WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers preview - 3 hours of death, grime, and feathers

That’s right, I was kindly invited to try out this summer’s latest big Souls-Like, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. Developed by Leenzee and published by 505 Games, Wuchang Fallen Fathers is set in the war-torn and plague-ravaged lands of Shu during the late Ming dynasty. You can expect everything you’ve seen with most other Souls-Like right here, with an oppressive world, bleakness that matches the film “Come and See” (close, but … no), and tightly woven, brutal gameplay factors which will test your might, strength, problem solving skills, and mental well-being at every step of the way.

And I rather enjoyed my three hours suffering with Wuchang, thank you very much!


What is Wuchang Fallen Feathers?

It seems that Souls-Likes based on Chinese mythology or history are a big deal nowadays, and Wuchang is another to enter the scene and potentially make a splash. We play as Bai Wuchang, a female pirate, who awakens in a damp, dark cave to find her left arm covered in feathers, and the world around her feeling slightly off. War, plague, decay, and a whole host of a***hole bosses that would hand me my arse again, and again!

As a voiceless protagonist, who awakens from a death experience to find the world has gone to s***, we’re on the right track for a promising Souls-Like. After awakening from my dirt nap, I venture forth into a nearby house where I discover a few colourful characters and am given a vague path to follow to achieve my goal. That goal? I don’t fully know, as mentioned, it’s all very vague. But from what I could gather of the tidbits of information, it seems like people were being resurrected to aid in the war and such, and of course, this didn’t end very well.

Soon enough it seemed that spores of gore, puss, and feathers where coming through the ether, turning those unlucky enough to be alive into mindless, ravenous husks covered in feathers, and those not covered in feathers, cowering into safe spaces and instructing me to go out and risk my life, I can grab them a pint of milk.

In all fairness, Wuchang Fallen Feathers did an amazing job at establishing a gritty, unforgiving, yet visually stunning world I wanted to explore further.  Leaving the confines of my newly found haven, I ventured forth, found a shrine (this game’s bonfire/lantern/spooky Silent Hill 2 red mirror) creating a checkpoint … and that’s a good thing.

Upon my visit to the local courtyard/garden, I found a lovely chap who then blew smoke in my face, and I came across the genre trope of fighting the first boss, which is likely going to annihilate you, and annihilate me, it did and everyone else in the preview.

These tropes did keep coming, as I was greeted with side quests from various strangers giving me a sob story, asking for my help, and me moving on to murder more deranged bandits, husks, and dudes who didn’t like the fact I had feathers on my arm.

As I was venturing through this wonderland of decay, disease, and murderous mad-lads, I was admiring the integritity of the level design, the confident level looping, backtracking, and side path unlocking that delivered a beautiful maze-like world that presented many treasures rewarding me keen eye, and unhealthy obsession with collecting shinny things, and plenty, plenty of dangers lurking around every corner. But again, it was a world I fell in love with. With a steady starting outdoor area, a short cave system featuring the first proper main boss, and a large settlement featuring more decay, death, and a massive temple riddled with lumps of flesh and pus. A symptom of the cursed plague which ravaged the land.

As a starting area, it was awesome, leading me through the basics in an organic manner, but showcasing a harrowing world, enriched with sorrow, pus, and a mystery waiting to be solved. I hope that there would be a vast change of pace in the environments, as while it was all very nice, it was stuff I’ve seen before. Such as Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Black Myth, to name a couple. I get it, this is all based on real historical locations, and I’m not going to see City 17 or some wild s*** like that .. or maybe I will? But I hope there would be something different in the world to separate Wuchang from the rest.

Still, the world is riddled with some of the most macabre-y macabre gruesomeness I’ve seen since Bloodborne. And even so, Wuchang felt more like a full-on horror game with all its lovely nastiness.


If From Soft lost a game, and it came back

The best way I could summarise Wuchang: Fallen Feathers was as if From Soft made a souls game right after Bloodborne, and locked it in a vault for the next ten years, only to airbrush its visuals and tone up some of the UI.

I say this as the vibes, intensity, and somewhat clunky, yet charming feel felt as though it was made long ago (back when I had a full head of hair), somewhere after Bloodborne, being a faster and leaner game than all the Dark Souls games.

And, you can’t jump (as far as I could tell!).

