purpose. Most other games will look at enemy design, dialogue, and attacks from a strictly gameplay
point of view. "What's the most engaging to play?" is the driving question, and usually the safest and
smartest question to ask. These kind of games often look to make their mechanics the most "artistic"
and most fleshed out, and that's a good choice.
What if, however, a game asked "what's the most engaging to interact with"? What makes the best
scene, not just best to play. Well, Furi. This small game uses its mechanics to make the bosses you
fight memorable, unique, and full of character. While it may sacrifice a bit of gameplay depth, Furi sticks
to its guns and plays with consistent ideas and mechanics to make characters out of each obstacle.
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So let's start by asking the question: what are these mechanics?
1. Projectiles. Bosses in Furi will utilize energy-like shots, in the same vein as an arcade shoot-em'-up.
They might be small, they might be large, they might be impossible to destroy, they might give health
pickups. But they all have them.
2. AOE attacks. Energy waves, blasts, cones, you name them. They're basically just areas of the
battlefield that will become unsafe to touch for a while.
3. Melee. Most bosses will get up close and personal at some point or another. They'll go for direct
attacks, to be parried, or short range AOE, which must be dodged.
Those are the three standard types of attacks, which is why we're going to start with how bosses will
bring their own mechanics to it. Every boss in Furi will use the three above methods of pain.
However. Bosses will bring their own unique scenarios very often, and breaking from the standard
leaves an impression.
Take The Burst. She'll start the first three phases of her fight by running away, staying invisible, and
shooting at you with a sniper rifle. That kills you in one hit. This gives the impression of a very
dangerous, elusive person that prefers to hide in the shadows, and takes great pleasure in it. This is
further emphasized by her low health bar when you do catch up to her. She's not fighting you head on
unless she has to (unlike every other boss) and that difference fleshes out what kind of a person
and fighter she is.
Or The Strap, who has maybe my favourite fakeout in the game. She'll run away, and you'll be left alone for
a good chunk of a minute. It's quiet. Unnerving. You wonder if something's gone wrong. Then, all of a
sudden, she'll jump out and you have to fend her off with a quick time event. No other boss leaves you
alone for so long, and no other boss catches you off guard like this. I was laughing at how inventive this
was for the rest of the fight, and it certainly serves to show her feral, crafty, and uncontrollable nature.
Furi is never content to just ask "what's the most interesting in gameplay". I'd argue that being left alone
for about 30 seconds isn't the most engaging thing. But it leaves an impact, an impression, a character
in your head, and this philosophy of shines through in the rest of the game, even in the standard
mechanics.
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Look at The Scale, who has slow and meandering attacks, that will also mess with your vision if you're
hit. It's toxic. Debilitates you. Makes you panic. This is a character who wants to slowly kill you and
torture you, and it's not just shown in what he says.
Or, perhaps The Line, who has a first phase with reflecting shields, that send projectiles at you when you
shoot them. And later, he'll freeze time, including your bullets if you shoot, and you can then take
damage if you run into them. He is making you your own worst enemy, and almost feels as though he's
trying to teach you that.
And finally, maybe my favourite boss, The Hand. He has a shield to reflect your projectiles. He'll move as
quick or as slowly as he pleases. He's got oddly timed melee attacks designed to make you parry too
quick. And halfway through the fight he changes his fighting style completely. This is a crafty, trained,
motivated, and deadly warrior who fights using everything he's got. That leaves an impression.
This is how the game operates, and it's really really great at it. After I finished every fight, I was able to
say "they were a vicious sadist" or "they were a crafty strategist" and I knew that, not because I'd been
told, but because I'd played through their personalities and characters. I had fought and killed people
and creatures with past lives, current wants, personal reasons and motivations. And that is... well, I
think it's pretty neat!
This isn't to say every game should strive for this. Furi sacrifices some raw depth because it sticks so
closely to the core 3 mechanics I mentioned earlier. It's not a combat system on the level of Bayonetta
or Devil May Cry. Some bosses end up being not as satisfying to play because of their dedication to
character-infused attacks (curse you, The Line).
But by and large, this game isn't trying to be the deepest, or most consistently well designed to play. It's
trying to get you to engage with the world through gameplay. And though it stumbles once or twice, this
is a driving force of design I want to see more of. Furi is a great showing.
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(Addenum: You might have seen me rail against games that shame you or limit you for choosing easier
difficulties, and Furi does just this. While I'll go a tad easier on the devs since I'm pretty sure the
difficulty was a consideration for the story and world design to a certain extent, this is still wholly
unacceptable and completely exclusionary to people with limited time or accessibility issues. Tell us
the difficulty will enhance it, advise people to play on "normal" if you want, but for god's sake, don't lock
off progression or achievements for it. This is a major mark against the game and I don't want to let this
go unsaid, even if I think the rest of the game is brilliant.)
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