WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers

The market for souls-like games (that is to say, any action-RPG reminiscent of FromSoftware’s titular Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls games) has been fairly saturated at the moment, with many games trying to stand out from the crowd with unique gimmicks or varied settings – but for every Mortal Shell hardening mechanic or Another Crab’s Treasure crustacean caper, there tends to be a game that simply tries to make a great, well-rounded souls-like; enter Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. 

Set in the late Ming Dynasty, players assume the role of the eponymous Bai Wuchang, a pirate afflicted with Feathering, an early-stage disease that riddles the mind with madness and turns people into monstrous creatures. As is often the case, your character suffers from amnesia and wanders the world blind to its ongoing issues – as cliche as this setup may be, it offers players a clear way to engage with the story, meaning new information can be delivered to the protagonist and player in tandem. 

Progression through the story is once again standard fare, with checkpoints spaced out (this time as shrines in lieu of bonfires) and a smattering of small enemies between you and your destination. Veteran ARPG players will find very little new in this formula from previous titles, but it presents itself in a well-rounded manner: shrines are spaced fairly but still require you to overcome an area, secrets can be found dotted throughout the divergent paths and open areas between destinations, and enemies feel fairly challenging without being overbearing – an issue suffered greatly by Nioh, where creatures were poorly balanced in places.

Mechanically, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers manages to hold its own with a steady combat style, requiring players to balance a reasonably generous pool of stamina against the need to maintain space and placement on the battlefield; don’t expect minor penalties for getting knocked off a cliff, because you will still be faced with crushing defeat if you make a perilous back step. The game employs several gimmicks to make combat feel unique, but the age-old need to dodge, slash and chug from your health potion (again refilling at checkpoints in a similar style to Estus Flasks, Healing Gourds and other such notable magic glowing jugs) persists throughout. 

Where combat remains largely the same as others of its kind (albeit fairly refined), it is the weapon abilities and the way dodging is handled that help the game stand out; employing an ability called Skyborn Might, Wuchang gives players an incentive to dodge incoming attacks by adding increased damage to your special abilities, with Skyborn Might stacking up higher as you increase your skill level. This means that careful, timely play can be beneficial in allowing you to output significant damage, reducing your opponent’s poise and allowing you to pull off a finishing blow. 

This approach to combat also feels reminiscent of Sekiro, in that poise damage can be more important than actual damage in larger fights, but the change from a parry to a dodge definitely feels more fair than would often be given by a souls-like – even if you can’t get the timing correct, the fact that the opening to dodge is still very reasonable gives you more quarter to learn how enemies telegraph attacks.

You begin with the bare basics – a sword and some standard gear – which allows you to learn the fundamentals of combat with ease, also teaching you how to use abilities as well as kicks and light and heavy attacks. It should be noted that there is no standard block button, though some weapons do offer this function; dodging definitely remains the best way to prevent damage and build your Skyborn Might stack.

New abilities and weapons are generally provided and found through progress, but the core means of levelling up takes the form of a skill tree, much akin to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, in which you cannot just readily access buffs to health or attack, instead needing to accrue Red Mercury (another parallel to Souls and Runes) and spend this to unlock skill nodes, opening new abilities and stat increases. Some increases will require additional materials, but these rare items will also offer major boons, such as increasing the potency or number of uses for your healing flask.

The skill tree itself does pose difficulty with visibility, meaning you can’t see the next possible ability to purchase after the last – this leads to some trial and error in trying to build your character in the way that best suits your playstyle, but reassigning your skills doesn’t come at a cost, meaning those errors can at least be remedied with only slight frustration. 

One of the most interesting changes made comes in the form of Madness, a mechanic that reflects the increased stages of Feathering through repeated deaths or the killing of human characters – in gameplay terms this creates a glass cannon effect, allowing you to output significantly more damage at the expense of reduced defence, but it’s not just the combat itself that makes the mechanic unique; as you reach a state of Madness, you also become a hazard to yourself, as any death incurred while in Madness will not drop your Red Mercury on the ground as normal, allowing you to pick up where you left off, but instead manifests a demonic presence complete with your skills and arsenal – you will invariably become your own worst enemy.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers does a great deal to improve on the formula to create a well-rounded ARPG experience, but where it falters deeply is in its delivery, particularly around the story and ability elements – namely that the game is needlessly complex, creating a winding story that jams in new phrases and pieces of worldbuilding at every opportunity, cramming the player with too much information at once. Where Skyborn Might is an easy ability to understand and learn over the early hours of the game, it also comes as part of a swathe of abilities with unique, often indistinguishable names and descriptions. This is compounded by the lack of decent UI scaling, meaning tutorials, the HUD and any information or descriptions you may find throughout can be difficult to read without getting blindingly close to your screen.

It’s very clear that this title is best viewed as an anagram of various styles of souls-like – it blends the expected difficulty curve and need to learn through trial and error with elements so reminiscent of beloved series staples – masterful combat, varied skills and an approach that allows for both visceral and careful play that come together to create a stunning experience, only hampered by its need to tell too much story at once.