Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Review - Heaven Sent, Hell Bent
On the back of the success of Black Myth: Wukong, I was keen to see more from AAA Chinese game development. There’s such a rich history of folklore that the rest of the world doesn’t see a lot of, outside of Journey to the West. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers was a game I’d had my eye on for some time, partially because of its fun twist on Ming Dynasty tales, but also because it’s a soulslike.
You awaken with no memory and are afflicted by Feathering, which causes you to sprout feathers from your arm. I guess it can also lead to the loss of humanity and death too. You have very little information to go on, outside of a silk manuscript saying someone will meet you at the temple. It doesn’t take long for you to see how bad things are for those suffering the illness. A doctor is treating those with Feathering but ultimately it’s a band-aid solution. You’re a bit different though, and you can not only survive the Feathering but also turn it to your needs.
Combat is fast and fluid, which is good because you’ll be doing a lot of it. You have access to two weapons and four spells at a time, and each can be switched quickly to create more dynamic combat. Truth be told, outside of using a weapon’s special ability, I seldom found myself using both weapons at once. Each unique weapon type has its own skill tree, and splitting focus on skills, especially early on, felt like it hampered my damage too much. Even outside of combat, I found weapons that just suited my playstyle (greataxes) and used those almost exclusively. It’s a little bit of a shame that of the five weapon types, there are only around twenty-five weapons, but it’s certainly manageable. Respeccing your character can be done at any checkpoint for free too, and the UI is quite good for it. This means that if you’re struggling with enemies or a boss, or just want to mix things up, you can redo your points into different weapons, different spell focuses, change up your stats and the like. For me, I’m a bit of a traditionalist and can be a bit set in my ways, but the Tempering system (which allows you to augment your weapons), was good fun to play around with and helped me play to the bosses weaknesses.
Dodging is the key thing in combat. You do have a block/parry/clash function, depending on which weapon you’re using, but all of your spells and your weapons special attacks are powered by Skyborn Might. This is gained by perfectly dodging in combat mainly, so making sure you’re getting the timing windows for attacks is key to winning. It’s interesting from a spell casting perspective too, as it means you really want to be up close and personal, even if you’re using ranged attacks. It turns combat into a much more fast-paced, cat and mouse game where you’re vying for openings but also trying to bait attacks so you can get your spells or abilities charged.
Normally enemies will also beat the hell out of you, if you’re not careful. You only have three heals to begin with, and checkpoints are annoyingly far apart. For the first time in quite a while I found myself relying upon other methods of healing, and it’s nice. The game has a semi-punishment system for dying too. Your madness meter increases upon death or killing human enemies, and decreases upon killing the Feathered and otherworldly enemies. As it increases, the amount of red mercury (the game’s level up currency) you drop upon death increases, as does your damage dealt and taken. As it nears maximum, instead of being able to pick up your dropped currency, a demon will spawn. You’ll need to kill it to reclaim your mercury, but it won’t go down lightly. It’s an added little treat, but you can manipulate your madness to get rarer drops from the demon, or use it to try and deal more damage to bosses.
I loved the level design though. Areas are fairly linear, but it’s always pretty clear which way you need to go. Exploration is still key, as it’s going to be the main way you find various upgrades, weapons, and most importantly, hidden bosses. I would say around half the bosses I fought were all optional, and killing them gave me one of their spells to use. Very cool, and the boss fights are good fun. They are tough as hell though. I think one of the bosses I fought would be right up there amongst the hardest soulslike bosses for me, right above Lies of P. You can fast travel between shrines, and the game will let you know if there’s an NPC to talk to in an area, another great bit of UI.
All in all, the game looks great. There’s no real clipping on Wuchang’s outfits, areas are fun and interesting, and from the little I understand of the source material, bosses have huge influences from folklore. Someone smarter than I will need to go through the influences. You’ll be changing up your outfits decently often, to counteract enemies and bosses, as your own weaknesses play a huge role. An outfit will be the difference from you dying instantly to an environmental effect and taking twenty seconds to die. This being said, some of the outfits are a bit coquettish for my tastes. I loved the style, but the fanservice wasn’t for me. I’m not going to yuck anyone’s yums. The armor does look super cool though!
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is an extremely competent soulslike. It’s difficult, it’s atmospheric and the combat is fun. Add multiple endings and I imagine plenty more secrets I missed and I think this should be on any fan’s radar. If you’re not into soulslikes though, this isn’t for you. This is uncompromisingly difficult, so you’ll need to be at your best to beat it. Unless you’re some loon with Donkey Konga bongos.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers was reviewed on PS5 with a code kindly provided by 505Games.
