As someone who has studied, created, and loved art for the majority of her life, I don’t mean it lightly when I say that Chinese landscape paintings are among the most beautiful works I’ve had the privilege to view. Although this can be said of virtually all art, landscapes–be them from the Tang, Song, Yuan, or Ming Dynasties–have a distinctly extraordinary ability to convey the history, politics, and philosophy of a land and people defined by resilience. Just as the imperial stamps often found adorning these works reflect the distribution and transition of wealth and power throughout China’s storied history, the content of these paintings is often metaphorical, and reflects the fears, values, and culture of people I’d otherwise never know.
One of my favorite of these paintings is Ma Yuan’s “Dancing and Singing (Peasants Returning From Work),” which is not only gorgeous, but does a remarkable job of showcasing Ma Yuan’s prowess as a formally trained, fourth-generation painter, as well as the self-expression that would ultimately cement him as one of the artists China’s Ma-Xia school would be named after. In this piece, thick-trunked trees give way to wisplike branches; an ever-encroaching fog rolls across the foothills; powerful mountains tower above temple rooftops; and masterful ax-cut strokes, somehow, carve mountains out of silk. It’s a truly memorable piece, and as such, I mean it as a high compliment when I say that, in many ways, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers reminds me of it.
Part of this, of course, is because the world of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ is gorgeous. Across my 30 or so hours with the game, I never once tired of admiring its gnarled trees, mist-soaked mountains, dilapidated temples, and all the winding paths that led me through them. But it’s more than that. Like Ma Yuan’s “Dancing and Singing,” the debut title from Chinese studio Leenzee does a wonderful job of interpreting and reconstructing generations of soulslikes while also adding its own flourishes, as well as showcasing a sliver of the Ming Dynasty’s legacy, even if it’s largely fictitious. Furthermore, combat that feels fantastic, level design that fosters curiosity, great art direction, and robust systems and customization options that ensure flexibility all make Wuchang shine. Although the overall experience isn’t particularly transformative and the game suffers from dramatic shifts in difficulty, most of the time, Wuchang’s moment-to-moment gameplay makes it a great experience and an easy title to recommend to soulslike fans.
Set during China’s Ming dynasty, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers weaves together history, mythology, and dark fantasy to create a story that, while not particularly novel, is still engaging and provides the momentum needed to push the game forward. The game follows Bai Wuchang, a former pirate who finds herself washed ashore and marooned with a bad case of amnesia. However, it turns out that memory loss is the least of her problems, as she is also suffering from a thought-to-be incurable affliction: Feathering.
Fortunately, Wuchang’s case seems to be less aggressive than those around her, who are quickly succumbing to the disease that transforms them into ravenous monstrosities. Even so, the pirate sets off on a journey to find a cure for her illness and perhaps regain her memories along the way. Although a soulslike in which a dark madness of sorts is spreading throughout the populace is hardly a new premise, Wuchang still manages to make the narrative engaging enough, and gently touches on the anxieties that come with witnessing a pandemic unfold in a way I found interesting, if a bit surface-level. An element I particularly liked is that Wuchang herself is viewed as a woman who is becoming a monster, meaning some of your enemies are simply humans who are under the assumption that you are already a threat. If Wuchang kills these human enemies, her madness slowly rises, adding a bit of flavor that shows how the disease is impacting her relationship to both her humanity, and humanity as a whole.
Wuchang’s story will particularly appeal to those who find From Software’s brand of storytelling a bit too nuanced or lore-centric for them. While players who are eager to read item descriptions and take the roads less traveled will presumably get more from the story, Wuchang provides enough context through its plentiful NPCs and cutscenes to make its overarching plot fairly clear. That said, I did find it disappointing that, at least in my time with the game, Bai Wuchang feels fairly insignificant to this story as a whole. With Leenzee electing to give players control over a preestablished character rather than allow us to create our own, I expected there to be a bit more of an intricate web tying her to the game’s narrative, or at the very least, for her pirate upbringing to play a bit more of a role. Instead, she often feels like an afterthought.
