i wish i was better at this game
Furi is a game that is consistently a point of contention between me and my designer friends. I don't believe there is another game where everyone I know feels equally mixed about it. I have not played this game since 2021, and despite not liking it that much I have continued to think about this game since.
On one hand, Furi is a strikingly cool character-action boss-rush game. On the other, it is a half-baked bullet-hell with a narrative that wants to expand beyond the confines of its game. Quite literally, half of this game is pretty good, and the other half is pretty bad. It's almost impressive how balanced it is.
So, the good: Furi looks fantastic. The aesthetic is awesome, the music is fantastic (Toxic Avenger AND Carpenter Brut AND Waveshaper? Sign me the fuck up!), and the melee combat is detailed and polished. From the outside, if you look at the visuals, the close combat and the music, like I did before I got into the title, you'd think it's contender for best indie title ever made. Each character is teeming with personality, the narrative background is captivating, and each boss feels equally unique. So, great! Where do I sign up?
Well, you'd have to get past the other half of the game first. Each boss (save The Edge) opens in a bullet-hell segment that is ultimately very boring and undercooked. It feels a lot like an afterthought, just put into the game to give it draw, to say "Look! We're two things at once!" It's unremarkable. Each boss that leans heavy into this aspect is boring (The Song) and frustrating (The Line & The Star). Though, when you get through that, the close-combat sections are infectiously fun. It's fluid, refined, responsive. It really feels like you're a space samurai. The camera work for it is equally cool, and with the flashy visuals it's insanely fun to play with. After that, the loop repeats and you're back to swapping between playing a bullet-hell and an action title. The two modes are too antithetical to each other to really flow well between each other. Had this game focused on either or, it could have been much cooler, or at the very least more divisive.
The story is the other gripe I commonly hear echoed with this game. Furi very clearly wants to have this deep and expansive narrative, giving massive lore dumps between boss fights as you traverse these very nice looking environments. A lot of the monologues are context to each boss, who they are to you, what you are to them, but it's all done so vaguely you don't really get a sense for what the world actually is. The game speaks of all these past altercations, wars, and worlds but never gets to show us outside of that or even what those events were. No lore books, descriptions, or even an outside wiki to give us more insight into what anything is. It's beyond interesting and we just have to guess, which is really unfortunate.
What's more unfortunate is that these environments you traverse. They're very nicely crafted, and look equally distinct, but they're just that. A single path from A to B so you can get this exposition dump. Furi is so focused on just being a boss rush that when it isn't boss rushing you it forgets about the narrative it wants to tell (that it is CURRENTLY TELLING YOU). These in-between zones could have been more open, and through that let us find bits of the lore to complete this story that it wants to tell, but they don't. There was very much an opportunity here to expand and it was overlooked, seemingly to not retract from the boss rushing. Furi does all of this monologuing to make you care about the boss you're about to throw down on, but with how little you're given it's hard to care at all. The narrative, much like the bullet-hell, is an afterthought tossed in to check a box. I'd like this game more if it didn't have any at all, because then I wouldn't be met with the unsatisfying nothingness that is the captivating concept of a world they've made. Cool ideas are planted but nothing grows from that. The story is really just a bunch of cool ideas.
What Furi needs is a sequel. The world has so much setup to it and no give. There is clearly a story that wants to be told, there is so much to it, but there's nothing outside what you're told. The melee combat is great, but the overall gameplay is detracted by the bullet-hell mode. Furi needs a title that will lean into its positives, having strong melee combat, cool visuals, and good music while having a structure that lets its narrative grow.
Furi had a lot of potential. It does a lot right. It also does a lot wrong. It's aggravating. I want to like this game, but it's ultimately unsatisfying. It is the perfect 5/10. Perfectly balancing it's bad with good. The perfectly mixed game. Is it worth your time? Maybe. You will find something to like, but you won't be able to like all of it.
On one hand, Furi is a strikingly cool character-action boss-rush game. On the other, it is a half-baked bullet-hell with a narrative that wants to expand beyond the confines of its game. Quite literally, half of this game is pretty good, and the other half is pretty bad. It's almost impressive how balanced it is.
