"The jailer is the key, kill him and you'll be free."
Story:
- We, the Rider, wake up in an unusual jail cell, being constantly berated by our jailer. Shortly after, a mysterious figure releases us, encouraging us to stand up and fight as we find our sword lying in front of us. We take it and step forward. Will we accept our punishment, or will we break the chains that hold us here?
- I really loved everything to the very end. We're constantly kept wondering about our past and what we may have done as each jailer continues to banter with us on our journey. Are we really the ones at fault, or have we been falsely accused? Only one way to find out.
Gameplay:
While not particularly unique to Furi, the entire game is centered around being a boss rush. You may either love it or hate it, but bosses typically have enough variation for you to try out different strategies to find their breaking points.
You'll also soon find out that Furi mixes a couple different gameplay styles into one. It's part beat em up/hack n slash and part bullet hell. If done improperly, this can feel clunky, but it all seems to flow really well in Furi.
Starting with the first boss, we're introduced to the mechanics of the game. It's kept relatively simple with only a handful of options, but they can be combined in different ways to plow through your opponents health bar if done properly.
Our main attacks are our sword, which we can slash or charge up for a dash, as well as a pistol that can fire rapidly or be charged to fire a single powerful shot. Either of these can be paired up with the dash ability to let you cover a large distance in a short amount of time, offensively or defensively.
Parrying is another one of our abilities and it is absolutely vital if you want to progress. You could probably cheese your way through the first two bosses, but soon after that, you will need to know how to parry properly or you'll find your runs ending short. It really isn't all too difficult, it's just getting a feel for the timing of when to use it.
Overall, I found Furi's playstyle to be really fun and rewarding. Doing riskier attacks often let me catch my opponent off guard and let me get the upper hand. I really like how you're able to feel the weight behind each dash and slash against your enemy.
Graphics:
- I don't usually use graphics as a metric in my reviews because I feel like it's mostly irrelevant if the game is any good. Of course, a stylized game that does its job well is always a bonus. Furi manages to capture a bright cyberpunk aesthetic that I adore.
Soundtrack:
- Furi's soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal. The in between boss fight scenes might be a walking simulator, but the environments are just pleasing to look at. The variety of places we get to briefly explore while the music pumps in the background matches up perfectly with the switching camera angles as we approach our next obstacle. If you love edm in general, I'm sure this soundtrack will fit right at home in almost any playlist.
- While I love just about every song here, I do have to pick some favorites. Some of my favorite tracks are: A picture in motion, What we fight for, Make this right, You're Mine, A monster.
You can check out the full ost down below:
Compatibility:
- Furi is accessible to Windows users but has no issue running on Linux in my experience.
- Windows: I never had any issues with running Furi on Windows.
- Linux: On Manjaro I never had any issues running or playing the game. The only weird thing I had was some menuing being offset, likely from my screen resolution.
Verdict:
- Furi is a rather short game that puts it replayability in its harder difficulty modes and improving your techniques against each boss. It's full of fun bosses with a kick-ass soundtrack to back it up. It came to be a game about boss rushes and it executes it extremely well. Outside of maybe the final boss, I had no real gripes with this game. Any deaths I received was because of mistakes I was making from not staying focused. If you were looking for a boss rush game either for a challenge or speedrunning, I think Furi would make a nice addition to your collection.
You can pick up Furi here on steam if you're interested:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/423230/Furi/