Sifu is as close as it gets to the perfect conversion of a kung-fu movie into a video game. The quintessential amalgamation of classic martial arts cinema themes, callbacks, and fresh game mechanics. An excellent beat ‘em up with unparalleled polish, every aspect of the game is so finely composed. You can feel the intention, focus and passion that went into its development. The artistic direction is beautiful, with an excellent aesthetic making every set piece look like a painting. It’s a great example of stylized graphics providing a timeless look, and lessening the burden on hardware by not striving for needless realism.

Deciding against realism in favor of style does not mean the game’s environments lack detail. Every level is packed with well-thought environments, and a very enjoyable amount of clutter for the area. Better yet, Sifu takes its beautiful style and creates some amazing set-pieces. The levels are such a treat to fight through. Without spoiling much, each level is a boss’s hideout, and you’re on a path of revenge, punching and kicking your way through waves of their goons. The hideouts very much reflect the personality of the boss and are relevant to their occupation. There’s a lot of subtle environmental storytelling in Sifu (as well as easter eggs hidden throughout the levels that expose more). This would be enough to impress, but every level has a distinct soundtrack that fits the theme and feeling, creating some very powerful atmospheres. The environments paired with this banger soundtrack really elevate the experience and make it feel truly cinematic.

The animation is so fluid that I find it jarring going back to most games, even AAA titles. A lot of games feel very stiff in comparison. This fluid and dynamic animation seamlessly transitions your attacks. This is an impressive feat, as though Sifu doesn’t have an unbearable amount of possible attacks, there is a wide variety of basic moves creating a lot of potential combos, and the animation system blends every single one perfectly into the next. It even accounts for the same moves done in different environments, which can determine how the finishing blow is dealt. This isn’t unique to Sifu, but it’s rare, and Sifu does it well.

Sifu has a unique resurrection mechanic that is built into its story. Upon death, you can resurrect at the cost of a few years of your life. You age every time you fail until you reach any age above 70, at which point you’ll be on your last life. If you die for good, you start over. This is a key part of Sifu’s difficulty, forcing the player to learn and improve, coming out of levels younger and younger, perfecting the art of each level and obstacles to be overcome. Thankfully, the youngest age you complete a level at will always be saved for convenience. If you manage not to die for two levels for example, you can always just start from the latter level for your next attempt. Though the story is nothing revolutionary, it serves as an excellent canvas for your classic tale of revenge often told in kung-fu classics, helping bring those themes to life. It's an elegantly told story. Everything feels intentional and you can tell the developers communicated greatly, ensuring every aspect of the game is cohesive. The outcome of your journey can change in a way that is very heartfelt, depending on some of your choices. These choices aren’t made obvious to the player, and I won’t delve into them, but you can technically get a different ending and we’ll leave it at that.

There’s a lot of incentive to replay the game’s main story, whether it be to flex your skill and come out unscathed, never aging, as you flawlessly master every encounter, or to discover the secrets in each level that sometimes unlock items used to access areas in previous levels. The game is designed with the intention of you replaying it a lot, but not through irritating grindy mechanics, rather the natural incentive to improve and uncover more of the story for those curious. Additionally, there’s an entire separate mode in the game called Arenas, with a massive amount of new levels and challenges to overcome, providing even more replay value and a lot of extra quality content. I could easily see some players not even bothering with the main story, and just having fun playing through one-off scenarios in Arenas, though I’d highly recommend not even touching Arenas until you’ve beaten the main game.

So, you’ve got this $40 indie game with a level of polish and presentation unparalleled by most games, with fun beat-em up action, excellent enemy AI, a lot of replayability, and genuine challenge that you overcome as you ‘git gud’. This is one of the easiest recommendations I can ever make, as I really think anyone can enjoy this game if they have a little bit of patience for learning how to not suck at it. Nothing feels tedious either, a big part of whether I personally can stomach a game's difficulty and stay interested. No question in my mind if you’re a fan of martial arts cinema, it's essential you give this game a shot. Buy it. Sifu has soul, this is a game made with care, with intention, and we need more games like this.

