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Furi: Upon seeing the trailers for this game, I believed it to look like a fun adventure platform hack-and-slash style game, but I couldn’t be more wrong. Turns out the game is an arena fighter – not what I was hoping for, but did I like it? Well.
Story: A mysterious man known only as The Stranger receives endless torture within a highly advanced prison composed of ten islands above a planet’s surface. An enigmatic man wearing a rabbit mask helps release The Stranger, gives him weapons and says “The Jailer is the key. Kill him, and you’ll be free.” You must fight your way through each area, wherein dwells a single powerful being who will stop at nothing to put you back in your cell.
Gameplay-wise, you start out with a little training against your jailer using your plasma gun which has a rapid fire and charged shot option. The shooting is operated with the right thumb stick which has been seen in some games before, and your trusty sword to slash and parry before going against him fully head-on. You and your opponent have several life bars – you have less than half the amount of energy than your opponent and as you take down each bar of the enemy’s energy, they get tougher.
The games challenge is quite tough, which makes it gratifying when you defeat your opponent. I died again and again against each opponent, but much like games like Dark Souls III (no its not that tough), it gives more enjoyment when taking your enemy down. Unfortunately, this to me doesn’t make this a fun game – if anything it feels like a shallow, albeit challenging arena fighter, and nothing like I would have hoped.
The game’s graphic style is sort of a cell-shaded anime style. It’s not quite Japanese anime, more like French meets Japanese-style animation that looks to be based in a Tron-like neon Samurai future. Very attractive aesthetics, but sometimes a bit barren, looking at times between stages when cut-scenes occur.
The music is energetic and atmospheric which really gets you pumped for taking out the guardians that stand in the way of your freedom. There’s also future weapon-styled sound effects for the pulse weapon, specials and laser-styled sword.
The voice over acting is a bit dramatic but suits the anime style of the game, though you have a silent protagonist to deal with and a talkative bunny-masked sidekick.
Final Notes: The game can be fun in parts but also can feel a bit repetitive and get dull very quickly. It’s not a game to play from start to finish in a single sitting, but one to play now and then. Don’t play this game on easy as it can be boring, play on the recommended medium setting to have a better challenge.
Graphics: 8/10 – I do love cell-shaded graphics but it doesn’t usually impress apart from suiting the anime style and tone the game offers.
Sound: 7/10 – Great music setting the scene and voice over
Gameplay: 6/10 – Nothing special, typical styled dodge, sword attack and right stick gun controls easy enough to learn, just timing and placement is the key.
Fun/Lastability: 4/10 – I didn’t see anything the game had to offer for replayability, I didn’t want to play much more after playing through it once.
Overall score: 6/10 – An average game at best, can be fun for someone who likes an arena single-player fighter with some challenge but not for me.
Thanks to the Youtube channels featured for the gaming footage.
Furi is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC/Steam, and click on the packshot for the full-size version.
Important info:
- Publisher: The Game Bakers
- Players: single-player
- HDTV options: up to 1080p
- Sound: DTS 5.1
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GRAPHICS SOUND GAMEPLAY ENJOYMENT |
8 7 6 4 |
| OVERALL | 6 |
Retro game fan, comic book reader, board game lover and film fanatic. I have loved videogames since I was 5 years old after visiting my first arcade, I have grown up with gaming since having my Atari 2600 then Commodore 64. I ended up building my own career crafting pixelised characters and have had the pleasure of meeting many of my retro gaming heroes who developed some of my absolute favourite games.