With some games, there’s a fine line between satisfyingly difficult and annoyingly unfair. Some games, like Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, manage this by offering a progression system through various skills and weapons. This is typically seen as a good way to appease everyone because whether the player reads up on the most busted combination to cheese through everything or challenges themselves with the bare minimum, it’s all up to the player’s choice.

Released in 2016 by developer The Game Bakers (more recently known for Haven), Furi tackles that fine balance head-on with all cards on the table from the beginning. There are no extra abilities. There are no upgrades. The only variable is the skill of the player, and after recently playing it again, I’m reminded that it achieves so much with little problems.

Furi is a game that basically consists entirely of boss fights. Your mind might immediately go to something like Mega Man, but even that series differs by having entire stages filled with minor enemies before approaching a boss, as well as providing players a choice of which boss to fight. Furi is just boss after boss, with cutscenes in-between to give backstory. Moreover, it’s entirely linear with the bosses you fight against.

This certainly works in its favor because Furi does have a story to tell. The crux of it is that you play a man known as “The Stranger” who is freed from his torturous prison and given a sword and gun by another man known as “The Voice”. From then on you’re fighting for your freedom against various guardians who wish to stop you from escaping. Cutscenes and dialogue reveal a more nuanced plot and round out the characters a bit more, but as a whole, it’s still pretty simple.

That isn’t a bad thing though! While The Stranger’s story is not an epic complicated one, it is certainly enough to keep one interested from beginning to end. One of the only flaws I do have with the game is related to it though, which is the “walking” cutscenes. They essentially consist of The Stranger walking to the next boss, while The Voice talks about the upcoming boss and cryptically provides a general backstory. Regular cutscenes right before and after boss fights are great, but what’s weird about the “walking” cutscenes is that they’re playable…sort of.

Walking forward puts him in an auto-walking state that lets you sit back and watch. This is accompanied by what is typically fixed camera angles. You can stop him if you want and walk back or slightly around, but there isn’t a real reason to, and walking forward or pressing a button places him back into an auto-walk state. Moreover, sometimes the background isn’t very busy and it just feels a little boring. I do personally enjoy these segments for providing a break and because The Voice is great to listen to, but it all feels a little too slow.

Putting that flaw aside, the crown jewel for many players will be the gameplay. It’s incredibly simple, with many buttons being used for the same action on a gamepad because there’s only so much you can do. As easy as it is to pick up though, it’s certainly a challenge to master it when faced with different bosses. Furi is best described as a fusion of two genres, the first of which is Hack and Slash.

For offensive maneuvers, The Stranger can use his sword to attack up to four times in a combo. The same button, (conveniently called the Slash button), can also be held for a Charged Slash attack that can stun an enemy if landed. From here you can perform a powerful scripted attack that’s unique to each boss. You’ll also see this as you defeat them at the end of each phase.

Another button is dedicated to parrying some attacks. The timing can be a little difficult to get down at first, and it’s more of a challenge as you learn each boss’ attack patterns. Nonetheless, parrying is a vital mechanic to learn, as it not only can open up bosses to a punishing attack but can also provide health for each parry performed. This is one of the only means of regaining health in the middle of a boss phase.

The other genre inspiration is a Twin-Stick Shoot ‘Em Up (SHUMP) bullet hell. That’s certainly a lot to unpack, so I’ll do my best to break it down. Aside from the physical attacks that each boss will use, each will also use a variety of projectile attacks that will eventually cover the stage. Some projectiles can be deflected, some can be shot, and some just need to be dodged out of the way.

This brings me to what else The Stranger can do. Pushing the right stick uses his gun, which can fire projectiles in any direction you push the stick. An alternative to this rapid-fire attack is the powerful Charged Shot, which can be used by holding down a specific button and then aiming with the right stick.

The final ability at his disposal is dodging. The push of a dedicated button (or three) lets him dash out of the way of attacks and through projectiles. Similar to other abilities, it can be charged by holding down the button instead of just pressing it. A Charged Dodge increases the distance that he dashes. It’s especially helpful against wider projectile waves, although holding it too long can cause you to dash past where you want to go in some cases.

