For as long as time immemorial, beat-em-up games have struggled to innovate. Coming off the heels of popular side scrolling arcade hits such as Final Fight, Double Dragon, Golden Axe, X-Men, the Simpsons and a plethora of other good (and not so good) entries, the beat-em-up genre had a lot of reinventing to do when the 3D revolution rolled around in the mid 90s. At first, their idea of adapting the genre to 3D was to do exactly what they did before… except in 3D. Which, fair enough, pretty much satisfied all requirements at face value. Continuing on was all the button mashing mindless action you could enjoy, for the next 20 odd years. Every third person game where you fight with hand-to-hand combat had this weird homogenous similarity where every developer decided to do the same basic as possible throwaway fighting scheme, barring a few notable games. What really pushed the genre into new territory was, of course, Batman Arkham Asylum and to a lesser extent things like Sleeping Dogs. They were staple games setting a new standard, balancing a targeting style that allowed for more freeform attacks between enemies, while also including a more nuanced ability for combos. Now, it seems most beat-em-up games implement some model that bears similarities to their style, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more innovation.
Enter, Sifu, a game by newish developers Sloclap. Known for their pretty alright 2017 game Absolver, Sloclap took inspiration from recent challenging games like the soulslike genre, Sifu is a detailed and punishing beat-em-up that rewards your persistence in playing it with deeply involved and enjoyably engaging gameplay.
Sifu follows a nameless fighter, young apprentice of wise and powerful namesake master Sifu, as he looks to avenge his master’s death after being betrayed by a former student.
You do this by fighting enemies with one of the best fighting systems I’ve seen in a game in recent years. The flow of the fights are incredibly smooth and feel excellent to play, encouraging thoughtful button presses. Transitioning between bare fists and weapons with REAL TIME WEAPON CHANGE is very satisfying, and you have a real multitude of attack options to choose from. Of course, that is after you unlock the various combos.
And yes, as soulslike inspiration comes, so too does death. And it will happen. A lot. But, fear not young Wude master, as when you die your game doesn’t end. You only fight on with a few more gray hairs, and a couple more candles on your birthday cake. This is actually a perfect feature for me, as whenever I do play fighting games and lose, I usually replay fights with an outfit change that gives my character white hair so it looks as if they trained years before a rematch. It usually doesn’t help me in those games, but in Sifu, your power actually grows as you age, though your max health does decrease. Also dying is the only way to use your XP to unlock combosOnce you hit 70 years old, you can no longer be resurrected, and losses stack up exponentially. I rather love the concept and implementation of this feature, and it’d be cool if there were more games that did something of this nature.
Speaking of pushing envelopes and being innovative, the story of Sifu is very throwaway. Some elements such as “The Board” where you can view items and clues you’ve collected in levels and can read lore on the enemies you’re pursuing are interesting, but beyond generic vengeance story, there’s nothing else to sink your teeth into. Not that every game needs a deep in-depth story, but putting a bit more love into the plot would’ve been appreciated. Usually the few cutscenes of you confronting each level’s boss are pretty much what you would expect from something like a cheesy martial arts film but the game usually takes itself seriously so it feels a bit disjointed.
Still though, the world is lovingly designed and the graphics are slickly stylized. The sound design is solid too, with punchy effects and great music. There was a weird audio glitch on PS5 though, where if you don’t play it with the first update downloaded the vast majority of sounds are outputted through the controller speaker for whatever reason. Not entirely sure if they inteded to do that, but after patching that doesn’t happen anymore and there are many more audio options available.
Overall, Sifu is a wholly enjoyable game. It has a lot to offer players with its fast snappy fighting system and the personal drive to beat a level with as few “deaths” as possible. Though with its lovable indie sheen, you might be a bit let down by the purposefully(?) minimalist story and a touch lack of variety and length once you get the hang of things.
Though really, you have to grasp at straws to find reasons to dislike it.
