Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

There was one game that kept coming to my mind when playing this latest entry in the Souls-Like subgenre, with all the same vibes, themes, and little details that kept scratching my brain. That game, of course, being Hello Kitty Island Adventure Bloodborne. In many ways, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers feels like a lost From Soft match, likely to come out right after Bloodborne in that late 2010s era. There are striking similarities, but Wuchang is its own, fully fleshed out beast of a game that dives right into vast bleakness, intertwined with marble themes, and delivers engrossing and brutal action combat.

Is it a perfect Souls-like that revitalises a subgenre that needs it? No, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But rather does just as good of a job as an incredible From Soft game, and personally, is one of the best of the Souls-Like genre I’ve played since Elden Ring.


It’s going to be depressing, am I right?

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. And from the gate, the staples of the genre are all here, from a voiceless protagonist, an oppressive world that hinges on despair and misery, NPCs who are either down right creepy and look as us like we’re a tasty meal, or are perfectly nice and helpful, and surely will die or face some horrible fate for sure.

We take on the role of Bai Wuchang, a pirate who awakens in a damp, dark cave to find her left arm covered in feathers, and the world around her torn apart by plague, war, and rage. After awakening from her nap, Bai ventures forth into a nearby house to discover a few sane characters who view her as the last hope of finding the source of the sickness and potentially saving them all.

It seems like the war has pushed many to the dark arts, resurrecting the dead, and thus a new sickness was born where people are embroiled with feathers, talk in tongues, and are driven by pure, gluttonous rage to destroy. Among the landscape are burnt-out villages, vigilante mobs looking to cleanse anyone with feathers on their arms, smog, and the dying cries of agony due to the vast sickness spreading.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers sets up a hell of an adventure that’s dripping in the macabre, with eerie tones of madness, the unknown, and things far worse if you can believe it. What occurs over the next couple dozen hours are the beats you might expect from most From Soft games, with a vague path, the ultimate goal feeling all too singular and simple, and a venture through destruction, the aftermath detestation of events long past, and the unearthing of secrets and lore that amount to “Holy s***, that is some f*** up s***”.

Everything felt like turning up after a massive, wild party happened, and having to do some cleaning up while looking for my younger sibling who decided to sneak out and join the fun. All the rich, dense lore is here, with each item having its tale to tell, a vast cast of supporting characters that add titbits of context, to a situation where context is thrown out of the window. Like putting together a 1000-piece jigsaw that’s covered in blood, and feathers.

In my preview of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, I was thoroughly impressed with the level of detail, and just how visually stunning, and utterly gritty and nasty the world felt. But that was scratching the outermost layer of skin, as digging deeper, I came across so much more that left me in awe and disgust. It was one of the most pleasant, and unpleasant, wonderings I’ve taken part in a video game in the last year, having seen rural landscape, underground caverns, palaces and more be ravaged by a sinister plague in unique and gross ways.

There is a lot of spores of gore, puss, and feathers, which only became grosser and grosser the further I traversed. But there is a lot of Shakespearean tragedy and gravitas embedded in the foundation of Wuchang, which comes through the side stories, the bloodied notes, the whispers from those gone mad, or going mad, and the world aside from the sickness is rich and visceral in visual prowess.

I will admit, towards the end of the game, a lot was going on, and in that Souls-Like fashion, there are so many threads and characters and obscurity that it would’ve been nice to have a little more focus. Not that the story wasn’t exciting or interesting, it’s that much of it felt too familiar. All those beats, ambiguities, and long lines of characters you know will face a tragic end is a somewhat tired cliché now.  

To be fair, there are some very neat twists in the narrative that change things up quite a bit. And there are nice cutscenes, and little moments which add a personal layer from protagonist, to world, to player. It also helps massively that Wuchang: Fallen Feathers looks, sounds, and performs beautifully! The level of detail, design, lighting, and ring all the right bells and whistles that captivated, disgusted, and amazed me plenty of times.


Blood, feathers, and swords

What made this feel like an old From Soft game in many respects was the restraint in mechanical complexity, and razor straightness of brutality, the little features that are small but add in some great dynamics, and not being able to jump!

