REVIEW – A game that pops-up as free at the release date on PlayStation Plus? An indie game from a no-name game developer that you never heard of up until now? Unity game engine? These are usually the warning signs that Sony is just throwing another broken bone to the crowd to please them with a monthly free game – the usual indie 2D bullshit (Dead Star am I right?).

So I was 100% hesitant to try out the game especially with the recent PS Plus game offers. Boy, I was wrong, especially since I love anime, and fast-paced combat games such as Metal Gear Solid: Revengence. Furi is a game that tries to remind us of the old days, when bosses had multiple forms, and you had to use your reflexes to overcome these giant health pool bosses. After completing the game, I can say that this is one of 2016’s sleeper hit, especially when we compare it to other Twin-Stick Shooters such as Alienation, or Enter The Gungeon.

It’s just like one of my Anime shows

The game is a simple twin-stick shooter with bullet hell elements and is one giant boss rush mode. It sounds similar to Titan Souls which was also an indie game, but here the concept nor the graphics are mediocre. The graphics are stylized and heavily take influence from such works as Afro Samurai, and XIII, which was a cel-shaded FPS. The characters are well designed and very detailed for a boss rush indie title. The fighting in the game is simple.

You have your dash, parry, attack with a sword, and attack with a gun buttons. While it does seem simple due to the lack of leveling, item collection, it does offer depth. It trades leveling up, and one hit one kill loot items, for the player to be much more responsive, to remember patterns, and to have a pretty high skill of hand-eye coordination.

There are multiple phases to each boss, and it usually goes down like this: The first half is from the over the top-down view, trying to break the boss down to a minimal amount of health. After that is done, we go to a slightly over the shoulder view for melee. Both types of phases are deadly, painful, and most of all real fun to play. This hectic fun is achieved by the mentioned above overly simplistic combat. It is easy to pick up the game, but will take a considerable amount of time to master.

Furi does offer some leniency in its difficulty (well at least on Furi mode), whereby parrying successfully you regain “X” amount of health, but we regain all of our health if we defeat a boss’ phase. Some of the later bosses though will pack quite a punch, so failure while is allowed, will wreck you in the longer run, if you cannot pick up the rhythm of the game.

I am become Death – The Story of Furi

The story of Furi begins with your character being in a dire predicament. You captured, and all alone against the world’s Jailer, who is endlessly torturing you. However, a man in a bunny head costume decides to unlock your chains as he has also decided to escape out of the prison. In order to escape this prison, you must beat all of its occupants.

The man in the bunny suit provides exposition and background to the location, the world, and to the inmates that want to beat you to a bloody pulp. They all imply you have done some horrible deed, and even the man in the bunny suit is quite hesitant to let you be free. The story is ultimately a backdrop to allow the player to engage in epic battles in weird lands, but by the end, a lot of it will make sense. The story is more like a mystery, and a rather good one, with a few unexpected turns.

Beat em up with a sword

The soundtrack of this game is amazing (and also available for purchase), with such heavy hitters as Carpenter Brut, Danger, The Toxic Avenger, Lorn, Scattle, Waveshaper, Kn1ght. It adds a ton of enjoyability to this title, as the game does require a certain rhythm for the player to take up, just like in Hotline Miami. The music is fast paced, but there are calmer sections when the tempo is lower (usually the walking/exposition part). The music is interwoven with the game, without it, Furi would be less of it.

The graphics of the game are great, not Witcher 3 tier great, but the work done in Unity does its job. The bosses are colorful, and so are the environments (thanks to the weird story), and the effects are while simple look pretty awesome especially for a bullet hell game. It is not the most beautiful game in the world, but it oozes style.

In the end! – 90s anime music

Furi is a throwback to an era where bosses would make you tear your hair out, and cinematic QTEs where nowhere to be found. While the game does suffer from a few issues: Screen tearing, long monotonous walks to the next walk while exposition is being thrown at you. It never ruins the core game experience, which is beating up a multiple phase boss.

Furi is a game that is not easy, and can make you tear your hair out. However, it is a game that resurrected a game mechanic that I miss from most “cinematic” video games aka the bloody boss fights that make you sweat. Go ahead and download it from PS Plus, if you do not have the patience now, you might pick it up later.

-Dante-

Publisher: The Game Bakers

Developer: The Game Bakers

Genre: Hack’N Slash / Twin-Stick Shooter

Release date: Jul 5, 2016