So, the good: Furi looks fantastic. The aesthetic is awesome, the music is fantastic (Toxic Avenger AND Carpenter Brut AND Waveshaper? Sign me the fuck up!), and the melee combat is detailed and polished. From the outside, if you look at the visuals, the close combat and the music, like I did before I got into the title, you'd think it's contender for best indie title ever made. Each character is teeming with personality, the narrative background is captivating, and each boss feels equally unique. So, great! Where do I sign up?
Well, you'd have to get past the other half of the game first. Each boss (save The Edge) opens in a bullet-hell segment that is ultimately very boring and undercooked. It feels a lot like an afterthought, just put into the game to give it draw, to say "Look! We're two things at once!" It's unremarkable. Each boss that leans heavy into this aspect is boring (The Song) and frustrating (The Line & The Star). Though, when you get through that, the close-combat sections are infectiously fun. It's fluid, refined, responsive. It really feels like you're a space samurai. The camera work for it is equally cool, and with the flashy visuals it's insanely fun to play with. After that, the loop repeats and you're back to swapping between playing a bullet-hell and an action title. The two modes are too antithetical to each other to really flow well between each other. Had this game focused on either or, it could have been much cooler, or at the very least more divisive.
The story is the other gripe I commonly hear echoed with this game. Furi very clearly wants to have this deep and expansive narrative, giving massive lore dumps between boss fights as you traverse these very nice looking environments. A lot of the monologues are context to each boss, who they are to you, what you are to them, but it's all done so vaguely you don't really get a sense for what the world actually is. The game speaks of all these past altercations, wars, and worlds but never gets to show us outside of that or even what those events were. No lore books, descriptions, or even an outside wiki to give us more insight into what anything is. It's beyond interesting and we just have to guess, which is really unfortunate.
What's more unfortunate is that these environments you traverse. They're very nicely crafted, and look equally distinct, but they're just that. A single path from A to B so you can get this exposition dump. Furi is so focused on just being a boss rush that when it isn't boss rushing you it forgets about the narrative it wants to tell (that it is CURRENTLY TELLING YOU). These in-between zones could have been more open, and through that let us find bits of the lore to complete this story that it wants to tell, but they don't. There was very much an opportunity here to expand and it was overlooked, seemingly to not retract from the boss rushing. Furi does all of this monologuing to make you care about the boss you're about to throw down on, but with how little you're given it's hard to care at all. The narrative, much like the bullet-hell, is an afterthought tossed in to check a box. I'd like this game more if it didn't have any at all, because then I wouldn't be met with the unsatisfying nothingness that is the captivating concept of a world they've made. Cool ideas are planted but nothing grows from that. The story is really just a bunch of cool ideas.
What Furi needs is a sequel. The world has so much setup to it and no give. There is clearly a story that wants to be told, there is so much to it, but there's nothing outside what you're told. The melee combat is great, but the overall gameplay is detracted by the bullet-hell mode. Furi needs a title that will lean into its positives, having strong melee combat, cool visuals, and good music while having a structure that lets its narrative grow.
Furi had a lot of potential. It does a lot right. It also does a lot wrong. It's aggravating. I want to like this game, but it's ultimately unsatisfying. It is the perfect 5/10. Perfectly balancing it's bad with good. The perfectly mixed game. Is it worth your time? Maybe. You will find something to like, but you won't be able to like all of it.
Honestly about still as good as I remember?
I feel like there's more to appreciate coming back to it now in a,, endearing way. It's like a collective playable synthwave album, down to how the attacks are basically a rhythm, but just jumbled around by bursts of twin stick sections and walking moments where you let the music play while a stupid pastiche narrates at you. And all of that is still really really fun to me. I'm enjoying the push and pull like normal, even if it's all rudimentary now that I've already beaten Furier and still have the muscle memory.
Which really surprised me, because I think that's the kind of opaque bullshit I would come back and go "wow this meant genuinely nothing, what the fuck did they think they were cooking?", but with all the environments and how the music sways it comes off more in the stoner sense where they THOUGHT they were being so interesting and deep but their eyes are staring blank straight through you lol. That's like the best way I can explain why it's fun to experience on a return.
