Fighting Games I've Played
Fighting games are categorized by a primary gameplay loop of using a complex series of button combos to whittle down the health of your opponent(s). I've played 1 game in this genre so far.
Each game is scored on my 4-point rating system.
⬅️ You can also go back to all genres
Sifu
A beautiful, intense game that I unfortunately liked the idea of more than actually playing.
On the one hand, Sifu has a lot going for it. Its environments are starkly beautiful. I also loved the way playing later levels unlocked shortcuts through earlier ones. It's a simple yet elegant solution to streamline the process of playing through levels repeatedly. Every animation is precise and fluid, which makes it feel like you're in a Jackie Chan movie. You get to play through his chaotic, 8 vs 1 brawls in close quarters with plenty of environmental interactions. Their vision here was clear and I think they nailed it. The dodging animations were just as good as the punching, so getting into a rhythm felt great. The age system, which lowers your health in exchange for more damage as you die, is a unique twist on the genre.
On the other hand, the combat itself felt tedious. Once you learn the enemy attack timings, fights (especially bosses) become these drawn-out slogs where you dodge, get two attacks in, and then have to wait your turn to do a tiny bit more of damage. And you'll learn the timings pretty fast, because there's not much in the way of enemy variety. The outfits change, but there are only about 4 basic enemies you'll square off against (plus a few varieties of elites). But the number of times you run through the game coupled with the repetitiveness of it all makes for a shine that wears off quickly.
I also didn't care for the progression system, which lets you slowly unlock new moves for your current run. But when you reset, you lose anything you haven't unlocked 5 times. For a genre that's so muscle memory dependent, having an attack work now and stop working later was consistently frustrating rather than rewarding.
Great care clearly went into Sifu's production and that attention to detail shines through in every moment. But In a game that's all about combat, fights really need to knock it out of the park. None of this is helped by the fact that I don't really care for fighting games. In the end, I dropped the game to its easier difficulty and sailed through, but I was disappointed that it came to that. I think there's a game in there I would have liked more, but this wasn't quite it.
A beautiful, intense game that I unfortunately liked the idea of more than actually playing.
On the one hand, Sifu has a lot going for it. Its environments are starkly beautiful. I also loved the way playing later levels unlocked shortcuts through earlier ones. It's a simple yet elegant solution to streamline the process of playing through levels repeatedly. Every animation is precise and fluid, which makes it feel like you're in a Jackie Chan movie. You get to play through his chaotic, 8 vs 1 brawls in close quarters with plenty of environmental interactions. Their vision here was clear and I think they nailed it. The dodging animations were just as good as the punching, so getting into a rhythm felt great. The age system, which lowers your health in exchange for more damage as you die, is a unique twist on the genre.
On the other hand, the combat itself felt tedious. Once you learn the enemy attack timings, fights (especially bosses) become these drawn-out slogs where you dodge, get two attacks in, and then have to wait your turn to do a tiny bit more of damage. And you'll learn the timings pretty fast, because there's not much in the way of enemy variety. The outfits change, but there are only about 4 basic enemies you'll square off against (plus a few varieties of elites). But the number of times you run through the game coupled with the repetitiveness of it all makes for a shine that wears off quickly.
I also didn't care for the progression system, which lets you slowly unlock new moves for your current run. But when you reset, you lose anything you haven't unlocked 5 times. For a genre that's so muscle memory dependent, having an attack work now and stop working later was consistently frustrating rather than rewarding.
Great care clearly went into Sifu's production and that attention to detail shines through in every moment. But In a game that's all about combat, fights really need to knock it out of the park. None of this is helped by the fact that I don't really care for fighting games. In the end, I dropped the game to its easier difficulty and sailed through, but I was disappointed that it came to that. I think there's a game in there I would have liked more, but this wasn't quite it.