Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Review

PC, playstation, WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, xbox

I love a good soulslike. I know some people complain about oversaturation of the genre, but compared to the amount of fps games, rpgs or hell even deck builders; I don’t think we’re even close to saturation point. And that’s counting all of them, including the ones that don’t quite nail the balance between challenging and rewarding.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers from the team over at Leenzee is the latest to throw its hat in the genre ring. Throwing you headfirst into a grim, plague-ridden ancient China where supernatural horrors threaten to destroy the world. So let’s dive in and see if this gets that balance right shall we?

Feathered Foes

You take on the role of Wuchang, a mysterious warrior afflicted by a deadly curse called the Feathering as you hack, shimmer and (my personal favourite) blind kick your way through corrupted enemies and eerie, decaying landscapes.

The Feathering is a supernatural disease sweeping through the land of Shu, warping people into grotesque bird-like monsters and slowly unraveling society. Bai Wuchang, that’s you, is infected too, but unlike the others she seems to have maintained enough of her sanity to fight back against the curse and the creatures afflicted by it.

Feathering ties directly into the games combat system. If you dodge perfectly Wuchang will Shimmer, granting a Skyborn Might charge that you can use to power up special attacks or spend on magic. As you progress you’ll unlock more Feathering slots, allowing you to use more powerful abilities and spells. It’s a nice synergy between storytelling and gameplay, and I’ve got to say the Shimmering system is a very nice twist on standard dodge rolling.

Feathering also ties into the Madness system. Every time you die, your Madness builds up, marked by a glowing red symbol on your neck. When it gets too high Madness Descends – boosting your attack power but also making you take more damage. Die too many times at full Madness and you'll trigger the Inner Demon system, where a corrupted version of yourself spawns at your death site. You'll need to defeat it to reclaim your lost XP (called Red Mercury).

You can clear Madness in a variety of ways, but I found myself playing through a lot of the game with it quite high. I never found the increased damage too egregious, and apart from a few times where my Inner Demon spawned in the worst possible area, she wasn’t too hard to take down.

Hot Swapping

Another thing tied to Feathering is the Swift Draw mechanic, which lets you combo between your two equipped weapons into a special move at the click of a button.

There are five distinct categories of weapons to swap between: Longswords – a balanced weapon for the quality build enjoyers amongst us; One-handed Swords – that trade reach and damage for quicker hits; Spears – for range and deflections; Dual Weapons – like daggers and paired blades if you like it fast; Heavy Weapons – which come in a variety of Greataxes and Clubs for those of the big bonk persuasion. Good news for everyone is, you can respec at anytime to adjust your playstyle if you find something you’re desperate to try out.

Myself, being rather basic, stuck with the Longsword almost exclusively; pairing it with a spear to help stance break more annoying enemies. As you level up along the weapon skill trees you’ll also unlock new disciplines for each one. Disciplines are special moves you can equip to the LT button, ranging from blocks/parries to backflips and kicks that help you evade enemy attacks.

This is where my first little niggle with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers comes in. There’s a huge amount of things going on in the combat systems. On top of the Discipline system there’s the Tempering system to buff your weapon (think resin from Dark Souls), you get one pretty early and can then unlock more as the game goes on. Then there’s all your spells, which you can only use with enough Skyborn Might, but that degrades over time so better be quick. As expected enemies also have poise meters – fill it up and land an Obliterate attack, but it also resets so make sure you’re hitting enough without taking too many hits back.

All of these systems seem fine as you get introduced to them, but there’s maybe too many things tied to one singular mechanic for me. I cannot, generally, parry for the life of me. I tried here, but found the windows pretty challenging and some attacks a bit squiffy with telegraphing. Swapping out to something that allows you to evade when using it seemed like a better idea, but again the special is tied to your Skyborn Might, so make sure you’ve got some before you click it.

Pair that with some of the telegraphing feeling pretty off, and hitting the button at the right time was more hassle that it seemed worth. Oh and probably make sure you don’t accidentally Swift Draw mid boss fight by clicking the left stick when trying to move. You’ll thank me later.

Ups and Downs

First off the world of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is beautiful. It builds its world like a fevered dream patched together from history, myth and ruin. Set in an alternate version of the Ming Dynasty, you’re thrown into Shu – a region teetering on the edge thanks to the spread of the Feathering disease. The game's setting draws inspiration from Sichuan folklore, ancient ruins and traditional philosophies to give everything an eerie, lived-in feel.

The level design takes its cues from the classics. Think hub-style maps with branching paths, vertical layers and clever shortcuts. You'll begin in a crumbling temple but soon find yourself picking through mist-filled forests, haunted shrines, snowy peaks and buried ruins. Each area is distinct and well crafted, although its suffers a little from paths that lead to nowhere and potentially an overuse of the well worn “door does not open from this side” meme.

Exploration is generally properly rewarded with gear, lore and alternate routes, so meandering around the same area from different directions multiple times is usually worth it – look out for the golden birds if you get lost. There's also no jump button, so going up and down relies on ladders and ledges, but the world still manages to feel deep and connected. There’s plenty of NPCs with distinct questlines to find and return to, too – so remember and check out the shrine teleportation menu if you find something interesting.

Demon Spawn

Now. Onto the most important part. The boss fights. There’s 14 major bosses and a whole host of smaller ones to find scattered around the world. Each one feels handcrafted for their environment, with distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Towards the start of the game you’ll encounter The Great Centipede and it’s pure nightmare fuel. It's a grotesque fusion of a monks mutated flesh and (you guessed it) a huge centipede. It hacks at you with giant claws before burrowing through the ground and spewing Corruption. You'll need to stay mobile and manage status effects while dodging its spells and lunges – luckily there’s some pillars in the rooms you can lure it into providing a stun window to get some good hits in.

Broadly most of the bosses follow this design philosophy, being well balanced and a lot of fun to take down. There were a few that gave me a little bit of issue – certainly not a bad thing in a soulslike, and one or two that made me almost ALT+F4 on occasion. Most of these were down to me just being pretty impatient, but there’s a few that might warrant a little bit of tweaking in the balancing department (see the above attack telegraphing complaints), and one specific “puzzle” style boss that didn’t take long but just annoyed the hell out of me.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. The story (which I didn’t mention) is decent, if a little scattered at times. The level design will scratch that looping exploration itch, just be prepared for the inevitable gravity deaths and locked doors.

If you're into Soulslike games, this one ticks the boxes. Combat's all about timing and precision, with weighty weapon swings, tricky stamina management and enemies who absolutely do not hold back. The aesthetic is moody and dripping in atmosphere, with fog-shrouded villages, twisted spirits and grim lore tucked around every corner. It doesn't reinvent the genre, but it does pack a serious punch with its art style and haunting setting. Looks like the balance is just about right.