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Sifu is an action roguelike beat 'em up video game developed and published by French studio Sloclap. Set in modern-day China, players control the child of a martial arts school's sifu (master) who seeks revenge on those responsible for their father's death. Every time the protagonist dies, they are resurrected by a magical talisman and age up, gaining access to more powerful attacks but reducing their health. When the player character becomes too old, they can die permanently, in which case players must restart the level from the beginning and from the same age as their initial attempt.

Sifu
Developer(s)	Sloclap
Publisher(s)	Sloclap
Director(s)	Jordan Layani
Producer(s)	Pierre Tarno
Composer(s)	Howie Lee
Engine	Unreal Engine 4[1]
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Nintendo Switch
Release	Microsoft Windows, PS4, PS5 WW: February 8, 2022 Nintendo Switch WW: November 8, 2022
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up roguelike
Mode(s)	Single-player

The game was released on 8 February 2022 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for its combat, environments, and story, and sold more than 1 million units within one month of release. On 13 September 2022, a port for Nintendo Switch was announced, to be released 8 November.[2]

Gameplay

Sifu is an action beat 'em up game played from a third-person perspective. The game, which is inspired by Bak Mei kung fu, includes over 150 unique attacks. Basic attack moves can be chained together, though some combos may grant players additional tactical opportunities, such as being able to knock down enemies or stun them. The protagonist and all hostile enemy characters have a "structural gauge". When the gauge is completely filled, the guard of these characters will break and they will become vulnerable to finishing attacks. Players can also block strikes, though this will gradually fill their gauge. Alternatively, players can also evade attacks or parry when an enemy is about to land a blow. A successful parry allows the player to stun the enemy or throw them toward a particular direction. The game allows players to take advantage of the environment and improvise new attacks or alter their strategy when facing a stronger opponent. For instance, the player may kick an enemy off a ledge, or utilize various objects as makeshift weapons. The last enemy in a combat section may sometimes enter a state of uncontrolled frenzy, essentially becoming a miniboss.[3] Occasionally, the player may be presented with dialogue options, which can enable them to potentially avoid combat altogether depending on their choice of words.[4]

When the player dies in the game, they are magically resurrected at the spot where they die and age several years. As the player character ages, their strikes will be more powerful, but they will have less health. Eventually, it will no longer be possible to revive, and the next death will end the game. Players will encounter shrines, which will be the place where they heal and unlock new skills. They can also visit the "wuguan", a kung fu school, to practice their skills in between levels.[3] Abilities are lost when the player character dies, though it is possible to permanently unlock upgrades so that they are available at the beginning of each run.[5] As the player completes multiple runs, they can access the "detective board", where the information collected across different runs will be stored, and secret areas and shortcuts may open up.[3]

Plot

(Note: The main character has no name, and the sex is selected by the player. Let's assume that he's a man named Lee)

The game is set in modern-day China. On a rainy night, Yang, a disgraced student of a martial arts school, leads a raid on his former school, along with four martial artists:

• Fajar "The Botanist". He's a ferocious middle-aged man who wields a machete and never talks.
• Sean "The Fighter". He's an arrogant young man who wields a bo staff and regards the school's martial artists as weak.
• Kuroki "The Artist". She's a young Japanese woman who wields a bladed three-section staff.
• Jinfeng "The CEO". She's an elderly, one-armed Chinese woman. She wields a rope dart, whose non-lethal end is attached to her right-arm socket.

After killing the students with Fajar and Sean, Yang confronts the school's sifu (his former master), who is fighting Kuroki and Jinfeng. The sifu fights him, but Yang finally strikes him in the chest, causing him to suffer a fatal heart attack. After searching through the sifu's belongings, Yang finds the sifu's only child (Lee) hiding nearby and orders Fajar to slit his throat. Lee later wakes up to find his throat healed, thanks to the power of an ancient talisman in his hand (the talisman can revive dead people, but they grow older with each revival). Vowing revenge on Yang and his accomplices, Lee spends the next eight years living in isolation, training relentlessly and gathering information about his targets.

Lee, now a 20-year-old martial artist, starts his quest for revenge and tracks down the targets:

• Fajar. He now has chlorokinesis, with which he works for a gang of drug traffickers. Lee slits Fajar's throat with his machete.
• Sean. He now has pyrokinesis and runs a martial arts school and an illegal underground fighting club. Lee beats Sean to death with his bo staff.
• Kuroki. She now creates superhuman illusions, has an ink-inspired dark self that wields kunai, and owns an art gallery that acts as a front for organized crime. Lee stabs Kuroki's heart with her kunai.
• Jinfeng. She is now a wealthy but corrupt businesswoman who uses supernatural bells and a similarly themed meteor hammer. Lee strangles Jinfeng to death with her meteor hammer.

Finally, Lee confronts Yang at his private sanctuary. Yang explains that the sifu abandoned him when his loved ones were close to death, which led him to turn against his former master. After a fierce fight, Lee finally strikes Yang in the chest, the same way he killed his father.

After killing Yang, however, Lee (as his younger self) sees two graves in red light. At that moment, he learns what happened to Yang in the past. Yang tried to steal the talisman to save his wife and daughter. The sifu declared that he lost his worthiness by dishonoring his oath. Yang was expelled from the school afterward.

