Sifu Review (PS5)-
Right from the opening scene, you are thrust into the midst of a war being raged on a seemingly innocent and defenseless school of kung fu practitioners. Unknown at the time, but you actually begin the game as the main villain and final boss, Yang, who has some very impressive moves under his belt right from the get go. It is a brutal showcase of his abilites, as you control Yang, he mercilessly wipes the floor with all who stand in the way. He confronts his former teacher, his Sifu, and Yang is accused of being taught too much. It isn't long before the kung fu master is struck down and all in the eyes of his little son who is glued to the corner in awe of these events. Yang orders the boy to be killed, and one of Yang's minions approaches the boy with a sinister grin on his face gripping a machete.
Fast forward 20 years, and that little boy is now you. It may seem a very simple setup and plot route, but with combat this enticing, that minor irregularity is easily overlooked. You will now be tasked with hunting down each one of the major criminals under Yang's wing, on your way to the man himself. You have a posterboard in your hub base (which is the protagonists dojo), where everything you uncover while playing is listed and detailed. These clues will give you more of an understanding of the history of these characters lives and what they may or may not be up to in present time. Key cards, and keys to access shortcuts are also listed here and are CRUCIAL if you want to be able to survive to make Yang pay. Finding some of these can be tricky but they all give the player a lot of back story and information on events that led up to this present time.
As I said, the combat is superb. You start out as an eager up and comer with only the basic moves available. You gain experience from defeating enemies, however unless you have spent enough of your XP to permanently unlock these abilities, they will disappear after you get a game over and you will have to purchase them again later. At first it may seem unfair, but as you improve and begin to understand the basics, you will better come to terms with how you should allocate your precious XP. There are many useful skills on sale, such as the ability to catch and immediately throw back weapons such as bottles thrown at you by enemies. You also have a unique death counter system. What this is a number system that starts at 0. When you die in battle once, the death counter increases by one and after a 2nd consecutive death it will be at 2. What this means is if you die a 3rd time the character will not only age by 3 years but the death counter will increase by however many deaths you have in your death counter. It will continue to increase upon death until you get it to 5, and by that point every time you die, your character ages a hard 5 year cycle. Upon reaching the age 70 and falling in battle, it's game over. So it quickly becomes evident to always try to keep your death counter low and you can also decrease its value by winning a certain amount of encounters consecutively or by downing strong opponents. The game offers a fair amount of chances to get your death counter under control and it is a unique system that works quite well.
While you won't be finishing the game without a game over in one single playthrough, the keys shortcuts you unlock on your initial playthrough of each level will always be saved and upon your next attempt, you will be able to skip large sections of levels to skip ahead to the boss fights of each section. It won't be long and you will be skipping through as quick as you need to.
The graphics are a nice cel shaded style. The colorful environments are a joy to gaze at and levels such as the Museum offer a gallery of beautful shades of rainbow colored areas to gaze at. Also, the Dualsense is used to maximum effect in Sifu, as you crunch tables or break bottles over heads the controller will make you feel it and hear it. It is a very therapeutic and satisfying sense and makes the combat and exploration that much more enjoyable as a result.
Overall, the game is a love letter to classic Bruce Lee films and throwback classics like Rumble in the Bronx Jackie Chan flicks. It feels very authentic in its portrayal of the kung fu fighting style, and also shows how much difficult training and lifelong dedication it would require master. The only reason this game did not receive a 10 out of 10 stars from me is the length. It only contains 5 levels, and although it will take some time to finish these 5 levels, it could have pushed the run time of the game a little longer. It will take most players a matter of a week to finish if not even less, even so, the game is a true testament to the sheer badassery of kung fu fighters. The team clearly has a love for the kung fu fighting style and it shows in gameplay and ends up benefitting because of that. This should be on every fighter lovers shelf!!