Sifu: PS5 game reviews, release date for PS4 and PC, Metacritic score, gameplay, price - will it come to Xbox?

Gamers are used to hitting ‘continue’ after seeing a game over screen, picking things up where they left off, just before their onscreen character met an untimely demise.

But new game Sifu does something slightly different with the concept.

Here is everything you need to know about it.

What is Sifu?

Sifu is a beat 'em up action-adventure game developed by French studio Sloclap, who previously worked on 2017 martial arts-themed action RPG Absolver.

In it, you play as a kung fu student out to fulfil a life-long vendetta: hunt down and defeat the five assassins who brutally murdered your family.

Set in a modern Chinese city and mostly grounded in reality, the world of the game is one in which magic exists.

Every time you die, your character is brought back from the dead, thanks to a magical talisman that revives them whenever they suffer a fatal injury.

However, the twist here is that every time your character is revived they age by a number of years, a steady ageing process upon failure that has two major implications.

On the one hand, certain character stats improve as your character becomes more wizened, more experienced in combat and in taking on the dangers of the world.

But conversely, other stats may decrease, reflecting an ageing body that may not be quite as agile or energetic as it once was.

For example, as the player character ages, their strikes could become more powerful, but they will have less health.

What is the gameplay like?

Combat is the name of the game here, and Sifu is inspired by Pak Mei kung fu and includes over 150 unique attacks.

These attacks can all be strung together into impressive combos, and the game allows players to take advantage of the environment to improvise new attacks and alter their strategy when facing stronger opponents.

Of course, pacifists will be glad to hear that on occasion, the player may be presented with dialogue options which can enable them to avoid combat altogether depending on their choice of words.

A word of warning to newcomers: the game’s developers have said Sifu was designed to be difficult, as they felt players would not gain a feeling of mastery if the experience was too easy.

Is it any good?

Reviews for the game have been coming in from critics for a number of days now, giving potential players a taste of what to expect come Sifu’s release.

According to Metacritic - a website which collates reviewers’ scores to find an average rating - Sifu has been receiving “generally favourable” reviews, and at the time of writing commands a score of 81 for the PS5 version.

IGN called the game "utterly uncompromising in its design", praising the narrative, combat, environments, and AI, while Destructoid called it "a constant uphill battle" and "intensely rewarding", concluding that "Sifu is a challenge worth taking on and overcoming.”

GameSpot lauded the game's combat, stating that it is impactful, and also praised the inventive ageing mechanic and lack of a repetitive feel due to dynamic fights.

When can I play it?

Sifu will be released on Tuesday 8 January 2022.

It will be available for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles, and will also be released for PC players.

Sifu was initially scheduled to be released in 2021, but was delayed to this year to further polish the game and avoid overworking the development team.

How much does it cost?

Sifu is available to pre-order through the PlayStation store.

The standard edition of the game costs £32.99, while the deluxe edition - which grants players 48 hours of early access - is available for £39.99,

Will Sifu come to Xbox?

Despite being a game that is exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation consoles, Sifu could one day make the jump over to Microsoft’s Xbox machines.

When asked if the game would be coming to Xbox platforms on reddit, the developers responded by confirming that Sifu is a “timed exclusive”.

That means that while the game is exclusive to PlayStation, that exclusivity only applies for a set agreed time, after which the game is free to be released onto other platforms.

Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen, but given the game’s early success, it would make sense to bring Sifu to more players in the future.

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. NationalWorld is a new national news brand, produced by a team of journalists, editors, video producers and designers who live and work across the UK. Find out more about who’s who in the team, and our editorial values. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going. You can also sign up to our newsletters and get a curated selection of our best reads to your inbox every day.