TL:DR The team's obssession with interrupting gameplay with dialogue kills the pacing, and, as another reviewer said, this should have been made into a VN instead (although the dialogue would still have to be changed because it's not good enough on its own to carry the game) The team definitely put a lot of care and love into creating Yu and Kay, and you can feel it, from the cute loading screen drawings that depict the characters in events from day to day life to the fantastic and intimate voice acting. However, where the team did not put as much thought into was pacing. In the studios previous work, Furi, expositionary dialogue was limited to these walking sections in between the frenetic boss fights and it was kept brief and vague to service the story, while also keeping the pacing feeling natural and in tone with it being a boss rush game. Haven, on the other hand, went all out on it, explaining things in excruciating detail while failing to stimulate your imagination like a good book would. Not only that, but it also interrupts your gameplay quite frequently and abruptly to the point where you spend more time reading than actually exploring this deserted planet. While the gameplay is not very interesting, it still feels off when control gets taken away from you because Kay has to go on a raving monologue about a plant. P.S. The OST is fantastic and I would highly recommend getting it on Bandcamp
Can stand on it's own 2 feet. but has a much bigger influence on you if you played the game first. Waveshaper, Kn1ght, Lorne and Danger are great for setting an atmosphere and evoking emotion, while Carpenter Brut is just about pure adrenaline, and the OST is all the better for it. Scattle didn't feel like a good inclusion though, personally.
Furi is the product of a passionate and talented group of people who were (positively) stubborn to follow a single idea: making a boss-rush game. But what would it feel, sound and look like? Well, that's what I'm here for! Mechanics: The game is short (4-8 hours on average), and, thus, the mechanics are simple, akin to Halo/Destiny in a sense. You have a sword (CQC), pistol (long range engagements), a dash (those bullet-hell sections are not gonna dodge themselves) and parrying. This simplicity, however, is not a downfall. The game will use the first few bosses to teach you to use all of your core controls in synergy, and will throw enough new challenges at you to keep from using simple tactics over and over again. It also features a host of little details for every boss encounter that encourages speedrunning and replaying the game to get some of the hardest achievments. Aesthetic: It was made in Unity engine, so there aren't a lot of details in the textures, however, this made up with a stunning neon color palette (which doesn't obfuscate any of the gameplay due to smart color choices) and veru fluid and crisp animations, both for objects in the world and the characters. The design of the bosses was handed to Takashi Okazaki (Afro Samurai) which succeded splendidly in giving each boss it's own personality. Audio: The soundtrack features an array of known synthwave artists that contribute to create a special atmosphere for each encounter (and the walking sections in between). it matches perfectly with the aesthetic and bringsa good array of different emotions to the table. Will keep listening to it till the end of time! Also, solid English voice acting (don't know about other languages). Final notes: -The story is simple, but subtle enough to keep you engaged and questioning what's going on, along with some good emotional impact. - The devs are working a new game called Haven, which isn't Furi 2, but, I believe, will be interesting nonetheless.
