Written by Litton Raysoul
Title: Furi
Developer: The Game Bakers
Publisher: The Game Bakers
Price: $19.99
Genre: Action
Also Available On: Steam, PS4, Xbox One
Furi is one of those hard games, requiring patience and for you to be good enough to finish it. I personally have a love-hate relationship with these type of games, wherein they provide the challenge that I want, yet also offers some head-scratching difficulty spikes that would (almost) make me rage-quit. However, the thrill of the fights, the unique story, and the will to finish the game pulls me back for another round.
Mostly consisting of boss fights, this game lets you play as the mysterious “Stranger”, fighting to escape from a highly-secured futuristic prison. Each area is a closed-world environment, which means that you can only explore a little and is linear enough to easily get to the area’s boss. Some areas are long but luckily, you can auto-walk by pressing the B button. During the journey, a mysterious man narrates different things related to the story and provides information about the area’s guardian. All enemy encounters are boss battles, each having its own story and motivation on why they are there, and you need to defeat them in order to open the gates to the next area.
Furi combines elements from hack-and-slash action games and twin-stick shooters. The gameplay revolves around attacking the opponents by either shooting or slashing, and evading or parrying their attacks. Each opponent has different phases, and clearing each of them fully heals your life. Clearing all the phases will finally defeat the boss. Unlike other action games, the game doesn’t encourage you to attack aggressively and requires you to carefully observe your opponents to find the perfect opening for a counterattack. If the opponent manages to deplete your lifebar, you will need to restart the phase, losing a life and fully healing both of you. For Furi (normal difficulty) mode, you only have 3 lives before you are greeted with the Game Over screen, with the option to restart the boss battle.
While the gameplay sounds simple on paper, the execution of it makes a huge difference. Each enemy has its own moveset, and you need to act very quickly as most of their attacks are very fast. While the evade move is very useful as you can pass through enemy bullets, spamming it isn’t a good thing to do as you might miss an opening or crash unto another bullet. Parrying is also very useful as it heals you and opens up the enemy for an attack, but you need to learn the enemy patterns and the timing on when to use it, or you’ll be dead in seconds. Take note, you are not expected to defeat the enemies on your first try. The game has several difficulty spikes that will surprise (or frustrate) you, and you might need to do a trial-and-error method to see which approach is more effective in taking down your opponents. The game also doesn’t teach you some techniques like parrying while charging your sword, which is quite useful. With these, you are expected to “Get Good” and push your limits to fully enjoy the game. I initially thought that the game is unfair and impossible, but as I continue playing, I managed to overcome and finish it.
The game’s presentation is not lacking, but there are some design decisions that seems odd. The colorful visuals and unique art style also adds to the game’s charm. Each of the areas are designed uniquely which compliments every boss battle that you encounter. However, most of the boss fights doesn’t fully utilize the environment as part of the gameplay. The game runs 60 fps, with some minor framedrops mostly occurring during cutscenes. While the game is action packed and fast paced, I can’t help but notice that it lacks the smoothness in the animation. It’s like you are watching them doing some slashes, but the animation is stiff and you can’t see how they are doing it. Compare this to other games like Zelda, Bayonetta, or Devil May Cry, where you can see the animation of the weapons even if the combat is fast. The accompanying techno music is good, though it might sound generic sometimes as you are fully concentrated on fighting your opponents. I mostly enjoyed the music that plays during cutscenes or during the navigation. Initially, you might find the dialog and plot very confusing, but the story opens up by the end of the game. Some of the plot twist are intriguing enough to revisit the game again.
Overall, I can’t say that Furi is a bad game. The combat is satisfying once you master it, but is equally frustrating when being stumped repeatedly. While there is an Easy mode, I can’t really recommend it as it really cuts most of the gameplay. The somewhat unforgiving difficulty might also be a turn off for most players. Before playing the game, you must first understand that this is a truly challenging game. So if you want some thrill and asking for a good action game, then go ahead and try it. There is also a hard mode for players catered for people who wants more challenge. But for other players that are frustrated easily or doesn’t have the skill to play hard games, then you might just need to find another game.
The Good:
- Action packed gameplay
- Pretty visuals
- Somewhat intriguing story
The Bad:
- Punishing difficulty spikes
- Some animations are hard to follow
Score: 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment