SIFU

 PlayStation 5
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 545 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 431 out of 545
  2. Mixed: 49 out of 545
  3. Negative: 65 out of 545

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  1. Kingdanger4
    Feb 9, 2022
    9
    Sifu is a amazing game yet so hard to play it to te end and that is fine as long you have fun with the game
  2. ProjekthorFDZ
    Feb 9, 2022
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game hits u like a monk in a rollercoaster full of apes. Whoever likes games like sekiro, with a mix of a rogue lite and a gods implemented age Mechanik. This game is a hit.… Expand
  3. Jt0429
    Feb 9, 2022
    8
    Good-
    This game has some great graphics and looks surprisingly well especially for a indie game. The combat is challenging but in a good way to where I wanna keep coming back and figure out what I did wrong to finally overcome that hurdle. The level design is amazing and the variety of enemies you fight makes the game fun and engaging.
    Bad- When you are in tense situations the camera    Good-
    This game has some great graphics and looks surprisingly well especially for a indie game. The combat is challenging but in a good way to where I wanna keep coming back and figure out what I did wrong to finally overcome that hurdle. The level design is amazing and the variety of enemies you fight makes the game fun and engaging.

    Bad-
    When you are in tense situations the camera can be a bit janky and cause some unfair deaths. While I love the level design the fact you have to replay levels from the start really becomes a drag after a while. Also you can use weapons and while they are cool they are not as fun as they could have been.

    Thoughts-
    This is a refreshing take on the beat 'em up genre and makes the game so much fun to play. I enjoy overcoming the challenges the game throws at you and it makes the game so much more fun. I will admit it is a niche type of game and its more meant for people experienced with the genre but it is still super fun and addicting to play and retry levels over and over.    … Expand
  4. PedroPessoa12
    Feb 12, 2022
    10
    Strong candidate for GOTY and the best indie game to date.
    Absolutely wonderful combat with the animations I always wanted to see in a video game.
    It’s all about git gud, not RPG progression.
  5. Sonruyz
    Feb 11, 2022
    10
    That second level.... the music slaps but the enemies slap harder. The boss is easy when you learn how to dodge
  6. Tonyo92
    Feb 12, 2022
    10
    Amazing, Fantastic Fighting Game I love it the music is also amazing 10/10
  7. thegamer07
    Feb 12, 2022
    10
    Easy game of the year contender, only thing that sucks is the camera. 10/10 would play again and again and again
  8. xenomorf
    Jun 1, 2022
    0
    How people can rate this game positive is beyond me. It must be cognitive dissonance. Its not just "difficult" as some people say, but there is a total lack of challenge due to some serious issues. The incredible boring and repetitive boss fights for example. Also, this game is totally uncontrollable since it does not take the laggy wireless controller into account. Therefore, even if youHow people can rate this game positive is beyond me. It must be cognitive dissonance. Its not just "difficult" as some people say, but there is a total lack of challenge due to some serious issues. The incredible boring and repetitive boss fights for example. Also, this game is totally uncontrollable since it does not take the laggy wireless controller into account. Therefore, even if you see something coming and press the right button, it still very often does not register your action. How can it be explained, that for certain combos it takes about half a second before the next button must be pressed, while certain bosses are so fast there simply is not enough time to execute such combos. How can it be explained that certain moves or weapons go through the opponent without harming them? Hits are not registered, combos do not land and a weak, repetitive AI. This leads ultimately to simple button bashing. An example of a difficult, but fair and well controllable game, therefore challenging is Demon Souls. This game? Pure crap… Expand
  9. MACBX
    Feb 12, 2022
    9
    Just got platinum with 22 hours in with a no-death 20 yrs old run. I think it's a great game with solid mechanic, beautiful scenery and doesn't overstay its welcome.

    With that being said, there are couple gripes stopping me from giving this 10/10. First, avoid mechanic isn't explained very well. Block/Parry and Dodge works like every other game(no explanation needed), but Sifu has    Just got platinum with 22 hours in with a no-death 20 yrs old run. I think it's a great game with solid mechanic, beautiful scenery and doesn't overstay its welcome.

    With that being said, there are couple gripes stopping me from giving this 10/10.

