On the surface, Furi seems like it’s all about style. It meshes fast and frenzied swordplay with colorful, bullet-hell-inspired twin-stick shooting to create fighting experiences not unlike the most over-the-top anime battles. Furi’s action stands out thanks to the level of patience and restraint the resulting combat demands. Hit-and-miss boss design, occasionally janky mechanics, and a reliance on scripted attack sequences break the flow a bit too often, but a flashy look and killer music at least keep it looking and sounding great the whole way through.
Furi is a game that I just finished, or am very close to finishing, and it's one of the few games I've enjoyed enough to play to the end. The last game I played to the end like that was Call of Duty 3. It usually takes me months to finish a single game, but this game had just kept me hooked the entire way through. Whether it be the protagonist's determination that made me determined, the fact that those bosses talked a bunch of shit to you, or even the fact that every combat scenario you got into was vastly unique.
Furi is a stylized bullet hell shooter and fighting game that relies on patience and timing. It's also about fighting bosses which are the only enemies you'll be fighting. Each boss has a different approach to combat and will make you take a different approach with your 4 standard weapons. You have slash, parry, shoot, and dash. You can charge up all three except for parry for stronger slashes and shots, or you can charge up the dash for farther dashes. Parry also has another ability tied onto it where if you time your parry perfectly, it'll initiate a combat sequence that will take a lot of the enemies health and stun them momentarily. Each ability is going to be detrimental to your success in this game.
The story is also very emotional and deep, and while it doesn't appear so on the surface, it's one of the first games to truly make me think about what I'm doing. It's done very well.
Now, with one last remark on the game.
Spoilers ahead