It congeals together in such a way that I find myself unable to resent its very standard and now blatantly generic "phase" design. It's like yeah, I can get into it ^.=.^ I'm still banging my head to You're Mine, after all. Hilariously it makes me feel like I'm too harsh on Sekiro that This is the rhythm like action game I'm eating up today.
I feel like there's more to appreciate coming back to it now in a,, endearing way. It's like a collective playable synthwave album, down to how the attacks are basically a rhythm, but just jumbled around by bursts of twin stick sections and walking moments where you let the music play while a stupid pastiche narrates at you. And all of that is still really really fun to me. I'm enjoying the push and pull like normal, even if it's all rudimentary now that I've already beaten Furier and still have the muscle memory.
Which really surprised me, because I think that's the kind of opaque bullshit I would come back and go "wow this meant genuinely nothing, what the fuck did they think they were cooking?", but with all the environments and how the music sways it comes off more in the stoner sense where they THOUGHT they were being so interesting and deep but their eyes are staring blank straight through you lol. That's like the best way I can explain why it's fun to experience on a return.
It congeals together in such a way that I find myself unable to resent its very standard and now blatantly generic "phase" design. It's like yeah, I can get into it ^.=.^ I'm still banging my head to You're Mine, after all. Hilariously it makes me feel like I'm too harsh on Sekiro that This is the rhythm like action game I'm eating up today.
Does anyone else find this endearingly cheap? Charmed by the lack of hair physics and any coherent art direction? Wistfully smiling at hands clipping into bodies during cutscenes? Squishing the cheeks of the stupendously ugly characters with nothing behind the eyes? No? Alright.
It's pretty good. If by 'good' I mean brain-destroyingly disjointed and frequently terrible on every level, that isn't the actual moment-to-moment gameplay of the world-class boss fights. Which, coincidentally, I do.
Furi, as a narrative work, does not exist. It is a collection of Resident Evil camera angles, mind-numbing diatribes poorly voice acted by Vanny from FNAF Security Breach and some funky-looking dude with one walk cycle strolling at 1 mile per hour. I know there's supposed to be a story. I know it's trying to have things like 'meaning' and 'symbolism' like other big boy indie games, but there isn't, and it doesn't. I went to town a few months back on Katana Zero's story, a similarly misguided collection of gibberish, but I was very endeared by it. The difference is in the way it's told. Even if it maintains a self-serious facade, Katana Zero presents its story with bright colours, explosions, and other ridiculous bells and whistles. It's, if nothing else, exciting. Or even just excited. Either way, there's energy. Furi has nothing of the sort; it is a deadened trod through slightly ugly backgrounds and uglier character designs while Roger Rabbit over here keeps gabbing about who knows what to an unusually rendered model of the Team Fortress 2 scout who does not care. It is the same kind of lame didacticism that YouTube comment section bait like Virtual Insanity launders to pretend it has something interesting to say. Art is never about what you say. It's about how you say it. Having meaning and making me care that you have meaning are two very different tasks. It's never a question of grasping what Furi is going for, it's only a matter of holding on. It's so uncompelling that the whole thing is rendered effervescent. Words come and go, moments of pathos come and go, story beats come and go. Like whispers in the wind. It sucks!
But there's more to the game than the auto walk button. Though, y'know. Pre-rendered cutscenes? Look into it. I might not like looking at the game or listening to it (ok, the soundtrack is pretty good, if a touch overrated), but there's one more sense that matters, and it trumps the rest of the experience. I adore how this game feels.
I'm addicted to attack patterns. When people tell me a boss fight in a game requires 'rote memorisation', I start clapping my hands like a toddler. Something about the learning process, mastery over an enemy in a game, is the peak of satisfaction to me. That's all this game has to offer me, encounter-wise—peak satisfaction.
Every boss falls somewhere in this excellent spectrum between a twin-stick bullet hell and a rhythm game hack-and-parry, with nearly any individual point on it working just as well as any other. Tekken battle vs. a lightning-fast ninja requiring snap reflexes and free jazz rhythms? Great! 5-phase Enter The Gungeon robot fight with a zillion projectiles? Awesome! Invisible sniper rifle lady who runs away from you for an hour? Fantasti- ok, that one was annoying, but still. Cool! Every fight is electrifying in completely new ways, and it's exciting to see the game continually top itself while maintaining a very consistent difficulty curve (with one kinda clever diegetic drop-off). With most boss rush games, people seem to prefer the 'epic highs and lows of high school football' approach, but I love a clean on-ramp.