    First, avoid mechanic isn't explained very well. Block/Parry and Dodge works like every other game(no explanation needed), but Sifu has another mechanic called avoid. Avoid is basically in-place bi-directional dodge (L1 + up/down) but how it works is **barely explained**. In level 1, you don're really need avoid but it's essential in level 2, especially boss fight. In fact, the boss fight is pretty impossible without grasping the avoid mechanic. This is why level 2 is such a huge difficulty spike (90% + trophy on level 1 completion, but ~30% on level 2) because the game fails to explain one of the most important mechanic in the game.

    Second, the camera. Camera is always problem is soul-like game but is especially bad in Sifu because it's built around battling multiple enemies at the same time. Meaning the camera will screw you not only in the corner, but in an open area by not showing you incoming attack from behind. This happens a lot, so you have to occasionally **manually** adjust the camera to put enemies in your POV or running around making sure no one is behind you. Running around to reposition works great but really breaks the feel-good game loop.

    And finally, there are few really useful abilities with other abilities acting more like baits. For focus ability, there's no reason to use anything other than strong sweep. For regular input abilities (not ones following chase or dash), they are not much better than simple light/heavy attack combo. These abilities exist for style point more than anything else.

    Again, Sifu is a great game, but just short of a timeless masterpiece because of abovementioned minor "flaws".    … Expand
  10. VloneBrazy
    Feb 16, 2022
    10
    It’s a great game with outstanding combat that forces you to learn while failing. It is unforgiving but trusting the process will get you the most satisfying end of all. Finishing a stage at age 20.
  11. Nick20067779
    Feb 14, 2022
    8
    this game is just good, it's not surprising, but it's still a good game and a challenging game which made me love it even more
  12. THR0B
    Feb 14, 2022
    9
    Понравилась очень продуманная боевая система. Причем, все ее элементы не просто существуют и работают, а тесно взаимосвязаны между собой. Например, в игре есть аж целых 4 способа избежать урона: блок, парирование, уворот корпусом и отскок в сторону. Нельзя выучить какой-то один и пройти игру - нужно ситуативно использовать каждый из них, они дополняют друг друга. Аналогично взаимосвязаныПонравилась очень продуманная боевая система. Причем, все ее элементы не просто существуют и работают, а тесно взаимосвязаны между собой. Например, в игре есть аж целых 4 способа избежать урона: блок, парирование, уворот корпусом и отскок в сторону. Нельзя выучить какой-то один и пройти игру - нужно ситуативно использовать каждый из них, они дополняют друг друга. Аналогично взаимосвязаны разные виды атак. В итоге получаем гремучую смесь из защитных и атакующих приемов, которые все работают в синергии.… Expand
  13. ibou
    Feb 11, 2022
    10
    most satisfiying beat um up I played in the last decade.If you love clapping cheeks you have to buy this!
  14. qusai_mulla
    Feb 16, 2022
    10
    I love this game every thing in it is perfect the game play and the art style
  15. Andryu180
    Feb 13, 2022
    8
    I beat the game in 20 hours, it’s been just awesome and I hope to see more games like this, I’d pay full price no problems for these kind of experiences. There are however issues (rather things I don’t like / enjoy) that made me go for and 8 and not a 9, and that are stopping me to go for the platinum (something I go for only when a game is flawless). Here’s my list of negatives:

    I really    I beat the game in 20 hours, it’s been just awesome and I hope to see more games like this, I’d pay full price no problems for these kind of experiences. There are however issues (rather things I don’t like / enjoy) that made me go for and 8 and not a 9, and that are stopping me to go for the platinum (something I go for only when a game is flawless). Here’s my list of negatives:

