Absolve the developer Sloclap announced its next game, Sifu, on Thursday during the PlayStation State of Play event. Announced as “an artistic and true combat kung fu game that explores themes of revenge and redemption”, Sifu The launch is scheduled for this fall on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC (via the Epic Games Store), said Sloclap in a press release.
The trailer for Sifu reveals the main character, a muscular student of kung fu, bending and stretching in front of an altar. After that, he cuts to sequences of uninterrupted action that show the martial artist striking and kicking his way through a corridor full of opponents.
Sifu seems to combine challenging martial arts fights with the themes and style of classic kung fu films in a single player game that tells a story of revenge: The student “spent his life training for a day of reckoning after the brutal murder of your entire family for a mysterious murder squad, ”according to the press release.
Here is more of Sloclap’s description:
SifuThe unique gameplay is at the crossroads of two established and popular genres, combining the intensity and timeless emotion of beat ups with the immersive design of action games with 3D characters. Against the backdrop of a fictional Chinese city, you will discover an ancient mystery through a series of difficult confrontations that will test your skills to the limit. To overcome the adversities that are heavily against you, you will need to trust your mastery of Kung Fu and a magical pendant that will revive you after death. The cost of magic is expensive, however, and you will age significantly each time you come back to life: time is the price you will pay for your revenge.
Both the hand-drawn art style and the combat shown in the trailer resemble the first project of the Parisian independent studio, Absolve, which was released in 2017. The first Sloclap game brought a touch of martial arts to the Dark Souls formula. Sifu is one of many games funded by the Kowloon Nights investment fund.