Chasing your revenge in Sifu

Chasing revenge by kicking ass with some awesome Kung Fu skills. Sounds familiar? I think it’s undeniable that Sifu’s action packed story resembles some of the iconic old school Kung Fu films. It’s cinematic graphics and smooth gameplay makes you want to fight bad guys over and over again, and that’s also the game’s twist.

Sifu combines modern beat ’em up and rogue-like style gameplay where you proceed from enemy to enemy and from level to level. Beat ’em up in gaming traditinally refers to game which features hand-to-hand and/or melee weapon combat against opponents. Sifu also implements rogue-like style games traditional feature where the game increases periodically in difficulty and a permanent death for the player when failing to meet the expectations to survive against the baddies. Thank the heavens that Sifu is a bit more merciful on the latter.

The main character of the game Sifu is encouter a group of enemies.

Kick ass or die. Photo © www.sifugame.com.

Every time your character dies in the game it’s resurrected by a magical talisman, but this also leads to the character getting older. Aging makes your character more stronger but at the same time reduces their health. Of course, aging up can’t go forever so when your character gets too old, they can die for good. The death isn’t totally permanent in this case either, and you can start the level from the beginning at the age your character reached it. This can still lead to a level coming almost impossible to pass trough because you can die only once in it, and your character is very fragile.

The main character in Sifu hits an opponents with a stick.

Getting older can be a pain. Photo © www.sifugame.com.

You can get some permanent upgrades that aren’t lost even if you decide to begin a totally new game so in theory the game can get a little easier. Also, while playing you can unlock more temporal upgrades, unlock skills, and heal your character. Still, not to die, the main idea is to repeat kicking and punching the bad guys in their faces and just get better at it. Luckily the bad guys aren’t the only way to get better in the ass kicking. You can train combos and hone your skills in your sanctuary between levels without the fear of dying.

As you might expect, controls, the combos and different skills are a vital part in the game. After playing the game for a while I would say that they developers have succeeded making these work quite well. The controls seem responsible and there is a lot to learn in using the combos and using different skills to your benefit. It’s also possible to key bind the controls to different buttons which is an ability that can’t be expected from majority of console games.

The game SIfu's main character is kicking an opponen.

Learning new combos and skills helps to get further in Sifu. Photo © www.sifugame.com

All and all Sifu is very entertaining game. Neat graphics, cool Kung Fu moves, beating up bad guys and story about revenge. Could you ask for more? Of course, the game can be very frustrating at times, but I think it makes up for it with the amazing gameplay it offers. If you like beat ‘em ups and rogue-like games Sifu is a must try. Even if you don’t, I would highly recommend trying it.

Basic information:

Publisher: Sloclap, Kepler Interactive
Developer: Sloclap
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Release Dates:
February 8, 2022, for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
November 8, 2022, for Nintendo Switch.
March 28, 2023, for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Genres: Rogue-like, Beat ‘em up, Brawler.
PEGI:16