As good plans rarely come together in real life, our desire to finish Wuchang: Fallen Feathers in time for the lifting of the embargo, so as to offer you a proper review, has remained wishful thinking. However, after a good ten hours of play, we feel that our review will at least be able to give you some guidance if you haven't subscribed to Game Pass. Here, then, are our thoughts on the game from Leenzee, a Chinese studio which, a year after the developers of Game Science and their Black Myth: Wukong, is trying to tickle From Software on its own playing field. Spoiler alert, they have done a pretty impressive job!
July 2025 is definitely not going to give us the slightest break, and so much for the call of the beach and the sea. After the very stealthy Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream, the charmingly pixelated The Drifter and the long, silky hair of Donkey Kong, we're already talking about another big title coming to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Well, I say we, but originally, despite a rather busy schedule, it was davton who should have had the hard task of telling you all about it. Hard because, as with any self-respecting Souls-like, the level of difficulty implies a certain degree of self-control, especially in an emergency situation, that of respecting an embargo date. Although I'm a lot more familiar with the genre now than I was a few years ago, davton was the more logical choice if we were to hope to give you the best possible feedback, but that was without counting on the mischievous Internet gods, who must have thought that my good old friend had been at peace for far too long. With no way of retrieving the PC version of the game we'd received, I had no choice but to replace him on the spot. The problem was, I had a total of five days to accomplish such a feat, with an obligatory break in the middle due to a weekend away from home. Of course, I eventually didn't have the time I needed to complete the adventure, but I did at least manage to defeat seven bosses (including two optional ones, the first having given me such a hard time before I decided to opt for a weapon more suited to the monster's speed). Now that you've got the context, I can finally start telling you about the game, which, as far as I can tell based on what I've seen, seems to be a solid Souls-like game, perfectly competent compared to the best ones in the genre, and which also benefits from quite a different game world from those of From Software games.
Although the characters' disillusioned and despairing tone is sometimes a bit reminiscent of the Soul series, the story's context justifies ito pretty well, as the world in which we evolve is affected by a terrible disease: the Feathering. For all those infected by this strange virus, the first symptoms are the appearance of feathers on their bodies, and as no cure has yet been discovered, the inevitable outcome of the disease terrorizes the population. The terrible outcome isn't even deliverance from death though. No, it's far worse for the survivors, as the sick eventually lose all trace of humanity and turn into bloodthirsty monsters. The narrative context of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is therefore pretty dark and ominous, as the creatures born of the disease do not intend to leave the local population in peace. In a nod to From Software productions, the pretty female protagonist we embody shares a common trait with the anonymous heroes imagined by the Japanese developer: she has no memory of her past, which we gradually discover through certain encounters. When the adventure begins, the young woman wakes up in a cave, a few meters away from a temple, where she learns from a priest (or monk) that she too suffers from the Feathering. However, the disease seems to progress much more slowly than in the others, and Wuchang is clearly determined to find out what has happened to her and why this affliction is affecting the kingdom, precisely when the Ming dynasty is drawing to a close. She then decides to go to Shu temple, hoping to find some answers there. It will be the first step in a long and difficult journey towards the truth. Quite a program, then, with a plot that seems much easier to follow than those of many games in the genre, all that without heavily relying on cutscenes as it is commonly the case in AAA games.
While the connection to From Software games is pretty clear from the get-go, thanks to the choice of mapping attacks on the R1/RB and R2/RT buttons, of using the same kind of lock system as well as a dodging mechanic similar to that of Bloodborne, the beginning of the adventure is much more straightforward in terms of level design. Right up to the first real boss, such linearity is somewhat worrying, especially as the game has no excuse for locating its action indoors. Clearly, however, this decision to impose a highly marked-out path, apart from a few rare dead-ends to the right or left to glean an item or two, is intended to familiarize the player with the combat system. Enemies are not too hard to beat yet, even if they are more than capable of taking you down, but with no need to explore, all you need to focus on is combat. Once you've reached the second temple, you'll discover a sprawling zone that seems strangely optional. Enemies are more numerous, more dangerous too, and there are a number of save altars (or sanctuaries) scattered around, which justifies the presence of a few handy shortcuts to unlock, and above all, adds a bit of exploration to the mix. Nevertheless, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers only opens up very temporarily (and punctually), with most of the experience more reminiscent of Demon's Souls than anything else (with the added interconnection of the different areas found in Dark Souls). One underground area even reminded me of the Prison of Hope, even though these two places don't share the same art style at all. Although not really open-ended, the world of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is completely interconnected, and the opening of certain doors can lead to a few surprises. At the end of the first slightly more open area, behind a large, well-closed gate, there's even a particularly vivacious (I could also have said vicious) boss who gave me a very hard time, until I decided to swap the trusty halberd I'd found on the slain body of an opponent for the two-handed sword I'd started the adventure with. Axes and the likes are indeed very handy for interrupting less imposing foes, as it makes it easier to approach the game and compensate for one's lack of experience with increased striking power, but it didn't work as well against Lu Hongliu, the monstrous glutton. At least not for me. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers leaves you free to choose your weapons anyway, as you'll find five distinct families: axes and two-handed swords, but also spears, double blades and one-handed swords (the latter being magic-oriented, it should probably be your primary choice if getting close to enemies and bosses is too intimidating for you). Each of these has its own skill tree, as experience progression is not based on the Dark Souls formula. Here, we do find the equivalent of souls, red mercury, which is gained by killing opponents, selling items or equipment, or using certain objects, but can be temporarily lost after each death (with the possibility to recover it all by reaching the location without dying again). Where the experience-building system differs is in the way it is used.
