Furi was a game I almost passed up on because I've played a lot of games over the past few years claiming to be hardcore, difficult or the next "Dark Souls" and ended up feeling disappointed. Furi seemed like another one of those games that was unnecessarily frustrating for the sake of difficulty. What a lot of designers don't quite understand is that players aren't looking for a game to purposely make them die over and over again with surprises or unrealistic expectations, but rather a game that genuinely challenges the player in overcoming realistic obstacles; failure is just part of the process towards success. Furi is thankfully the latter.
I kept an eye on Furi and eventually a friend picked up the game for me for Christmas a couple months ago. I was still weary about the game and wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it, but a lot of people that have played it kept talking about the music. I listened to the music for quite a bit before playing the game and eventually bought the soundtrack. Much like other videogame music, I had a better appreciation for each and every song after I completed the game as they each hold a strong association with events and bosses. So what exactly is Furi? Furi is an Action game that pits the player against one boss fight after another. No exploration, no pre-boss stages (with a semi-exception to one boss), no new power-ups or character levels, just a simple set of tools against meticulously designed bosses. The player can slash with the sword, do a charged sword attack, shoot, shoot with a charged shot, parry, and dodge. The objective is always the same throughout the game: survive and kill. Each boss has between 4-7 phases (with one boss at 9 phases). The player has 3 lives for each fight and regains a lost life for each phase they successfully finish. Losing all 3 lives means starting the boss fight over. The bosses are designed in the way old games bosses: with patterns. With the ability for players to observe, memorize and exploit patterns, there is little room to call foul play, cheap deaths, and unfair difficulty. Attacks are projected and can be identified and reacted to even on the first encounter (mostly). It is with these design choices in mind that I accepted the challenges and forgive the difficulty of the game. Besides the engaging gameplay and sublime soundtrack, the game has a strong sense of identity with each boss having a unique personality, theme and trait that makes the fight against each one so memorable. I'd like to discuss each of the boss fights briefly.
[Boss Fights] - Discussed based on Furi (Normal) Difficulty
1) The Chain
Boss Theme: 6:24 by Danger
Also known as the Tutorial boss. He tortures The Stranger (player character) and is the jailor that keeps him there. He's the only boss I fought and finished in Furier (Hard difficulty) mode and is way different. In Tutorial, he has a lot less attacks, isn't as fast, and is rather predictable so that the player can get accustomed to the game's mechanics. He has simple attacks and his dialogue is the stereotypical "you're weak, I'm strong" demeanor which seems rather silly when going against him in Normal difficulty. His boss theme made me get really into the fight though.
2) The Strap
Boss Theme: Enraged by Carpenter Brut
Ah, Carpenter Brut. Another reason I knew I'd like the music is when I heard he contributed to the soundtrack. The Strap is actually another prisoner, but is also a guardian to keep The Stranger from leaving. Her attacks involve a lot of homing bullets and a giant laser. Despite being just the 2nd boss in the game, she's incredibly quick and will dodge a lot of the player's attacks unless she had just finished using her laser or some other action that binds her to a position. The laser attack on the last phase gave me a bit of trouble. This boss fight teaches the player in a subtle manner to get behind cover when possible and to dodge effectively.
3) The Line
Walking Theme: A picture in motion by Waveshaper
Boss Theme: Wisdom of rage
This is where I felt a bit of the aesthetics didn't quite match up with the music and theme the game had set thus far. It was trippy to see The Stranger walking around, upside-down while platforms came together to progress him forward. But the more natural look of rocks (earth) made the environment look more rustic as opposed to its technology infused areas from the first two bosses. This was a pretty cool boss fight where the boss sat in the middle while the player had to break through reflecting walls and dodging dangerous waves of energy and projectiles. He eventually fills the screen with bullets and slows down time around him to a halt while quickly ambushing you with melee attacks. Unlike The Chain (who was arrogant) and The Strap (who was spastic), The Line was a calm old man who evoked a sense of patience and confidence. This boss fight forced the player to use their ranged attack and subtly teaches them to use it more often in fights.
4) The Scale
Walking Theme: Unraveled by Lorn
Boss Theme: Set me free by Lorn
This boss wasn't too bad, but I still found it a bit annoying. The boss has a strong theme of neon green and it certainly leaves an impression. The boss shoots lines of green projectiles that leave a trail behind. Not only does it do damage, but it also disorients the player which makes the screen go a bit wobbly. The Scale can duplicate itself into many images which shoot at the player. He has projectiles that can split and shoot out and warp itself back in. He can fill the screen with horizontal and vertical lines throughout the stage, limiting the amount of space the player can move in. It's also one of the bosses that does quite a few melee combos which forces the player to learn how to do consecutive parries. The boss theme is quite minimalistic and has a strong tie to the look of the stage, but it's probably my least favorite one to listen to.
