Introduction

Furi, a new action title from The Game Bakers, brings us back to the days of menacing and difficult boss battles. I haven’t completed it yet because the later fights are extremely difficult but I am absolutely determined to become so adept at the game’s combat system that I’ll be able to finish it on the harder difficulty level that unlocks upon completion. 

Oblique narrative

In Furi, you inhabit the role of a nameless prisoner who breaks out of his constraints and works to escape, fighting bosses that would stand in the way of his freedom. Between fights, a mysterious man wearing a giant rabbit head talks to the player, filling them in on details about yourself, the world, and the boss you’ll fight.

Flock of samurai

You can slash, parry, shoot, and dash from the first minute, and holding each action’s button charges that move (parry is the only exception), which makes them more powerful at the cost of slower movement. It’s a fun combat system that rewards taking risks and encourages close study of the enemy’s offense in order to perfect timing. Every boss is a remix of similar challenges that test your mastery of these controls and consist of several phases, marked by depleting a block of the boss’s health bar.

Brutally difficult

Furi is really difficult. There aren’t any new abilities or upgrades and your health stays the same from beginning to end. This does make Furi actively more frustrating as the player gets further into the game. Some fights can last five minutes, while some may end up being 30 minutes.

Once you have been defeated, you must start from the beginning of that particular fight. There are no checkpoints. Every boss in the game changes their attacks and tactics as they get closer to death. One moment can feel simple; the next impossible. Death in Furi is inevitable, but in the end, the game comes down to memorization and timing. After a while, I was able to anticipate every attack pattern of the bosses.

Visual and audio

In terms of visual and audio, Furi excels completely. The characters were well designed by acclaimed Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki. Each boss feels uniquely their own and seamlessly embodies both the environment they are found in as well as how they fight in each given battle.

The music, scored by contemporaries like Danger, Carpenter Brut, and The Toxic Avenger among others, is the kind that will stay with gamers long after they’ve finished Furi‘s fairly short gameplay cycle. The Stranger doesn’t need to speak when the music that follows his every movement does such an excellent job conveying what he’s feeling, and The Game Bakers should be commended for such a wonderful addition to the gaming music annals.

Final verdict

Furi is one of the biggest surprises so far in 2016. From a studio I’d never heard of and who, in turn, I expected nothing special from, ‘Furi’ makes me feel like a fool for ever judging it so harshly. Very possibly the best action game of this generation thus far, this is a rare example of every facet of a game’s design working perfectly to create an amazing whole. This is an outstanding effort from a studio I’m going to follow wholeheartedly from here on out.

By: Andrew Tong Sian Hong

Developers: The Game Bakers

Publisher: The Game Bakers

Platforms: Windows, PS 4

Release Date: 5 July 2016

Genre: Action, Bullet Hell, Hack and Slash

Players: Single-player

Reviewed: Windows

Score: 8/10