By offering blood at the altars provided for this purpose, you can access the Impetus Repository, which groups together the skill trees I mentioned earlier, but the red mercury collected will only allow you to increase the level of the main character, which will earn you one and only one point each time, which you can then distribute in one of the six trees (five of them are for weapons and there's one more, which I'll explain in more detail later). Note that mercury essence points can also be obtained when beating certain enemies. As some weapons share the same attributes, increasing strength, vitality, stamina, agility, magic and feathering for one will also benefit you for the others, but in any case, don't panic: the points and resources allocated in the different branches can be recovered completely at any time, and redistributed elsewhere as needed, for free. It's a flexible system that leaves the player free to experiment without the fear of making mistakes and wasting hours for nothing. In addition to character-related stats, the weapon trees also offer the possibility to upgrade the level of weapons (+1/+2/+3/etc.) with specific items obtained by defeating specific enemies, or to obtain new discipline skills which, combined with weapon skills, give access to special attacks (assigned to L2/LT and L1/LB respectively). The last tree contains other very important elements to give you more chances to overcome the tougher encounters like the possibility of increasing the number of healing vials carried by Wuchang and their effectiveness, for example, but you'll also find a whole range of abilities associated with madness. As Wuchang herself is infected by the Feathering, she must face up to her own inner demon. In practice, this translates into a gauge that increases every time she has to kill human beings, is defeated or levels up. While there is a way to bring down her level of madness, by offering a certain item to the gold statues representing Shu or by killing feathered creatures, there are not only negative consequences to such lingering evil, as the power of Wuchang's attacks increases when the demon inside her imposes its hold, not to mention the fact that certain skills can also benefit from it. At the same time, however, the damage she takes is greater, and when she dies after her demonic gauge has reached its maximum, her inner demon is systematically waiting for her at the site of her lost mercury, and you'll have to defeat it to avoid losing everything for good. I'd like to warn you, it's a tough fight, especially at the beginning, but don't be fooled, even later in the adventure, as your demon's powers seem to evolve over time (along with Wuchang's?), it always remains a real threat. This evil entity can also appear in the world from time to time (this is obviously scripted), but if there are other enemies around, you can take advantage of the situation, as your inner demon is perfectly capable of attacking them. One last thing related to the ride of Wuchang's madness is that depending on the percentage you're affected with, you lose more or less red mercury when you die (little when below 50%, a good amount when between 50 and 90, and all of it when above 90).
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers' combat system obviously revolves around managing the main character's stamina. It's an idea that Leenzee's developers are not the first to borrow after the dazzling success of the From Software formula, but which has not always produced relevant results, as in the Assassin's Creed series, for example. The long sword with which you begin the adventure does not, however, allow you to guard and block enemy attacks. By upgrading it to a certain level (I haven't specified it yet, but the skill trees take the form of a sort of sprawling sphere grid that gradually reveals itself), it is possible to add this skill to the weapon, and even reinforce it with the ability to launch a swift counter-attack, provided you time it right. However, it will be several hours before such an ability can be obtained for the long sword, and although axes and halberds can be used to block an attack, they do not come with the ability to parry and then counter-attack. In my experience, I first had to learn the correct timing for dodging the different opponents, which took a bit of practice. To be honest, I even had my doubts about the effectiveness of the dodging mechanic at first, but I finally got the hang of it. Clearly, that's truly key in the game, because dodging is one of the ways you can get Skyborne Might, which, once stored (provided you've invested the Mercury essence points in Skyborn-related nodes - or whatever they're called - to get additional receptacles), gives more power to weapon and discipline skills. Skyborn Might is also needed to use magic spells, which are acquired by killing certain opponents or buying them from merchants, and the same goes with weapons and outfits (though the loot element is really minor here, even less so than in the Soul series). As with skill-based attacks, magic requires more or less accumulated Skyborn Might to be used, making the mechanic all the more important. To obtain Skyborn Might, you have several options: managing a last-second dodge that triggers what's known as shimmer, landing a certain number of attacks (depending on the weapon, but you need to have unlocked this skill in the Impetus Repository) or timing a successful parry (same). There are certainly other ways, but as I haven't had the time to study all the ramifications of the various skill trees, I'm afraid I can't tell you about what I have yet to discover. Combat is generally demanding, with the slightest error resulting in almost instant death, and even the environment can sometimes seem to be working against you (fatal falls frequently occur in the middle of fights, you come across poisoned or corrupted areas, have to face the cold, avoid the explosive mines well-hidden in the snow, not to mention traps, etc.). After twenty-seven hours of play (and only a 22% overall completion rate, according to the PS5 menu), I have come to face a good variety of enemies, making it hard to stop playing once I'd gotten a hang of it.