5) The Hand
Boss Theme: What we fight for by Carpenter Brut
I started questioning the story and my own playable character at this boss fight. What is this game even about? Who is this character I'm controlling? Is he actually the bad guy and everyone else I'm fighting the good guys? The boss fight begins with The Hand speaking to his son and then speaks to The Stranger, saying that his purpose in fighting gives him strength that is beyond The Stranger's. And then you kill him.....This boss fight was much more intimate as it involved a lot more parries and melee strikes. The stage is smaller, the attacks from the boss are a lot more dangerous, but he's hilariously exploitable with ranged attacks (at least on Normal difficulty). The look of this area really didn't match the music and the theme the game had set itself up for thus far. The fight was okay and the music is (surprisingly) only okay (considering it's Carpenter Brut) and so this fight was one of the least memorable ones in the game.
6) The Song
Boss Theme: Make this right by The Toxic Avenger
This was, by far, my favorite boss fight in the game. It was highly engaging as there were minimal invincible phases for the boss, lots of movement, heavy use of ranged attacks, challenging and beautiful bullet patterns, and one heck of a boss theme (I love this song). It often bugs me when boss fights have phases of invincibility and requires the player to dodge the onslaught before being allowed to fight back. A lot of the bosses in this game has that, but they're usually not long enough for it to really make me hate the fight. But this particular boss fight doesn't have the "your turn, my turn" design and really has both the player and the boss go at it the entire time. It was a boss fight that really got me pumped up and excited. It's also the only point in the game where you can get an alternate ending. It obviously cuts the game in half and you can definitely continue again from that point to finish the game (or at least I think so, I didn't do this ending), but it's an interesting feature to allow the player to actually choose to take The Song's offer in staying there to prevent further killing and possible annihilation of her people (although that probably still wouldn't matter after I found out the true ending). The only thing I would like to criticize is that the design of The Song is kind of dopey. I like the visor coming down in front of her eyes, that was cool. But her wings look really dumb.
7) The Burst
Walking Theme: Love and madness by Scattle
Boss Theme: You're mine by Carpenter Brut
Oh man, this was a frustrating boss. The arena is possibly the largest one in the game and you have to play a game of hide and seek with an elite sniper who's capable of one-shotting you. While you search for her in this gigantic arena, there are tons of drones constantly shooting at you or ramming into you. Once you do find her, you have to beat her down hard enough to have her duel you. She's fast, sneaky, and can easily restart a phase with just one shot. At one point, she's go invisible and you'll have to react to the shining effects of attacks and sound effects. I do like how unique this boss fight was and it was certainly memorable, but man she was a pain.
8) The Edge
Walking Theme: A big day by Kn1ght
Boss Theme: Something memorable by Kn1ght
This was the hardest boss for me to get through and possibly the most frustrating in the main game. Upon starting the fight, I lost all three lives in a mere 16 seconds. I was flabbergasted by how the difficulty spiked up to an almost unreasonable degree. How this fight worked was that the player can't attack the boss. Any attempts to swipe at the boss was met with a painful counter. The only method to defeat The Edge (as far as I know) is to parry a full melee combo from him before hitting him once. Any extra attacks beyond that one attack is also met with a painful counter. What makes this difficult is that his attacks come out quickly and some of them are delayed. If you get in the rhythm of parrying each of his attacks, it tricks you into parrying a delayed attack. Regular attacks take off 2 bars of health while delayed attacks can take off 4 bars (from a total of 10 bars). There might be a signal to tell what combo he uses, but I couldn't figure it out and only reacted as best as I could. Sometimes it's a single attack, sometimes is a triple, sometimes it's a 4-hit attack, sometimes the 3rd strike is delayed; it was all very frustrating trying to keep up. I screamed, I complained, but in the end I got through it. It took a little over an hour to defeat The Edge. It wasn't until after I beat the game where I had an appreciation for this particular boss fight. The last two bosses weren't nearly as difficult as this one and this boss forced me to become better at parrying which made it incredibly useful for the DLC bosses and Furier difficulty. I joked with a friend on how this boss fight is practically asking you to be Daigo Umehara by doing a full parry and executing a counter attack. I believe this boss fight is a reference to the fight between Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro as the first thing The Edge says to the player is "You sure took your time". Musashi had purposely arrived to his official duel against Sasaki late to upset his opponent and cause distress to his mental state. Musashi had arrived to his duel by a fisherman's boat and had carved a bokken (wooden sword) out of a boat oar, the weapon The Edge uses to fight you with on his last few phases. The Edge would often mutter about giving him something memorable and the fact that I spent so long learning his pattern and getting down the timing of the parries made this a memorable fight for me, a skill I needed to fight against the DLC boss and The Chain on Furier difficulty.
