Korsica is the head of Vandelay security, and the third out of six major bosses you’ll need to take down in Hi-Fi Rush. She’s the odd one out in many ways; from a story perspective, your party will realize she’s far less bloodthirsty than the other bosses and might be someone to reason with. From a combat perspective, you’ll have to fight her without ever landing a blow.
You were only introduced to the parry system not too long before this fight with Korsica, but now, you will have to master its rhythm in order to come out the victor.
Phase One
Chai and Korsica will sidestep across from each other, like a sword duel. They’ll banter with each other as Macaron will say he thinks the best option is to not ever attack Korsica, this way she’ll end up more likely to work alongside you for her password. After a few choice words, she’ll prepare her first strike.
The lightning bolts above Korsica’s head are the number of how many strikes she’s preparing along to the beat. On the first parry, you will get a blue and pink ring, match the pink ring into the blue ring for a well-timed parry but the following strikes you will have to figure out from only the beat alone. You have to parry every attack to damage Korsica, missing a parry will damage Chai and you will have to do that cycle of parries all over again. You will also be chastised by your teammates and roasted by Korsica, just in case you need more of a tell that you messed up.
While you need to sync the parry to the beat, it should be noted that button mashing has its benefits during these attacks. You’ll be likely to mash on the right part, however, you might still misclick. If you are having trouble getting your parries, then button mashing is still your best bet, even if there’s a chance you’ll still fail a parry or two. The only other thing to be concerned with is the bonus challenge related to these parries. The challenge is to finish this boss fight with a total accuracy of eighty percent or more. This is not a challenge to worry about until you retry this fight later unless you happen to be naturally great at the rhythm. Parry Korsica enough times, and you’ll end up making her mad.
Phase Two
Korsica will combine her weapons into a long pole, and by twisting it, she can produce green tornados. You can’t parry the tornadoes, only dodge them. A purple zigzag above Korsica’s head will denote which strike is a tornado, so parry her normal strikes and dodge the tornadoes. Everything else will stay the same, you still will not be allowed to directly attack Korsica and you have to get your timing just hit to avoid getting hit. That last bit is even more important from now on though, as Korsica will heal between phases, but Chai won’t.
An extra help is that when Korsica launches a tornado after a strike, she has to jump back to be able to send it to you. However, a strike after a tornado will still be quick so make sure you remember what she plans to throw at you. Pass this phase, and the final one will begin.
Phase Three
Korsica doesn’t add anything to her arsenal this time, but rest assured, this will still prove to be the hardest phase. Korsica will start breaking her attacks into shorter bursts, such as planning two normal strikes you have to parry, followed immediately by preparing more attacks that give you less time to prepare for them. If you were button-mashing, just remember that Korsica has to jump back for tornadoes, so only worry about the dodge button when Korsica jumps back. That said, she will in some phases open with a tornado, so do try and see what icons appear above her head before your mashing. It won’t be impossible to finish the fight with this method, you just still have to be careful about which buttons you hit, and be extra careful to not confuse which button does what. Just like the previous two phases, the accuracy combined is counted for the challenge.
Once you finally finish Korsica, she will be launched back and a cutscene will play. But, you are still playing in this section, as a new prompt will suddenly show up. You have to sync this prompt to catch Korsica in your arms before she lands. If you catch her, you’ll unlock a challenge for your hideout’s mural and the successful catch will be counted as part of your letter score for the level. If you miss the prompt, Korsica will land just behind Chai, and you’ll be insulted by your teammates for failing. Either way, the fight is over, and the next step is track seven and the following story.
