In an age where Soulslike games are becoming more and more prominent, it’s now taking a lot for new entries to stand out in a slowly crowding subgenre. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers from developer Leenzee tries to invigorate the Soulslike formula with a few interesting features and a distinct style, though to varying degrees of success. For the most part, you’re getting a solid action-RPG with incredible combat, an intricately connected and fascinating world, and more obscure lore than you care to shake a Vaati Vidya-sized stick at.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers begins with the titular Bai Wuchang, a female pirate who awakens with a strange affliction called the Feathering Disease. Set during the late Ming Dynasty – albeit a grimier, supernatural fictional version of it – Wuchang traverses the land in search for a cure while also discovering more of her mysterious past and battling hordes of enemies who have also fallen to the Feathering Disease.



Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, by and large, follows the formulaic structure and flow of a Soulslike game. You have all the building blocks for it here too – stamina and resource management, enemies that respawn at checkpoints when you fall, big boss battles, dodging, deflecting and blocking to charge counterattacks, and a strategic approach to combat that requires players to be attentive and on alert at all times. Wuchang deviates by introducing a few standout mechanics such as strict but beneficial death "penalties", but more on that in a bit.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, by and large, follows the formulaic structure and flow of a Soulslike game.

Right off the bat, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers wildly fluctuates its difficulty. You can be powering through a section of the game one minute, simply mowing down mobs of enemies, and in the next, you’re fighting for your life against some ridiculously powerful bosses and mini-bosses. Some smaller enemies can also mix things up by being just as tough as the bosses. The game’s biggest shortcoming is its inconsistent difficulty spikes and dips, erasing any sense of meaningful progression for the sake of surprising you with a brick wall at times. All that to say Wuchang isn’t very well-balanced and even Soulslike veterans might feel the sting of its whiplash difficulty swerves.



Thankfully, if you’re able to get on the game’s wavelength and roll with the punches, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers actually has a lot to offer. The skill tree, for example, is one of the best I think I’ve ever seen implemented in an action-RPG. It’s sprawling, large, and packs a ton of meaningful skills, abilities and upgrades that aren’t incrementally bigger numbers like most action-RPGs of a similar ilk. Taking the time to unlock new special moves, combos, and unleash the full potential of your weapons through its unique discipline skills feels satisfying every step of the way.

On that note, Wuchang features five weapon types – longswords, one-handed swords, axes, dual blades, and spears – that are all perfectly viable and feel weighty during combat. Swinging a large axe around is slower than your swords, but it deals a ton of damage and has a wider range of attack, while the dual blades and one-handed swords are fast, deadly and precise, but require you to get up-close and personal with enemies and bosses to fully utilise them.



Wuchang never funnels players into locking in a specific playstyle either. Throughout your journey, you’ll unlock different, more powerful variations of weapons that call for some experimentation on the fly. Perhaps you’ll find a longsword isn’t doing the trick for a certain boss, but an axe with a very high chance to stagger might be your saving grace if you took the time to explore off the beaten path, find secrets, hidden items and unlock new challenges along the way. In true Soulslike fashion, exploration is key as it rewards your curiosity and gives you the chance to try out new playstyles that you previously never considered.

Throughout your journey, you’ll unlock different, more powerful variations of weapons that call for some experimentation on the fly.

I personally love this level of flexibility that Wuchang brings to the table. On top of that, you can also carry two weapons at a time, so you’re always spoiled for choice when you tackle an obstacle and need to switch up your strategy quickly. Different outfits also grant you certain buffs so you can tweak your build further, but it's not something we haven't already seen before. On a more positive note, Wuchang's outfits all look great.



The overall violent flashiness of combat is a big selling point for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. It’s gritty, brutal, and punchy as each hit landed on enemies explodes in a burst of blood, painting the ground and walls in red. You can’t finish a fight and not admire the scenery now drenched in blood splatters that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. Wuchang goes all-in on its fantasy violence, and if my only complaint here is that they could’ve taken it a step further and fully leaned into its flashy dismemberment and execution-style kills, I think that counts as a pretty fun moment-to-moment gameplay experience – at times reminding me of Bloodborne’s over-the-top bursts of blood without diving into gory territory.

Speaking of Bloodborne, you also have a madness metre that actually works in your favour (kind of). Tying around to the idea of the game becoming more challenging as you die, Wuchang’s madness increases when she dies or slays humanoids, but decreases when she kills feathered beings (usually the tougher foes). If her madness increases to a certain point, some skill tree upgrades become way more effective. However, having higher madness also means Wuchang will both take and deal increased damage - a double-edged sword that players can exploit to get the upper hand. It’s a terrific mechanic that took some time to get used to, but once I learned that through death, I could become more powerful and turn the tides, it became a very reliable tool, especially for the game’s tough boss battles.



Like many Soulslike games before it, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers features some dazzling boss fights against humanoid and monstrous beings. The difficulty spikes and dips become very apparent when tackling bosses. Some can be a breeze to fight, while others suddenly escalate the challenge to frankly absurd degrees (I’m looking at you, Honglan). I don’t think it ever reaches the same difficulty peaks of a game like Nioh (though that’s debatable), but many bosses in Wuchang – especially in the latter half - will act as immense skill checks for players and it’s easy to be overwhelmed. Despite that, some bosses have fantastic, unique designs that play into the themes of the game very well, but others seem a tad bit uninspired too.

The difficulty spikes and dips become very apparent when tackling bosses.

On to performance, I reviewed Wuchang: Fallen Feathers on PS5 Pro and experienced persistent frame rate dips and technical hiccups. Visually, environments look stunning but character models could've used a bit more work. Like Assassin’s Creed Shadows before it, there’s almost a night-and-day difference between the game’s visuals on a base PS5 versus the higher quality you’ll see on PS5 Pro. This factors into the game’s boosted frame rate on PS5 Pro as well, which kicks up its Quality Mode to 60FPS over the base console’s 30FPS while Balanced and Performance modes also get the same treatment, hitting that 60FPS mark on Sony’s high-end hardware. However, it's never quite as smooth as you'd expect, but it could be improved with a few more patches.



Wuchang: Fallen Feathers isn’t going to move the needle when it comes to action-RPGs, but if you’re in the market for a reliably flashy, fun experience that’s mostly “safe” by design, look no further. The game somewhat stumbles in its difficulty balancing and it can feel wildly inconsistent with its level of challenge. Perhaps with a few updates to smooth things out, Leenzee could bring Wuchang up to scratch as a worthy new adventure for those seeking the thrill of another imaginative, fast-paced Soulslike. Right now, I can only recommend it to die-hard fans of the subgenre who will get the most bang for their buck.

PS5 Review code provided by 505 Games | Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is now available at Nexus Hub for R1,149