Hiring

Reminiscent of games like Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden, Furi aims to be the new game that haunts even the most skilled of players in their dreams. Furi is all about the battle, while you have a few story moments here and there describing what you are there for, about 80% of the game is insane boss battles. Yes that’s right, boss battle after boss battle.  Which if you are like me then a ton of bosses is a bit appealing at first glance. Where the game gets difficult is the different mechanics you must master in order to successfully defeat bosses, each one will teach you a new mechanic of the game, such as long range attacks, parrying, and dodging.

 

Basically the story is of a young warrior trapped in a prison like world in which he must defeat boss after boss to ultimately reach his escape. Ok so story wise the game doesn’t teach the player of what's going on in terms of the way other games do, while most games rely on cut-scenes, audio logs, and diaries to get the story across, Furi takes a new approach with stellar narrative provided during each boss battle. I think the developers took a cue from Konami on this one because the only other game I can think of that even comes close to that is Metal Gear Solid, yes I know MGS is notorious for long cut scenes but MGS also seemed to be the first to provide story telling through boss fights. Yet after all that story is not really what's meant to bring the player back with Furi, Furi aims to make players want to master the tight controls and unforgiving demands in which to kill a boss.

The controls were done well for the Xbox One version, while they are very tight and precise they are also unforgiving in some cases. They require perfect timing for maximum damage, and one wrong move can prove fatal for the newcomer. I highly recommend playing on easy difficulty your first few days with the game. Going in on hard mode will be unnecessarily difficult and just give you a bad experience and make you want to quit. Practice is the one thing that will help you master Furi.

 

Visually Furi is a very beautiful game. While it may not have photo realistic graphics, Furi provides a truly unique art style, colours are bright and vivid, each animation of the player from simple things like running or dodging are done well. The game has a cel shaded art style similar to games like Zelda The WindWaker, Killer 13 and Borderlands. Audio was done well too, voice acting is not perfect but certainly does a decent job at making each character memorable, even small things like the sound of you hitting the boss with your sword, and the sounds of the environment are all as they should be. Certainly won't draw away from the experience what so ever.

 

Now as for the achievements, this is in no way easy. There are achievements for defeating each boss as well as achievements for a certain number of successful attacks or dodges and parrying. The truly insane achievements are for speed running the game and the achievements for getting a S rank on each difficulty. The speed runs will task you with completing the game once in under 2:12:42 and another for completing the game once in under 1:29:56. So there you have it. Getting the full 1000g is not impossible but it's not something you are gonna pick up and complete in a night. Furi is the game for the elite, the completionist, or just for someone who wants a real challenge.

 When it comes down to it Furi does what it does well. And that is difficult boss fights that demand you master each part of the game. The achievements will task you becoming one with the controller. And when you finally complete this game you will have something on your gamer card to be proud of. Now this may not be for everyone, and while I like the new approach the game takes with story telling I still found myself wanting for from the game rather than just boss fights.

 

Retailing for $19.99 (or region equivalent) Furi is out now on Xbox One, as well as PS4 and Steam.

 

Final Score - 7/10

 

Written by John S aka YoDz

 

Twitter: @akaYoDz.   Xbox: YoDz

 

A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review

 

You can purchase Furi on the Xbox Store Here

 

Release Date - Friday‎, ‎December‎ ‎2‎, ‎2016

Price - $19.99

Download Size - 4.15 GB