The talisman sends Lee back to the point before he tracks down Fajar, stating: "He/She who has Kung Fu and Wude [(morality)] makes the other know he/she can break him. His/Her hands go out like lightning, and the other doesn't want to fight anymore".

Lee goes after the five targets again. This time, he can spare however many of them he wants to. He finds out that the talisman's statement is true about the five martial artists. That also helps Lee reconsider his view on his revenge and reinforces the importance of Wude.

The game has two endings, depending on the player's actions:

• If Lee kills any of the targets: The player will get the original ending.

• If Lee spares all of the targets:

His fight with Yang continues into the graveyard from the other ending, this time in the real world. After sparing Yang, Lee dies from his injuries (he couldn't revive because Yang took the talisman from him earlier in the fight). However, because he adhered to the principles of Wude, he finally attained enlightenment.

A post-credits scene shows Lee, now a sifu in his own right, training new students at his father's former school. One of the talisman's coins is faded.

(It's heavily implied that after Lee's death, Yang, presumably moved by his Wude, used the talisman to revive him)

Development

The game is developed by Sloclap, who previously released their debut fighting game Absolver in 2017. Unlike Absolver, Sifu does not have multiplayer as the team wanted to focus on developing the gameplay and need not to spend time developing the infrastructure necessary for online games. The game was inspired by kung fu movies starring Jackie Chan, where Chan was shown defeating multiple enemies single-handedly. The term "sifu" (Chinese characters 師父) refers to "master" in Cantonese, and the combat style featured in the game is based on the Bak Mei style. The team consulted Benjamin Colussi, a Bak Mei kung fu master to ensure that the game was authentic. The game emphasizes "mastery through practice", a key value of kung fu which is reflected through the aging system.[6][7] The game was also designed to be difficult and features a sharp learning curve, as the team felt that players would not gain a feeling of mastery if the gameplay experience is too easy.[8]

Sloclap officially announced the game in February 2021 during Sony's State of Play livestream.[9] The team initially planned to release the game in 2021, but it was delayed to the following year to further polish the game and avoid overworking the team.[10] Sifu was released on 8 February 2022 for Windows via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, with players who purchase the Deluxe Edition having access the game 48 hours earlier, and receive a digital art book and the original soundtrack composed by Howie Lee.[11] A retail edition of the game, titled Sifu: Vengeance Edition, will be released by publisher Microids on May 3, 2022.[12]

Sloclap announced a series of content updates in April 2022, the first being new outfits, an advanced training mode and difficulty options such as an easy mode called "Student" where enemies are more forgiving and the ageing mechanic is significantly downplayed, and a hard mode, referred to ingame as "Master", giving players a challenge far more punishing than the original difficulty setting, which still remains in the game as "Disciple".[13] A bonus outfit for owners of the Deluxe Edition called "Young Man"–made as a homage to the 2003 South Korean neo-noir action film Oldboy–was also released.[14][15]

On August 31, 2022, Sloclap will release a free update which will add new outfits and a new scoring system. It will also introduce gameplay modifiers such as infinite health and unbreakable weapons.[16]

Reception

Critical reception

Sifu received "generally favorable" reviews for Windows and PlayStation 5 according to review aggregator Metacritic;[17][19] the PlayStation 4 version received "mixed or average" reviews.[18]

IGN called the game "utterly uncompromising in its design", praising the narrative, combat, controller haptics, environments, AI, structure, and expressed minor issues with the camera.[24] Destructoid called it "a constant uphill battle" and "intensely rewarding", concluding, "Sifu is a challenge worth taking on and overcoming. It’s a story of vengeance with a little heart at the end, and though it might not land perfectly, it’s got a lot of style and action to back it up."[20] Game Informer's review was slightly less positive about the game's structure, praising its combat for coming out of the gate strong while stating that the game eventually became a tiresome grind.[21] GameSpot heavily lauded the game's two modes of combat, stating that they were impactful, and also praised the inventive aging mechanic and lack of a repetitive feel due to dynamic fights. The bad camera, bland story and characters, and superfluous investigative elements received some criticism.[22] GamesRadar+ wrote positively about the game, praising its learning curve, aesthetics, and replayability, while taking some issue with the short length and limited enemy variety.[23] Push Square gave the game eight stars out of ten, similarly praising its combat, rewarding feel, presentation, art direction, level design, and soundtrack, while criticizing the occasional unfairness in trial-and-error gameplay and its wonky camera.[25]

Blake Morse from Shacknews gave the game a negative review. He criticised the game's upgrade system and its roguelike structure, which forces players to grind for a extended period of time and replay levels frequently in order to progress.[26]

Sales

Sifu sold over 500,000 copies within 48 hours of its release.[27] The game sold over 1 million copies by March 2022.[28]

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

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- [en] Sifu (video game)

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[ru] Sifu

Sifu — компьютерная игра в жанре beat 'em up, разработанная и изданная французской студией Sloclap для Windows, PlayStation 4 и PlayStation 5[2]. Игра создавалась под влиянием гонконгских боевиков — её герой, мастер восточных единоборств, мстит пятёрке злодеев за убийство отца; в ходе игры персонаж может неоднократно погибнуть, но каждый раз воскресает на несколько лет старше. Sifu получила преимущественно высокие отзывы обозревателей, называвших игру впечатляющей, но одновременно с этим исключительно сложной.

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