Furi is the neon-soaked, boss-rush game I didn’t know I needed until I got it. The story, though straightforward, is told in a way that no other media besides video games could ever be able to pull off: through boss battles.
Through these diverse and admittedly tricky encounters, you get to progress the story of Furi. I don’t mean that in a “beat the bad guy, and then we’ll give you a cutscene kind of way.” Instead, the story is told in the actual battle. Game Bakers team found myriad ways to introduce us to the story and twist the plot through varied fighting mechanics.
Boss fights are not the game’s highlights; they are the game. And I, being the masochist I am, spent hours upon hours trying to figure out these bosses’ openings to deal the slightest bit of damage. Not to count the whole day breaks I decided to take to recover from the frustration.
However, the joy of playing Furi cannot be measured by the number of hours it took to beat but by the amount of satisfaction induced by burying those ten god darn bosses ten feet under.
In this article, I’ll have all Furi bosses ranked and analyze, rank, and give my opinion about them.
Bottom Line Up Front
Though I wish you would hear me out before judging my ranking, I understand that not everyone is a fan of long reads. So, here’s a quick run-down of my ranking of Furi bosses,
- #10 – The Star: the secret boss you wish you hadn’t uncovered
- #9 – The Chain: listen to the wind blow, watch this guy die
- #8 – The Beat: platformer 101
- #7 – The Hand: easy peasy shield dude
- #6 – The Strap: laser girl battle with melee combat
- #5 – The Song: a complex yet tedious tune
- #4 – The Scale: a scaled-down version of the edge
- #3 – The Line: the bifurcation between kinda easy and “I want to die” hard
- #2 – The Burst: my toxic ex-girlfriend who I’m never fighting ever again (like, ever)
- #1 – The Edge: my all-melee wet fantasy
Selection Criteria
This article does not intend to rank bosses in terms of difficulty, but rather provide a holistic approach to the visual design, battle design, and fighting mechanics they bring to the table.
10 – The Star
If seeing the “real” final boss at the bottom of the list upsets you, you are more than welcome to sit next to me as I TRY to beat her.
I’ll be upfront about it: she sucks. I just disliked everything about it: the design, the long last phase, the over-the-top bullet hell aspect.
There’s just so much going on: dodging lasers and orbs, minding your position and distance to control the pace of the fight… it’s too much. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it screen diarrhea, but it’s definitely on the verge of it.
Being in a spacesuit that makes you considerably slower does not help. I like the speed at which The Rider moves in all other Furi fights. He’s fast, and that makes it fun. Unfortunately, that high-speed rush was missing from this fight. I do not have words to express how annoyed I felt.
On top of everything I just said, there is minimal, if any, melee combat. Should this have motivated me to master long-range combat techniques? For sure. Did it work? Nope.
It’s not the difficulty that makes me hate it. On the contrary, I adore plenty of brutal fights on this list. It’s just that the mechanics surrounding the battle, combined with an awkward camera angle and unflattering color palette, make it a horrendous fight.
The only reason it made it to the list is because of Danger – 8:02. That track is sick.
9 – The Chain
Once you learn the game’s basic mechanics, this guy is a piece of cake. His phases get progressively more challenging as you go, but they are still relatively simple. For the most part, I’d say the challenge remains the same: as long as you can dodge and parry when you need to, you’re fine.
He’s not all that bad, though. He throws those red waves at the bottom you must avoid, has got a stick to perform his move set, and throws some stuff at you. But, if you can avoid that, this guy’s pretty light.
The last phase can be a bit troublesome at first, but once you get past dodging and figure out the correct times to dodge, you can get past the orbs. It’s not so bad.
He’s a good tutorial boss. He wasn’t too hard; he wasn’t too easy. Both his character design and arrogant personality draw you into the game, so it just makes up for a perfect introduction.
Plus, his theme is an absolute banger.
8 – The Beat
A disappointment. I was expecting something much more challenging, especially coming from The Edge. I was thinking, man, this will only get more complicated. What is happening next? And when I got to this boss, it was a complete letdown.
The atmosphere was relaxed, and I liked the “snow-level” design. Furi’s design as a character is also unique. Finally, the fact that this fight was oriented towards showing that you are a bad guy is interesting, to say the last.
The issue with this fight is that The Beat is about getting away from you. It’s all about using the platforms to get to her and avoid what’s coming at you.
I haven’t even scratched the tip of the iceberg with that statement. You will not struggle with this if you’re even the slightest bit good at platformers. It’s just about avoiding things, trying to hop over to the next platform and get there. What makes it even easier is that if you do fall off, it will put you where you were. It’s not like it will set you back at the beginning.
