Furi

Gameplay

Furi is a fast-paced action game with Hack and Slash, twin-stick shoot 'em up, and "bullet hell" elements, consisting entirely of boss fights. The player's character goes by the names, The Rider and The Stranger, and the gameplay consists mostly of dodging bullets, parrying attacks, attacking the bosses by melee or shooting, and quick time events. The game is set in closed world environments, but exploration could still be done within them to reveal unique dialogues and plot points. Much of the game's story progresses through these interactions, along with fully animated cutscenes occurring typically before and after every boss fight.

Plot

A mysterious man spends his existence receiving endless torture within a highly advanced prison, composed of ten islands floating in orbit above a planet's surface. At the beginning of the game, an enigmatic man wearing a rabbit disguise who is known as The Voice, frees the Stranger, gives him a sword and gun, and encourages him to fight for his freedom.

The Stranger must navigate each area, wherein dwells a single powerful guardian who exists only to prevent him from escaping: The Chain, a sadistic staff-wielding jailor who tortured the stranger; The Strap, a prisoner armed with a laser cannon on her head driven mad from her imprisonment; The Line, a wise old man who wields a sword longer than his body and can manipulate time; The Scale, a vengeful diver armed with twin harpoons; The Hand, a noble knight who was responsible for imprisoning the Stranger in the first place; The Song, an angelic woman armed with twin crossbows who conceived the prison; The Burst, a sniper and master tactician; The Edge, an oar-wielding warrior who dedicated his life to fighting The Stranger; and The Beat, a young woman who strives to guard the final door.

Upon defeating The Beat, the Stranger is freed from the prison and is able to wander along the planet he was imprisoned from. He realizes that his mere presence destroys all physical structures on the planet, including living things. Upon further exploration of the planet, he meets The Voice, who claims to have designed the prison to protect the planet, but wished to escape it so that he could see his daughter again, who was outside the prison. Later exploring the planet more, the Stranger ventures into a structure which holds an attachable device he uses to fly off the planet and into space to meet The Star, the mothership who created him, and many other clones like him. She calls him Rider.

The game contains two normal endings, and a secret ending. When facing The Star, Rider can decide to either assimilate the planet or refuse to obey the mothership, thus prompting the tenth and final boss fight against The Star. By assimilating the planet, Rider allows The Star to send out an army of other warriors like him to invade the planet. By refusing to obey the mothership and canceling the invasion, Rider battles and destroys The Star, preventing the planet from being invaded. The secret ending can occur by accepting The Song's offer to stay in her sanctuary-like section of the prison, where she will provide for The Rider. She claims that this will make her the hero of all her people.

Reception

Furi received "generally favorable" reviews, getting a critic score of 76 based off 12 critics on PC, and a 77 based off 37 critics on PlayStation 4 according to review aggregator Metacritic. James Davenport of PC Gamer gave it an 86 out of 100, claiming it "is only held back by rare bugs and poorly designed difficulty spikes." Jeff Marchiafava of Game Informer gave it a 6 out of 10, citing a lack of engagement in the environment and unforgiving difficulty as being detrimental to its success.