A Dark Chinese Soulslike with a Twist
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers from 505 Games and Leenzee promises to be a Soulslike set in an Ancient Chinese landscape, and really, who could ask for more?
I’m not sure to be honest, and so I feel you should come with me to a world full of creepy monsters, as we look to introduce them to the pointy end of our sword…
Memory Loss and a Feathering Plague
The narrative of WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers does stray into the realms of cliche, I’m afraid. We play as the titular Wuchang, a female pirate who has, believe it or not, lost her memory. As if that wasn’t enough, Wuchang has also contracted The Feathering, a disease that causes most sufferers to mutate into hideous beasts.
Thankfully, Wuchang appears to be able to hold the madness that accompanies the disease at bay, and indeed can tap into the power that comes with it to help her fight. It certainly makes a change to see a game based in Ancient China that doesn’t feature the Monkey King, that’s for sure!
Can she explore the land of Shu, during the late Ming Dynasty, and not only discover her past, but maybe save the world? Well, that’ll be down to you and your reflexes.
Beautiful Worlds, Wayward Camera:
The presentation of the game is very nice indeed, with a beautiful art style that evokes the era perfectly. The landscapes available to traverse range from forests to ruined towns through to mountains and caves, and the design of each biome is extremely high. Further, the world is very large, and as we explore, we will often find shortcuts back to areas previously visited and that means WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is a nice open world feeling game, allowing the player to run around as much as they like.
From there, the design of the enemies, and even of the NPCs that are available for interaction is also very good, with terrifying bosses that range from twisted tree beasts through to centipede type demons. There’s no shortage of life here!
The camera does make a decent fist of portraying the action, but it also suffers from an issue common to these types of games: if you get backed into a corner by any enemy, it does tend to freak out, making surviving almost impossible. Stay away from the edges and it’s all gravy.
Sound is another area where clearly a lot of work has gone into WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers. The voice acting is very well done, in both Chinese and English, even if the English accents seemingly coming out of the mouths of Chinese people is a little jarring. Alongside that, the battle sounds are great, the music serves its purpose without ever threatening to become memorable, and all in all the presentation of the game is very good.
Now, gameplay and pretty much all gamers should be totally familiar with the Soulslike basics by now, mostly as the sheer number of games that seek to ape FromSoftware’s masterpieces seems to grow every day. That means a game these days needs something to make them stand out from the field, and WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers has nailed its colours to a double pronged approach. There is a madness mechanic, and there is a buff called Skybound Might to earn. Let me explain.
Madness and Skybound Might
As you fight and inevitably die in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers, only to be reborn at the last shrine we visited (think bonfire, souls fans!), Wuchang’s mental health begins to suffer, and her madness levels begin to rise. This has a twofold effect: it causes her to do more damage when she attacks, so not all bad. However, the flip side is that she will also take more damage as well in this state. And, when at maximum madness, there’s another twist in death. You see, we are all used to dropping our souls, or our red mercury in this case, and then tracking back to reclaim it, yes? Well, if you have full madness, an inner demon spawns when you try to retrieve your red mercury, and you have to defeat it in order to claim your resources. If that inner demon defeats you, it is gone forever, but your madness recedes.
I’ll be honest, those bloody demons are so horrible to fight I often just gave up and went farming for more red mercury! There is a way to alleviate your madness, but I’ll leave that up to you to find…
Skybound Might meanwhile is a buff that allows the use of more powerful attacks and spells, with it being gained by fighting. You see, at the start of a new game, Wuchang, weirdly, can’t use a block or a parry move, left to dodge alone. Thankfully, dodging at the last second rewards with a stack of Skybound Might, and so the impetus is there to thrust us into combat. Dodge perfectly, gain the buff, do more damage and then rinse and repeat.
Skill Trees and Weapons
Leveling up will allow the chance to unlock nodes on the massive skill tree that Wuchang has, opening up the teaching of blocking with different weapons, as there is a section of the skill tree dedicated to each weapon archetype. You’ll basically get the chance to pick your poison from swords (both long and one handed), spears, axes, and the like.
Finding new weapons, learning new spells from defeated bosses, gaining new armour, trading with NPCs: there is a massive amount to do in WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers besides fighting massive enemies!
A Heartfelt and Ambitious Soulslike
To conclude, WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is a game with a lot of heart, and the developers need to be congratulated for attempting something different with the genre. The two new mechanics work well, shaping the way that you play, and while the combat is perhaps not as pin sharp as that of Elden Ring, once you have learned the attack ranges of the various weapons, there is a lot of fun to be had here.
Dive into the Ming Dynasty – you might just enjoy it!
Important Links
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers announced for PC and next-gen consoles as first trailer is revealed – https://www.thexboxhub.com/wuchang-fallen-feathers-announced-for-pc-and-next-gen-consoles-as-first-trailer-is-revealed/
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers Brings Black Myth-like Combat to Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/wuchang-fallen-feathers-brings-black-myth-like-combat-to-xbox-game-pass-playstation-and-pc/
Download WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers (on Game Pass if you like) – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/wuchang-fallen-feathers/9NPRHD8GQKQS/0010
Take Home the Deluxe Edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/wuchang-fallen-feathers-deluxe-edition/9MV8D6RMND54/0010