It’s also worth noting that I presume some elements of the game’s story might be harder for me to pick up on as someone who is not intimately familiar with Chinese history and mythology. I suspect the more familiar you are with these topics, the more you will get out of certain interactions, enemies, naming conventions, and the like, as my surface-level research made it clear there are plenty of connections to be made.
A serviceable story, however, is all Wuchang: Fallen Feathers really needs thanks to its fantastic gameplay. In soulslikes, satisfying combat is vital to a gratifying experience, and fortunately, Wuchang’s is fluid, fun, and, most importantly, flexible. Much of this is thanks to the game’s many systems, which, while numerous and slightly overwhelming at first, quickly begin to make sense, feed into one another, and offer up an identity built around a sense of precision and control.
At the center of all of these is the Impetus Repository, which is Wuchang’s fancy terminology for its skill tree. Like other soulslikes, leveling up requires a resource obtained by killing enemies; in this case, it’s called Red Mercury. Red Mercury can also be picked up and consumed from your inventory, but unlike other games in the genre, dying doesn’t cause you to drop your entire supply of it. Instead, you lose about 50%, which is far more forgiving and a very welcome shake-up.
The game that immediately came to mind when I first opened the Impetus Repository and scanned over its many, many, many branches, was Final Fantasy X. Though it might seem a strange pull, the Repository bears a striking resemblance to FFX’s Sphere Grid. While one branch of the tree is reserved primarily for health, potion, and general game mechanic upgrades, the other five branches each correspond to one of the game’s weapon styles: dual blades, spear, axe, long sword, and one-handed sword. As you unlock nodes, branches begin to sprawl out even further; based on what I saw, you’d be hard pressed to completely fill it out. Fortunately, if you’re the type who is eager to try every weapon, completely resetting your skill tree is free and can be done at any time.
In fact, experimenting with weapons is almost mandatory, as each behaves quite differently, has different actions, and asks players to commit to a certain playstyle. One-handed swords, for example, place importance on dodging and magic use, while dual-blades feature the “clash” mechanic, which allows you to swing into enemy attacks to minimize damage and fight back. Ultimately, each weapon is pretty viable and different players will find success with different weapons, which is really a testament to the game’s emphasis on flexibility. That said, I do think the game favors one-handed sword and longsword users, though that could just be my own perception based on my comfort level with them. It also strikes me as slightly odd that, while longswords and dual-blades are very parry-focused, not all weapons can even execute the action. Depending upon the battle, this can be very, very frustrating.
Regardless, parrying, dodging, and executing select actions dictated on your skill tree are all ways to build up Skyborn Might, which grants you the ability to cast spells and lash out with more powerful attacks. A small thing I love about the game’s spells is that nearly all of them are gained after defeating an enemy, giving you a smug sense of accomplishment when you get to level a spell that was thrown your way at a new, unsuspecting enemy. Other systems include Benedictions, which allow you to socket your weapons with upgrades, and Temperance, which grants you temporary stat bonuses when you use a specific key item in the world, similar to activating a rune in Elden Ring.
Lastly, there is one other mechanic that, while potentially detrimental, can give you a strategic edge if you’re careful: Madness. As Bai Wuchang takes down enemies and dies, her Madness slowly rises, culminating in her spawning an inner demon. Once this happens, an evil (and extremely aggressive) version of Wuchang will greet you at the location you dropped your Red Mercury, ready to fight and possessing the groan-inducing ability to heal.
If you’re feeling cheeky, you can try to get this malevolent spirit to target nearby enemies, reaping you some free Red Mercury and whittling her health down while you kick back and watch her work. Where the real strategy comes in, however, is in the risk-reward element that comes with Madness. When Wuchang succumbs to madness, she will both dish out and take more damage. This can be extremely useful if you want to take a boss down a bit faster, but it does make it even more vital that you avoid taking hits until you manage to track down your demon and take her out.
However, if there is one thing about Wuchang: Fallen Feathers that most impressed me, it’s the game’s level design, which feels very reminiscent of Bloodborne–and if you know me, you’ll know that this is some high praise. Wuchang does a fantastic job of creating a world that makes the critical path apparent enough while also ensuring things don’t feel too restrictive or linear; of letting players roam somewhat freely while also finding ways to reign them in. Shrines, which are the Wuchang equivalent to Dark Souls’ bonfires or Lies of P’s stargazers, seem to always emerge at precisely the right time and make traveling between areas a breeze.
