Furi Review (PC)

   Zipping around at the speed of sound, a lone samurai seeks to break out of his prison. And he will cut down any who stands in his way. If that sounds like the kind of badass that you's expect from a boss, then you’re in luck. In Furi, that samurai badass is you. Furi is a one-on-one-combat-focused twin stick shooter/fighter in which you play as said prisoner. One by one, you cut down all of the jailers and fellow prisoners that stand between you and the promise of freedom. All while a man in a pink bunny suit follows you.   Furi consists mainly of a series of fairly difficult boss battles with no minions or NPC’s in between. This makes the game feel somewhat reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus. The boss fights are heavy on your reflexes, timing, and ability to guide through small gaps in massive bullet sprays. The combat itself is pretty simple. You have a block move, a dodge move, a gun attack, and a sword attack. All you have to do is know when to dodge and when to block. The windows of opportunity to do either of these are punishingly small however. You will need to rely on either quick reflexes or trial-and-error to find yourself on the winning end. The bosses are fun and varied. They usually specialize in one type of attack, from lasers to melee attacks to a massive rain of bullets. Each fight feels completely different from the last, which is impressive given the somewhat limited number of moves you can do. The boss fights do sometimes seem to get easier as you progress. You have a limited number of moves, and the bosses all use the same tells (such as a flash of light before a melee attack). This makes fights feel much easier as soon as you get used to those tells. You also gain a full bar of health after each phase in a boss fight. Eventually, a boss's entire difficulty comes down to one or two phases. After each boss fight, you walk through a gauntlet of long hallways and impressive camera angles to get to the next one. All the while, the furri man talks about the next boss or about your situation. His stories give a somber and foreboding feeling of tension as you travel. These walking segments make a nice break after particularly stressful boss fights. It can also be kind of boring especially if you’re on a second or third playthrough. You can automate the walking by pressing the skip button, though, which is nice. Furi boasts a nice, simplistic graphical style. It doesn’t follow the well-worn path of going full retro with the bit graphics. It does execute the same sort of colorful and artistic vision that many of those types of games go for. It is really a bit of fresh air to see that art style without sacrificing the graphical integrity that modern-day computers and consoles can handle. The best part about Furi’s art style is that it struts its stuff any chance it gets. Furi is riddled with beautiful wide-angle views and the grand landscapes throughout the walking segments. The boss battles themselves often take place in visually impressive arenas. They become even more impressive as they get filled with a lightshow of bullets and laser beams. Another strong point of Furi’s is the music. Furi’s soundtrack is filled with mysterious and beautiful tunes for the walking segments and catchy blood-pumpers for the fights. Not only is the music catchy and cool, but it fits the overall atmosphere of the game perfectly. The storytelling is also similar to Shadow of the Colossus. Both games make you want to cheer on the main character while at the same time making you feel bad for the enemies. You want to escape with the prisoner, but the tragic way some of your enemies are presented and the constant reminder that perhaps you were in jail for a reason makes each execution feel hollow and guilty. That feeling of conflict is absolutely gripping and makes you want to move forward purely to see just how guilty you are. Furi is a great boss-rush. The way it pulls together its art, music, and gameplay to create an emotionally compelling story makes this game well worth playing. It's also free for Playstation Plus subscribers this month on Playstation 4.