So, because of that and the fight itself, just not being that challenging, this is one of the easiest bosses in Furi.
7 – The Hand
I enjoyed the fight, but it was first-try easy, which is ridiculous for this game. It was so easy you could say I beat it with… one hand. No? Okay.
This guy uses a shield against you, which strips you of your gun abilities. The bullets ricochet and come back at you if you shot him while he’s equipped with the shield; if you do a charge, you’re almost close to death. You could technically wait until he drops his shield and has an opening to shoot him, but… come on, rely on your melee weapon. It’s fun.
I like melee. I enjoy being close to my enemies. Getting up close to the enemy boss and hitting him from a near distance is hot.
What is also hot is timing and parrying timely. You got to rely on pairing. You have to rely on those close quarters to get some hits in.
I felt sorry for this guy. After seeing his motive, I couldn’t hate him. I felt like a bad guy coming in. I had a hard time having a vendetta against this guy or having some want to beat him.
I also felt that he was slow and easy to beat. You can work him at a distance, dodge stuff, and then, when you get in those close quarters, it’s just all about the parrying. I can work with him from a distance. I can avoid stuff. I can Dodge things pretty quickly. And then, once I got in those close quarters, it was just all about pairing.
6- The Strap
This crazy chick gave me some problems, especially with that giant laser at the end.
This boss did have some difficult moments. Leading up to that last phase, she has a lot of close quarters where you have to dodge and parry. When I fought this thing the first couple of times, I tried to dodge everything because I was more comfortable doing that. And for the most part, it worked; I would dodge as much as possible and then hit her when I could. –
I probably made it more difficult on myself because I was wasting time just refusing to dodge and didn’t do the charged dash, making you dash further.
When she throws these waves at you, she’ll throw one at a time, but then she starts throwing three in one. This is because it covers more ground, and you’re supposed to use the charged dash to cover more ground and dodge through it.
The fact that I couldn’t integrate new mechanics into my playstyle was hurting me. So, if you can get those moves down and figure that out sooner than I did, you will probably have an easier time.
The Strap makes you work it, and she tests you. And I was tested. If I were to go back to this fight, I would have it more accessible, but it was tough at this point of the game.
5 – The Song
I’m sure many people out there think this chick was pretty tough. Here is the thing: she is, but only because she’s throwing so many new things at you.
For one, she’s in the air flying around, so you have to work at a long distance. Then two, she’s got some new moves and some new weapons.
The good thing about it is that once you get down her first bar of health, that’s it for the phase. There’s no second bar; there are no close quarters at that part until the fourth phase. So, yes, it isn’t easy. Yes, it is a little different because you’re focusing on this thing flying everywhere, and you have to try to make those shots count. But for the most part, if you can get through that, you’re already halfway through the fight.
The bad thing is that the difficulty spikes up once you get past that first half of the fight. Not only are you avoiding her and what she’s doing, but you have tons of orbs that she’s creating, waves, and platforms that make up this stage where you’re fighting. They raise, and you have this vast territory to cover. So you are trying to make your way around this area, and she’s also using it to her advantage.
Now, when you get to that last phase, this gave me some trouble. A lot is going on. You have to take down these pillars. Every time you take down a pillar, though, she will have a new attack. So, it’s like layers upon layers of attacks. You’ll have something else to worry about each one you bring down. It can become overwhelming. If you’re not in the right spot, you’re not taking the right angles. So, you can go down pretty quick.
The key is to be patient, which is not my forte, nor is it what I’m looking for in a fast-paced game like this one. She’s difficult. And she’s earned this spot on the list because she gave me trouble.
4 – The Scale
The Scale reaches a delicate balance between bullet hell and melee focus. In addition, it includes fun fight mechanics and excellent dialogue.
This boss was demanding at first. He killed me like six times on that last phase.
In all previous phases, he had me thinking he was more bark than bite, honestly. He does have duplicates of himself, and that could seem overwhelming. But it’s all for the looks. You can get through it. It’s just really about that last phase.
What’s tricky about it is that you’re getting crossed up if you’re not prepared when he’s throwing those lines at you. Well, you get hit, and it will distort the vision a little bit, but it also, in my opinion, distorts the gameplay.
It’s a complete downward spiral after that. Once I would get hit unnecessarily at times, like just a stupid, sloppy, I would go downhill from there. I felt I could not get hit at the beginning of that phase, or else I was doomed.