Sifu is as close as it gets to the perfect conversion of a kung-fu movie into a video game. The quintessential amalgamation of classic martial arts cinema themes, callbacks, and fresh game mechanics. An excellent beat ‘em up with unparalleled polish, every aspect of the game is so finely composed. You can feel the intention, focus and passion that went into its development. The artistic direction is beautiful, with an excellent aesthetic making every set piece look like a painting. It’s a great example of stylized graphics providing a timeless look, and lessening the burden on hardware by not striving for needless realism. Deciding against realism in favor of style does not mean the game’s environments lack detail. Every level is packed with well-thought environments, and a very enjoyable amount of clutter for the area. Better yet, Sifu takes its beautiful style and creates some amazing set-pieces. The levels are such a treat to fight through. Without spoiling much, each level is a boss’s hideout, and you’re on a path of revenge, punching and kicking your way through waves of their goons. The hideouts very much reflect the personality of the boss and are relevant to their occupation. There’s a lot of subtle environmental storytelling in Sifu (as well as easter eggs hidden throughout the levels that expose more). This would be enough to impress, but every level has a distinct soundtrack that fits the theme and feeling, creating some very powerful atmospheres. The environments paired with this banger soundtrack really elevate the experience and make it feel truly cinematic. The animation is so fluid that I find it jarring going back to most games, even AAA titles. A lot of games feel very stiff in comparison. This fluid and dynamic animation seamlessly transitions your attacks. This is an impressive feat, as though Sifu doesn’t have an unbearable amount of possible attacks, there is a wide variety of basic moves creating a lot of potential combos, and the animation system blends every single one perfectly into the next. It even accounts for the same moves done in different environments, which can determine how the finishing blow is dealt. This isn’t unique to Sifu, but it’s rare, and Sifu does it well. Sifu has a unique resurrection mechanic that is built into its story. Upon death, you can resurrect at the cost of a few years of your life. You age every time you fail until you reach any age above 70, at which point you’ll be on your last life. If you die for good, you start over. This is a key part of Sifu’s difficulty, forcing the player to learn and improve, coming out of levels younger and younger, perfecting the art of each level and obstacles to be overcome. Thankfully, the youngest age you complete a level at will always be saved for convenience. If you manage not to die for two levels for example, you can always just start from the latter level for your next attempt. Though the story is nothing revolutionary, it serves as an excellent canvas for your classic tale of revenge often told in kung-fu classics, helping bring those themes to life. It's an elegantly told story. Everything feels intentional and you can tell the developers communicated greatly, ensuring every aspect of the game is cohesive. The outcome of your journey can change in a way that is very heartfelt, depending on some of your choices. These choices aren’t made obvious to the player, and I won’t delve into them, but you can technically get a different ending and we’ll leave it at that. There’s a lot of incentive to replay the game’s main story, whether it be to flex your skill and come out unscathed, never aging, as you flawlessly master every encounter, or to discover the secrets in each level that sometimes unlock items used to access areas in previous levels. The game is designed with the intention of you replaying it a lot, but not through irritating grindy mechanics, rather the natural incentive to improve and uncover more of the story for those curious. Additionally, there’s an entire separate mode in the game called Arenas, with a massive amount of new levels and challenges to overcome, providing even more replay value and a lot of extra quality content. I could easily see some players not even bothering with the main story, and just having fun playing through one-off scenarios in Arenas, though I’d highly recommend not even touching Arenas until you’ve beaten the main game. So, you’ve got this $40 indie game with a level of polish and presentation unparalleled by most games, with fun beat-em up action, excellent enemy AI, a lot of replayability, and genuine challenge that you overcome as you ‘git gud’. This is one of the easiest recommendations I can ever make, as I really think anyone can enjoy this game if they have a little bit of patience for learning how to not suck at it. Nothing feels tedious either, a big part of whether I personally can stomach a game's difficulty and stay interested. No question in my mind if you’re a fan of martial arts cinema, it's essential you give this game a shot. Buy it. Sifu has soul, this is a game made with care, with intention, and we need more games like this.