[Update #2]: Sifu's summer update has now arrived with 11 gameplay modifiers to tweak and 8 'cheats' to mess around with.

[Update]: The difficulty-focused update has now arrived, and unlike what I guessed from the preview, the two new options do actually change the health of your character and the enemies. A small disappointment, but hopefully one that's easy to overlook given the rest of the improvements.

The somewhat recently released Sifu is a martial arts inspired roguelike that's all about kicking and punching your way through hordes of tricky enemies. However, instead of having only one life in which you need to complete the entire game, Sifu gives you access to a whole bunch... though at a cost! Every time you die you become older and less durable than before, though also a fair bit more powerful!

While this is certainly a cool concept, it does have one very significant problem - if you're doing badly, then respawning with less health is only going to make the situation worse. So in order to address this problem, as well as give thrill-seekers something to sink their teeth into, the Sifu team has just announced two new difficulty modes.

Once it arrives this May 3rd the easier 'Student' mode will feature weaker and less aggressive enemies, as well as a more forgiving aging mechanic. The harder 'Master' mode will be far more complex as it'll not only bring with it more aggressive enemies, but all of the bosses will get new and more challenging patterns to deal with as well. Best of all, the Master mode won't mess with enemy damage or health in any way, so it should be a completely fair experience despite the increased difficulty!

What the two new game modes look like in action, that you can get a bit of a sneak peek at through the recently posted trailer. Have a gander:

As soon as the update goes live I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, you can learn more about Sifu and its plans for the future over at the official website.