Game is rated M17+ by the ESRB due to Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Violence
Sifu means master or teacher in Chinese, and it is also a martial arts game with satisfying mechanics and a unique way to handle failure. The story itself presents a message of how revenge can horribly damage one’s physical, spiritual, and mental health, though this message will not be obvious at first till you start to get much further into the game. It is also available on all platforms for $40, and if you want to play it without any spoilers whatsoever, I highly recommend it, since it is a very unique experience.
SIFU’s own unique mechanic is that when you die you get resurrected, but you age, and you only have a true game over after you get too old, which is 80. The older you get, the less damage you’re able to take before dying, but you will deal more damage with each hit, albeit slower from age. As you go through the game you will unlock new moves like being able to sweep multiple enemies off their feet after running towards them.
The main game starts with you actually playing as the main antagonist, and you end up killing your master, and his child, who is the protagonist. But it turns out that the protagonist was holding a special amulet that revives you every time you die, but you get older. You then set out to eliminate the members of the antagonists gang one by one. The first target is Farjar, The Botanist. You fight through a few warehouses full of enemies until you reach Farjar, and that’s where the game gets quite difficult. Each of the bosses have a unique power and weapon, and at first fights you with only his fist, but after you wear his down quite a bit he enters his second phase wear he uses his mastery over plants to conjure a whole bamboo forest, and he also begins using a machete to try and kill you.
Once you have beat The Botanist, you then go after Sean, The Fighter, who is located at a club. This area is considered one of the best in terms of aesthetic, with constant heart pumping music playing in the background, and many many fighting obsessed club goers trying to stop you from getting to their boss. Sean himself begins the fight with a bo staff, but in his second phase he infuses it with fire, and starts to hit you much harder. This fight is probably one of the more challenging ones in the game, as he can knock you down with most of his strikes, requiring you to dodge out of the way of his wide sweeps, and then hitting him when he’s not blocking your attacks with his staff.
The third target is Kuroki, The Artist, who can be found in the museum. Here you have to fight through art galleries full of security guards and students of Kuroki. Her own fight is quite interesting, as she uses bladed nunchucks, and will hit you multiple times with one attack, requiring you to block her slashes or take huge amounts of damage. In her second phase she switches her weapon to kunai, dashing towards you to take swings up close, before backing away and throwing kunai from afar. These kunai’s can be caught and thrown back at her however, though you need to time it right, as if you’re even a little bit early or late in blocking, you will instead get hit for a substantial amount of health.
The fourth boss is Jinfeng, The CEO, who is located at The Tower. Once you have fought through a lot of her surprisingly well armed office workers, you will reach the bottom level of The Tower, where you will begin the fight against The CEO. She uses a chained bell, hitting you from afar and pushing you back, meaning you need to dodge her attacks while moving forward to reach her, as she doesnt have that much health compared to the other boss’s. Once she enters the second phase, not much changes, and you just need to rinse and repeat. This boss is honestly one of the easiest once you get used to dodging forward instead of away from the attacks.
The final boss is Yang, The Leader, who resides at The Sanctuary. Here you will fight through a gauntlet of difficult opponents that are trying to keep you from reaching the final boss. Yang himself is definitely the most difficult fight in the game, as some of your attacks won’t affect him at all, and he is insanely quick and hard hitting. Even once you get used to his attack pattern, his pure speed of when he attacks makes it quite challenging to both dodge and block his hits. Once you are able to get used to doing that, you have to take every opportunity you can to parry and counterattack. This fight took many tries to beat, and even when you do, the game only really starts to begin.
The only way to truly beat SIFU is to spare every single boss in one run of the game. To spare a boss you have to get them to the end of their second phase, but instead of pressing the execution prompt, you back off and let them regain some health, then when you wear them down again a new prompt will also appear. A unique cutscene will then show where you spare their life. Once you do this for every boss, a special cutscene will be shown and you will have truly become the SIFU.