See The New Sifu Update That Allows Players To Choose How They Deliver Beatdowns

Sifu is one of best underground games to have come out in recent memory, and a new update adds even more elements to the fan-favorite brawler game.

By Jason Collins | Published

Sifu

Sloclap, the developer of a recently released commercial and critical success, Sifu, is releasing an update that significantly affects the gameplay. The update was showcased in a preview trailer introducing the game’s new difficulty settings. Those gamers that want a much smoother or a much rougher experience when playing Sifu can now choose one of two additional game difficulty modes on top of an original difficulty. Here’s a new preview trailer:

According to Destructoid, the upcoming Sifu update will go live on May 3 and introduce two new difficulty settings. Those who want a smoother experience can now select a much-easier Student difficulty mode, in which they’ll face less aggressive and weaker opponents, have more health, and face a more forgiving age mechanic — the game’s unique feature that penalizes gamers upon death, where instead of simply restarting the level, the player character would age a certain amount.

Admittedly, this aging mechanic is an interesting concept, as it increases the player character’s damage output but decreases how much damage players can take, effectively making them more and more of a glass cannon when they die. However, this is more than a mere mechanic that spices up the Sifu gameplay; it serves as a way for players to learn and improve their combat prowess through failure, bringing a more challenging and effective game loop.

When a player character becomes too old, they can die permanently, in which case players must restart the level from the beginning and from the same age as their initial attempt. So, it really pays to hone your skills and pay attention to the Sifu’s gameplay tutorials so as to avoid starting the next level at age 60 — which would allow you to dish out more damage while also being more susceptible to attacks. No-hit runs on YouTube are about to become way more interesting.

Contrasting the Student difficulty is a more terrifying, yet potentially thrilling difficulty setting called Master, which sets up more experienced players against new, more complex boss attack patterns, and more aggressive and borderline relentless opponents — those playing can expect a pretty intense experience. Finally, for those that are still unfamiliar with the Sifu game, you can opt to play the original difficulty setting, now called Disciple, which is the middle ground between the two difficulty modes.

The upcoming update is actually just the first among many announced on the 2022 Sifu roadmap and includes the aforementioned difficulty settings, an advanced training mode, and a new white outfit. The game is also set to receive periodic updates that are scheduled to drop this summer, fall, and winter, bringing new content and gameplay mechanics to an incredibly popular action beat ‘em up video game that sold one million copies in the first month of release.

The upcoming seasonal updates are set to introduce several gameplay modifiers that would apply different buffs and nerfs to the player’s character, greatly affecting the gameplay and selected difficulties. Sifu was released in February this year and is now available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.