Sifu’s Success and the Importance of Difficulty

The beat ‘em up to end all beat ‘em ups is a fighting masterclass due to its relentless hatred for the player.

Whenever I think of a truly great game, the type of game that I think about in class, dream about playing when I wake up in the morning, it’s always one driven by narrative. Games such as the God of War and The Last of Us are those that have consumed my time and mind during my play-through’s, leaving me unable to pry myself away from the controller. Interestingly, I find myself caring less about the actual gameplay when I think of my dream game. Obviously, while playing I have a focus on the gameplay, if it’s enjoyable, why or why not, etc. But when I imagine the games that I get utterly entranced by I have always held narrative on a high pedestal, which makes it all the more interesting that Sifu has become one of those games.

While having a strong plot for an action beat em up, Sifu’s draw is undeniably the gameplay, and by association, it’s difficulty. The fighting system is unlike anything I have ever played. Not only are there countless moves for precise situations, satisfying animations and sound design to make every attack brutal, varied enemies to keep gameplay fresh, and a dodging system that makes you feel the punch brushing past your characters face, but they’re all linked together so tightly to make gameplay dynamic and addictive. However, this addiction wouldn’t be possible if the game were easy to master, as Sifu holds no punches. Every enemy is enough to take you out. Worse, they are unafraid to gang up on you, forcing the player to think on the spot with their arsenal of moves and forcing them to master the short dodging windows. Enemies have the potential to counter your finishing move, thereby coming back more powerful than before with a regenerating health bar. Significantly, they can do everything you can. Enemies are fast, can wield weapons, parry and dodge, meaning it’s your job to do anything they can do but better. Although this is nearly impossible accomplish on a first run, the feeling of overcoming a challenge and becoming an absolute master at any given level is a satisfaction I have been missing from games. I crave this difficulty, I find myself making time to even play just a few minutes of Sifu to try and beat this one enemy I can’t get past. I think of the boss’ move sets and how I can parry them. In other words, the difficulty forces the player to engage with the already fun mechanics in new and interesting ways to overcome an intense obstacle, and when your palms are sweating on your eighth run through a level mere seconds away from victory and you finally, finally, pull off the perfect counter and land the killing blow with your new move, well, there simply isn’t a better feeling.

The games I come back to the most are the ones that provide a consistent level of challenge and entertainment. God of War has challenges I still have not beaten. Last of Us 1 and 2 have both made me the most freighted I have ever been while playing a game, providing both the meta challenge of overcoming my fears while engaging with difficult gameplay. Another game I’ve played for countless hours, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, is also in line with my previous interests: Narratively focused (for better or worse), difficult and dynamic gameplay, and what I have come to realize is a commonality between my favorite games: variability. Sifu’s gameplay is therefore in line with some of my favorite games in terms of gameplay. Although you’ll be replaying the same levels consistently throughout the game, runs rarely feel identical. Even when sprinting through the club for what had to be my fifteenth time I was never bored. New areas of the level unfold as you continue playing, every encounter has the potential to be different due to the variety of moves, and the gameplay is just so quick and engaging that I can’t help but be glued to the screen.

Essentially, Sifu is successful because of the dynamism in its fighting, the ecosystem of its mechanics, the difficulty creating an addictive loop of player driven progression, and the potential for experimentation and variability in every encounter. Sifu is one of the first games in a long time I have been driven to play for gameplay alone, and as a story fanatic, that is truly saying something.