Sifu Review
“Kick, punch it’s all in the mind…” Written by: Hunter (ReaperHunter23)
Sifu was first revealed in February of 2021. It showed itself to be a kung fu revenge tale with some impressive looking hand to hand combat and a cool visual style. The most striking thing however, was the aging mechanic that they showed when the player character died. All of these things were intriguing enough to grab my curiosity so lets take a look to see how the game measures up.
Image Credit: Sloclap
The combat in Sifu is quite satisfying. The free flowing targeting works as intended for a game like this. I never found myself attempting to hit one enemy only to be actually targeting a different one, short of another enemy walking between me and my target, the attacks would always hit home. The attack animations are visually impressive and pulling off counters and takedowns is immensely satisfying. It can be easy to get overwhelmed if you aren’t careful, your character is just as susceptible to being stunned as the people you are fighting and the enemies are numerous. Many of them will come wielding weapons such as pipes, knives, and bats. There are also bigger juggernaut type enemies to keep you on your toes as well.
As previously mentioned, one of the most striking mechanics of the game is the way that the player character ages upon death. Every time you die, you recieve plus one to your death counter. The number that the death counter is on when you die will be the number of years you age. So if you start at 20 and die once that’s one death counter and therefore you would be 21 upon standing back up. If you die again, that’s a death counter of 2. Which gets added onto the 21 for a total of 23. It is a little strange to try and explain but essentially every consecutive death has the potential to become increasingly more calamitous. Your maximum age will cut off somewhere in the 70s depending on what your death counter is when you get there, and while that may seem like a lot, those years can disappear fast if you are not careful.
There are ways to mitigate the death counter even if your foes occasionally get the better of you. The most direct method are the shrines dotted throughout the level that can set your counter back to zero at the cost of some experience. The other way to lower the counter is by defeating certain enemies. There are mini bosses that will lower the counter as well as the occasional enemy that will receive a buff mid fight that will lower the counter upon defeating them as well. I have a minor gripe with the buffed enemies, it is easy to tell when the are buffed, as they will have an aura surrounding them, that is not the problem, the issue I have is that there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to when said enemy will be buffed. Sometimes I could clear a room and have all of them remain the regular mooks. And then other times I would do the same room and encounter an enemy with an aura and I could not for the life of me find out what I was doing differently.
Image Credit: Sloclap
The progression from level to level in Sifu can be a touch frustrating. I will start with what it does right: You start each level at the youngest you’ve ever been upon arriving at that level. So Level 1 will always start you at age twenty. Now say you are age 25 by the time you complete level 1, that will be where level 2 starts you at in age as well. The cool thing is if you go back and play level 1 again, and finish at age 22, 22 will be your new starting age for level 2 for the rest of your attempts. A point of frustration however, is that the death count also follows you from the previous level. So if you end level 1 with a death counter of 4, that will be how you start level 2. This would be remedied by the fact that bosses always give you enough experience to be able to pay for the death reset at the next shrine you find, however, if you game over and try the level again, you do not get to keep your experience. So you could potentially be starting a level with a high death counter and frustratingly little you can do to mitigate it short of trying to play the previous level better.
Replaying levels in Sifu can be rather satisfying. I found myself falling into the pattern of using my first clear of a level as a rough draft, so to speak before coming back to try again because I felt like I could do better. The game gives a level score that will go up as you make your way through more combat encounters. Defeating enemies consecutively without taking damage will add to the score multiplier. Your level score can also be used for stat upgrades at the shrines you can find, so its a cool way of rewarding players who are doing well.
Image Credit: Sloclap
Sifu is a very straightforward revenge story. The main character witnesses the murder of his father and trains for eight years before setting upon his mission of vengeance. There isn’t really much more to it than that, there's some flavor text here and there when you pick up items, but overall it's a simple story that exists to contextualize what you are doing and not a whole lot more than that. It knows what it wants to be and it sticks to it in that regard.
Outside of the fun and satisfying action, Sifu also has a pretty stellar soundtrack and an exceedingly interesting visual identity. The opening sequence before the title card was very pleasing to look at. The level design is also pretty great in this regard. Whether its the slums in the first level or the Neon bathed nightclub in level 2, or my favorite, the museum in level 3, they all had locales that were visually consistent with each other while still remaining unique enough for me to be able to tell where I am in the level. The game has a way of framing itself to be evocative of the Kung Fu movies that influenced it. The corridor fight in the first level immediately springs to mind as that is clearly an homage to Oldboy. This is part of what made the museum my favorite level. The various exhibits made for a really cool level of visual variety. With the sequence right before the boss being one of my favorite parts from a visual standpoint.
Image Credit: Sloclap
Summary
Sifu is an immensely satisfying beat’em up game. The combat is fluid and responsive and most importantly, fun to become good at. There are some minor annoyances present in the progression from level to level that could be worked on. But the exciting and rewarding core gameplay is enough for me to give Sifu my recommendation.