Sifu has received its Arenas update as part of a free patch. This update brings a ton of new challenges for players who are already well-versed in the game’s combat.
I won’t go into details regarding Sifu, as we have already discussed it in detail in our review last year. However, the game is now available on Xbox and Steam, providing even more opportunities for fans to check out this kung-fu epic.
Sifu is a revenge story, where a master is beaten by their student, and his offspring goes on to take revenge. The new update allows players to showcase their skills in the game without trying them in something like the Training mode. The Arenas are divided into various stages, and there are different challenges presented, such as beating enemies in waves or targeting someone specific. These challenges provide bonuses depending on certain requirements, such as beating them at a specific time or before a certain age.
Sifu is an excellent game with a strong narrative that offers some decent replay value as well. It demands that players learn and master its combat system, which is key to beating the whole game. The aging mechanic is one of the unique aspects of the game that prevents players from taking too many risks, and this is used in the Arena challenges as well. Some of the bonuses are tied to beating the game before reaching a certain age, demanding precise skills and response times.
However, if you don’t like the combat or the base game, you won’t enjoy the Arenas update of Sifu. The Arenas mode is easily unlocked by just beating the prologue, and it is accessible separately from the main menu. This update offers more trophies/achievements to collect and is mostly aimed at completionists who want to get more out of the game after beating the story mode. In this regard, I found the Arenas mode to offer a decent amount of challenge and add more replay value. The only thing it lacks is worthwhile unlockables. It is fun to go through the challenges attempting to get the highest score, but there should have been some fun unlockables tied to it too, instead of just trophies/achievements.
Sifu is still a fun action game that has turned out to be even better after all these updates. The Steam version comes with a decent port for PC that offers things like DLSS and tweakable graphic settings. While the visuals are hardly demanding owning to the art style of the game, Sifu is still a pleasing-looking game with some fast-paced combat.