And while the war-torn lands of Shu feel vast, they are also intimately connected thanks to Leenzee finding clever ways to weave it in and out of itself, subsequently heightening my sense of place and creating fun “eureka” moments as I stumbled upon a place I’ve either been to, or have seen off in the distance. Though Wuchang is a far cry from an open-world game–and to be clear, it’s not trying to be–it doesn’t feel unnaturally restrictive, or as if it’s largely uninhabited.
Of course, some of these inhabitants are the monstrous creatures and fierce warriors Bai Wuchang is forced to confront on her quest for answers and healing. When it comes to their design, Leenzee knocks it out of the park, whipping up impressive stages and abominations that can be grotesque, fascinating, and, at times, a bit uh…sexy–but if you’ve seen Bai Wuchang’s various outfits, I’m sure you already know the game’s got a lil’ bit of that goin’ on and I’m not mad about it. To get back to the point, all the bosses I squared up against are showstoppers that feel different from one another, despite largely fitting into two categories: monstrous thing, or fellow warrior that has to prove they’re better than you at least a few times before you can eek out a victory. That said, not all of these bosses are created equal–or fairly.
For the first 10 or so hours of the game, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers gives the impression of being an approachable soulslike that, now and then, packs a punch. After all, the story is more clear-cut, and the systems more flexible. It might not encourage leaving, grinding, and coming back the same way Elden Ring does, but it’s certainly possible, as is respeccing Bai to better fit certain encounters and playstyles.
As I explored early game locations and faced off against cannibals, priests, treants, and an unsightly, poison-spewing centipede, I felt challenged, but not punished. Each boss took fewer than five tries or so, and despite these encounters being overwhelming and spectacular, every move they threw my way felt like one I could navigate around–they were all part of patterns I could learn. That was until I hit a particular boss who, for me, was an impenetrable wall.
It’s just a skill check, I told myself. And eventually, I bested her–hands sweaty but sanity mostly intact. And then, things felt easy again…until I hit another difficulty spike. This back and forth threw a wrench into my sense of growth and progression, and after several battles that often felt a bit unfair, it also exposed that the game’s weapons–while in theory are very different but equally viable–actually have notable disparities.
If you want to get through the game, it’s almost mandatory that you learn and upgrade a couple. Despite absolutely loving my one-handed sword, for example, it’s a weapon that lacks the ability to parry, block, or clash. I’ll toot my own horn here and say that, genuinely, I feel like my timing and ability to dodge got pretty dang good–after all, it was vital to gaining Skyborn Might and executing spells. However, these bosses had such miniscule margins of error that missing one dodge nearly always led to getting caught in a combo that would knock down the majority of my health, and finding time to heal was next to impossible.
In some way, these difficulty spikes highlight another issue with Wuchang. Though it takes several important lessons from soulslikes–particularly in terms of level design–and implements them well, it falls into the pitfall of creating situations that feel difficult for the sake of being difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to argue that soulslikes’ notorious difficulty is oftentimes necessary and vital to conveying the genre’s central ideas. However, the best of these create experiences that, while difficult to overcome, make the player feel as if they’ve somehow grown through their challenges. Wuchang, on the other hand, features a number of bosses that frustrate far more than they educate and empower. Additionally, Wuchang’s close reliance on its inspiration causes the game to sometimes feel derivative, with certain enemies both emulating and resembling those found in From Software titles, ultimately tarnishing Wuchang’s budding sense of self.
While these complaints might dampen the overall experience, ultimately, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a great experience filled with far more satisfying battles than frustrating ones, wonderful ideas, and truly gorgeous locations. Considering this is Leenzee’s debut title, I have extremely high hopes for the studio’s future endeavors, and even Wuchang itself, assuming it receives a few needed adjustments. However, even as it exists now, Wuchang is absolutely a game I’d recommend to soulslike fans, so long as they don’t mind getting a bit sweaty.
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