Independently developed self-published games (or "indie games" as per the common vernacular) are known for a lot of things. They're typified as quirky experiments like Minecraft, high brow narrative dramas like Dear Esther, peculiar puzzlers like Limbo, and novel arcade affairs like Hotline Miami. But they're not known for third-person action games. After all, who would want to compete in the same field as the likes of Bayonetta, Devil May Cry or Dark Souls with a minuscule budget? Surely these games must take endless playtesting to perfect. Yet smalltime Montpellier-based studio The Game Bakers (Squids Odyssey) has risen to the challenge with its latest boss fight only affair Furi. The results are glorious.
Furi's premise is simple - defeat nine powerful foes - and the mechanics are even simpler. Furi boils down the verbs of an action game into four elegant moves: slash, shoot, dodge and parry. Beyond that, you can charge your shots, strikes and dodges for extra damage or a farther reaching evade, but that's it. There aren't any combos to learn, collectibles to gather, or character progression of any sort. In other words, it's Punch-Out!!
Yet Furi is more than just a Punch-Out!! clone. It takes the overall design of the arcade classic then reinterprets it as an isometric mashup of third-person hack-and-slash titles with bullet hell shooters (like cult classic Nier). Most bosses can be fought through a mix of twin-stick shooting and melee strikes, which may sound simple, but this limited toolkit offers more than enough options as you duke it out through Furi's gauntlet of guardian encounters.
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