Has anyone on JA Video Games played Sifu yet? If not, begin at your own peril...

Recently I replayed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and then played Jedi: Survivor for the first time. Proper binge-gaming through both of them. Afterward I was so amped up on that quick, block/parry based combat I decided to give Sifu a try. It is SO good.

The speed of the combat makes you feel like you should be tested for F1 race driver reflexes... when it goes right. When it goes wrong, you think "aw, unlucky that those two enemies did those attacks at the same time, I'll try again."

The story mode is a great difficulty curve, albeit steep, but also rather short. Then come the "Arenas." Arenas are challenges with various objectives (target enemies, king of the hill zone capture, timed trials, etc.) and have innumerable modifiers which can either be good or bad for you and the difficulty of the challenge, depending on what sort of fighting style you've adopted.

When I say what style you've adopted, I mean that YOU have adopted. Much like Soulsborne games, everything is on the table to you. For instance, I am mostly a dodge-and-punish player because I find the timing easier to manage than parrying a stream of attacks (contrary to how I play Fromsoft games, funny enough). Also, if I can find a bat, I've worked out the muscle memory for the most effective attacks such as the leg sweep and the strong handle push, which I can then follow up with faster attacks to take out most enemies in a single combo.

IT'S. SO. GOOD.