Analysis | Wuching: Fallen Feathers

Since the announcement, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers It caught my attention – not only for the dark and beautiful look, but also by coming from a novice Chinese studio that decided to get the guys and try to compete in a genre that some say are already well saturated.

This is their first project, made in partnership with 505 Games, and is a soulslike who tries to get out of the common place. Of course, there is a lot that we’ve seen, but they managed to give their own face to the game, especially because of the setting and combat systems.

Was the game worth it? This is what we will discuss in this analysis.

History

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers It is developed by Leenzee Games, a relatively new Chinese studio on the international radar, but that has been gaining attention from the ambition and technical refinement of its projects. Being the studio’s debut game, he arrives carrying a great responsibility: proving that China can also create worldwide single-player titles-especially in a genre as competitive as soulslike.

Production is being done in partnership with 505 games, which demonstrates that the project is not being treated as small. On the contrary, there is a clear investment in quality and global reach.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers It is a action RPG with strong influences from from FromSoftware Games (Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Ax). Seeking its own identity to escape the “more of the same”, the proposal here is to mix the challenging combat and the dense exploration that marked the genre with a deeply inspired setting of folklore and the history of China.

The plot takes place at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a period marked by political chaos, plague, rebellions, and of course, in this universe, by supernatural curses. You play like Wuchang, a warrior who suffers from a condition called Featheringor “Plumage Disease,” which gradually transforms your body with black feathers – something that affects not only its appearance but also its skills and sanity.

Fight

Focusing on differentiating itself from others soulslikesthe dodge is the core of combat. Here, the game rewards the timing And the movement needs. Each perfect dodge performed by the player grants attributes called Celeste Powerwhich are used to fire spells, strengthen special and more movements.

Another interesting system is that of Craziness: Kill humanoids that are not Feathered Or dying in combat increases this rate. However, defeat most enemies Feathered and important heads reduces your madness. In this state, you cause and get more damage – but die several times while you are madness makes you have to defeat a dangerous demon if you want to recover your Red Mercury (The Souls of the Game) Lost.

I found the system very interesting, but particularly I feel that it ends up limiting the freedom to create its own style of play. No matter how common games of the genre focus on central mechanics – such as the parry em Axfor example – here I felt that the way of playing has been quite in a cast, especially because there is no same level of refinement as other titles offer.

In various situations, I have the impression that the risk is much greater than the reward: making a single deviation against a boss often already means to declare his defeat. Using special spells and blows only by achieving perfection in deviations does not seem to me the best way to balance the experience in favor of the player.

And yes, the game is difficult. At times, I even missed balancing. Although this improves later, it is undeniable that at the beginning of the journey, its defensive tools are very limited – basically the dodge, or to have the weak defense offered by the ax.

One factor that can greatly irritate the player during the boss fights is the attacks that hit several straight blows. In some cases, you can barely get up, as the character continues to receive damage even when he is still on the floor. To make matters worse, there is almost no time to heal or use any other consumable item.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is also a very extensive game in every way, either in the simple act of point A to point B or the duration of the campaign. At one point, you can even ask yourself, “Doesn’t it have an end?” while continuing to advance and often face the same enemies that repeat themselves frequently.

The game has different weapons, each with a tree of its own skills. In these trees, you also evolve the character’s physical attributes. For example: Upon using the ax, the tree provides skills movement, combos and also attributes such as strength and vitality – essential to this type of weapon. In the case of double swords, for example, the points turn to energy and dexterity.

The good thing is that it is very easy to reset the points used, allowing to redistribute them in another weapon. So you don’t have to fear investing in something you don’t like later – the game allows you to test and change with a lot of freedom.

Because of this, every weapon has a moveset Well limited at the beginning of the game. But as you evolve them – and there is a lot to upload – the combat becomes more refined, complex and especially very beautiful to watch. Visually, the combat is beautiful and quite acrobatic, remembering productions such as The tiger and the dragon.

This is a game where you can’t play too much or reactively. The more aggressive it is, and the better the dodge will be, the better your performance will be.

The game world is all interconnected, which means you will explore a lot-and, up front, find shortcuts that connect areas newly explored to old regions. Exploration is good, although I have a lack of finding more items and rewards, such as weapons and sets of armor.

The world is quite colorful, with areas of forests, cities, mountains, mines, lakes etc. Overall, the game is very beautiful, with varied landscapes and, especially, very well drawn armor.

I played the campaign on PS5, where the game has three reproduction modes: quality, balanced and performance. Because it is a soulslikeI opted for the performance mode, which aims at 60fps. The game did not suffered frame rates, but I noticed several stutterings In this mode – especially in the initial area.

As for the soundtrack, it is good, but no track stood out as memorable. The npc voice acting is very well done, especially in Chinese. In English, they are slightly inferior, but still competent.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers It is a game that seems made with passion. You can see that Leenzee wants to prove that China is increasingly relevant in the gaming market, well made productions and fresh and original ideas.

If you like games of the genre soulslikeChinese folklore, stylish visuals and a good deal of challenge, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers It is certainly a good choice – and has everything to be one of the best soulslikes of the year.

Strengths

• Very stylish combat
• Wide variety of skills in skill tree
• Beautiful and original setting
• Dubbing in High Quality Chinese

Weaknesses

• Risk mechanics and reward conveys the feeling of decalfinishing
• Stutterings in performance mode
• Rewards of exploration, most of the time, they are just items without much relevance
• Focus on perfect dodge may not please everyone