If you’ve played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you’re going to be very familiar with the gameplay formula of Sifu. Let’s focus on the gameplay and what you’re going to do while going through the levels beyond dying… a lot. So the balance of what you lose and gain is really impressive and can sometimes be the boost needed to clear an area or beat that boss. But the upside is they can dole out more damage. Every ten years, the protagonist loses health and locks away some abilities that can be unlocked in the skill tree. For me, this sometimes meant I was replaying certain levels 4-5 times in a row just to be much, much younger as I got ready for the next area. The only way to have a better shot at the next level is to retry a previous one. There is no de-aging between levels either. Meaning if you’re 63 years old with a death counter of 7 when you beat a level, you only have two chances during the next level. There are five levels in Sifu, and your age and death counter carry between them. And this part of the death mechanic takes Sifu from being a challenging game to one that can be frustratingly difficult. One other caveat to the death mechanic was never shown in any of the marketing. With your second death, they’re now 23 with a death counter of two. So when you first die, they age to 21 with a death counter now at one. For example, at the start of the game, the death counter and starting age are zero and 20, respectively. Every time they die, there is a death counter which increases the years they age with every death. The catch to this is the protagonist ages every time they die. Instead of a game over screen appearing when the protagonist dies, they get back up. One of the biggest advertising points of Sifu was the aging mechanic. However, the challenge doesn’t stop Sifu from being a fantastic experience that rivals Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Enemies are brutally punishing, the unique aging system is stressful, and the only way to master the game is through lots and lots of practice. It may be the most challenging game I’ve ever played. It’s where the protagonist catalogs all of their findings for the five different areas you visit and their bosses, revealing more about the challenge you’re facing, who these villains really are, and potential shortcuts.īefore I get into the gameplay, I want to be very clear about something that’s felt unspoken up until now. The detective board is something that didn’t feel superfluous one bit. Besides leading to new lore tidbits, what you choose could lead to enemies standing aside or critical pieces of information for your detective board. The fear and regret these people have in their last moments are on full display.Īs for the dialogue options, they actually influence how the game plays out. The animation style used is beautifully simplistic, and the characters you fight are emotionally expressive in these moments, particularly when you’re about to deal the final blow. What was most impressive about these cutscenes, though, is the real emotions shown by the characters. These mostly play as you approach a mini-boss or the final boss of a level as an introductory “A challenger approaches” style clip. The cutscenes are short and contain very little dialogue beyond the minimal context for who you’re about to fight. The rest of the story is played out through a mix of dialogue options, cutscenes, and a detective board. That loose end trained for years and is now ready to kill every single person who murdered their family. What Yang didn’t realize at the time was that the child was holding an ancient talisman that would bring them back to life. Starting several years prior to the current day, you play as Yang, as you and your four subordinates proceed to murder every single member of the family that lives there, including a Sifu of kung fu and their child. But my god, the intro to Sifu may be one of the coolest intros to a game yet. The story is, at its core, a quest for vengeance. With only their family’s teachings, a drive for vengeance, and a talisman heirloom, the time to exact revenge on their family’s five murderers is now. Sifu is a beat-em-up action-adventure game that puts you in the shoes of a fallen kung fu master’s child whose life’s mission is to avenge their family. A year later, Sifu, developed by SloClap, is nearly here. One of the most highly anticipated games for the PlayStation was revealed back in February 2021.
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