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Sifu is one of the best games I’ve ever played due to its in-depth combat system that has kept me engaged and on edge. Another aspect that made me fall in love with this beautifully crafted masterpiece was its cinematic value. Despite being a roguelite game, they didn’t shy away from writing a proper story and presenting it with exceptional cinematic scenes. I understand that some people would be skeptical about it overall due to roguelite elements but hear me out: It works and makes perfect sense. The game is about vengeance and the kung fu philosophy and when you think about it, one must train every single day to master their kung fu skills which is also the case in Sifu. Since you age up on every death and your death counter adds up to your age if you die several times without resetting it, replaying the same levels repeatedly until you’re good enough is the only way to progress further. I’m not talking about memorizing enemy patterns either. I’m talking about getting good at the game and being able to react faster using your muscle memory without having to memorize anything. And yeah, you age upon each death, but as your age goes up, your damage also goes up, but your health decreases. Apart from aging, you have several skills you can buy to expand your moveset, temporary skills that you can buy according to your EXP, age, or level score, and some key items that unlock a shortcut to the levels’ bosses. However, if you’re playing on Master difficulty, memorizing the boss’ patterns is kind of mandatory because they have several low and high attacks that you’re supposed to dodge, otherwise they hit like a wall. You can always try parrying their attacks too if you’re confident enough, but that eats up your structure meter quite fast if you don’t mix them with dodging. It’s also possible to unlock all skills permanently after buying them 5 times and I’d recommend doing that as soon as possible!
The story of Sifu, at its core, is about forgiveness. You start as playing the antagonist and end up killing the protagonist’s father in front of them, then you switch to the protagonist and go after everyone who took part in your father’s murder. You also get to choose a gender for the protagonist, but it changes nothing other than how enemies address you, your voice, and obviously, your appearance. Every single character that you fight against has a reason behind their actions and you discover this by completing the detective board by collecting items that you come across during their respective levels. The story presented to the player seems like a generic revenge story, but as you progress through the game and complete the detective board, you discover very interesting things that make you question your actions. You especially feel this way after achieving Wude. All the bosses have their own relics that give them different powers just like you have yours that revives you but costs you in years. Fighting them can be bothersome until you learn how to play properly, but let me tell you something, once you master the game, defeating them becomes way more satisfying. You can either focus on parrying and breaking their structures to perform finishers on them or cheese your way out by spamming several moves and depleting their health bars. I personally find breaking their structures way more satisfying. Unless you’re doing those unbelievably difficult challenges that showed up with Arenas update, cheesing them feels cheap.
The final content update of Sifu that came out in September felt like a blessing and a curse at the same time. Those Tiger and Dragon challenges were a pain in the ass overall, but they taught me how to properly dodge and parry all enemy types, including bosses. Not to discourage you, but if you ever played Ninja Gaiden’s challenges, you pretty much know what to expect: An extremely difficult set of challenges that will push your limits. Of course, if you have no intention of going after every single achievement, then you have nothing to worry about. However, if you’re a completionist like me, get ready to sweat! The majority of those challenges were actually challenging and had balanced difficulties, but I can’t say the same when it comes to Capture challenges. They all boil down to very specific methods to get three stamps due to their reliance on RNG and that is a very frustrating thing to bear with. Other than achievements, they let you unlock modifiers to customize your game experience as well as some extra outfits for you to wear. Speaking of outfits, the Deluxe Cosmetic Pack comes up with several cool outfits with references to several movies we all know and love, but they don’t get unlocked immediately. They require you to complete very difficult in-game challenges. I’m personally fine with their requirements since they offer good challenges and I love being challenged, but I can understand the frustration of the masses who paid for them. I think the wording could’ve been better, like “Extra Challenges and Outfits” instead of “Deluxe Cosmetic Pack”. Nowadays, people expect to unlock them immediately without having to deal with anything extra and I can’t argue with that. Overall, Sifu is one hell of a game with its challenging learning curve and its amazing soundtrack! If you have what it takes, it will provide you with several hours of adrenaline rush!

TL;DR

A great game with an unexpectedly deep combat system, amazing cinematic cutscenes, and a banging soundtrack! However, it’s quite difficult to learn and master. If you’re a completionist, get ready to sink several hours into it due to extremely difficult Tiger and Dragon challenges that will push your limits!