The allure of a game centered entirely around boss fights is what sparked my initial interest in Furi

Furi begins with our player character, a white-haired swordsman, held captive in a mysterious prison by a sinister character known as The Jailer. After a cartoon rabbit-headed warrior (unsurprisingly reminiscent of Kuma from Afro Samurai) frees him, I led the swordsman up the rainy steps to the first arena. It’s the first of many arenas in Furi’s bold, boss fight-only structure, Creative Director Emeric Thoa and Executive Producer Audrey LePrince tell me.

The player character and the mysterious rabbit-masked man.

At the top, The Jailer was there to greet me: a menacing, power-armored figure with an energy shield on his back and three Japanese-inspired Noh masks strapped around his head. Each of these masks represents a new phase in his fight – a clever design I knew only because Thoa played before me to explain the intricacies of Furi’s combat. And yet, despite being aware of the basics – dash, slash, shoot, and parry – it wasn’t until I had the controller in my hand that I really became aware of how smooth, reactive, and dynamic these simple mechanics feel in the heat of Furi’s unabating battles.

“ In the non-stop action of Furi, there’s very little room for mistakes.

As I fought The Jailer, the battle constantly, but fluidly, switched between two combat modes that also changed up the perspective, introducing some welcome visual variation and motion to the arena. The primary wide angle provided an open view of most of the arena, allowing me to put plenty of distance between myself and The Jailer and fire off some well-timed charge shots. Enough of these could stagger my opponent and let me go in for critical, close-quarters slash attacks.

When Furi zooms into the action, the one-on-one duels become even more intense.

The second mode occurs automatically during key moments in the battle. It pushed me right into the action, placing a blue ring around me and The Jailer to make the arena smaller. These sections were always the toughest, but also the most stylish, demanding I parry a relentless series of attacks with perfect timing and then rewarding my reflexes with a flashy finishing blow.

“ Hits on everything I love about arcade-y, reflex-based action games.

Successfully parrying attacks earns you back some health, which is Furi’s clever way of forcing you to prioritize defense as much as offense. With its fast pace and flashy style, it’s easy to mistake Furi for a game that doesn’t want you to pace yourself, but it does. Once I latched onto this principle, I felt more confident in going with the flow of the fight and my timing improved because of it. Furi is all about this: biding your time with rhythmic dodges, waiting for the opponent to telegraph its next opening, and then making the most out of every opportunity.

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I only got to fight one boss during my time with Furi, but it was an exciting and varied battle that hit on everything I love about arcade-y, reflex-based action games: requiring timing, precision, and frantic, in-the-moment planning to execute moves that feel and also look awesome.I can’t wait to see how Furi stretches this formula out for the rest of its boss battles once it’s out later this year.

Chloi Rad is an Associate Editor for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @_chloi