    I really enjoy hard bosses, the harder the better if it’s a fair fight, but I hate when I have to repeat a stage to get to the boss again if I lose the battle. It completely change the way I play against the bosses: since I don’t want to repeat the level again, you do not experiment with moves, I play as safe as possible using cheap tactics and it’s just not fun as it could be. I had much more frustration with this game than with Sekiro’s last boss. 2. Too many punch moves and too few kicks. Combat in general is absolutely spectacular but i find all type of kicks to be the most enjoyable kind of attacks in games (I played Shenmue 1-2 over and over using just kicks). Sifu unfortunately lacks in both quality and quantity regarding kicks. Despite these - personal - flaws, overall Sifu is really a unique game with no alternatives on the market. Good job guys    … Expand
  16. Hypershotz
    Feb 12, 2022
    10
    Easily a 10 for me, best hand to hand combat game I’ve ever played, loved the challenge this game provides! You have to get good and use all your skills to beat this game or be punished! Got the platinum trophy and I’m still playing it! 10/10
  17. Haluli
    Feb 12, 2022
    9
    The game is incredibly good the only thing I can say is its the best beat em up game ive played up to date
  18. T3tsu0
    Feb 13, 2022
    9
    Ce jeux est d'une qualité rarement atteinte dans le monde du jeux vidéo, merci à SLOCLAP de nous avoir pondu cette perle!
    Plus dur qu'un Sekiro, peu rebuter au départ mais le game/level design est intelligent, ce qui facilite la progression en le farm des niveaux.
    Sensation de progression et d'apprentissage jouissive, le devs ont bien capté le principe même du Kung Fu (je pratique). On    Ce jeux est d'une qualité rarement atteinte dans le monde du jeux vidéo, merci à SLOCLAP de nous avoir pondu cette perle!
    Plus dur qu'un Sekiro, peu rebuter au départ mais le game/level design est intelligent, ce qui facilite la progression en le farm des niveaux.
    Sensation de progression et d'apprentissage jouissive, le devs ont bien capté le principe même du Kung Fu (je pratique). On arrête le jeux , on à déjà envi d'y retourner.    … Expand
  19. LagLegs
    Feb 15, 2022
    10
    Easily a great game, definitely love anything kung fu, especially Bruce lee. Just wish they had the one inch punch
  20. DaniloNovakovic
    Feb 9, 2022
    9
    Quality > Quantity at its finest.

    While it doesn't have much levels there is this intrinsic motivation to have perfect run and finish level as young as possible, leading me to just replaying first level (by my own will - nobody is forcing me to) for 2 days straight already and I still having blast! :)
  21. RexZor
    Feb 9, 2022
    9
    Fantastic - TL;DR - Super fun Kung fu game with great art, gameplay, music that is punishing and a must play for anyone who is a fan of marital arts with very little cons. I give Sifu 9 Lightning Fast Strikes out of 10.

    Before I start let me say I have platinumed the game, so I have done everything in it so I know what I am talking about. Cons: Before we go to the pros lets talk    Fantastic - TL;DR - Super fun Kung fu game with great art, gameplay, music that is punishing and a must play for anyone who is a fan of marital arts with very little cons. I give Sifu 9 Lightning Fast Strikes out of 10.

    Before I start let me say I have platinumed the game, so I have done everything in it so I know what I am talking about.

    Cons: Before we go to the pros lets talk about the cons which there are two. The camera in this game sometimes is more difficult than the boss. Only after hours of playing have I mastered the camera. But new players will definitely have an issue with it. It still gets me killed from time to time. The second Con is that the game does a really poor job of explaining its system and existing mechanics. At first the game is really hard because you don't know you can do certain things. This does not feel good when you are dying over and over. Also the age mechanic and the way skills work are not really that detailed in game. But luckily we are in the internet age and you can find this information.

    Pros: The music in this game is amazing going from one stage to the next and even the song changes within the same change is insane. It's a joy to listen to start to finish. The art direction in this game is next level. It seems like a basic game with what the trailers show you be each levels art gets better and better and you can't possibly guess what will happen next. With the 3rd stage being my favorite. Stability and polish are both great I have very few stutters are lag anywhere in the game. It does happen but I can count on 1 hand the amount of times it has happened. Gameplay is king here and everything in this game is structured around making you feel like the biggest badass possible. There are few Kung Fu games and even fewer with this level of complexity and fun. This game is very punishing but very rewarding. You go from feeling like a side character in an anime. To feeling like IP with the more time and effort you put into the game. There is no difficulty setting so if punishing games are not your speed just skip on this game entirely.

    All in all this is my current GOTY and I plan to continue playing this game for the foreseeable future.

