Sifu appears to be a fairly cool single-player brawler focusing solely on one fighting style, Pak Mei Kung Fu, with advice from one of the school’s masters. It was originally scheduled to be released in late 2021, however, a new teaser revealed today on Sony’s State of Play presentation has moved it back to early 2022.
Another man was forced into the trailer after falling down some steps and another after falling over a balcony.
Aside from the fantastic trailers, the primary reason I’m interested in Sifu is that it’s from Sloclap. Absolver, the developer’s previous game, is one of my favorites: a unique, very fantastic multiplayer-focused fighting game with a high skill ceiling. It appears that this game will be different as well, whether or not it is as well developed as that one.
The latest teaser highlights one of Sifu’s most unusual features: when you “die,” you instantly resurrect, but the main character ages. When I spoke with executive producer Pierre Tarno after the announcement of Sifu, he stated that you don’t grow weaker as you get older. Rather, you become stronger, eventually becoming an elderly kung fu master. However, “there is a limit to how much you can age,” Tarno remarked last month at the Future Games Show. This is echoed in a new blog post by community manager Felix Garczynski, who states that “eventually you will get too old and will have to restart your route.” That would imply restarting the game from the beginning.
There’s still a lot to learn about it, and I’m curious to see what the controller inputs look like throughout these bouts. The trailers show some difficult holds and combinations, but how do you pull them off? I wouldn’t anticipate complex inputs to be the emphasis of Sloclap. Based on my experience with Absolver, I anticipate that attack selection and timing, location, and stamina management will take precedence, but I’m not sure.
I expect it to be a struggle, however the combat works. Tarno proposed to me that the game’s theme is “mastery via practice,” which is the definition of “kung fu” itself, and this has been reiterated today. I have great aspirations, and the small adjustment in the release window is not surprising. According to Sloclap, the autumn 2021 date felt a little hazy when it was revealed.
Adapting to Covid-19 rules, according to Garczynski’s blog post, delayed things down a little more than planned. “While remote working has its benefits,” he said, “missing daily informal contacts amongst team members may be difficult to manage.” The entire post may be seen here.
