Sifu Analysis – The Rigorous Way of Kung-Fu

Sifu analysis for Xbox Series X.

Surely you have already seen a film by Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee. Flying kicks, sweeps, machine gun punches, any type of object used as a defensive weapon. They are quite a spectacle. Last year, the developer slumped more than successful in recreating these spectacular fights with Sifu. The title was originally released on PlayStation, computer there nintendo switchbut this year he finally managed to see the light in Xboxboth physically and digitally.

Sifu is a game that bear sex beat them on another level thanks to a a staging in 3 dimensions and a very polished It’s easy to learn, but difficult to master. If you are ready to follow the meticulous path of martial arts, it is time to begin our analysis.

A life of vengeance

We are at China. During a stormy night, five figures in black robes enter a temple of martial arts. His goal is to destroy the master of said shrine and get his hands on a mysterious chest he guards. In the end, they end up getting it.

Our protagonist in this story is the teacher’s son (or daughter), who sees with his own eyes how his father is murdered. After that, the executors decide not to leave details and finish him off as well. But for some reason it doesn’t end up dying. It is then that a path of revenge and discovery will begin for this apprentice. He will train and fight endlessly until he achieves his goal.

After this sequence and a tutorial which will also serve as the opening credits, the game places us in our Wuguan. a humble house It will be our refuge and will function as a lobby or a central axis of the whole adventure.. From there we will access the five areas managed by each gang leader. Also in this place we can go information gathering which will reveal parts of the plot.

give wax, polish wax

As we said at the beginning, Sifu is a title that belongs to the genre beat them. Its main commands are based on the ABC of this type of game: one button for normal hits, one for heavy hits and one for blocking. Of course we can also use weapons or stage objects. Either as offensive tools or to throw at enemies to destabilize them. But what makes Sloclap’s work special is his three-dimensional section and the mechanics of “balance”.

as if it were posture of An axe, our character and the enemies will have a bar below life. This bar will fill up as we block attacks and, if it fills up, we will end up being vulnerable to our rivals for a while. To avoid this, we will have to master other defense methods that the game offers us: deviate and dodge. The first is nothing but a parry, if we block in time we will have a good window to counterattack. As for dodging, it will also serve to avoid strong attacks that cannot be blocked or deflected and, incidentally, it will improve our posture.

On the other hand, if we manage to fill our rival’s posture bar, we will be able to execute a combination shot which will leave him completely KO will make us find a little life. Does this mean that the game rewards us for being aggressive in combat? Well yes and no. It is not guaranteed that these executions will always be effective. Some enemies will be able to stop this movement deadly, allowing them to recover their full health bar and return to battle as more confident and fierce fighters.

experience makes perfect

Another very interesting mechanic of Sifu is the age. our protagonist he will begin his crusade at the age of 20. Through a magic talisman we carry, death does not affect us. Or at least in part, so Every time they beat us, we’ll add years. If we fall 1 time, we will add 1 year to our age. But if we bite the dust 2, 3, 4 or more times, that number will be added to us exponentially. With which, the more they defeat us, the faster we will age.

Moreover, when we change decades, our life bar will decrease, but our strength will increase. A reflection that experience is acquired with age, but the body weakens. After passing the age of seventy, death will be inevitable and we will have to repeat the level from the beginning. However, we can also reduce the accumulation of years by defeating certain powerful enemies.

Mastering the martial arts requires years of training.

Notably each level will depend on our results of the previous one. That is to say that if we pass the first zone at 40 years old, it will be the age we have at the start of the second. If we want to complete the story (especially from the medium difficulty level), we will have to repeat the occasional level to reduce the age and become younger and younger against this boss who gave us a good beating in the previous short. It makes the title true the essence of roguelite.

It should be specified that Sifu is not an easy game, but it’s not frustrating either. Mastering martial arts is literally a task that will cost us a lifetime, just like the title protagonist. But the scenario design and combat mechanics are designed for us to try again and again. In this way, little by little, we will feel that we are becoming masters of kung fu. Until it gets to the point where we inadvertently clean entire rooms of thugs. It will also help a lot if With the experience gained in combat, we can unlock new techniques for our character when we “die” or that we may improve our functionality in various totem poles scattered on the stages.

welcome to fight club

Although the campaign Sifu may be somewhat short, even after overcoming all of its challenges, the job added the Arenas to alleviate this problem. This game mode will challenge us to complete various skills challenges in command Among these tests we will find challenges such as surviving a certain number of waves of enemies while maintaining a certain age, using only parades to defend yourself or destroy certain objectives within a time limit.

Additionally, some challenges will add modifiers that will make the games much more interesting and even recreate mythical scenes from movies.

Sifu is pure action cinema

Icing on the cake, the work of slumped show a rather particular artistic section, with very marked shadows in the characters that give the feeling of watching a graphic novel. It is a simple but effective style. This scores more points with a detailed and varied scenography inspired by many films.

The same we fight in a nightclub, with neon lights flashing to the rhythm of the music synth wavewhich in a museum of modern art very similar to that of the second installment of John Wick or in a snowy Zen garden straight out of Kill Bill. All of them play with shadow and light to offer us a brutal visual spectacle. In addition, the three dimensions allow you to explore these places a little and enjoy yourself even more.

As if that weren’t enough, the the combat movements of the characters are very successfulthanks to the fact that they have been recreated thanks to technology motion capture. Hitting, dodging, deflecting or blocking feels so real we’ll think we’re exactly the same Bruce Lee.

Eventually

Sifu revolutionizes the long-standing formula of “me against the neighborhoodwith a three-dimensional section, a very polished combat style and original period mechanics which makes it almost a roguelite. slumped offers us a challenging but fair title, not suitable for weak reflexes, which will force us to repeat the levels more than once to improve. But no one said that mastering authentic Pak Mei kung fu is an easy task. With a plot of revenge as a common thread, we will go through different scenarios that exude color and personality. If we add to this the spectacular choreography of the fights, we find ourselves above all in a dream of martial arts.