Developer: The Game Bakers
Publisher: The Game Bakers
Platform: PC, PS4
Tested on: PC
Furi – Review
A devastatingly deadly swarm of inspiring electro beats, beastly boss battles and stunning characters blend together to create this action-packed hack and slasher. So grab your katana and your trusty laser pistol, step outside of your cell and get ready to…die. A lot.
Story
Furi has a somewhat strange story that unravels slowly as you progress through the game. You will be accompanied throughout the game by a rather odd man in a rabbit mask who takes on the mantle of narrator, and coaches you through each challenge that you face. As for why he is helping you, you will have to work that out yourself from the odd comment and tidbit of information that he provides you.
The only thing that is made clear to you is that you are imprisoned and must defeat each of your many jailers if you wish to escape, thus the constant mantra of “The jailer is the key, kill him and you’ll be free”. Who you are, or what crime you may have committed to be worthy of such a complex and deadly prison, is unanswered and you must piece together the puzzle if you ever want to find out.
The story could be criticised for being rather vague and explaining little, but nevertheless that curiosity turned out to be one of the main factors that kept me coming back after each gruelling defeat. I wanted to know what it all meant. Whilst the story comes to a head at the end, and you can more or less work out the truth, make sure to keep playing after the credits. You will be presented with a powerful choice and some of those cryptic messages will make much more sense, not to mention that there is extra content in it for you.
Graphics
One of the main draws about this title is definitely the unusual graphics and art style. Think stylish, sci-fi samurai action. If you happen to be an Afro Samurai fan, the style might seem naggingly familiar, as the impressive character designs were created by Afro Samurai artist Takashi Okazaki. Each boss has its own distinct look, fighting style and backdrop, something that really brings this title to life.
As you might expect from a game about boss fights, it is the bosses themselves that can make or break a title, and we’re happy to say that graphically, they are fantastically done.Each enemy has its own unique arena, themes and style and will stand at nothing to see you back in your cell. All of this is presented in a beautiful and intriguing sci-fi style, with neon colours and bright bursts of energy. In-between each battle you will also find yourself wandering through strange and glorious scenes as your masked companion warns you of the dangers waiting ahead.
Sound
With an original soundtrack by a host of celebrated electro artists, you wouldn’t be blamed for expecting an incredible show on the sound front, and thankfully, you would be right. The quality remains high throughout and it really starts to get your blood pumping during the furious boss battles, no matter your personal taste in music.
It isn’t just the insane battles where the music really shows its colours. The downtimes between fights too are lifted by the subtle, mellow tones that masterfully build up to a powerful crescendo as you approach your next target.
Gameplay
Hack and slasher Furi tells you from the get-go that you are recommended to use a controller and it is most definitely right. Whilst you can still use a keyboard and mouse, it is much more difficult than you would expect. Mainly because for some reason you are forced to dash in whatever direction that you are aiming, whilst with a controller you are free to move and aim independently.
At it’s simplest, this title consists of boss battles followed by strange walking scenes, where you slowly walk to the next boss fight. As mentioned you have some company in the form of the man in the rabbit mask who narrates your progress and offers some advice about your next target. The walking scenes soon grow old, you cannot run or interact with much and may soon find yourself losing patience as you watch your character ever so slowly strolling around until you reach the next boss.
These are often the points where little hints about the story are drip-fed to you, and the backgrounds are often beautiful and intriguing but you are discouraged from exploring as it takes so long to walk anywhere that you don’t want to have to walk even further when you’re ready to get back on track. Whilst you can appreciate the virtue of these downtimes at first, they soon just become infuriating.
The boss battles themselves usually consist of two modes; a long range arena style battle, then close quarters melee clashes where you cannot escape your opponent until one of you loses a life. Despite this, the battles are all very different and unique, mainly due to the intensely varied fighting style of each boss. At its most basic, you must fight by using a sword and laser pistol to defeat your enemies, but that isn’t quite as easy as it sounds.
You can also dash short distances and parry blows and bullets if your timing is good enough. In fact if you want to beat the game, you will need to get your timing for parries down to a tee. But don’t be expecting any short conflicts, as each boss has not one health bar, but several. Add to this the fact that your opponents are quite often invulnerable for the vast majority of each fight (you must wait for small gaps where they become vulnerable, such as right after unleashing a powerful attack), and you may begin to understand just how tough this title really is.
Difficult is definitely the operative word when it comes to Furi and that’s fine, it does not pretend to be anything else. Expect to die a lot, and I mean a lot. My problem with Furi is not that it is difficult, but that it approaches difficulty in the wrong way. All of the bosses have attacks that are almost completely unblockable, or defences that are totally unassailable for 99% of the fight, and you must die repeatedly until you trial and error a way to survive. Once you die, you must spend 10 minutes chewing through your opponents lives to get back to where you were struggling, only to die again when you still can’t avoid that devastating attack. Don’t expect to beat any opponent without dying and being forced to start again multiple times.
There is an easier mode: “Promenade” where you have more lives, the bosses have less, and you do much more damage. You can switch to this mode at any time, but you are punished and ridiculed if you choose to take it. (You unlock no achievements, the game sneers at you and you get a big PROMENADE sticker under your health bar to remind everyone that you took the easy way out). You are also totally unable to switch back to normal mode and must play the entire rest of the game in shame. We suppose this is understandable as the developers want you to play the game as it was meant to be played, and you miss out on a hell of a lot of content if you play in Promenade. But it’s a little harsh that if you get stuck, your only options are to keep grinding deaths for eternity or else play the rest of the game in disgrace.
Conclusion
Like many, we feel that most modern games are generally much easier than their old-school counterparts and lament that games are not truly challenging anymore. This cannot be said for Furi, a title that brings us back to the days where we would spend weeks trying to beat a single level, back before you could just google the answer. In this it excels, succeeding in both infuriating and entertaining in equal measure. And despite my whining about the difficulty, Furi is at its core, a boss battle game, and who said bosses were meant to be easy?
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