Fundamentally Sifu excels because it trims the fat. The story is straightforward yet integrates it's mechanics with appropriate outcomes. The game is fairly short, comprising of five levels yet they clearly have a lot of care put into their differing layouts, shortcuts can be used to skip combat sections and get to the boss more quickly. Lore is present via the detective board yet it's fairly light and each level has a straightforward title, The Club, The Museum, The Tower and you get the idea, fat trimming. The Tower actually has a nice twist on what you would expect, play many games or watch films and a confrontation with the bad guy on a skyscraper rooftop is a common scenario yet here this concept is flipped on it's head as you actually descend into the depths beneath the tower to face the levels boss.

Combat is where the game truly shines. The basics are to deal with enemy attacks through directional dodges, counters and evades. These three methods all serve valuable functions as you will be routinely swarmed by enemies. It's fairly rare in action games for the environment to play such an important role, usually the more complex a move set the less environments have going on, usually being empty arenas. Here something as simple as a couch can be invaluable as it lets you keep a healthy distance from enemies or allows you to jump over it to evade. You will constantly have to think about spacing, enemy number, weapons to use or throw and the structure of yourself and enemies. Many times encounters with normal enemies is where the game is at it’s most difficult as they can quickly overwhelm you and act in dynamic ways like chasing down a weapon to use, hell even catch a weapon you throw at them. There’s a decent variety of enemies which remain visually distinct allowing you to make snap judgements mid fight.
Which brings me to structure and how it is managed, like Sekiros posture system (with a few key differences) the aim is to break the enemies structure in order to open them up to deal damage, finishers and ways of manipulating them like throwing them into a wall or other enemies.

Dodging attacks lets you recover your own structure where as dealing hits or parrying/deflecting enemy attacks lets you increase their structure and stun them which again opens them up to a host of moves. Imperfectly parrying an attack, especially a guard break will also increase your own structure though so you if you want to get the most out of the system you have to get your timings down. You can also interrupt enemy attacks if timed correctly with one of your own. The only exception being glowing attacks that have to be directionally dodged or evaded.

Directional damage is also a factor to take into consideration such as doing a sweep attack to avoid an enemy hit while dealing your own attack as well as keeping an eye out for enemy attacks usually with weapons which if dodged can damage other enemies. Not enough games factor in enemies hurting one another and Sifu does a good job of making it a meaningful wrinkle in an already great combat system.
Unfortunately the camera is the biggest issue. Too often will you have to adjust it or it will cause problems that are difficult to foresee. It's disappointing because there are instances where the camera moves into a flat 2D perspective for this games version of a set piece yet nowhere else in the game is the camera able to avoid walls or obstacles in order to give a better view of the action, even the last boss which takes place partly in an empty rectangular space has camera issues. I cant help but think a more static camera would have worked better.

Bosses all have their unique move sets which at first you learn to just memorize and avoid however once you get better at interrupting their attacks or use a new ability you have permanently unlocked, it's possible to vary up the scenario significantly. I've not got to the point where I can flawlessly destroy all the bosses but it's a tempting prospect. Thankfully in an update there is now a way to practice bosses and even their different phases. I've always wondered what a feature like this would be like, not saying all games need it but here it fits quite nicely, although it undoubtably lowers the difficulty it still does so in an appropriate way where you have to still put in the effort to nail the boss, in a way it's like a fighter playing out their strategies in their head or sparring. Really it’s simply less punishing being able to practice a boss and you still have to get through each phase in the actual level before unlocking the practice version of it as well as the pressure still being on when you do it for real as your lives are on the line.

Difficulty wise the game is a little misleading, while getting through the game with as low a death counter as possible is the main aim, for purely completion sake the third level is a good initial goal since there is a shortcut straight to the boss. Sure you will forgo many upgrades if you use a lot of shortcuts in the game but it is still more than possible to beat it this way and offers a more manageable way to see yourself through all the levels and bosses without feeling cheap. Just another reason to try and master every section of each level.
The method of sparing the bosses is a stroke of genius, even though you don't have to perfect the fight you still have to be significantly better than the bare minimum in order to parry enough that you break the boss's structure enough times that they break in the cutscene, spared yet humiliated. Again not many action games acknowledge the mechanical proficiency of a player in the story. The final boss is relentless and puts pretty much everything you have learned to the test, the fact you are unable to use the focus bar instantly puts you under pressure in a good way. Sure I was a bit irritated by the fact I had spent recourses into focus throughout this run however it always felt like a bit of a crutch so if anyone is going to kick it out from under you, it should be the last boss. It also makes subsequent runs more refined as you try to dismiss the feature which never never showed a huge amount of potential anyway since by it’s very nature it is largely a get out of jail free card.

I haven't even mentioned the core health/respawn mechanic which with subsequent deaths pushes the player into becoming a glass canon. This mechanic really just incentivized a mindset of honing your skills, replaying a level over and over to get your age down as low as possible.

Visually the game is simple yet beautiful, it has a low poly aesthetic and with each new level in-game time passes so you get a view of the surrounding city and Waguan at different points of the day. I found the Waguan to be a particularly peaceful place to have downtime between levels and this helped align me with the main character who clearly is readying himself for the next challenge.

Although there are unlocks they are either run specific or simply additions to the move set which along with the punishing difficulty communicate a sense this game is all about getting better yourself.
As I said at the start of this review, Sifu trims the fat. Combat is deep with little that feels superfluous, you don’t get bogged down with upgrades, music isn’t overbearing and sets the right emotions at the right time, visually it is simple yet beautiful and crystal clear, levels are short yet full of options, the story is suitably simple and acknowledges your growth as a player.
Sifu knows exactly what it is and largely smashes the execution.