SIFU - Grandmaster Difficulty, Single Segment

Modifiers in this single segment deathless run are:
Guard Ignored
Focus Disabled
Enemy Health Only (AKA enemies with infinite structure)
Unlimited Threats
Stronger Enemies

Sifu's Grandmaster (GM) difficulty is a player made mode using the in game modifier system. The modifiers for GM are: Stronger Enemies, Unlimited Threats, with a baseline difficulty of Master underneath.

The additional modifiers are added to reduce all the safety nets in the combat system.
Guard Ignored removes your ability to block, but you can still parry and deflect if you time your defense correctly, so it makes your defense more skill based.
Focus is disabled because that is essentially a free attack.
Enemies with health only are more difficult to deal with because structure is more easily broken than doing health damage, with a broken structure enemies enter an additional stun state, as well as allowing you to do takedowns that gives you a little break during the invincible animation. The only thing somewhat easier with health only enemies, is that without takedowns, grunts don't get buffed into miniboss grunts. But that is only a handful of enemies, so I still consider this modifier making the game more difficult overall.
Also, I think this set of modifiers is just really fun :)

Some additional thoughts on GM difficulty here. It has to be said that this difficulty really pushes the game. It highlights both the really good and bad parts about the game.
The Good: Sifu has a really good crowd control system, with 360 degree directional control of your attacks, and in GM it is absolutely required that you know how to manage mobs of multiple enemies. An added layer of the player having access to front facing and backwards attacks makes the game feel very improvisational and keeps you engaged of both your positioning and the enemies positioning, even when stationary. Extremely fun and engaging.
In Sifu the crowd control combat is the highlight, and the bosses are secondary to that, although I still do really like the bosses, except Jinfeng GRRRR.
The Bad: Just like most other 3D action games, Sifu's camera can fail to frame the combat properly and most annoyingly get stuck in the physical environment and barely make the combat visible. This becomes a much bigger issue in GM since you are getting pounced on by multiple enemies that can kill you very quickly. Clear visibility of the combat space shouldn't be a luxury. Its understandable though, this design problem persists throughout the genre. Hopefully there are ways to make it better.
The other bad aspect is also shared among other 3D action games, and that's the targeting system. There is a soft lock auto targeting system to help you target enemies, but how it operates really makes the player out of control of where he is attacking sometimes. In GM the targeting system is really put to the test and it will get you in more trouble than not, so the player just needs to adapt around these issues. It doesn't need to be perfect, but the feeling of being out of control of your attack direction needed to be addressed.

One additional thing I would have liked is being able to deflect/parry/avoid right after getting hit. There is some recovery time before being able to defend right now.
That is fine when dealing with one enemy, because you have time to recover into defending after the first hit. But multiple enemies can stunlock the player.
So you can go from 100% health to death by being open to a single hit, if that single hit is followed by other attack strings from other enemies, which is very common in GM. Occasionally, this can even happen on Master Difficulty. That's a single hit into death wombo combo. I've gone from 100% health to death by basic strings from 2 grunts, with no way to defend after the initial hit.

Still, Sifu is amazing and the modifiers system gives it so much longevity. Its destined to be an all time classic.

#sifu