Sifu was quite a surprising hit when it first came out earlier this year. It seemed interesting to me but I wasn't fully sold on it - and it was pleasantly surprising to see it get a bunch of good reviews. That and finding out despite it not really being marketed that you could chose the gender of the protag ultimately made me pick this up quickly. And then proceed to not beat it until the year is nearly over.
Sifu's a game a lot of people compare to John Wick for some reason but there's no gun fu. The combat is pretty solid. It feels great and the finishers are satisfying but honestly I wasn't really a big fan of it beyond that. There's very little in the way of tells for attacks and some of the combos you can unlock are awkward to use. It really basically just felt like spamming deflect was the most reliable way to play. The bosses are actually pretty enjoyable comparatively but the third one basically just dodges and spams projectiles which made her by far the most annoying part of a pretty brutal game. The whole idea behind the aging system is really cool in theory, especially with how it ties into upgrades and seeing your characters appearance change. But that "in theory" part does a lot of heavy lifting for me. Sifu is a pretty rough game despite its short length and since you only have basically 10 lives before having to restart you'll end up replaying each of the five levels to beat them with a better age making this game basically almost a rouge-lite. It does a neat thing where if you put more exp into an upgrade you have you can permanently unlock it for future runs which is cool but this facet of gameplay was just not enjoyable for me. Maybe i got filtered but the combat didnt seem fair enough to make me wanna smash my head against a wall and keep replaying the first two levels a million times and I actually ended up dropping this game for quite a while.
And then it got an update! New difficulty modes, new modifiers, new challenges. Always love when games add new ways to expand your playtime especially when its for free. Student difficulty is basically the "easy mode" of the game. I'm not sure exactly what it changes about enemy health and player damage but the main draw of this for me was that the death counter now only goes up by one, so instead of having ten lives you have more like fifty. For me this was the optimal way to play. Student difficulty is still no joke and i got my ass kicked a lot, particularly by that annoying boss i mentioned earlier. But not having to participate in all the level replaying made this a much smoother experience and I'm glad this game gives you as many options as it does.
The visuals are also really nice. The art syle is pretty basic but it does some really cool stuff with it especially when it throws in some more surreal things. Each of the five levels are unique and have fun little references to movies like Oldboy and Kill Bill Volume One. It all works great. The story is there... its not meant to be anything more than an excuse for violence and thats all it needs to be. Now to actually see the credits in this you need to get the true ending which can be done by sparing all the bosses. This really doesnt add much to the game though as it really just gives you a new cutscene but I did it anyways to feel like I actually beat it. There's also some collectibles you can get which do interconnect between the levels. It's kinda fun to get all these and find the different shortcuts throughout but most of the enjoyment for me was just getting the silver trophies for it lol.
Overall, Sifu is a really sleek and fun (even if you might need to tweak it a bit) game. It may not blow you away but with all the accessibility options there's a lot to get out of this whether you want a tought as tits challenge or to just beat the fuck out of a lot of people.
Thanks for reading y'all. More stuff coming soon I promise <3
Nancymeter - 75/100
Trophy Completion - 91% (38/43)
Time Played - 17 hours 56 minutes (i really don't know how)
Game Completion #148 of 2022
Game Completion #2 of December
Sifu's a game a lot of people compare to John Wick for some reason but there's no gun fu. The combat is pretty solid. It feels great and the finishers are satisfying but honestly I wasn't really a big fan of it beyond that. There's very little in the way of tells for attacks and some of the combos you can unlock are awkward to use. It really basically just felt like spamming deflect was the most reliable way to play. The bosses are actually pretty enjoyable comparatively but the third one basically just dodges and spams projectiles which made her by far the most annoying part of a pretty brutal game. The whole idea behind the aging system is really cool in theory, especially with how it ties into upgrades and seeing your characters appearance change. But that "in theory" part does a lot of heavy lifting for me. Sifu is a pretty rough game despite its short length and since you only have basically 10 lives before having to restart you'll end up replaying each of the five levels to beat them with a better age making this game basically almost a rouge-lite. It does a neat thing where if you put more exp into an upgrade you have you can permanently unlock it for future runs which is cool but this facet of gameplay was just not enjoyable for me. Maybe i got filtered but the combat didnt seem fair enough to make me wanna smash my head against a wall and keep replaying the first two levels a million times and I actually ended up dropping this game for quite a while.
And then it got an update! New difficulty modes, new modifiers, new challenges. Always love when games add new ways to expand your playtime especially when its for free. Student difficulty is basically the "easy mode" of the game. I'm not sure exactly what it changes about enemy health and player damage but the main draw of this for me was that the death counter now only goes up by one, so instead of having ten lives you have more like fifty. For me this was the optimal way to play. Student difficulty is still no joke and i got my ass kicked a lot, particularly by that annoying boss i mentioned earlier. But not having to participate in all the level replaying made this a much smoother experience and I'm glad this game gives you as many options as it does.
The visuals are also really nice. The art syle is pretty basic but it does some really cool stuff with it especially when it throws in some more surreal things. Each of the five levels are unique and have fun little references to movies like Oldboy and Kill Bill Volume One. It all works great. The story is there... its not meant to be anything more than an excuse for violence and thats all it needs to be. Now to actually see the credits in this you need to get the true ending which can be done by sparing all the bosses. This really doesnt add much to the game though as it really just gives you a new cutscene but I did it anyways to feel like I actually beat it. There's also some collectibles you can get which do interconnect between the levels. It's kinda fun to get all these and find the different shortcuts throughout but most of the enjoyment for me was just getting the silver trophies for it lol.
Overall, Sifu is a really sleek and fun (even if you might need to tweak it a bit) game. It may not blow you away but with all the accessibility options there's a lot to get out of this whether you want a tought as tits challenge or to just beat the fuck out of a lot of people.
Thanks for reading y'all. More stuff coming soon I promise <3
Nancymeter - 75/100
Trophy Completion - 91% (38/43)
Time Played - 17 hours 56 minutes (i really don't know how)
Game Completion #148 of 2022
Game Completion #2 of December
Vaudevillain
1 year ago