    I give Sifu 9 Lightning Fast Strikes out of 10.    … Expand
  22. Jamitboi
    Feb 10, 2022
    10
    One of the most challenging games I have ever played in my life. The more you practice the more you will succeed :)
  23. shocker234
    Feb 9, 2022
    10
    This is the BEST fighting 3D Game ever made. Es sencillamente BRUTAL, jugabilidad exquisita, gráficos exquisito, sonido exquisito. Por el momento y hasta nuevo aviso, es mi GOTY 2022.
  24. alexhoranszky
    Feb 10, 2022
    9
    Sekiro/the raid/hotline Miami hybrid. Absolutely class.. If you've got the patience to learn the ropes
  25. JohnCrow
    Feb 10, 2022
    10
    SIFU is THE BEST fighting BEAT EM UP game I have ever played, with a wonderful revenge story. It's a well-balanced game with fun mechanics that are amazingly butter smooth (which is very surprising to me since it's made by a small indie studio named SLOCLAP), and finally an amazing triple-A stylized consistent art style.

    The linear levels work with the type of game SIFU is, and    SIFU is THE BEST fighting BEAT EM UP game I have ever played, with a wonderful revenge story. It's a well-balanced game with fun mechanics that are amazingly butter smooth (which is very surprising to me since it's made by a small indie studio named SLOCLAP), and finally an amazing triple-A stylized consistent art style.

    The linear levels work with the type of game SIFU is, and replayability is kept in mind since there are items scattered through levels pushing for a bit more exploration than just fighting your way through.

    You can even choose what type of person your character is, do you spare the Boss or do you kill him?

    SIFU AI NPCs don't feel brain dead like lots of recent triple-A games that failed to meet expectations, on the contrary, they feel very alive and these amazing details are what make SIFU do well to not break the suspension of disbelief. Again keep in mind this was made by a small game studio, that is just mindblowing how they manage to ship a game in a better state than most big-budget triple-A games nowadays.

    Everywhere you progress in these levels the items may be around a corner or on a table, so make sure to look for them and hints for your investigation board. The game may also reward you with new parts of the levels that function as a shortcut on your next run. This also shows how SLOCLAP kept replayability in mind.

    The game mechanics are a bit complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it and start kicking asses you will feel like a Kung fu God. SIFU is at times is brutal, and non-apologetically difficult. You will have to strategize a lot, and you will probably still die a lot in the beginning. Just like in real life thou, with practice, you will master your craft.

    If you are a type of gamer that enjoys fighting beat 'em ups, with a tough challenge. This game is for you. SIFU is a love letter/homage to Kung fu movies & games, with some easter eggs here and there to fighting films such as Old Boy. SIFU requires time and patience, but I can assure you after spending some time repeating the same level to get my revenge it felt worth it, and the game steadily kept getting more difficult as I progressed constantly giving me a fun challenge.

    WELL DONE SLOCLAP, I hope you guys release more levels soon for the game free of charge since the game could definitely use more levels and maybe multiplayer CO-OP in the future!    … Expand
  26. Ganerumo
    Feb 12, 2022
    6
    Sifu is a very visually pleasant game, but falls short of being a stellar character action game due to subpar design decisions.

    Let's talk about the good bits first. The game has gorgeous presentation. Although the attention to detail is not spread evenly across the game in my experience, when it's there, it's really strong. Enemies react just enough to your performance that it feels    Sifu is a very visually pleasant game, but falls short of being a stellar character action game due to subpar design decisions.

    Let's talk about the good bits first. The game has gorgeous presentation. Although the attention to detail is not spread evenly across the game in my experience, when it's there, it's really strong. Enemies react just enough to your performance that it feels believable, losing and gaining confidence as the upper hand shifts. They can interact with each other just as much as they can with you which adds to the chaos. It's less Bruce Lee and more Jackie Chan: full of chaos and improv. Replay value is good and the five levels are densely packed enough with a fair bit of cross-level interaction. Even the simple things like your skill tree being a literal tree that grows as you unlock abilities add to a very visually appealing experience.

    Now for the bad parts.

    Sifu is all about fake depth. Initially, it's intimidating due to a steep learning curve, which comes from two things: the game has terrible controls, and the game has terrible tutorials. Among a slew of minor problems that render the combat not quite as good as it could have been, these constitute the core things that make Sifu a game that's frustrating in ways that feel accidental.

