I like to think that I am an average soulslike player. Not great, mind you, I’m not one of those people who clear a boss after two or three tries; but I have a good grasp of the subgenre made famous by From Software. Sometimes, a game comes around and makes you rethink not only your abilities, but some of your life choices as well. I am talking obviously about “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers”.
Editor’s Note: This was reviewed before and after the release of Patch v1.5
Leenzee’s debut title doesn’t hold any punches from the very start as you take control of the protagonist Bai Wuchang. The odds are stacked against you; you have amnesia and it’s suffering from an unknown disease known only as Feathering. To make things worse, the game is set in the late Ming Dynasty, which was absolutely not a great time in China. Less so in Wuchang’s world – one filled with monsters and people who lost their minds due to the Feathering.
I am setting up the stage in terms of story upfront, unlike most articles I do about soulslikes because “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” does a terrible job of explaining it. Surprisingly, it is not a paper-thin plot, but characters move around more than usual, and it took me many hours to even get a basic grasp of what was happening with Wuchang and the world around her.
This is partially my fault of not jolting down names of important characters, not brushing up on my Chinese history prior to playing, but also due to the fact that the game makes it almost “impossible” to find some NPCs if you happen to lose track of where you are — which brings me to one of the best and also worst aspects of the game: exploration.
Have you ever tried to find your way back home after drinking a bit too much? Don’t answer if you’re under the legal drinking age, it’s a rhetorical question anyway. I live in Brazil, our cities can be separated into two categories: the typical grid square that you often see in the US and other countries, or a tangle of streets, dead-ends, and poor lit places. I lived in one such city in my early 20s, and let me tell you, there was a night or two that it took me way more than it should have been to find my house.
While I quit drinking years ago, it was how I felt many times while playing “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers”. Many of its areas harken back to the first Dark Souls. It’s labyrinthical, confusing, and often diabolical. One moment you’re in a dense jungle, you turn around and there’s a temple, you find your way to the temple, die to an enemy, resurrect at the nearest shrine — the game equivalent of bonfires — and go “wait, where am I? How do I get back there?”.
This aspect is worsened by the drop-dead gorgeous visuals. Leenzee really flexes the Unreal Engine 5 muscles to showcase beautiful vistas, amazing forests and very detailed houses, temples and other interiors are more than enough proof that the art team knew what they were doing when it came to create a very “lived in” environment. But, although I praise that aspect, there were many moments in which everything feels a bit “samey”. No, I don’t want a yellow paint or signposting to find my way back to a boss or an NPC, but when I’m at a forest, stare towards the horizon and go “Hm, yeah, nothing really stands out and I have no idea how to get back where I was”, that’s an issue.
I ended up missing out on pivotal NPCs because I didn’t take route “A” or “B” and instead took what I later knew it was a shortcut to an entirely different area. It wouldn’t be so bad if their questlines simply ended, but some of them actively became hostile towards me, thrusting me into boss fights that I didn’t see coming.
Even though I am giggling writing this, it was awful. I came across an NPC that was explaining more about the world and what Feathering was. He vanished to someplace; I killed a couple of bosses and found him again in a field. “Oh, good, more plot”. He jumped at me swinging his staff around like a madman and my only reply was “Brother, what is going on? What are you doing? What did I ever do to you?”. I know that NPCs turning hostile for some reason is not unknown for soulslikes, but in “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” is such an “out of nowhere” situation that makes it jarring.
I didn’t beat him on my first try, nor my second try, less so on my third. Now that I think about it, except for the first boss, every major encounter in “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” was a big skill check. You either are ready for it or you’ll be bashing your head against a wall for hours on end until you find every possible opening or respect into another skill tree.
Unlike most soulslikes, “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” goes away partially with the traditional attribute allocation system, using instead a skill tree for every major weapon (Longsword, axe, short sword, dual blades, spear) with nodes that improve your attributes. You obtain more skill points by exchanging “Mercury”, the game equivalent of “Souls” and using special feathers to improve your health flask and weapon proficiency. Alongside, there’s a heavy emphasis on using spells to gain the upper hand in combat.
It took me a while to get used to it, especially after years of playing games asking me to either commit to one or two weapons / playstyles or having to worry about materials to enhance my weapons. Being able to change “on the fly” the skill points without any penalties is a blessing. Well, a blessing that, for me, was also disguised as a curse.
“Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” combat is hyper aggressive. Not all weapons have a block option, and parries are few and far between — unless you really specialize and take your time to learn which attacks can be parried. You’ll be mostly dodging your way through most fights. There is an upside to this, if you time your dodge correctly you get what the game calls “Skyborn Might”, a special resource that empowers your weapon special move, enables the use of magic.
I was never much of a magic user in games, so learning how to properly use, the timings and whatnot was a massive uphill battle. One that I almost gave up multiple times. There were situations which I mistimed the animation and got heavily punished by an enemy, others where I didn’t notice that I didn’t have enough “Skyborn Might” to use the spell I selected. That’s on me — my personal curse.
And if getting beaten up at every corner wasn’t enough, “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” has a special surprise up its sleeve. The madness mechanic.
As I mentioned earlier, Wuchang is affected by a disease called “Feathering”. Such disease makes a person lose their mind and body. The more Wuchang dies, the more her madness increases until it reaches a breaking point. At this stage, you inflict increased damage on the opponent but also takes more.
What, you don’t think that’s fun? The fun part is that, to decrease your madness, you either defeat certain types of enemies — that the game doesn’t go out of its way to say which — or fight against your inner demon. No, not in the metaphorical or philosophical sense. A special enemy will spawn, and you must defeat it to reduce your madness back to zero. If you die, well, tough luck.
Like that one call or a relative that shows up in the worst possible time, Wuchang’s inner demon tends to appear the moment you start fighting against a major enemy or end up getting ambushed. And, like the call or the relative, my reaction was: “Could you please, like, leave me alone for one second? Couldn’t you come later? Can I follow up with an email?”.
I don’t think I ALT+F4’d more in 2025 than playing “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers”. I lost countless hours of progress due to the madness mechanic. I got ambushed by the inner demon a few steps before entering a boss arena and wasn’t even able to defend myself properly due to panicking. “My mercury, no!”, I said out loud.
Longtime Souls veterans will notice some similarities with the “World Tendency” of Demon’s Souls, which made the areas harder the more you died, and easier once you defeated a boss. But in Wuchang’s case, it feels so erratic and unforgiving that it almost broke my spirit. I haven’t felt this defeated by a game mechanic in a good while.
I’m still not sure if the encounters against the demon plateaued at the tail end of the second major area or if I became numb. They would show up, I would fight them, maybe I would lose or win and move on trying to find the next boss fight or shrine.
That numbness is also one the best ways to define the first half of “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers”. It looks good, it plays nice, but the systems that carry the games main strength – dodging, Skyborn Might and spells – are still rather limiting. When I wasn’t getting annoyed by something, I was just going through the motions of another soulslike in my life.
But if you manage to push through, and I know that’s a big ask, you’ll be compensated with some exceptional boss fights, areas (that, yes, will still confuse the living hell out of you) and great enemies to fight against.
The last paragraph is even funnier in hindsight of the “Souls” formula. A lot of games tend to lose steam at the back half while “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” really comes together when you get enough levels, spells and more weapons to play with.
And when I hit that sweet spot, oh, it was amazing. Everything clicked so hard that I can vividly remember my posture changing. “Oh, this is good, this is really good.” as I started to chain combos, dodge, and follow up with a powerful spell that makes Wuchang jump into the air and throw a massive spear at the enemy. And dare I say: It’s peak. Gosh, I wished so much that the entire game was like that, you have no idea dear reader.
There’s this one optional boss battle, which I dare not to spoil, that perfectly encapsulates what “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers” aims for. I was exploring a new area, a bit afraid of what could ambush me, this one boss completely caught me by surprise, but this time I was ready.
From the clashing of swords, the amazing soundtrack that accompanies the fight and the unexpected turn it takes midway through, I was grinning. I was dodging left and right, moving back and throwing fireballs, empowering my dual blades to heal me after causing multiple hits to the boss then following up with a special move that makes me switch to my axe and hit them with a strong blow. Absolute sicko time.
And, while I’m not one for having high hopes of a developer to change the pacing or improve the early game for a game so already “set in stone” as “Wuchang: Fallen Feathers”, but if Leenzee manages to polish some of the early rough edges — offer more ways to interact with NPCs or not miss major questlines, make the madness mechanic less punishing early on, provide more weapons and spells for survivability — it can become one of the great ones alongside “Lies of P”, “Nioh” and “The First Berserker: Khazan”.
Nevertheless, even with my reservations about the early game, how annoyed and broken I became with the madness mechanic, it’s a great debut title for any developer. Moreso one that’s trying to break into the nowadays extremely crowded soulslike space. It will be painful at the beginning, but the pain will be worth it.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
