JAKE CURNOW PRESENTS
Furi
Playstation 4 Version
The feeling of taking on the final boss in the first sixty seconds of a video game is typically reserved for expert speed runners and time trial masters, yet Furi has absolutely no problem throwing a player straight to the wolves right out of the gates. With a cryptic plot and excellent gameplay demanding razor sharp reactions, Furi delivers one of the most creative and challenging experiences available on the digital Playstation market.
Furi starts out breeding both confusion and mysteriousness with little explanation as to who's who, or what's going on. All the player knows is that they've just taken control of an expert swordsman on the verge of escaping captivity, but with an even deadlier looking swordsman standing in his way, known only as "The Chain". For players familiar with the Legendary Zelda saga, Furi's opening boss battle against The Chain is like taking on Ganondorf just after picking up the Nintendo controller. Indeed, players are offered a tutorial in the midst of this first epic battle, yet that only reduces the challenge at hand by a minor degree...
Just after defeating The Chain, the swordsman begins a game-long process of being groomed by a person in a bunny costume with a seriously dramatic voice. The overall feel of the game may remind one of games like Killer 7: an extremely creative and strange game released years ago for the Playstation 2. Equally similar to Killer 7 is Furi's structure outside of combat, which is reduced to the swordsman having a one-dimensional, one track route from boss to boss... And with that said, Furi is ultimately just one big boss-run; a style of gaming that players in the speed running community will find themselves heavily acquainted with. In fact: one of the gameplay modes unlockable after campaign completion is the "Speedrun" mode, accompanied by global leaderboards to determine which players are the best in the business.
Players looking for more of a challenge after campaign completion will unlock an additional "Furier" game play type, which not only increases difficulty, but also changes the properties and behavioral patterns of each boss. Outside of the standard campaign and speedrun game play modes, Furi has little to offer other than a "practice" mode, giving players the option to take on bosses as many times as they wish. With Furi being structured with speed running in mind, the game has everything it needs to be an excellent title, although I do caution other players that Furi simply is not for every type of gamer.
During combat, players have a wide range of tools to utilize, and the vast majority of battles are structured the same. With exceptions here and there, Furi involves the swordsman fighting his opponent across the entire spectrum of the map, involving both sword-fighting and laser blaster exchanges. After players drain the first life bar of their opponent, however, the tide of battle changes with the boss engaging the swordsman to an inside fighting contest, where combat properties and maneuvers tend to change.
One of the most fundamental aspects of Furi is the ability to parry incoming sword attacks. Every boss in the game has an excellent amount of combat depth, especially when the property changes of "Furier" difficulty are taken into account. Parrying incoming sword strikes is similar to fighting game community philosophy in that players need to properly defend themselves before they punish. With that said, the sword attacks of each boss are radically different and hard to defend against, leading to a process of trial and error. If a player is able to perform a "perfect parry", which requires even more sensitive timing than a standard, they will go into an instantaneous CGI sequence where the opponent is automatically punished.
It's a refreshing day to see developers deviate from the status quo in an effort to make creative and intensely difficult video games, and I see a titanic amount of potential should Furi be followed up with a sequel or series of sequels. The tough learning curve and occasional frustration during gameplay only creates a trial and error environment where the intelligent gamer ends up learning from their mistakes. Yet the lack of a proper training system in a game requiring such an elite sense of timing tends to leave a person scratching their head as to where they should perform certain actions. With excellent gameplay and a thought provoking narrative, however, I'd certainly be interested in seeing Furi developers double-down on a follow up title with corrections having been applied where necessary.
Overall Rating
7.4/10