Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Review

It’s a large clip to beryllium a instrumentality of soulslikes. Between the fantastic The First Berserker: Khazan earlier successful the year, the fantabulous Lies of P: Overture DLC past month, and the multiplayer/co-op focused Elden Ring: Nightreign, we person been eating good successful 2025 – and you tin adhd Wuchang: Fallen Feathers arsenic yet different people successful that meal. This debut crippled from developer Leenzee Games impressed maine from the commencement with its exciting, fast-paced, and dynamic combat. It besides has 1 of the champion accomplishment trees successful the genre, on with intricate and interconnected level plan that guides america done gorgeous vistas and grotesque sights successful adjacent measure. That said, its trouble is each implicit the place, with genuinely chaotic dips and spikes that spell from a comparative locomotion successful the park, to “oh my god, erstwhile is it my crook to attack?!” levels of aggression successful immoderate of its aboriginal bosses. So portion I’m near with a small whiplash aft beating it, it’s inactive an casual beardown proposal for anybody who’s bare for more.

In emblematic soulslike fashion, Wuchang expects you to bash the dense lifting erstwhile it comes to piecing unneurotic its communicative and lore – but it’s not handled rather arsenic elegantly arsenic a FromSoft crippled oregon thing similar Lies of P. I was really connected committee for the intriguing opening, which shows our titular, mostly soundless leader awaken successful a cave to observe she has a illness that robs those afflicted of their memories and gradually turns them into hideous monsters. What starts arsenic a idiosyncratic travel to observe who she is and cure her affliction earlier she mutates into a nasty vertebrate beast turns into a descent into acheronian phantasy arsenic the mysteries of the disease, known arsenic The Feathering, commencement to travel to airy and you bash conflict with those transfigured by its effects.

That was a bully start, but by the extremity of its 45-hour campaign, I’d mislaid way of the galore characters who popular up, accidental a fewer lines of dialogue, and past vanish for 10 oregon truthful hours until they popular up again successful a wholly caller location. People kept referencing names that I’d ne'er heard of before, making it intolerable for maine to travel the conversation. Lore fiends who bask digging into limb and point descriptions for clues mightiness get much retired of the communicative than I did, but playing done it the aforesaid mode I person galore different games meant its large revelations mostly fell flat.

A Game of Skills

Combat, though, had the flexibility and extent to transportation maine done to the extremity successful style, with a ton of antithetic violative and antiaircraft options astatine my disposal astatine each times. Where Wuchang sets itself isolated from others that usage the acquainted stamina-fueled airy and dense attacks to get you from checkpoint to checkpoint is its immense absorption connected combining the skills and abilities that are tied to your weapons with Discipline skills you unlock connected the perfectly monolithic accomplishment tree. For instance, equipping the sword parry Discipline accomplishment portion utilizing the Flamebringer Longsword limb volition fto you physique up the pain presumption ailment with its Infernal Firebrand Weapon Skill portion besides giving you a antiaircraft antagonistic enactment connected apical of that. Or you could brace that aforesaid limb with thing similar Crescent Moon, which inactive gives you that aforesaid pain physique ability, but besides allows you to get successful and past get retired to debar antagonistic attacks each unneurotic portion inactive being capable to physique Skybound Might with it’s built successful evade. On apical of that, you tin swap betwixt 2 weapons mid-fight, adjacent mid-combo, which doubles your options.

It’s bully that you person these other options, too, due to the fact that this is not a crippled wherever you tin get by with conscionable the basics, particularly erstwhile it comes to the tougher fights. Powering your skills and spells hinges connected generating a assets known arsenic Skyborn Might, which is gained mostly by perfectly dodging force attacks astatine the past instant, but tin besides beryllium gained successful definite weapon-specific ways, specified arsenic landing the 4th deed of a airy combo drawstring with the Axe, the 2nd deed of a airy combo drawstring with the Longsword, clashing weapons with the dual blades, oregon automatically implicit clip simply by having the one-handed sword equipped.

I had a blast discovering ways to incorporated some Weapon and Discipline skills into combat to get astir limitations similar stamina, since utilizing a Skyborn Might complaint often gives you a almighty onslaught that doesn’t deplete your meter, oregon lets you stroke done an enemy’s beardown defence with a poise break-afflicting mist and instrumentality immense chunks retired of their wellness successful seconds. I felt similar I usually had much absorbing decisions to marque with each level up than I bash successful astir soulslikes erstwhile it came to defining my build.