Wuchang places you in a relentless situation, in a Godless world, with plenty of twisted creatures, former shells of humanity, now blood-thirsty beasts. But at least you have your swords, your feathers, and the ability to live, die, learn, and repeat. Much of what you see, play, and kill will make you feel right at home, if that home were an arena. There is a fairly linear path through the world that does break off here and there, to grant you an additional venture off the beaten track. And along those paths, as plenty of low-level enemies, booby traps, massive beasts, and the occasional secret that acts more like a Venus flytrap.

The ropes are shown; you will adapt quite quickly, and the learning curve is not as steep as many other Souls-Likes, which I greatly appreciated. The game will indeed kick your arse a plenty. But the responsiveness of combat, movement, and the flexibility to the world design, grants you enough space to learn at a steady pace, ensure you will power up accordingly, and never be stuck in the same place for too long. As you can simply turn around and go the other way, which I did have the fortune of doing a few times.

Combat is crunchy, slick, and packs a punch, which is needed in these games, and the variety of tools, tactics, and throwable items gives enough time, space and creativity for all fights you come across. But slicing and dicing is still the old, reliable method of dealing with your problems like an adult. I greatly appreciated the Disciplines as part of the game’s main combat draw, where you can learn, and mix different disciplines, weapons, and other factors to vastly change up your attack styles. And this is needed for the late game, as you simply won’t be able to hack, slash and roll like in other titles.

There are lots of weapons, tactics, and modifiers to invest in, and add your spice to how you want to play. This and the massive Skill Tree (more on that later) add such a tremendous amount of depth to Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, and truly sets it apart from the other clones. Even down to how magic works is quite interesting. It’s not about mana, but rather being aggressive and pushing forward, as attacks, kills, and countering give you a charge which can be used towards spells. It’s a nice offence, rather than allowing you to be heavily defensive and chuck mana potions.

I appreciated the game’s learning curve for the most part, and how it introduced me to the world and dangers at a nice pace, while never holding my hand. That said, the game will dish out plenty of surprises, and with the lack of a jump button, I was recalled back to 2015, trying to line myself up for a small drop down a ledge, only to fall 200ft to my death and have the game over screen feel like it would play the Curb your Enthusiasm theme over my fresh corpse.

While I royally hated the game at times, I also loved it even more, and with all the cheap tricks and big spongey brutes with canons for side arms, Wuchang was generally fair. As soon as I dived in, I was checking my corners, managing every step, and not trusting each time I went through a doorway, knowing some little s*** would jump on me and gouge my eyes out. And I was right every time. Being a Veteran of the souls-Like genre, or just having a strong familiarity, will carry you far. Plenty of attacks, bosses, and situations do require patience, learning, and adjustment.

Like I said, it’s fair, but there are still plenty of BS moments, and elements which I wish wouldn’t be. Such as the big bosses that spoon out like they’ve had 300 coffees. And all I could do is a sidestep, like I’m having a nice little dance at the disco. It can be infuriating at times, especially when I’m trying to learn the patterns, and the boss will just hand me my arse within a minute, just due to an accelerated speed.

I’m fine with bosses that hit hard, but have clear openings, and give you a chance to attack even between their wind-ups. Otherwise, it’s just gruelling broad sweeping attacks, multiple phases, and not even able to counter a large chunk of what did grind my gears. A game like Wo Long has very fast enemies and bosses, but you are also very fast and move quickly! And the game gives you plenty of windows to attack, without smashing into you for 30 seconds straight. There were a few bosses that ideally required certain skills (such as blocking with a sword) which were locked in a complex, yet impressive skill tree (more on that later), which is a massive blocker if you have upgraded the right path.

This is the main issue I had with Wuchang; the difficulty spikes can be quite ridiculous. I understand the methodology of these games is get gud; you learn and become better, but man, some of these bosses, especially in the late game, were insanely difficult, with very low parry windows, openings, and attacks that go on, and on. As mentioned, massive sweeping attacks, relentless energy, and just not being that little bit faster do make some fights unbearable.

And while I love the immersive roaster of enemies, the variety being some of the best in gaming I’ve seen in the last few years, I wasn’t a fan of the large number of trick enemies that popped up quite often, particularly in the second half of the game.