And a quick aside: what a clever way to have six or seven-phase boss fights! They've cracked a way for the learning to happen without a game over. Regenerating one life after a successful phase makes mistakes much less frustrating and makes a clean run-through after a game over much more consistent. But them healing to full after you lose a life means you'll never lose the satisfaction of earning progress. You leave this game with that same ecstatic rush you do something like Sekiro, and the knowledge if you had to fight any of these bosses again right now, you could probably beat them on the first try. It's just the best sensation, and now there's much less repetition required to get you there. Even the visuals feel more satisfying in motion, the crackle of the sword reflecting your performance, the shonen slow motion parry, it all starts to sing! Man, I wish this story wasn't so empty.
(touches my hand to my sports commentator earpiece)
Oh. Wow! Really?
This just in, I'm so sorry folks, I was completely wrong. This game does have a theme. How could I have been so blind? Bugs Bunny over there is his inner voice! Like his conscience! And the whole game was actually about learning to trust your conscience! Sparkle on! Its Wednesday! Don't forget to be yourself! You were right YouTube comments, this game's story is great!
If you're thinking I'm being a bit harsh, you're right. There is nothing I like more than being really mean to a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing. But there is nothing I hate more than self-seriousness without purpose. Imagine if the terrible dialogue and one-sided monologues weren't there. Imagine if the didactic hammer swings of capital C Commentary were traded for any subtlety. Imagine if the grandiose self-seriousness was in service of Commentary, which actually had meat on its bones. Imagine if the devs of this 10/10 compilation of character action game fights didn't feel the need to impose a malformed ""indie game"" story onto their thunderous euphoria. It would be so much better! I should QA for every game. This is how we save the art form.
And yes, Virtual Insanity fucking sucks.
It's pretty good. If by 'good' I mean brain-destroyingly disjointed and frequently terrible on every level, that isn't the actual moment-to-moment gameplay of the world-class boss fights. Which, coincidentally, I do.
Furi, as a narrative work, does not exist. It is a collection of Resident Evil camera angles, mind-numbing diatribes poorly voice acted by Vanny from FNAF Security Breach and some funky-looking dude with one walk cycle strolling at 1 mile per hour. I know there's supposed to be a story. I know it's trying to have things like 'meaning' and 'symbolism' like other big boy indie games, but there isn't, and it doesn't. I went to town a few months back on Katana Zero's story, a similarly misguided collection of gibberish, but I was very endeared by it. The difference is in the way it's told. Even if it maintains a self-serious facade, Katana Zero presents its story with bright colours, explosions, and other ridiculous bells and whistles. It's, if nothing else, exciting. Or even just excited. Either way, there's energy. Furi has nothing of the sort; it is a deadened trod through slightly ugly backgrounds and uglier character designs while Roger Rabbit over here keeps gabbing about who knows what to an unusually rendered model of the Team Fortress 2 scout who does not care. It is the same kind of lame didacticism that YouTube comment section bait like Virtual Insanity launders to pretend it has something interesting to say. Art is never about what you say. It's about how you say it. Having meaning and making me care that you have meaning are two very different tasks. It's never a question of grasping what Furi is going for, it's only a matter of holding on. It's so uncompelling that the whole thing is rendered effervescent. Words come and go, moments of pathos come and go, story beats come and go. Like whispers in the wind. It sucks!
But there's more to the game than the auto walk button. Though, y'know. Pre-rendered cutscenes? Look into it. I might not like looking at the game or listening to it (ok, the soundtrack is pretty good, if a touch overrated), but there's one more sense that matters, and it trumps the rest of the experience. I adore how this game feels.
I'm addicted to attack patterns. When people tell me a boss fight in a game requires 'rote memorisation', I start clapping my hands like a toddler. Something about the learning process, mastery over an enemy in a game, is the peak of satisfaction to me. That's all this game has to offer me, encounter-wise—peak satisfaction.
