Its a very neat game for how it seems to mix the structure and feel of a more traditional 2D brawler with the depth and detail of a fighting game. The act of juggling multiple opponents with the various room layouts, hazards, and scenarios the game throws at you felt constantly engaging while the technical complexity of its fighting system, while never overwhelming, was still enough to keep the game interesting and discouraged the mindless strategies seen in lots of other crowd-focused brawlers.
But Sifu does stumble at a few points. First, its skill system (at least when it comes to your movement, and attack options) don't feel appropriate for the game. You start off with an extremely simple moveset that still works well against all the game's challenges but the game needs to reward performance somehow and chooses to let you unlock additional moves. A few of these few like they should have been options from the start and its odd to think somebody could just skip them entirely given how the impact combat while others feel so niche and unnecessary that the game would have been better off removing them instead of clogging its otherwise streamlined system with moves that really don't belong.
And my second main issue is with the game's many 1v1 fights. The minibosses are usually fine and their addition to the regular enemy pool adds a healthy challenge to later encounters. But the actual bosses are a much more mixed bag. The first two are fine, but beyond that they all struggle at giving a satisfying fight. The strategy for beating each one tends to be extremely restrictive and, combined with their much faster and more energetic animations, actually learning their timing felt more like an exercise in trial and error. But with the game's age system and the way losing too many lives to a boss can make restarting the whole level the only viable move, that trial and error approach can be extremely frustrating to deal with.
Sifu is still a fun game, though I do wish it had made some changes. More streamlining of the combat system to trim unneeded moves and more flexibility with the bosses would substantially improve the experience while some technical improvements (especially with the camera angles) would help avoid some annoying situations. But beyond that, there isn't anything about Sifu that needs to be overhauled entirely. Its a good foundation and just needs some tweaks to be a great one.
But Sifu does stumble at a few points. First, its skill system (at least when it comes to your movement, and attack options) don't feel appropriate for the game. You start off with an extremely simple moveset that still works well against all the game's challenges but the game needs to reward performance somehow and chooses to let you unlock additional moves. A few of these few like they should have been options from the start and its odd to think somebody could just skip them entirely given how the impact combat while others feel so niche and unnecessary that the game would have been better off removing them instead of clogging its otherwise streamlined system with moves that really don't belong.
And my second main issue is with the game's many 1v1 fights. The minibosses are usually fine and their addition to the regular enemy pool adds a healthy challenge to later encounters. But the actual bosses are a much more mixed bag. The first two are fine, but beyond that they all struggle at giving a satisfying fight. The strategy for beating each one tends to be extremely restrictive and, combined with their much faster and more energetic animations, actually learning their timing felt more like an exercise in trial and error. But with the game's age system and the way losing too many lives to a boss can make restarting the whole level the only viable move, that trial and error approach can be extremely frustrating to deal with.
Sifu is still a fun game, though I do wish it had made some changes. More streamlining of the combat system to trim unneeded moves and more flexibility with the bosses would substantially improve the experience while some technical improvements (especially with the camera angles) would help avoid some annoying situations. But beyond that, there isn't anything about Sifu that needs to be overhauled entirely. Its a good foundation and just needs some tweaks to be a great one.