It’s a nice checkpointing mechanic that saves a lot of frustration down the line, though curiously there’s no way to manage your level saves. If you decide to return to the previous level and improve on your outcome with a lower age, you’ll start the next level in an even better state each time. When you reach a level, your age and shrine upgrades are saved so the player can jump in from that level at any time.
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Mercifully, Sifu’s run system doesn’t mean you have to go from start to finish in one full sitting (though that would make for an interesting mode in the future). You might be 70 years old and one combo away from pushing up daisies, but you’re going to hit like a truck every single time. These mistakes also mean you’ll lose out on certain upgrades, so it pays to stay young and healthy, though the trade-off is that the older you are, the harder you hit. Getting older means you’ll have less health, and with the death counter increasing with every death, mistakes begin to pile up quickly. The aging system has a lot of nuances to it. As soon as you hit 70 and die again, it’s game over and you have to try again. If you die during your run, your death counter will increase by one and your age will increase by the number on your death counter. Players can earn skills and abilities that’ll help you on your run, and skills can even be purchased permanently if you’re willing to spend enough XP. Sifu plays out like a mini-roguelike, as you try to complete the game’s five levels in one “run”. Eight years and plenty of intense training later, you’re ready to take down the five assassins responsible for his death. You’re then murdered on the spot, but thankfully, a magical talisman brings you back to life. The plot sees your unnamed kung-fu ass kicker witnessing the death of their father and master at a young age. Victory is never certain, it’s earned in the crucible of combat, and you’re always one wrong move away from defeat.įortunately, death and defeat are woven into the very fabric of Sifu. In Sifu, you always feel like you’re in danger, because the majority of your opponents are just as proficient as you are, making each encounter dangerous and thrilling as a result.
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Games like the Arkham series are designed to make you feel like a badass, but that tends to come at the cost of most encounters not feeling like too much of a threat.
Hitting light and heavy attacks on their own is satisfying enough, but using the L1 button and the left stick to perform dodges, or tapping L1 at the right moment for some devastating parries, helps elevate Sifu’s combat above most of its contemporaries. Sifu’s defensive options turn what could have been just an enjoyable, if a little basic, martial arts romp, into a game that demands your attention and rewards your patience. Landing combos, hitting takedowns and sending dozens of foes on an express trip to the hospital all add up to you feeling like a badass as you progress through the game’s five levels, but it’s not the offense that ties Sifu’s incredible gameplay together - it’s the defense. The core of that satisfaction isn’t based on how powerful the player character is, though they’re certainly a destructive force to be reckoned with in the right hands. Quite simply, Sifu is one of the best action games available on the market.
However, Sloclap’s Sifu stands as one of the most honest depictions of martial arts cinema in gaming, with the first level throwing out an Oldboy homage within the first five minutes, while creating a power fantasy that’s incredibly rewarding. Side scrolling beat ‘em ups have been around for decades, providing the one vs all joy that martial arts movies provide, while modern titles like the Batman: Arkham games have redefined that formula in new and exciting ways. Sifu isn’t the first game to have attempted that formula. It’s all very well and good watching a martial arts master take down hordes of enemies, but what if you could become that person?
Watching a martial arts flick like The Raid, any classic Bruce Lee film, Ip-Man, Ong-Bak and “Kung Pow! Enter The Fist” offers a raw kind of wish fulfillment and satisfaction that video games have often tried to escalate. Gaming has long had a love affair with kung fu and action cinema, and it’s not hard to see why.
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