Every boss falls somewhere in this excellent spectrum between a twin-stick bullet hell and a rhythm game hack-and-parry, with nearly any individual point on it working just as well as any other. Tekken battle vs. a lightning-fast ninja requiring snap reflexes and free jazz rhythms? Great! 5-phase Enter The Gungeon robot fight with a zillion projectiles? Awesome! Invisible sniper rifle lady who runs away from you for an hour? Fantasti- ok, that one was annoying, but still. Cool! Every fight is electrifying in completely new ways, and it's exciting to see the game continually top itself while maintaining a very consistent difficulty curve (with one kinda clever diegetic drop-off). With most boss rush games, people seem to prefer the 'epic highs and lows of high school football' approach, but I love a clean on-ramp.
And a quick aside: what a clever way to have six or seven-phase boss fights! They've cracked a way for the learning to happen without a game over. Regenerating one life after a successful phase makes mistakes much less frustrating and makes a clean run-through after a game over much more consistent. But them healing to full after you lose a life means you'll never lose the satisfaction of earning progress. You leave this game with that same ecstatic rush you do something like Sekiro, and the knowledge if you had to fight any of these bosses again right now, you could probably beat them on the first try. It's just the best sensation, and now there's much less repetition required to get you there. Even the visuals feel more satisfying in motion, the crackle of the sword reflecting your performance, the shonen slow motion parry, it all starts to sing! Man, I wish this story wasn't so empty.
(touches my hand to my sports commentator earpiece)
Oh. Wow! Really?
This just in, I'm so sorry folks, I was completely wrong. This game does have a theme. How could I have been so blind? Bugs Bunny over there is his inner voice! Like his conscience! And the whole game was actually about learning to trust your conscience! Sparkle on! Its Wednesday! Don't forget to be yourself! You were right YouTube comments, this game's story is great!
If you're thinking I'm being a bit harsh, you're right. There is nothing I like more than being really mean to a game I thoroughly enjoyed playing. But there is nothing I hate more than self-seriousness without purpose. Imagine if the terrible dialogue and one-sided monologues weren't there. Imagine if the didactic hammer swings of capital C Commentary were traded for any subtlety. Imagine if the grandiose self-seriousness was in service of Commentary, which actually had meat on its bones. Imagine if the devs of this 10/10 compilation of character action game fights didn't feel the need to impose a malformed ""indie game"" story onto their thunderous euphoria. It would be so much better! I should QA for every game. This is how we save the art form.
And yes, Virtual Insanity fucking sucks.
Aside from a couple of super frustrating encounters, this is an ace boss rush with great music.
Even with its many flaws (lack of luxury settings, combat quirks, visual jank), the core of the game is absolutely rock-solid. Extremely satisfying combat, vibrant visuals, and a killer soundtrack keep me coming back.
Furi é um videogame onde você está preso e precisa se libertar.
sua soundtrack composta por compositores maravilhosos vão definitivamente entrar na sua playlist
sua jogabilidade rapida porém satisfatória se estende além de oq o jogo mostra porém para o jogador casual nunca vai usar ou se preocupar.
um desafio a ser batido, uma historia a ser ouvida, uma batalha a ser travada.
sua soundtrack composta por compositores maravilhosos vão definitivamente entrar na sua playlist
sua jogabilidade rapida porém satisfatória se estende além de oq o jogo mostra porém para o jogador casual nunca vai usar ou se preocupar.
um desafio a ser batido, uma historia a ser ouvida, uma batalha a ser travada.
oh the soundtrack oh the game and characters itself... everything about it is memorable I ADORE this game, even if in retrospective, it was quite short, i think that it was absoluetly beautiful from start to finish
This game will break you on the hardest difficulty.
Not big into the Souls-like sub-genre where you die over and over to a boss but this game has the best OST, great art, and a subtle but impactful plot that you don't realize is being built up. The combat is fun and has a high skill ceiling that isn't needed to beat the game, but all the more flashy when you pull it off.
combate muito divertido e satisfatório, que mistura bullet hell com combate melee focado em parry e dash
O jogo é praticamente um bossrush, e cada boss é muito bem feito e divertido. O design visual, personalidade, e moveset de cada um é bem único e distinto um dos outros, todos são muito memoráveis.