    The game's combat suffers from a significant problem with feedback and encounter design. Defensive moves have close to no visual or sound indicators for success. Parrying in particular only has a small and brief red flash on your hand when you succeed: enemies don't actually get staggered or slowed down until they've completed their entire move string. It's a far cry from the games it's obviously taking inspiration form, like Sekiro's parrying and Devil May Cry 5's Royal Guard, where successful parries are loud, flashy and impossible to miss. This might have been done to keep the visual style clean, but it really makes the gameplay suffer. This extends to enemy attacks, which are often very fast, hard to read due to their complexity, and lack good indicators for their states: they'll glow for a little while if they are strong attacks, have an extra little circle if they can't be blocked at all, and that's it. Enemies are difficult because they're hard to read in a way that could have been improved, not so much because they require tight timing or smart reactions.

    In terms of controls, Sifu suffers a similar problem as the same team's previous effort Absolver where it feels like controls were almost entirely arbitrary. Just downright strange decisions like putting most of your defensive moves in a single button but splitting weapon interaction on two separate keys, letting you rebind only some buttons and not others, having dodge and sprint on the triggers and wasting keys altogether (like the interact button, a thing you will barely, ever use and is irrelevant to the game's combat, occupies a face button for some inexplicable reason). It feels like the game is doing a different control scheme from what is intuitive just because it could, to fairly middling results.

    Encounter design is also middling. The game is extremely front loaded with good encounters and the later levels fall off hard in terms of them. It makes for an odd experience where the first two stages are full of great small moments and the later are just kind of boring lead-ups to an interesting boss.

    The tutorials make matters worse, not because they are too limited but because they are actively misleading. The game puts an emphasis on parrying: it's taught to you first, it's put front and center, it's the first thing your defense option does before it lets you do anything else. In reality, parrying is near useless: the real meat of the game, and the one that breaks it entirely, is evasion. Dodging attacks in place is so easy, so incredibly simple to spam, so brainless and yet is the answer to literally everything: not a single attack in the game cannot be evaded in some capacity, a handful requiring a slightly different form of evasion which is only made harder to achieve by way of bad controls. Once you are past this initial slump of realizing that the game is lying to you about what works, the levels become somewhat of a breeze.

    There's definitely more that could have been done with the game. Fine-tuning was direly needed and it's nowhere near as hard as people claim, it's just obtuse in what works and what doesn't and the difficulty that's actually there comes down to badly designed enemies and visual elements more than anything deliberate. The lack of additional features like a proper ranking system, a survival mode and/or arena mode, etc are all a bit disappointing; the game offers plenty enough in terms of content, but small extras would have been welcome. It's clear where the effort went with this game and it's undeniably a better product than Absolver, but it still falls short of being a genuinely good game to me.    … Expand
  27. akesserwani
    Feb 12, 2022
    9
    Hard, satisfying and just amazing. Get Sifu it wont be easy and can get nerve recking at times but get this game it is something special.
  28. Marbingos
    Feb 10, 2022
    10
    This game not only is challenging but it keeps me wanting more. I come back to it to master each move and the combat is addicting. Games like this that are challenging and also rewarding is why I continue to buy games and support developers.
  29. Aspethera
    Feb 11, 2022
    9
    One of the or if not the best beat'em up I have ever played. I also think the difficulty level is great it's not to hard or to easy
  30. Nikita1298
    Feb 12, 2022
    10
    It's the hardest game I've ever played. What I liked:
    - the fights
    - the music
    - complexity
    Playing this game you really learn how to play. When I got through it completely, the first 3 bosses didn't seem difficult.
    If you like games like soulslike or rogue like than I recommend this.
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Awards & Rankings

29
#29 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2022
18
#18 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 79 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 79
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 79
  3. Negative: 2 out of 79
  1. Movies Games and Tech
    Mar 30, 2023
    100
    Sifu is boundlessly entertaining, immensely satisfying, and unrelentingly fresh. Even over a year after its initial release, I was still excited to jump back in, and I'm still excited to go back.
    Read full review
  2. PlayStation Country
    Dec 5, 2022
    90
    It seems coming at this game late has given me a more positive perspective on Sifu. Whilst the Student difficulty wasn't available at launch, it does help wash away some of the repetition that can potentially grind a player down. Honestly, I felt the combat more than pulled its weight and controlling an encounter can feel incredibly rewarding. There's a challenge to be had but it's one that can be overcome with patient observation and persistence.
    Read full review
  3. Impulsegamer
    May 31, 2022
    100
    A wonderfully difficult beat-'em-up that puts the player at the forefront of their very own martial arts epic.
    Read full review
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