We all have those core, formative moments in our histories as gamers where we play something so fresh, novel, and mind-blowing for the first time, and it changes things. You may not know in what capacity yet, but something inside of you just cosmically clicks with a game, and your tastes and preferences are forever adjusted.
For me, and probably many of you reading, there’s just something about agood Souls-style gamethat becomes all you ever want to play moving forward. In my case, this feeling first came fromDemon’s Souls, and the rest is history. From that point on, my perspective on third-person action games simply fundamentally changed.
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you may call it elitism or whatever you want, but I genuinelystruggleto get into an action title anymore if it isn’t aSoulslikein some capacity. And truth be told, there aren’t many non-FromSoftware Soulsy titles that keep me engaged from beginning to end. Typically, most competitors mainly just make me feel like jumping back intoDark Souls,DS3, orElden Ringonce again.
Enter,Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a debut title from Chinese team Leenzee, which you’d be forgiven for at least initially comparing toBlack Myth: Wukongfor several stylistic reasons. But where Wukong didn’t personally blow me away in certain regards as more of an action game than a Soulslike,Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is Souls to a T.
After beating the game and launching into a NG+ playthrough already, I’m ready to declare Wuchang: Fallen Feathers asmy favorite Soulslike title made by anyone besides FromSoftware. As a first game for a new team in a genre that’s incredibly tricky to get right, this is extremely high praise.
That Same Soulsy Storytelling
Let’s start with the beginning, as most stories tend to do. After waking up in a cave with amnesia, the main character Wuchang makes her way to a temple to try to figure out where she is, and what’s wrong with her arm, which seems to be covered in… feathers?
From here, things get a little weird. Turns out, the entirety of this region of China has been ravaged by something called “Feathering,” which is a mysterious disease in which the afflicted start sprouting feathers all over their bodies until ultimately descending into madness and morphing into unrecognizable, dangerous monsters.
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Of course, it’s then extremely concerning that Wuchang’s entire left arm is beginning to turn full-bird, but she learns that she’s been saved by a man named Xuanyangzi, who’s been able to slow the spread of the feathering… For now. There’s no telling how long Wuchang has, so it’s time to get busy.
Drip-fed more information from NPCs every step of the way as Wuchang struggles to regain her memories, she learns of her missing sister, as well as some other twists and turns along the journey that I obviously won’t spoil for you here. But suffice to say, things in the world might not quite be what they seem, so buckle up.
From this point on, there’s not always a ton in the way of direct storytelling, which won’t be shocking at all if you’re a Souls fan. True to genre form, you’ll learn information from item descriptions, random objects in the world, someextremelydown-on-their-luck characters and merchants, as well as quips of dialogue from bosses in their intro cutscenes.
This game is among the best in this abstract style of storytelling and world-building.
To be fully transparent, even after completing a full playthrough,I don’tquitegrasp what all is actually going on in the game, and frankly, I’m fine with that. Ambiguity in the genre is commonplace, but Wuchang definitely gives enough to keep the narrative carrot on the end of the stick for you anyway.
Still, I’m definitely going to need a VaatiVidya-stylelore dive videoto truly wrap my head around the storytelling and intricacies of Wuchang. Personally, I love this type of approach when it’s done well, and this game is among the best in this abstract style of narrative and world-building.
An Insanely Interconnected World
If Wuchang: Fallen Feather’s narrative style is a tip of the cap to FromSoftware-style storytelling, then its level and world design is a full-blown homage. Let’s journey back to your more youthful days when you played the original Dark Souls for the first time. At first entirely confusing, daunting, and complicated from an exploration standpoint, things would slowly but surely start to click.
This feeling would intensify as you’d find each new ladder to kick down, proper side to open a locked door from, and elevator to ride. Lo and behold, you’d suddenly realize that Firelink Shrine connects to New Londo Ruins, connects to Valley of Drakes, connects to Blighttown, and so on.
Like the human nervous system, you’d soon uncover all the various branches of the map that linked everything together, and it was a true testament to genuine masterclass design in terms of level/map composition.
