Furi

Off the bat, Furi is highly pleasing on both a visual and auditory level. The bold colors makes the game easier to read, and more action titles (besides Hotline Miami) can benefit from Synthwave soundtracks. One of the core design ideas behind this game is to make a sort of abridged action game with all the pointless cannon fodder enemies removed, leaving only a series of polished and memorable boss fights. This is great and something more action games should try. Unfortunately, it's all undone by the other big gimmick, which is that the combat is a hybrid of both the hack and slash and danmaku/bullet hell genres--meaning that in addition to to smacking people with your sword and dodging/parrying their blows, etc, you'll also be scraping by waves of projectiles that the bosses fire in complicated radial patterns, as you slowly wittle down their health with your own measly stream of bullets. The issue is that you may not be a fan of both genres, and I can attest to loving HnS games, but disliking danmakus. I get that these are both niche "hardcore" genres, and that there must be some overlap between their fanbases--but probably not a lot since they rely on very different player skillsets. This wouldn't be much of a problem if the danmaku and HnS combat modes worked as alternate strategies for each boss (ie, they only did their bullet attacks at a distance, and their HnS moves up close, so you could choose an approach that you find more enjoyable) but instead the bosses have linear phases that alternate between the two, and most foes emphasis one style over the other. Chances are that HnS fans like me will probably have fun with the first boss but then have a miserable time with the second and third more danmaku-centric foes (the second of which moves annoyingly fast and has way too much health for my liking) but if you happen to be part of that minority that likes both genres, then give this one a go because this is clearly a game that has been made with love.

Overall, I recommend Furi. However, due to its difficulty and style choices I caution those on the fence about buying it to research it well before hitting the purchase button. Demanding, fast, and stylistic game. The game will pound you into the dirt. The majority of the fights are fair, but there are a couple of bosses that have some cheap shots. If you have the patience for it, Furi is a great game that will make you feel that you can overcome any gaming challenge thrown at you. Its style is unique, and may not be to everyone's tastes. The music is great, if you like pulse pounding electronic fare. For full disclosure, my version of the game was bought on Steam.

I bought Cuphead and Furi together, because I felt in a mood, and while Cuphead is nearly perfect at what it tries to do, Furi is altogether more fun. That's not to say that it isn't without its moments of joypad-crushing frustration, but there's a certain balance applied to the gameplay here that makes the battles long, and tense, but fair. Whereas Cuphead punishes mistakes dearly, Furi gives the player a chance to fight their way back from near defeat. Bosses and players have 'lives' so to speak. Taking away one life changes the way bosses fight, but more importantly, restores your health, and gives you one life back if you've lost any. You'll always start with less lives than the enemy, but if you're down to your last life, managing to whip the enemy before he takes the last sliver of health off you can put you back in the fight. In this way, battles feel like a tennis match - a to and fro in which a moment of resolve and focus can change the course of the match. It's an excellent decision to have made the game like this, and single-handedly turns it into a memorable stand-out. Keep in mind though, the battles can be long - up to 20-30 mins or more if you keep going back and forth. But in this, each fight feels like an epic struggle. My only regret is that this makes it difficult to simply pick up and play, which Cuphead is perfect for.

I wanted to love this. It looks like a gorgeous boss rush version of your typical Devil May Cry swords+gun play. And it seems like that at first. The fights are split between that and "bullet hell" modes, and I was okay with that. The problem is the bosses are too similar and scripted. Furi follows the old school mechanic of bosses being invincible until the game says they're not. They will always parry or dodge unless you hit them during the correct stages. Dark Souls and Devil May Cry have long showed us how much more fun it is to let you constantly get in a boss' face and disrupt them if you were good enough. And it doesn't extend fights in a fun way. It just drags them out. The worst is one VERY unfun boss where his first stage is sloooooowly shooting down layers of shields. It's not challenging. There's no danger to the player. It's just tedious and time consuming and you have to repeat it. Then there's the repetition. 1/3rd of every boss is being forced into a small dueling circle with them, where they alternate between combo hits and a big wind up area attack. You hit them when they whiff these or you parry them. This is EVERY boss fight. It is the same EVERY boss fight. One boss might do 3 punches instead of 4. That's it. Enough has been mentioned of the cutscenes. It's like they took Afro Samurai and decided it needed to be ten times more pretentious. You cannot skip the cutscenes. You press a button to sloooowly auto walk through them. Terrible. The action can be good between the tedious drawn out parts, the samey "duel circle" parts, and the awful cutscenes. It just really starts to wear on you after an hour or two. It drags this game down from excellent to so-so. It is gorgeous though with a great soundtrack. If it's on sale and you have to experience every Devil May Cry type brawler game, it might be worth it.

A boss rush game with some shooting, some swordfighting, both with some complexity to it so that it doesn't get boring. Sounds nice, but most of the time you just spend your time dodging some bullethell, the other parts are over very quick, which means this is mostly just another bullethell game. If you're a fan of those games you may like it, although it may be too easy for you then (at least judging from what I've seen pure bullethell games do).