A ambientação, direção de arte e trilha sonora são muito interessantes, a música principalmente passa uma vibe bem única desse jogo. A história tbm é interessante mas eu não gostei tanto da revelação do final, preferia que a natureza e origem do protagonista continuassem vagos.
A dublagem americana é muito boa em certos personagens mas em outros ficou meio estranha
No geral um jogo muito foda, divertido e com uma vibe bem única q eu nem sei a palavra certa pra descrever
O jogo é praticamente um bossrush, e cada boss é muito bem feito e divertido. O design visual, personalidade, e moveset de cada um é bem único e distinto um dos outros, todos são muito memoráveis.
A ambientação, direção de arte e trilha sonora são muito interessantes, a música principalmente passa uma vibe bem única desse jogo. A história tbm é interessante mas eu não gostei tanto da revelação do final, preferia que a natureza e origem do protagonista continuassem vagos.
A dublagem americana é muito boa em certos personagens mas em outros ficou meio estranha
No geral um jogo muito foda, divertido e com uma vibe bem única q eu nem sei a palavra certa pra descrever
A good boss rush game. There is technically some parts where you don't fight a boss and do something more than walking but those sections are few. The main thing you're here for is to fight bosses. Luckily the fighting style is really fun and intense feeling. You get melee and shooting moves so it adds variety to both how you can fight and what you're meant to do. Combat has a nice rhythm to it. The visuals are a nice art style so they still look good. Character designs are also unique and distinct so even if you die a lot to the bosses it still visually pleasing to see them.
As for the story it's pretty straight forward. Your just trying to escape a prison. Different bosses are warden\guards\prisoners. From their you can try and figure out what's going on. It's not the main reason to play but I think it helps give the game some juice to it.
Fair warning the game is a bit on the harder side but nothing a bit of playing won't resolve. If it wasn't for the difficulty the game would also be relatively short, like if you're good enough you can beat the game in a couple of hours.
I very much recommend checking it out.
As for the story it's pretty straight forward. Your just trying to escape a prison. Different bosses are warden\guards\prisoners. From their you can try and figure out what's going on. It's not the main reason to play but I think it helps give the game some juice to it.
Fair warning the game is a bit on the harder side but nothing a bit of playing won't resolve. If it wasn't for the difficulty the game would also be relatively short, like if you're good enough you can beat the game in a couple of hours.
I very much recommend checking it out.
The cooler the music of a level is, the worst the boss is. Not as in more difficult, just worse
INCREIBLE BOSS RUSH, me flipo muchisimo y el demake es increible
Trust me guys, the ending soundtrack is worth beating The Burst
A really good game that is so, so close to reaching greatness. What it does with the budget it has is very good, though. Good soundtrack, too.
Yeah, I got filtered by the old man. Shit just wasn't fun to fight.
But hey I discovered Carpenter Brut thanks to this game so that's cool.
But hey I discovered Carpenter Brut thanks to this game so that's cool.
Overview:
Furi is a game I think is, pretty good. It's a focused experience that knows exactly what it wants to do, and does so. It's exactly my kind of vibe, and I can appreciate it.
Gameplay:
Furi is simple. Hard to master and easy to learn. It's mechanics shine in every boss encounter, with the difficulty being perfect to make every boss a challenge without crushing my balls in a vice grip. Though the times it did that were appreciated. It perfectly mixes bullet hell with a sort of chanbara duel system excellently. While the auto walk sections are a little boring, I enjoy The Voice, and his exposition enough to go through them for the next battle. And besides, even if you dislike them, there's always Speedrun Mode if you just want to fight.
Characters:
This is gonna be tricky. A character is formed in Furi by their boss fight, with one major exception. Our boy, Voice. I adore this rabbit man's philosophical ramblings on the nature of our opponents and their backstory, and he himself is rather ambiguous, as most characters are in this game.
The Stranger himself is a serviceable protag for a game like this, the strong, silent type who looks vaguely disinterested in everything going on around him. But even he has his moments where it looks like two neurons connected in his brain and he actually has a thought about what's going on around him.
Now, the bosses are all exceedingly interesting, exploding with life and personality thanks to their boss fight, and their designs, made by Takashi Okazaki, the same man behind Afro Samurai. I hold a deep interest in practically every character, so it would be silly to rank them based on their boss fights.