Wuchang’s world doesn’tquitebranch and interconnect quite as much as Dark Souls, but gosh darn if it isn’t close. If you’re someone who thought Dark Souls 3 was too linear and isolated-feeling, longing for the sense of discovery and wonder that DS1 filled you with,Wuchang might be the closest you’ll ever get to this feeling again. To have this vibe in 2025, all these years later, is awesome.
As you’d hope, the regions and biomes you’ll explore in Wuchang are also diverse and keep you guessing. It is a game that aims for slightly more groundedness in terms of trying to depict traditional Chinese architecture and style, so it doesn’tconstantlythrow you into insane locations.
Still, there areplentyof stops throughout that take on otherworldly and truly horrifying presentations. The endgame specifically is a visual mix of gruesome horror and breathtaking beauty at the same time.
While the game isn’t the biggest graphical powerhouse ever, it thrives through its strong style and is still consistently beautiful and detailed to make sure you won’t mind that it’s not a photo-realistic, true AAA showcase. Much like a FromSoftware title, it seemsLeenzee knew exactly where to spend their time artistically in order to get the most bang for their buck.
All of this lovely level design isn’t always highlighted by the most rewarding-feeling loot along the way, and at times seems too focused on giving you random consumables you don’t really care much about. But that also makes the good loot drops you discover feel that much more special and important when you find an upgrade to your health flask, one of twenty-five weapons, new armor sets, or precious upgrade materials.
It’s also impressive that I suffered no game crashes or noticeable frame dips (though I did choose to lock the framerate of my PS5 and Ialwaysplay in Performance Mode). Occasionally, I’d get stuck on an object or two, but that’s par for the course in the genre, to be fair.
Original Dark Souls Gameplay Taken Up A Notch
In terms of gameplay, you’re never really quite sure what a new Soulslike is going to bring to the table. Some games attempt to iterate on FromSoftware’s formula, while others try to emulate it as much as possible. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is honestly a bit of both.
Let’s just get out of the way right off the bat thateverything you’d expect and know is here. If you get killed, you’ll drop your mercury (souls/runes) and need to recollect upon respawn from a shrine (bonfire). You’re leveling up stats like Vitality, Endurance, Strength, and Agility (Dexterity). You’re managing status effects and paying attention to resistances and armor stats.
Some of this is changed up in Wuchang’s own ways, but not a ton. The biggest example is a Madness system, which increases with each death or the usage of certain items. The more Madness you gain, the more damage you deal, but the more you also take. Going completely mad can also lead to a demon version of yourself guarding your loot you need to recollect after a death.
From a speed perspective of the main character, this game feels pretty eerily like the original Dark Souls most of the time. Your heavy and light attacks feel very similar, as does the timing of your dash-dodge (instead of a dodge-roll).
This is a little hard to get used to still, however, because you’ll also quickly learn that many of the game’s bosses feel like they’re more at the speed of aSekiro,Bloodborne, or Dark Souls 3. This can make it feel like it takes Wuchangforeverto stand back up after being knocked down, to pop a consumable item, or to heal via her flask.
One huge difference in Wuchang is the presence of a robust skill tree, which is where you’ll spend all your currency instead of simply selecting a single stat to upgrade from a menu. This skill tree reminds me most of Black Myth: Wukong and offers alotof special moves, perks, upgrades, and stats for you to build towards.This gives you a ton of agency in playing Wuchang exactly how you want to.
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This includes five weapon types – longswords, spears, axes, dual blades, and one-handed blades – to choose from, each playing incredibly differently and with their own set of pros and cons. I landed on longswords so I could parry, as it felt like a necessity for a couple of bosses, and also paired this with a couple of magic spells that carried me through the whole game.
It’s a nice quality of life feature with all these options thatWuchang allows you to respec completely whenever you want to. There were a couple of instances where I felt like Ihadto spec into a certain build to defeat a tough enemy, which was a minor annoyance. Still, it’s no huge deal when you can spec back into your desired build right after, and it’s kind of nice in a way to figure out what skills and weapons are best leveraged against certain bosses.
Who’s The Boss?
