Furi is a small game that’s unlike any other, it’s a game that skips any fluff like levels or downtime and just offers intense boss fights combined with heart-pounding music and an excellent story. Despite it not having that much popularity, those who have played Furi praise it for the incredible challenge in its 10 boss fights.
These boss fights are all expertly designed to both teach and test the player on the game's various mechanics while also throwing something unique on the table. Whether they shine due to that mechanic, the sheer rush of challenge, the spectacle, or their role in the story, each stands tall. But, some are a bit better than others, so here’s the best out of an incredible roster of bosses.
10 The Star
A final boss should achieve two things: It should serve as an ultimate spectacle that wraps up the story and themes, and it should challenge the player in everything they’ve learned. Sadly, The Star only gets one of these perfectly. The Star acts as the final boss of Furi, your old mothership who sent you to the planet that you now seek to protect.
The Star serves as a great conclusion for Furi in terms of spectacle, now having to take on a massive enemy who fires out hundreds of bullets and lasers, fighting for your true freedom for the first time. But in terms of challenge, it can be a little frustrating as it leans a little too much into bullet hell and doesn’t have a single melee stage, leaving it as a good test, but not a perfect one like you’d want from a final boss.
9 The Chain
While every boss aside from The Star is without any major flaw, not all of them are created equal in terms of spectacle and challenge, and this is especially true for the first boss: The Chain. The Chain is your first boss, a sadistic jailer who keeps you locked up with sadistic shocks and is ready to tear you to pieces when you escape.
The sheer spectacle of this fight cannot be overstated as it sets the tone for Furi perfectly, the thunderstorm gathering above, the wonderful voice lines of The Chain, and the especially incredible music make for an electrifying intro. But sadly it’s a rather short one as The Chain mostly serves as a tutorial, with only their last phase offering a real challenge, but it’s still a memorable fight.
8 The Scale
While Furi isn’t that long, it still has somewhat of a problem where its middle segments can get lost in the shuffle, not easy to remember when thinking of the game… But that doesn’t make them any less powerful as shown with The Scale. The Scale is a man driven insane by your arrival destroying their entire home and corrupting them completely.
The Scale is an odd boss with disorienting mixes of projectiles and quick attacks to keep you always shut down and far away from your enemy. But when they want to really fight, The Scale will take over the entire arena and have you fighting for any control. The atmosphere of the fight elevates this, making it less of a frantic duel and more like slow torture you have to endure. It’s an odd fight that may not be the most appealing, but it’s certainly powerful.
7 The Song
Furi’s bosses are always a mix between intense bullet hell and quick melee combat, with a different ratio for each. And the heavier leaning ones tend to be less widely appealing, but some make it work such as with The Song. The Song is the midpoint for the game, an angelic woman who tries to handle the conflict peacefully but must fight and reveal her more violent side.
The Song is primarily based around hard to deal with bullet patterns as most of the fight has you never being able to go into melee with her. It creates a slower pace to the fight where you’re left on the defensive and can only try to survive parts of it. And that sets the atmosphere of the fight as all of it is somber with the music, stage, and the set-up, being the first time you’re left unsure of what you’re doing.
6 The Beat
While The Star may have shaken things up in a less than wonderful way, the rest of Furi’s last bosses all shake things up in far more interesting ways, the most interesting being the penultimate fight: The Beat. The Beat is the last guardian, a young girl with big ideals who was put as the last defense at her own request, now standing helpless against you.
The fight against The Beat is not much of a fight as most of it is spent with her running away from you as you have to deal with her traps and bullets. And the reason is because whenever you catch up with her, she can’t fight much at all, being utterly defenseless in melee combat. Because this is less of a fight and more of a tragedy as The Beat is left terrified and appalled by you as you’re forced to tear apart an innocent young girl as she begs you for you to stop, leaving most players utterly broken by this powerful fight.
5 The Strap
But while The Chain may have been a little bit basic, that certainly doesn’t mean the other early game bosses are as even on the second boss the game steps things up with The Strap. The Strap is a strange creature just like you, now imprisoned and let loose to try to stop you in her animalistic rage.
The Strap shines in being the first fight to show off how incredibly Furi’s bosses can progress and change as each phase truly offers a unique experience. As The Strap starts off mostly running away and using bullets and lasers, but as she slowly breaks her restraints, she shifts to going on the hunt and taking you into melee combat more often, leading to an incredibly memorable shifting fight that sets the stage going forward.
4 The Hand
While the first half of Furi serves more so as a tutorial that is incredibly engaging, it’s the second half where the boss design steps it up a notch, starting with The Hand. The Hand is a warrior of the planet wielding a sword and shield, a noble man who was the one who initially captured you.
In this rematch, The Hand serves as the perfect counter to you as he’ll play defensively and block your strikes, tossing them back at you as if turning the parry mechanic against you. This already makes for a difficult boss to adapt to, but when you add in plenty of area controlling special attacks and one of the most memorable final attacks mixed with perfect atmosphere and story, you have a battle that’s easily a turning point for the game.
3 The Edge
Whereas Furi’s ranged combat may not be the most engaging to center a boss fight around, the melee mechanics certainly are as they draw people into the game, and The Edge takes full advantage of this. The Edge is one of the final foes you face, a swordsman who trained for eternity to face you and now serves as a mirror for yourself.
The entire fight against the Edge will be with your sword as he takes things to the bare-bones basics. No fancy bullet hell, no gimmicks, just a test of your parry skill and reaction time against them. The entire fight is structured, so only a few blows can take either of you out, and it makes for an intense experience that asks for mastery and perfection to pass through the fight, easily making it one of the most memorable.
2 The Burst
But while a fair fight with an incredible mechanic to it is memorable, there’s also something to be said about pure challenge for the player and that’s what The Burst delivers. The Burst is one of the later bosses and is considered the hardest in the game by most, a sniper and trickster who treats the entire fight like a game of cat and mouse.
The Burst starts the fight unfair as they’ll run away, turn invisible, and take potshots at you as you search for them across the arena, continuing to play tricks like this throughout the entire fight. She throws every single trick in the book at you as well with intense bullet hells, hard to parry combos, and constantly messing with the player’s timing and perception. The Burst is easily the hardest challenge to master (Aside from the hidden DLC boss) but it makes beating her so satisfying.
1 The Line
But while all of these bosses are great, none of them were the moment where Furi truly clicks with their players and opens up into truly testing them, that honor goes to the most memorable boss in the game: The Line. The Line is a wise old man who has control over time itself, standing guard as the third jailor in the prison.
The Line works as a final test in not just fighting a boss, but truly understanding them and tackling their challenges. Where sheer aggression could get you through the previous bosses, The Line forces the player to slow down and take a more methodical approach, as fighting too much against him will see your attacks thrown right back at you. It serves as a valuable lesson and the sheer wall of needing to learn makes finally beating him, especially after the first truly difficult final phase, a crowning moment. Combine that with chilling voice lines and one of the best songs in the game and The Line easily takes the title of the best boss.