Everything else very much felt in-keeping with a From Soft game in all the best ways. The enemy placement felt thoroughly thoughtful, the sense of discovery rewarding, all that clunky platforming where a misstep would certainly lead to certain death. And of course, not being able to jump. It’s kind of mind-blowing, playing a Souls-Like like it’s 2009 again, judging those leaps, falls and short tumbles over small gaps that would kill me if I did it wrong, was quite refreshing to do again.

There was a sense of humility, and a degree of creative planning needed to go around the more risky bends and trip hazards, knowing my character forgot how to jump, and potentially how to sit down.

It is something that some players will find a little jarring coming off Elden Ring, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t make much of a difference seeing as I’ve been there, done that, and got my arse handed to me.

But the big question I know you’re all shouting while reading this, is whether this game is hard? Well, yeah, it’s pretty challenging. But in that classic Souls-Like way, where patience, timing, and grit will get you far, and if, like me, you're rubbish at these games, you can indeed cheese your way through in some small tidbits.

Combat and movement, a little clunky, was highly responsive and faster than any Dark Souls game, making this more approachable right out of the box, but also the allowance of tricks and abilities you get from the get-go is quite useful. Enemies do indeed hit hard, and there is the tricky notion of animation locking, where if you’re attacking, don’t stun an enemy, and they decide to hit back, you can’t cancel your current move. You can land a blow and dodge, but performing combos was a high-risk, high-reward deal which could pay off or end horribly.

Like so many instances in so many Souls-Likes, it’s about timing, picking your fights, and the right moment to strike. Me, a noob at these kinds of games did manage well enough within the three hours, learning effect dodges, and parrying, which had its perks. But the playstyle is quite radically different from, say, Dark Souls, as the aim is to be more aggressive, rather than relying on defence or hanging back. To use magic and the riposte, you have to attack and push forward, or simply dodge/block with perfect timing to use a spell. You can’t simply chug down some mana potion like Link, but rather be active and push forward, rather than hanging back.

This was a nice little feature, not the most innovative, but nice nonetheless. We get a madness meter which, if it goes too high after too many deaths, will spawn in a rather busty demon lady covered in bandages like she’s the mummy, who we have to defeat or risk losing all of our currency.

Oh, and yeah, the currency. There is a trade-off, as madness acts as the punishing element after defeat, as when we die, we don’t drop all of our resources. Judging from what I saw, it looked to be about a third, but don’t quote me on that. And instead, we get blighted with madness. I love this, since losing everything you worked for can’t be the right mother******. So that is a nice change of pace.

There were a few other little risk and reward factors, such as going to a shrine and receiving a special item, which came with a massive bout of madness. Or how progression is way more tactical than your standard Souls-Like, where if you want to buff up your health and strength to become the next Liver King (minus the steroids), then max those stats out, baby!

In Wuchang, if you wanted to invest in good medical care, then there were some hoops to get through. Instead of a simple list of stats comes a nice branching skill tree, with plenty of paths that lead to advanced skills for swords, magic and everything else, with improvements for stamina, health, and everything else being locked in certain places across the skill tree. And interestingly more so, was how the multiple branches all had vital components you would want to farm that sweet Red Mercury for, as one branch would have various health and stamina upgrades, while another would allow you to increase the number of health flasks you could carry.

It was bloody impressive just how immense, calculating and compelling this skill tree came to be, compared to a bog standard list of stats.

Aside from that … there wasn’t much else which truly stood out for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. It is a solid Souls-like from my preview, one I’m very eagerly waiting to play again, and one which I feel will satisfy the From Soft fans for sure.


Final Preview Thoughts?

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has a lot of promise to be, albeit safe, but a fun and grandiose Souls-like title for 2025. The world and presentation are "bootiful", I love the insanely dark and gruesome lore and events taking place, and everything from movement, the combat, the enemy placement and exploration all felt familiar and comforting. And the various new features from a beefed-up skill tree replacing a list of upgradable stats, madness, and interesting risk/reward implementations meant that even long-term veterans of the Souls genre have something new to enjoy.

Wuchang has a big red dot on my radar, and I feel if it plays its cards right in the final game, it could have a shot at the top ten list of most entertaining but darkly depraved games of the decade. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers arrives on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 on July 24th.