This comes all together for very fast and intense action. There’s a rhythm to deflecting attacks, as pressing the parry button as soon as you see the indicting blink is not always guaranteed to work out. It’s not that hard to get the general timing down for one boss, but this rhythm is always different as some may have a slight pause before attacking. Additionally, a boss’ attack patterns can change with each phase by gaining additional attacks in a combo or counterattacks that you’ll need to watch out for.

Each boss has a bar of blue health over a bar of orange health. Taking their blue health down allows you to attack them and enter a close-combat fight. During this point, there’s not much space to move around, and you’ll have to parry some attacks and dodge others. Take their orange health down here and you can perform a scripted attack on them to end the current phase. These scripted attacks are another flaw for me because they can ruin the combat pacing. You’ll likely see them 6+ times at a minimum, and maybe more if you stun them. Seeing the same short cutscene gets very repetitive.

It’s easy to be flustered and lose the rhythm if you mistime a parry and take a powerful melee attack to the face, but getting the rhythm down is the name of the game. Once you have and you’re able to consistently parry enough attacks to unleash your slash combo or charge a slash attack, and dash through a wave of projectiles to attack them from behind…it feels really good. It looks really cool too.

Speaking of looking cool, this is probably speaking to my own visual biases, but everything about this game looks fantastic. It turns out that playing a samurai-looking character fighting through a Sci-Fi prison in space hits a lot of boxes for me. Even better is the huge variety when it comes to the designs of the bosses and their stages. It might not seem likely that a wise sage, an armored diver, and a tied-down prisoner would be consistent bosses within the setting, but there are enough technical flourishes and overall mystery that they feel just right.

The consistency is likely due to the incredibly talented character designer, Takashi Okazaki. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, he’s most well known for being the creator of the popular manga series Afro Samurai, and Furi absolutely matches his unique style. This game wasn’t trying to look like a next-gen title at the time, and it didn’t have to because no other game looks like this.

I’d be remiss to not mention that there are some visual glitches with the models now and then. It doesn’t happen too often, but unfortunately, it happens enough that it can be distracting at times.

This all leads to my personal favorite part of the game: the audio. This game sounds fantastic in every way. Each speaking character is wonderfully brought to life by their voice actors. The hit effects have a strong impacting sound, and dashing through attacks is accompanied by a wonderful chime. However, the most satisfying sound effect is parrying. Hearing that repeated ting as you parry a boss’ combo and gain some health back creates such a motivational rush that is then topped off when you get your opening to attack back.

Yet, that’s not even my favorite aspect when it comes to audio. I first played this game two years ago because I had heard a lot about it, and it thankfully goes on some pretty deep sales on Steam. As captivating as every element of the game is, what grabbed me immediately was the soundtrack. Every track perfectly fits what it’s used for and elevates the moment, whether that’s for the hard-hitting action sequences or watching The Stranger walk to face the next guardian. I’ll still listen to the whole thing now and then.

I’ve always appreciated some electronic music and anything synth-related. I grew to appreciate it more with the Hotline Miami series (for which Carpenter Brut also made music), but it was Furi that cemented that love. Not only do I love all of the tracks for this game, but it introduced me to a lot of other work and artists that I’ve really enjoyed.

It feels a little weird to give so much praise to a game when I honestly am not the best at it. I have plenty of D ranks on the standard difficulty, I still haven’t tried the hardest difficulty, and I have no desire whatsoever to attempt the speedrun mode…for now.

Yet, this game is so satisfying to play and everything comes together so well. Even when I spent an hour trying to beat the final boss, I felt so proud and happy when I finally did it. There’s a lot of harder challenges and a practice mode for those that really want to get good, as well as an easier difficulty and an Invincible Mode for those that want an easier experience or to enjoy the game without worrying about the combat.

I can’t help but praise Furi. It’s just pure fun for me. A ton of great content has been added for free, as well as a very fun paid DLC, but there are some issues with the game for sure. Those issues thankfully detract from the game just a tiny bit though. Furi isn’t perfect, but it’s still fun and incredibly unique.