta. As for what else you can do in the hideout, you can access the Wall of Fame; the training room, where you can practice combos and test out special attacks; the post-game content; and you can view all of the vlogs and graffiti you've collected!
It's important to note that the hideout isn't the only place where you can purchase things! Throughout the tracks, you'll encounter shops every once in a while, which are called Level Up Machines. These are the exact same as the main shop in the hideout, they're just an on-the-go version, essentially.
Chips are one of the things you can buy, and I mention them because once bought and equipped, they give you different passive skills. Most of them only really affect combat, but some of them do have an affect on the general gameplay. They range from making your rhythm dodge be able to pull in items from further away, to increasing the amount of gears you get.
If you're playing the game on Steam, if you've ever pressed shift + tab to activate the steam overlay, you may have noticed that you had a custom status message that fit the track you were currently in. There's one for every track (some even have multiple), alongside a few for other areas of the game, but I'm only going to list the track-related ones here (and the one for the hideout).