But when Wuchang clicked, man, did it give me such a gratifying, rewarding, and enriching combat experience, with some amazing bosses, clever enemy placements, and a sense of progression that felt like a gruelling, yet satisfying test of endurance. Plus, I was able to cheese my way through plenty of combat encounters in hilarious and fair ways

The world is brilliantly designed, just a classic massive maze-like world you open up bit and bit, with plenty of backtracking, unlocking new and old paths, and plenty of hidden curiosities that will keep you going back and forth to find. And what is even better here is that when you die, you don’t lose all your currency earned over the last hour or so. Due to a certain mechanic, the death penalty can be less or more, which is a cool dynamic. More on that in 3,2,1 …


See what the madness has to offer

The recurring theme with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is madness, which incorporates itself into the gameplay in meaningful ways … kind of like another game, I’m sure. Hello Kitty Island Adventure had madness mechanics.

First, you can get madness, building up over time when you kill humans or when you die. Madness will impact you when it reaches a critical level, and that slow buildup is incredibly unnerving as the more madness there is, the greater the penalties. And when it reaches boiling point, comes the hardest punishment. As mentioned previously, you don’t lose out on your collected currency; you do a bit, but not the entire stash thankfully. So you might lose one third, or a little more if your madness is high enough. You can pray away the insanity, helping you out for a little while longer, or you can let it reach the furthest point of psychosis and have a meeting with your maker!

You know invaders from the Souls games? Yeah, you get your very own invader when you’re sanity is at breaking point, and she will kick your arse. And if she does, you lose everything you have and drop… quite brutal. A bit like Hollow Knight, which I like! On the one hand, yeah, it’s f***ing brutal, but on the other, I love the compromise, and changing factors to punishment, which still managed to get me a couple times in the most devastating ways. Still, I like it compared to what From Soft has done for the last 16 years.

But madness can work in your favour, as it does make you stronger, and evoking madness through a shrine (this game’s bonfire/lantern/site of grace) grants you a few resources and tools to help out with a tough boss or two.

The other interesting component Wuchang does rather stellar-like is the skill tree and character progression. Normally, you would gather your currency/XP, see the list of attributes, and add points/XP to any of them like Strength/Vitality/Stamina and so forth. Wuchang has a nice spin on this formula but giving you a fully fleshed and gigantic Skill Tree that is divided into multiple paths, with dozens of attributes and upgrades to pick. Here you do have to be very careful which route you pick, since even upgrading your health flasks has its path and requirements. You can’t simply max up strength, or mana to cheese your way through, and instead consider a balance. But with each path comes unique skills, weapon perks, and so forth, giving your choices a bit more merit and variety. All of this playing into combat, exploration, and so forth, further expanding the horizon of mechanic depth.

The skill tree is a nice tactical change from the formula of old, and I can see people not liking this as they want to bump up strength, but this opens a variety of playstyles and encourages experimentation nonetheless. It’s clever, meaningful, and adds a nice layer of depth to character progression and critical thinking when deciding what to go for, health, strength, or obtaining another sweet flask of HP. Plus, you can reset all your points, meaning you're not tired down to the set paths you've laid with skills, and you can do so without using a key item which is limited, like in Elden Ring. While Wuchang can be brutal in combat, I love how flexible and approachable it is with character progression and general user friendliness.

I also massively appreciate that you have to carry the currency, you don't have to spend points to upgrade skills. Once at a shrine, you use your currency/XP to create Red Mercury Essence, which are your skill points, and these can sit there as long as you want, before deciding on what to upgrade. Another fantastic and thoughtful bit of game design right there.


Overall?

It’s an incredible sight to behold at seeing how many studios smash it out of their park when it comes to their Souls-Like title. And Leenzee have knocked it into the cosmos right here.

While the familiarity, difficulty spikes, and small issues were present and annoying, they didn’t overshadow in the slightest what is a truly remarkable game. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers excels as an outstanding Souls-like thanks to the tremendous world design, tightly woven and satisfying combat, approachable learning curve and character progression, compelling narrative and lore, and dynamics such as the immense Skill Tree and Disciplines which shake up the formula in new and breathtaking ways.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a masterful accomplishment in the SoulsLike genre, a game that reaches for greatness and easily earns a top spot on our best games of 2025.


+++ Compelling features that massively flesh out Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
++Fantastic world design, presentation, and sense of exploration
++ Combat is approachable, fun, and has plenty of choice and variety
++ Interesting narrative that has some compelling beats

-- Some ridiculous difficulty spikes and cheap enemy tricks
- Story does get a little lost by the end
- Very familiar with other classic Souls-Like games


A review key of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers was kindly provided by the publisher for this review