Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a Beautiful, Bittersweet Dance

Creating a Soulslike comes with an unbearable weight. Whether it’s pacing, enemy and boss design, or combat feel, there’s a lot working against games walking in Miyazaki’s path. Though in more recent years, successes have been more frequent than not. Another Crab’s Treasure paired impactful combat with vibrant settings, characters, and an overarching narrative. Lies of P from NEOWIZ nearly adapted the FromSoft formula one-to-one, with a few key changes to help it stand on its own two feet. The pressure was on for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers from Leenzee and 505 Games, and for the most part, it shows promise after 8–10 hours of playing. But unfortunately, an unbalanced wall plagued one of my favorite experiences of the year so far with deep frustration.

Set in the land of Shu during the late Ming Dynasty, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers drops our amnesia-stricken protagonist, Wuchang, into the midst of a plague known as the Feathering. The Feathering not only spawns horrific creatures across the land but also grants Wuchang supernatural powers that are vital for surviving and conquering Leenzee’s take on the Soulslike genre.

The amnesia trope sets a familiar narrative stage that complements the player’s experience with Wuchang’s in-game journey. Just like our protagonist, we don’t know what’s happening, why the people of Shu are dying, or how the Feathering is affecting our body. The narrative unravels through NPCs met along the way and environmental clues, triggering a well-paced cascading effect that provides insight into Wuchang and the surrounding world. Of course, similar to most games in the genre, it doesn’t get in the way if you’re the type of player who just wants to swing for the fences. But for those who enjoy a bit of substance with their dodging and attacking, Leenzee has crafted an intriguing story with layered threads.

Though if you’re one of those players who speedruns dialogue and menus, you may be at a disadvantage when learning the many intricate systems Wuchang: Fallen Feathers throws at you. Feathering, Skyborn Might, Red Mercury, Temperance, Impetus Repository; the number of systems and the terms used to describe them can be supremely overwhelming. With every new mechanic introduced in my first hour or two, my head was spinning. It honestly almost led me to set the controller down before even reaching the first boss. But once I found a weapon I vibed with (axes all the way) and had the opportunity to explore all the systems myself, everything started to click into place.

Every system has its familiar equivalent, it just takes a bit of digesting for it all to make sense. Feathering and Skyborn Might are tied to special abilities and magic. Red Mercury (Wuchang’s version of “souls” or “Blood Echoes”) is consumed for Skill Points, which feed into the Impetus Repository. This is your skill tree, and each weapon type has its own branch in the tree. Unlike the usual Vitality, Endurance, Dexterity, etc we may be used to in other games, you’re dropping points into specific weapon traits and buffs. Temperance is an ability similar to grease in Elden Ring, letting you give your weapon an elemental edge. Once I got a grasp on all of these (and many others I didn’t mention), the game opened up and I could not put it down.

The world is broken up into semi-open areas brimming with side paths to explore without feeling overwhelming. I always knew what was a side bit and what was a critical path. And whether I found an NPC or an item, every side route felt meaningful to some degree. The areas are lush and detailed, thriving with enemies ready to slash you down at a moment’s notice. The lead-up to bosses felt like an appropriate proving ground to hone my skills and learn my weapon before facing a big bad. The fodder enemies really helped me appreciate how great the combat feels. You can feel the impact; that weight and precision that’s so vital for a Soulslike. Every hit had purpose, and more so, so did every dodge that builds your Feathering meter for special abilities. As a traditionally dodge-heavy player, it’s refreshing to feel such a heavy reliance and benefit to perfect dodges.

The aforementioned bosses, of course, are where Wuchang: Fallen Feathers shines. Varied and extravagant, the bosses are the centerpiece of a bloody opera playing out before your eyes. Like any good entry in the genre, bosses in my first 8-10 hours were tough but fair. I found myself consistently in a beautiful cadence: completely stunned on my first attempt, gaining confidence in my second, settling in by my third or fourth as I learned patterns, and nailing it shortly after. It’s the type of rhythm that triggers the euphoric satisfaction we all chase in these games. This is where the best Soulslikes shine.

My first weekend with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers was a breath of fresh air. The complex systems were all clicking into place, narrative threads were unraveling, and the land of Shu became a destination I couldn’t help but think about when I was away from my PS5. But, unfortunately, about 8 hours in, it all came crashing down with a particular boss.

Without delving into spoilers, there’s a severe spike in difficulty in the form of a boss found in a lake. Skill checks are always anticipated and appreciated in this genre, but only when they build on what’s been learned. That beautiful cadence I spoke about earlier? Lost and replaced with what feels like nonsensical punishment. The window for learning is nonexistent, patterns and attack timings are inconsistent, and a mechanic that’s front and center with a tutorial leading into the boss fight feels flawed. The game clearly wants me to use the mechanic, but successful executions are met with defeat within an instance. I asked a few colleagues reviewing the game for advice, but they were also struggling to comprehend what was going on with [redacted]. After a few hours of attempts, like them, I hit a wall. Luck got me to a sliver of [redacted]’s health once or twice, but whether it was a healing animation that took too long or attacks that can reach across the entire arena, every attempt ended in frustration.

This boss feels like a contradiction to everything that came before. The initial 8–10 hours are a well-executed compliment to the intricate systems the game provides. But with this fight, despite respeccing, changing strategies, and executing the prompted mechanic before stepping into the arena, it feels as if the fight boils down to luck. I’ll likely be met with a chorus of “get good.” I get it. But “get good” only applies when the player isn’t utilizing the tools the game offers, and the game pushes back as a response. The final bosses of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Lies of P, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are all brilliant examples: tough but fair, complementing their respective systems, and pushing back when you’re not making use of them. All but this one (so far, at least) in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers follow that same formula. And unfortunately, it takes just one [redacted] in a lake to kill the vibe of an otherwise stellar party.

Will I go back? Will I die and try again? Yes, of course. I’m a stubborn New Yorker with an axe to grind (no pun intended), and the game feels too good to throw in the towel. I’ll keep at it until Lady Luck finds me bruised and broken from this head on collision. There’s so much I adore about Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, and I refuse to let [redacted] ruin it for me. But I won’t lie, I'm secretly hoping for a balancing patch to help sway her in my favor before launch.