As Furi first starts it feels like it’s going to be all about style. The world is a cell-shaded dream of rich purples, reds, and blues. The first characters you see are sleek, mysterious, seemingly anime inspired warriors, yet as soon the first battle begins it becomes clear that this world doesn’t just look great, this world feels great. Furi is the perfect balance of style and substance that few games even attempt to strike and even fewer achieve.
Furi’s gameplay consists entirely of boss battles. In each level the nameless, silent protagonist duels a different opponent, one-on-one, in a multi-stage fight armed with a pistol and a sword. The first stage of most of the bosses consists of a more ranged fight where you control the protagonist with duel-stick shooter controls firing a pistol at the boss while dodging volleys of fire, and parrying attacks when they get too close for comfort. Some stages are full on bullet-hell where you have to move between huge screen filling volleys of bullets waiting for a chance to strike. After the boss's first health bar has been whittled down the action switches to a zoomed in close quarters match where you’re armed with a sword and tasked with dodging, parrying, and countering strings of attacks from the boss.
Each boss has several health bars and each one has a more challenging attack pattern associated with it. Furi isn't easy and within the first boss or two, players will probably know if they’re up for it or need to drop the difficulty down. I have never been one to turn up the difficulty on games or seek out a game that would test my mettle but Furi made me love the challenge. Against the early bosses reflexes pulled me through but I soon realized that pattern recognition was the key to success. During bullet-hell phases you have to remember when to dodge, which patterns you can shoot through, and when you’re going to have a chance to break through to strike out. During the close quarter combat watching for tells in the bosses movements allows you to predict the number of hits in their next attack as well as the timing of your parries. This all takes a few tries but is an extremely rewarding experience because it’s tuned just fast enough and requires just enough precision that skill is require to execute upon a visible pattern. When you first execute a perfect parry followed by a cinematic flurry of sword strikes you'll find your self striving for more and more. Your palms will sweat, the music will soak into your brain and the dayglow landscape in front of your eyes will melt into a blur of swift, elegant movement.
Furi’s character designs - by Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki – are elegant and tell as much of a story as the world they inhabit. Why does this character have a huge laser on their head? Do they have a head under there? Are they even human? Why does this narrator have a bunny mask on? Furi is coated in mystery and with every boss you’re given a little more to interpret as you see fit. The protagonist begins the game locked in prison from which he is freed by a cryptic narrator. He claims that despite having different goals you both want freedom and that once all of the bosses are defeated you’ll be free and get the answers you seek. Furi does a brilliant job of giving you just enough information to form your own opinions on the protagonists’ situation without misleading you, it create mystery without hiding facts that would be obvious if you literally were the protagonist. Once you reach the reveal it all makes sense, not just to you as an observer but also to the protagonist..
At the end you’re presented with a choice where you’re not picking an option to see what happens, you’re making a choice based on your feelings looking back at everything you’ve been through. You know what both options will do, no more surprises just a choice. This choice felt powerful and meaningful and the choice you make will reflect more on you as a player then on what the game designers want you to do.
After each boss you walk, not run, to the end of the current area and then through the beginning of the next. Some will find this tedious as you literally just slowly walk through the level with no interaction. There are no secrets or hidden objects to find, you can even press X and the protagonist will auto-walk to the next boss. It offers a calm break to internalize the last battle, listen to what the narrator has to say and prepare for the next boss, all while taking in the amazing soundtrack and breathtaking art.
Every level is a visual wonderland of bright colors, floating platforms, and high tech machinery mixed with natural beauty. As you walk towards the next boss you gain as much insight into your next foe from the surroundings as you do from the narrator’s cryptic monologue. You’ll traipse through pink, gravity defying deserts, overgrown neon sewer systems, and high-tech prisons cells each as beautifully designed as the last.
As you move through the world the lush, sometimes haunting, electronic soundtrack pulses in the background. The protagonist’s steady and unwavering progression forward is powered by dirty synth riffs and dramatic drum lines. Various electronic artists include The Toxic Avenger, Danger, Waveshaper and more mix dramatic vocal samples into violent rhythms that heighten the tension of Furi’s world and make it feel like something truly important is at stake.
Furi presents rewarding systems of gun-play and swordplay that challenge without punishing. Every boss battle is a meticulous war of attrition that will leave players drained but satisfied. As the adrenaline of battles slowly drifts away the surrounding world blossoms into a vibrant dimension of wonder while electronic rhythms subconsciously drive everything forward. The narrator’s blunt but guarded words make your mind stir as you search for answers all while wondering what challenge is next in store. Furi is a successful melding of intense rewarding game play with slow artful story telling unlike anything to come before it. For some, the challenge may be more grueling than satisfying but those who stick it out will be rewarded handsomely.