A large portion of that is however alternatively of conscionable boosting your preferred stat and making numbers spell up each clip you get capable currency to level, Wuchang uses a progression strategy that resembles the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X and Salt and Sanctuary. It has six paths to spell down and unlock progressively much almighty skills, with 5 being devoted to stat and limb upgrades enhancing each of the antithetic types of armaments, and the past 1 focusing much connected much cosmopolitan boons, similar other healing charges, wide buffs for executing definite techniques, etc. The grid is perfectly gigantic, and adjacent 20 oregon 30 hours into the 45-hour run I was inactive unlocking brand-new branches with caller Discipline skills and tons much upgrades to take from. That’s a lot, but thankfully respecs are free, allowing you the state to alteration up your full physique with zero outgo oregon penalty, whether to simply effort retired a caller limb oregon change your crippled program against a challenging boss. It’s an fantabulous strategy that encourages experimentation portion besides rewarding you for having a wide thought of what benignant of physique you privation to make.

There’s a reasonably awesome magnitude of antithetic types of enemies arsenic well, with each country you sojourn packing plentifulness of caller twisted creatures with a brand-new acceptable of attacks and skills that you’ll request to larn however to set your physique and your tactics to woody with. Everything successful this crippled tin beryllium threatening: from the tiny hunchbacked dudes that spell down successful conscionable 1 oregon 2 hits, but tin sneak up connected you with a hugely damaging grab, to the towering fiends that are astir similar minibosses unto themselves. This assortment kept the enactment caller passim the full escapade and kept maine tense whenever I would task successful a caller area, since I ne'er knew what to expect astir the corner.

Bumpy Roads

For the archetypal 10 oregon truthful hours, though, I didn’t person to bash a ton of physique tweaking to breeze done astir of these fights. That wasn’t to accidental that it was a locomotion successful the park, but I’ve played a batch of soulslikes successful my day, and erstwhile I got the bent of dodging done the past deed of an force combo and charging up a dense onslaught to instantly stagger them, I initially felt similar I had figured Wuchang out.

The deaths that I did acquisition mostly came from an abundance of immoderate cheap-feeling “gotcha” moments like: Tap to Reveal

To beryllium fair, tons of soulslikes person moments similar these, but successful Wuchang it happens with specified frequence that it felt similar I was getting perpetually pranked by the developers – and astatine a definite constituent that gag gets old.

Other than that, it was mostly creaseless sailing until I came crossed a brag called Commander Honglan. She wasn’t truthful overmuch a trouble spike, due to the fact that that implies astatine slightest immoderate grade of an incline oregon ramp up, arsenic she was similar moving into a ceramic wall. She took maine astir 2 hours to beat, and portion I inactive came retired connected the different broadside of it having mostly enjoyed the strength of the fight, Honglan serves arsenic a non-spoilery encapsulation of what I don’t similar astir respective of Wuchang’s aboriginal brag fights.

The biggest contented is that the punishment model for correctly and precisely dodging astir of their attacks is ace tight, which takes distant from the restitution of really being capable to dodge a immense series of swings. Compare that to games similar Sekiro oregon Khazan, wherever you’re damaging the boss’s posture barroom each clip you precisely artifact an attack, getting person to being capable to bash a damaging captious deed erstwhile you wholly drain it. There’s nary specified satisfying mid-fight advancement here, due to the fact that cleanable dodges conscionable springiness you Skyborn Might charges, which you inactive request to find an opening to beryllium capable to use. Wuchang does person a posture metre connected enemies, but it lone increases erstwhile you onshore hits and decreases aft a clip if you don’t, which makes it highly hard to get that reward for nuanced aggression erstwhile your opportunities to woody harm are truthful minimal and truthful fleeting. Not each brag combat aft Honglan is similar this, but the ones that are consciousness precise drawn retired to a grade that diminishes their fun.

The Dark Descent

The satellite each of these ups and downs instrumentality spot successful is affluent with secrets to discover, interconnected paths that satisfyingly nexus full sections of the representation together, and pugnacious optional challenges with due rewards. I loved the gradual descent into acheronian phantasy – you statesman successful a precise colorful and beauteous Chinese colony that is just showing subtle signs of the unspeakable unwellness sweeping done its population, and past arsenic you advancement deeper underground and done areas that person been perfectly ravaged by The Feathering it starts to consciousness much and much similar a fearfulness game.

There are besides immoderate truly cleverly enactment unneurotic sequences that make hostility and chaos adjacent without combat being involved. One illustration is simply a conception wherever you commencement connected a straightaway with an force astatine the extremity who builds up an instant-killing presumption affliction called Despair conscionable by looking astatine you. To evade his regard and get through, I had to marque a huffy dash past a clump of enemies, ascent up a ramp portion avoiding poisonous drops from the ceiling, and navigate astir perpetually spawning pugnacious monsters that were created by different out-of-reach foe. It’s a large illustration of beardown force plan meshing with clever level plan to make an perfectly aggravated sprint done a unsafe environment.