Pretty decent action game but with some annoying elements.
The camera is very ass sometimes and is too close to the character most of the time, camera distance adjustment would be great. Also, in a game like this where combat is 70% the focus, when the camera clips through a wall, the walls should ALWAYS go invisible. There have been way too many instances where you get pushed into a corner and the camera ends up behind a wall and you get killed cause you cant see shit.
This is not the only aspect where priorities seemed to be set aside however, there have been a few scenes where either the darkness or strong colored lighting stand in the way of motion clarity, particularly in level 3.
On a more technical level there were some noticeable issues with targetting. Having no lock on of some sort means you need to implement auto targetting and that stuff is usually never spotless and indeed it is often very annoying in sifu. You sometimes snap to a different enemy in the middle of a combo if you happened to do a move with some pushback in the middle. I also attribute issues with the Y+B finisher move not initiating while in range to the auto-targetting (could be wrong though they might be unrelated). Small nitpick but I also think default binds for back step and evade should be lb+back and lb+forward respectively, just seems more intuitive to me.
Other than that the combat design is a bit confused, im not sure why having both the parry and the evade was necessary, most of the time evading is simply the better and more consistent option. I think the defense in this game is comparable to God Hand, where you also get 3 defensive options with dodging, backroll and sidestep but in that game all of them serve a clearly defined role and dont confuse a player at the start by offering options which dont show any immediately discernible difference in end result.
Also I feel gating off moves behind a skill tree in this game was a bad move, since they reset on death. You often dont get the chance to get used to actually having the move and before you finally start using it more, you get reset. The focus attacks and situational moves are fine though.
Finally im not so sure about the overall structure of the game. It IS unique, but they deliberately chose something that will appeal to a very select few autists like me and is not all that beneficial to the overall experience. Most people will feel enough satisfaction getting beaten up once and finally passing a level, Sifu however strongly recommends replaying the levels many times to get a low amount of deaths so you dont "soft-lock" yourself in later levels. This will no doubt alienate a lot of players, and that would be fine if what was gained instead was worthwhile but I'm not conviced that trade off was worth it in this case.
Overall I think the game was fun and will satisfy any craving for a punishing action game experience. The mechanics are engaging and sound for the most part, the aesthetics have a strong identity, The animations have that all important snap and are extremely satisfying every time you perform them and the soundtrack is solid, albeit more subdued than it should be. I recommend 👍
The camera is very ass sometimes and is too close to the character most of the time, camera distance adjustment would be great. Also, in a game like this where combat is 70% the focus, when the camera clips through a wall, the walls should ALWAYS go invisible. There have been way too many instances where you get pushed into a corner and the camera ends up behind a wall and you get killed cause you cant see shit.
This is not the only aspect where priorities seemed to be set aside however, there have been a few scenes where either the darkness or strong colored lighting stand in the way of motion clarity, particularly in level 3.
On a more technical level there were some noticeable issues with targetting. Having no lock on of some sort means you need to implement auto targetting and that stuff is usually never spotless and indeed it is often very annoying in sifu. You sometimes snap to a different enemy in the middle of a combo if you happened to do a move with some pushback in the middle. I also attribute issues with the Y+B finisher move not initiating while in range to the auto-targetting (could be wrong though they might be unrelated). Small nitpick but I also think default binds for back step and evade should be lb+back and lb+forward respectively, just seems more intuitive to me.
Other than that the combat design is a bit confused, im not sure why having both the parry and the evade was necessary, most of the time evading is simply the better and more consistent option. I think the defense in this game is comparable to God Hand, where you also get 3 defensive options with dodging, backroll and sidestep but in that game all of them serve a clearly defined role and dont confuse a player at the start by offering options which dont show any immediately discernible difference in end result.
Also I feel gating off moves behind a skill tree in this game was a bad move, since they reset on death. You often dont get the chance to get used to actually having the move and before you finally start using it more, you get reset. The focus attacks and situational moves are fine though.
Finally im not so sure about the overall structure of the game. It IS unique, but they deliberately chose something that will appeal to a very select few autists like me and is not all that beneficial to the overall experience. Most people will feel enough satisfaction getting beaten up once and finally passing a level, Sifu however strongly recommends replaying the levels many times to get a low amount of deaths so you dont "soft-lock" yourself in later levels. This will no doubt alienate a lot of players, and that would be fine if what was gained instead was worthwhile but I'm not conviced that trade off was worth it in this case.
Overall I think the game was fun and will satisfy any craving for a punishing action game experience. The mechanics are engaging and sound for the most part, the aesthetics have a strong identity, The animations have that all important snap and are extremely satisfying every time you perform them and the soundtrack is solid, albeit more subdued than it should be. I recommend 👍