Beating The Scale excited me simply because it was trying on me. It tested me in that last phase alone. It was a rewarding fight to get through.
3 – The Line
I have a particular spot for The Line in my heart. At this encounter, I realized that this game would be tough as nails… also that I can’t just kamikaze my way out of every fight. The Line taught me that you might mightghttimes need to play it slow and defensive. He also introduces you to the “stopping time with your bullets” mechanics.
He is the third boss in the game. Again, you are stepping up from just parrying and dodging to having to integrate a bunch of new mechanics to get to the end of the fight. The Line does a fantastic job at making you think outside your average shoot-them-up box.
He throws me off. I was shooting as much as I could and dodging like crazy. All I had to do was look around and realize, okay, there’s a delay in the dodge, there are rings around me, and I have to wait for the right moment. I have to stop spamming random buttons and develop a strategy.
He was nicely placed. He introduced new things we had to counter and set us up for the rest of the game.
2 – The Burst
Who doesn’t love The Burst? She hides from you and shoots at you with a sniper rifle -a one-hit kill, by the way-and, taunts you and makes you feel like a coward. But, we love a chick that makes us feel small and can snipe our heads anytime.
The battle design behind this fight is just excellent. Again, the bullet hell versus close combat elements was perfectly balanced. The fact that the fighting mechanic introduced here is never replicated makes it unique.
I’m not going to lie. She had me very frustrated because of not only just having to find her, but once I would find her, she would put up walls, block me into a corner, throw orbs at me or send her little robots after me. Oh, did I mention that the robots would also shoot orbs? Trying to find her was frustrating because, you know, she would be shooting at me. You can’t be sloppy and mess up. There is no room for error.
The Burst is high on this list just because of its all-around challenge. Trying to hunt her down while she’s trying to hunt you down, trying to have patience for all the things she’s throwing at you, and then getting to that last phase only to struggle and die. Rinse and repeat.
You would do all this work to get there, and it crumbles before you. So this makes it even sweeter when you get it done. I was hyped when I beat this girl.
Let’s talk about relief and never wanting to see a boss again. That’s how I felt when I beat The Burst. Girl, I don’t respect you, but I respect what we had. You deserve this spot.
1 – The Edge
I am a huge fan of close combat. However, I didn’t put the Edge up here just because of a personal preference. The theme, the dialogue, the level of difficulty, and the way the game makes you feel like a boss every time you dodge earned it this spot on the list.
This boss fight is not very long; the phases are pretty short. It’s easy to get back in there and dust yourself off. You can keep retrying and retrying. It’s not like The Burst, where you have all these long phases you get through only to get to a challenging phase. This was gradually harder and harder. That being said, this guy gave me so much trouble. I didn’t even land a single hit on my first playthrough.
This guy is tricky because he takes more health from you. If he hits you, he will damage three instead of two squares of health. Before you know it, you could be down to like two squares of health and already close to death.
Here’s a confession: I suck at parrying. The Edge exposed that big time, but he also taught me to use it and love it. And for that, I am forever grateful.
FAQ
Question: How to Get An S Rank?
Answer: Some of the things you can improve if you want to get an S rank are your parrying and dodging techniques. You could also ensure you shoot non-stop and charge attacks before executing them. The rest of my advice is quite dumb, but try to beat them as fast as possible, and, whatever you do, don’t get KO’d.
Question: How to Unlock the Secret Boss Fight Against The Star?
Answer: To unlock The Star boss fight, you must choose the “Cancel Invasion, Attack Mothership” option at the end of the game. This choice will trigger a boss battle against The Star.
Question: Is Fighting Bosses All You Do in Furi?
Answer: For the most part, this is all you will be doing. You will also be traveling a bit, but that mostly feels like a walking (or instead running) simulator.
Parting Words
Ranking up bosses from Furi, a game where essentially all you do is fight bosses, is quite the task. I signed up for it voluntarily, though I may not have been on my right mind. When I came to my senses, I relived all my encounters with these nine baddies and a laser and orb-shooting floating head.
This game takes you on a unique journey full of hand-crafted bosses, each with a different battle design. No battle mechanic is repeated twice; no character design is recycled. Each encounter brings something new to the table. All of this is also accompanied by the brightest color palette and the sickest of tracks. It’s just a game that makes you feel amazing.
Furi is a fantastic addition to the brutally challenging genre of video games. If you’re interested in a beautiful-looking boss game that will push you to your limits and give you such a rewarding sense of accomplishment when you beat it, then you need to play Furi.
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