Of course, the hallmarks of Soulslikes for many players are the boss fights, and understandably so. Out of every genre out there, you’d be hard-pressed to find another withsomany high-level, memorable,breathtaking boss encounters.
Good, old-fashioned fights to the death, and it’s on you to figure out the best plan of attack.
As you’d expect from how well this review has been going so far,Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also has some simply stellar big bads. From fast-paced and deadly humanoids togrotesque and hulking beasts in the style of Bloodborne, and everything in between, there aremanyfights here that I’ll remember for a long time.
Some turn into high-level parry and backstab fests, others are endurance tests, some have summonable allies, and all pose a threat. Even better, I really can’t think of any genuine gimmick fights in the entire game, which can be the Achilles' heel of other genre entries. These are just good, old-fashioned fights to the death, and it’s on you to figure out the best plan of attack.
There is one boss in particular, Commander Honglan, who is all but guaranteed to be the first real skill-check in the game that we’ll surely see newcomers talking about online endlessly. As challenging as this fight was the first time around, it was equally rewarding for me to finally take her down… 18 attempts later (I kept track).
From this point on, you may find one specific spell, Ethereal Form, which is so strong right off the bat that it can, occasionally, trivialize some of the remaining bosses in the game. This can be further ensured if you spec hard into magic and add some additional lightning moves into the mix to stun bosses entirely, assuming they have a weakness.
But at the end of the day, what is a Soulslike but using everything in your arsenal to find a crack in a boss' armor and exploit it into oblivion? I chose to take a middle-ground approach to give myself some magic spell advantage while still speccing primarily into a melee build to keep the challenge level where I wanted it, but this choice will ultimately be up to you if you also find some exploitable gear and skills.
Some Familiar Quirks And Frustrations
As I’ve said before, while Wuchang: Fallen Feathers felt entirely fresh and unique in its own ways, it did ultimately remind me more of the original Dark Souls than anything else if I needed to make a direct comparison. The maiden Dark Souls title is my favorite video game of all time, depending on the day of the week you ask me.
What’s funny about this fact is that I really had to check myself a couple of times as I played through Wuchang and found myself getting occasionally frustrated or annoyed by some of the on-screen action.
A pressure panel on the floor would trigger a barrage of arrows and kill me. An entire area of the game would seem to constantly fill my “Corruption” meter and chunk my health nonstop. A certain enemy could immediately fill a “Despair” status effect bar and take me out with the snap of a finger. A grunt enemy could pop out from behind a wall, knock me off a cliff, and send me to an instant death.
I found myself getting flustered by these things before finally making a connection in my brain. The traps in the floors? That was just Sen’s Fortress 2.0. The “Corruption” filled area? That was the poison swamp. The “Despair” status? That was a basilisk killing me with Curse.
To put it very bluntly, FromSoftware games are jam-packed with gank, jank, “unfair” moments, and countless instances of getting meme’d into oblivion. This really made me have to internalize that if I can accept and learn to love these moments in Dark Souls, then it’s completely unfair of me to hold the same things against Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.
This was actually a bit of a turning point for my assessment of this title, and allowed me to see the sick, twisted humor of each insane death in Wuchang and parallel it to Miyazaki and crew messing with us nonstop simply because they can get away with it.
As you decide whether you want to check out Wuchang for yourself, this would be my challenge for you. If you find yourself getting frustrated, ask yourself, “Would I be okay with this in Dark Souls?” More often than not, I think you’ll find the answer is “Yes.”
Closing Comments:
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn’t soar all the way to FromSoftware heights, but it comes darn close. What’s presented here is likely the best traditional Soulslikes I’ve ever played from a competitor, and well worth checking out for any fan of the genre. At its core, it’s a brutal game with lots of build variety, but can eventually be trivialized if you know how to exploit some of your options. Still, it never stops being fun and interesting, and melee players will have great challenges in spades. Occasional “frustrations” will arise during your experience, but it’s typically nothing we don’t let FromSoftware get away with time and time again. Bottom line, if you want a brilliantly interconnected Soulslike map with plenty of great bosses and overall design, this is another fresh genre option that shows the field is truly beginning to close the gap.
