Wuchang: Fallen Feathers - An Unbalanced yet a Good Soulslike Game.

It's important to know a little about the reviewer before you read their review.

I am a sucker for Soulslike games and challenging combat. I am most satisfied when I hear the sound of sword clashing, mastering parry in a game and overcoming challenging bosses; good news is that Wuchang has it all and more! I played the game on PS5 and for 45 hours.

I hope this review gives you a good insight on whether it's a game worth picking up or not. I'll cover various mechanics present in the game but won't be spoiling the game for you. Let's get on with it!

I also post some of the boss fights on my Youtube, in case you wanted to check them out.

Wuchang is a debut AA soulslike game from Chinese developers Leenzee Games that a lot of people were waiting for because of their good showcases and CGI trailers but does it live up to its hype and deliver a world where most gamers like to be lost in? Let's find out together.

When I started Wuchang I was not mighty impressed because the game didn't have parry in-built into their weapons mechanics but as I progressed, I realized that devs were cooking!

The Weapons and Skills

Based on my remark above, allow me to start off with the weapons and skills in the game.

Weapons and Skills are tightly knitted in Wuchang. It's not the skills of the character you are improving, it's the skills of the weapon you improve as you progress and it unlocks various play styles!

When I said earlier that devs were cooking, what I meant is that they didn't want to restrict you with how you combat in the game. For each weapons that you collect in the game there are different skills you can unlock for them and that enables your play style.

So if you wanted your play style to be like:

• Sekiro - parry centered, you would go with long sword as it has the best skills for deflecting.

• WoLong - clash centered through weapon skill - you would go with dual sword and if you time your clashes right, you moves would never be interrupted

• Wukong - Well dodge is in the centre of mechanics in this game so you can play like Wukong from the get go.

The game offers 5 types of weapons Long Sword, Heavy Axe, Dual Sword, Spear and Sword each of them focusing on different play styles. You use your souls to upgrade the skills of each weapon. The fun part was that you could switch the points around to different weapons any time you wanted so it was fun try out different weapons but my main was the Long Sword as it was parry focused and has an ability that made you OP throughout the game.

Then their were more skills that improve the characters Health, Stamina etc that you could invest your souls in to buff up your characters but overall the whole skill and weapons system was done very well.

The Story, Quests and Characters

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers tells the story of Bai Wuchang who is suffering from the "Feathering" disease during the late Ming Dynasty in an alternate history Shu region and also has amnesia. Wuchang's journey is to find her lost sister.

Characters were decent most of them just standing on a side giving you a little bit of lore about wuchang's world as you progressed and that's al about it, but the good thing is that the more you explore, the more you find out what's going on in this world.

But If I'm being honest, I do not play soulslike games for story but for the tough bosses and enemies where only way to progress is mastering your skill.

As for quests, there is no quest marker, you stumble across NPCs, they ask you for help and then It's up to you to figure out where to go to complete the quest.

Combat

Combat in Wuchnag is very fluid when you are fighting the human like bosses, the sound of sword clash and the feeling of to and fro battle is excellent. But hen I must also say that the combat is unbalanced.

Just like Wukong, Dodging takes the centre stage in this game. Each successful dodge gives you a SkyBorn Might that is used to use spells in the game, there are plenty of spells you can find in the game that aid to your gameplay style.

Weapons have couple of skill that overpower bosses. For example there is a sword that allow your to imbibe you sword with flames and has a unique skill attached to it that deals a huge burn damage to enemies, in made most fights handicapped.
Similarly their is a dual sword that has an ability that let's you use clash ability to a point that you don't have to worry about timing your clash, just keep swinging and enemies will take damages through clash and eventually defeated easily.

Another thing that needs improvement is when you are hit and fall down, the character take a lot of time to get up and by the time you manage to get up, enemy has taken off all your health and one more hit and you are done for. Devs have said they are patching it, so that's good to hear.

Temperance

Talking of Combat, there is a unique mechanism in the game called Temperance. This allows you to temper your weapon with different element like burn, frosting etc, that builds up elemental damage on enemy. This was a welcome addition as you didn't have to depend on consumables to have effects on your weapons.

Graphics, Performance and Cut Scenes

Developers did a good job in creating a good world using Unreal Engine 5, game had some stuttering issues in the beginning but with quick patches most of them were resolved.

I guess after seeing Wukong I was expecting a little bit more from Wuchang graphically but it fell a little short. World was mostly war ridden-gory but there were couple of beautiful forest areas!

There were not really a lot of cut scenes in this game of impact and the main character never spoke a word but that's okay for the game whose primary objective is to tell the story through lore and exploration.

Exploration

Most people play soulslike for it's exploration and a sense of discovery, and Wuchang Shines in this department.

Man, the number of times I thought I was progressing in the right direction only to find out that the boss is optional was a very good feeling. Many a times I had to trace back to fetch an item so that I can progress further forward, reminded me very much of Elden Ring.

The game opens up branches for you on multiple occasions to explore and the Shrines are placed in a way that if you have gone a long time without finding a shrine, it likely because you missed a shortcut. The path were neatly intertwined, so when you found out that it all connects together it made you feel better about the game.

Gameplay

Alright, now to the main point - Gameplay!

Wuchang does a great job of taking inspiration from other soulslike games and making sure that the gameplay experience remains similar. You start you play, you fight a few enemies, you save and progress at a shrine and if you die, you lose all your souls. Souls is your currency in the game, that you use to upgrade your skill and buy items from vendors.

What I didn't like is the placement of fake shrine in the game. I am open to gotchas like hidden enemies and things dropping on you, or you falling from cliffs etc but when you are on long run from one shrine to another and you have used all your heals by the end of it and as you are about to save your game, the shrine turns out to be a fake and now you have to fight the enemy before you can save it, I did not appreciate that.

Madness

Wuchang introduces a unique mechanism in it's gameplay and it's called Madness. When you die, your madness increases, and if you die way too many times the madness reaches 100 percent and then you have to fight your demon and defeat it to claim your souls back.

While it's challenging, it's also very helpful. The higher your madness is, the more your attack strengthens but it lowers your endurance. So when you are fighting a boss and you have their moves figured out, you do some hefty damage on them. Their are some skills that further scales your damage if your madness is high making some of the bosses a smooth ride. Think of it as a high risk, high reward kind of feature.

Conclusion

I had a great time playing Wuchang: Fallen Feather. It's another good entry in soulslike genre and I appreciated most of the unique things that the devs tried to do with this game. The inclusion of new mechanics of Madness was unique and if you made the most of it, it made you life easier than difficult.

The things that stood out for me was exploration, combat and weapons skills but the things that I did not appreciate were some of the fake shrines, overpowered weapons and unbalances fights.

With all that said, if you like soulslike games then I am sure you will enjoy this one albeit it's on the easier side. If you want try out a soulslike, this would be a great place to start because some of the game mechanics in the game makes fight very easy for you.

I hope you like this review, and if you did then a repost/share on your preferred social media platform is hugely appreciated!