9) The Beat
Walking Theme: A monster by Waveshaper
Boss Theme: You are the end by Waveshaper
I love this boss fight on so many different levels. This is one of the best walking themes in the game right next to "A picture in motion". Within the story, this last guardian asked to be the last hope for their world in keeping The Stranger from escaping. She is described as inadequate and powerless, but was given the position to humor her. As the boss fight begins, I immediately love the boss theme music as much as the walking theme music. I also quickly realize that it has a sort of stage, as in you have to get through some obstacles before you can face the boss. The Beat knows she's weak against direct confrontation, so her strategy is to run away from you while blasting a bunch of projectiles to take you out. The thing about this is that the patterns are kind of challenging, but not particularly difficult. This is a deliberate choice by the designers (I believe) to drive at a point in the story and for gameplay's sake, to give the player a rest after an exhausting fight against The Edge. When you get to the last phase, The Beat is already limping and begging for her life. Although I questioned it once when fighting The Hand, it was at this point in the game that I really questioned "what am I fighting for?" I felt so bad and questioned the morality of The Stranger, even if I didn't have a choice in the matter if I wanted to progress forward. It was such a strong message and memorable moment that didn't require a long winded dialogue as it was able to convey the message through the gameplay.
?) Walking out
Walking Theme: My only chance by The Toxic Avenger
This was the song that I heard that made me decide that I wanted to buy the soundtrack. As The Stranger walked out of the prison and into a beautiful field of green grass, you see life and color fade around him as he made his way towards the tall building in the distance. As that happens, the credits started rolling. I was confused and kept saying "there's no way that's the end of the game!" The story still didn't make sense and to leave the game's last boss with The Beat seemed odd. After the credits, a cutscene showing The Stranger getting on a jet pack took him into space where he arrives at a space station filled with other beings that looked exactly like him. He reaches a room with a large projection of a head what seemingly is an computer speaking to him. The computer welcomes "Rider" back home and asks for information on the planet and whether it was an adequate place for them to assimilate. It is at this point where the player can choose to fulfill "Rider's" original directive to confirm assimilation on the planet, or to oppose the computer and destroy the space station. Everything that led up to this suddenly makes sense: All the bosses you fought weren't keeping The Stranger inside the prison just because of the people he's killed, but because they're preventing the annihilation of their people. The Voice (rabbit man who tells you about each guardian) freed The Stranger in the beginning of the game and had him fight each of these guardians to understand their views and bet on The Stranger to set things right. Or you could just assimilate the planet and avoid fighting the last boss.
10) The Star
Boss Theme: 7:53, 8:02, 19:06, 19:07 by Danger
This wasn't so much a Boss fight as it was an endurance test. While shooting lasers at different weapon parts, the player much survive a barrage of bullets, lasers, and physical attacks to bring down the space station. I can't remember if it took me 2 or 3 tries, but wasn't nearly as hard as fighting The Edge. It was certainly exhausting though as each phase lasts a really long time and the last phase has quite a few phases of attack patterns within itself before you can finish the boss off.
DLC 1) The Flame
Boss Theme: Shambles by Scattle
What can I say about this boss? He's a pain. Lots of tricky melee combos and bullet patterns not seen in the main game. He took a little under an hour to learn his pattern just enough for me to beat him. The hour spent fighting The Edge certainly helped.
DLC 2) Bernard
Boss Theme: Slight remix of 6:24 by Danger
HA, I tried a few times and immediately gave up. Not only does this boss have ridiculously fast teleporting attacks, they also have 9 phases and no longer wanted to torture myself in learning all the patterns of a boss that would probably take me hours.
Overall, Furi is a fantastic game and I enjoyed it. I would probably have put in the time to try to get through Furier difficulty, but seeing how The Chain took me around an hour to beat, I decided I would stop there as I need to get around to playing other games.
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