

Weaving through cars, trams and buildings, she meets a trio of devil-masked women, the Dancing Devils. She summons a motorcycle ( Wheel of Fortune), and begins to ride through it. She then falls through a passage and arrives in a purple and pink city. Riding her longboard along an ethereal highway, she chases the butterfly, and upon capturing it, she transforms into a masked heroine ( The Fool). The butterfly transports her to the alternate universe. The heroine that the divine arcana created transforms into a butterfly and flies to the young woman, who is resting in bed. In a time near the present, there is a young woman whose heart has been violently broken. Before the divine arcana began to fade, they created a heroine from the shards of a broken heart. In an alternate universe watched over by three divine arcana of the Tarot ( The High Priestess, The Hierophant, and The Empress), a cursed arcanum named Little Death ( Death), and her allies, the Dancing Devils ( The Devil), the Howling Moons ( The Moon), the Stereo Lovers ( The Lovers), and Hermit64 ( The Hermit), stole all harmony, and hid it in their hearts. Sayonara Wild Hearts ' plot is based on the Major Arcana of the tarot. If the player fails to clear a section after a few tries, the game provides a means for the player to skip that section, only losing out on possible points that could be earned. Should the player hit an obstacle or enemy projectile, they are returned to a checkpoint. The player earns points for hearts collected, timing on button presses, and avoiding obstacles, and are rated on a bronze, silver, or gold rating for each. During the levels, the player will encounter different boss encounters, which will incorporate a mix of movement and timed button presses to avoid attacks. Other levels may require the player to move a cursor on screen to target a bow-and-arrow weapon to defeat enemies, in a manner similar to Rez. In some levels, the player will be prompted to press a button in time with the soundtrack to make a jump or avoid an obstacle. The exact mechanics of each level change, but in general the player attempts to guide the character to collect hearts across the level to earn points, while avoiding obstacles.

In each level, the player controls the main character as they automatically travel through a surrealistic landscape alongside a pop music soundtrack. Sayonara Wild Hearts is a rhythm game broken into 23 levels. One of the chase sequences in Sayonara Wild Hearts