1. The Edge
2. The Hand
3. The Burst
4. The Flame
5. The Song
6. The Strap
7. The Beat
8. The Line
9. The Scale
10. The Chain
11. The Star
Story:
Furi does not have a story. Well, okay, it does, but it's clearly not the game's focus. The story in Furi is an excuse to get you from boss to boss, and that is fine. What little story is there is rather fascinating to me. I always enjoy a story with Buddhist undertones, and boy oh boy, is Furi loaded with them.
The Flame Update:
He should have been the final boss instead of The Star.
Furi is a game I think is, pretty good. It's a focused experience that knows exactly what it wants to do, and does so. It's exactly my kind of vibe, and I can appreciate it.
Gameplay:
Furi is simple. Hard to master and easy to learn. It's mechanics shine in every boss encounter, with the difficulty being perfect to make every boss a challenge without crushing my balls in a vice grip. Though the times it did that were appreciated. It perfectly mixes bullet hell with a sort of chanbara duel system excellently. While the auto walk sections are a little boring, I enjoy The Voice, and his exposition enough to go through them for the next battle. And besides, even if you dislike them, there's always Speedrun Mode if you just want to fight.
Characters:
This is gonna be tricky. A character is formed in Furi by their boss fight, with one major exception. Our boy, Voice. I adore this rabbit man's philosophical ramblings on the nature of our opponents and their backstory, and he himself is rather ambiguous, as most characters are in this game.
The Stranger himself is a serviceable protag for a game like this, the strong, silent type who looks vaguely disinterested in everything going on around him. But even he has his moments where it looks like two neurons connected in his brain and he actually has a thought about what's going on around him.
Now, the bosses are all exceedingly interesting, exploding with life and personality thanks to their boss fight, and their designs, made by Takashi Okazaki, the same man behind Afro Samurai. I hold a deep interest in practically every character, so it would be silly to rank them based on their boss fights.
1. The Edge
2. The Hand
3. The Burst
4. The Flame
5. The Song
6. The Strap
7. The Beat
8. The Line
9. The Scale
10. The Chain
11. The Star
Story:
Furi does not have a story. Well, okay, it does, but it's clearly not the game's focus. The story in Furi is an excuse to get you from boss to boss, and that is fine. What little story is there is rather fascinating to me. I always enjoy a story with Buddhist undertones, and boy oh boy, is Furi loaded with them.
The Flame Update:
He should have been the final boss instead of The Star.
what a mixed bag this was
i absolutely love the char design and the parry system was implemented so well it made each parry feel so impactful
most of the boss phases were quite fun, however there were a couple really bad ones in there that drag the experience down a lot.
Sadly the last lives often felt like random bullshit instead of challennging pattern
that resulted in repeating previous phases a lot more than necessary and they dragged on quite a bit in some cases
all in all a fun game that lacks a bit of polish
i absolutely love the char design and the parry system was implemented so well it made each parry feel so impactful
most of the boss phases were quite fun, however there were a couple really bad ones in there that drag the experience down a lot.
Sadly the last lives often felt like random bullshit instead of challennging pattern
that resulted in repeating previous phases a lot more than necessary and they dragged on quite a bit in some cases
all in all a fun game that lacks a bit of polish
Short
fun
great ost
fun
great ost
boss rush the game
Incredible experience, all compressed in such a short format. The music is a huge point in this game, and paired with the fights that felt fine tuned and satisfying to figure out, I ended up completely flowing with the game.
I was kind of disappointed after playing it. The combat wasn't very fun and I didn't find any of the bosses to be memorable.
Muy guay.
A story told by the clash of your and the enemy's weapon. Truly a work of art.
I played this when I was a kid and being complete ass I didn't make it far. But parts of the soundtrack still linger in my head. One day I will return
Basicamente um boss rush com muito bullet hell que não é lá muito minha praia, ainda mais com analógico do controle fudido, esteticamente muito lindo e com músicas incríveis, bonzão
A simple boss rush concept that is continuously let down by sloppy mechanics and unintuitive boss design.
S2KIR0.....
game will kick your ass on the harder difficulty but by god is it rewarding. Soundtrack is ultra goated too, monster by waveshaper makes me feel like a fucking god amongst men