The bosses I beat didn't always put up as extreme a fight as I'd expected (the third and fourth only took me two or three tries, despite their impressive size), but some of them almost made me think I didn't have the nerves to defeat them. Lu Hongliu, a seemingly optional opponent, earned me a few hours of unsuccessful attempts, as I explained above, but Commander Honglan wasn't far from making me throw in the towel as she was so fast and almost untouchable... until I decided to play with parry and counter, which greatly simplified my task during her first phase. The second part of the fight was even tougher though and it took me a lot more time to even stand a chance. Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if many players got discouraged at this stage of the adventure... During such difficulty peaks, you quickly come to understand that the key to success lies, as always, in observing your opponent, reading their attacks and discovering the right openings, and the right moment to use your healing vial. Easier said than done, but from everything I've seen of the adventure, perseverance (and relentlessness maybe?) has always paid off in my case. Note that there's also a whistle which allows to call an NPC for help, but it can't be used everywhere (in fact, in my case, only the second boss at the top of Shu Temple permitted it). One detail I almost failed to mention, but which is important here, the camera is surprisingly competent, so much so that I never had a problem during the twenty or so hours I spent on the game. From Software could learn a thing or two from Leenzee it seems... Generally speaking, the combat system is more dynamic than in the Dark Souls series, no doubt closer to that of Bloodborne, so the different confrontations against enemies are always as tense as they are a lot of fun. Add to this the existence of jade pendants (to be equipped), blessings (to be added to weapons to obtain additional bonuses) and the Temper mechanic, which allows you to place needles with various effects in Wuchang's arm to reinforce her abilities, but also to use Temperance, an item whose effects vary depending on your choice of needles (igniting your weapon, giving it the ability to drain the life from enemies, etc.) and that you can possibly use several times (depending on your progression in one of the skills trees). All this adds another layer of personalization to the whole package, which is much appreciated. Finally, it's possible to equip two weapons and, thanks to Skyborn Might, a simple press on L3 activates the quick draw, which launches your secondary weapon's skill, allowing for even more combo possibilities. Other systems linked to the Impetus Repository (i.e some of the skills you can unlock) are also very useful during combat, but I'll leave it to you to discover what the “Clash” or “Poise-Break” traits can bring to the equation.
A year after Blackmyth: Wukong, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers takes us back into Chinese mythology, but in a rather different universe based on a vaguely historical background. Despite some small similarities with From Software games, the world imagined by Leenzee has a real identity that the art style supports quite well. From bamboo forests alongside small creeks, you move on to gloomy underground areas, then explore lands plagued by corruption, before discovering a palace, mines and snow-capped mountains. It's impossible to say whether the game still holds a lot more surprises in store here, because despite a progress meter that has just reached 22%, it's hard to believe that this actually indicates progress in the main story. It's not impossible, for example, that this percentage also takes into account other things , like the completion of all skill trees (which seems impossible, given their size and the time each would require to be fully unlocked, if that is even possible in several playthrougs). Be that as it may, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers not only offers some very pretty vistas to discover, but also great enemy designs and animations (bosses included, of course) as well as a wide variety of outfits for its main character (don't hesitate to change for better protection as needed, it really helps). By the way, I should probably point out that, yes, some outfits cover Wuchang less than others, and that, yes, her breasts have their own physics engine and do react to character movement. It's nothing particularly shocking for those who, like us, have always totally respected women in everyday life, but I suppose that it will still cause a bit of a stir among the more sensitive. However, to be fair, Leenzee didn't go as far as Shift Up, the studio responsible for Stellar Blade, so rest assured that Wuchang is not an overly voluptuous character. Sound-wise, the game is dubbed into English or Chinese and whichever audio language you choose, the result is good, but bear in mind that we're dealing here with actors who respect the Souls-like genre to the letter in terms of acting. The soundtrack is just as polished, and without reaching the heights of From Software's achievements in this aspect, it does its job perfectly. There's nothing to say about the quality of the sound effects either, from the clash of blades during combat to the ambient sounds of the surrounding nature. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a well-crafted production that proves the talent of the artists who worked on the project, but unfortunately it falls a bit short when it comes to the technical aspect, on console at least.
First of all, I must warn you that all the following comments are based on my experience of the game before the Day One patch was made available. Unfortunately, the patch arrived on the day I went on vacation and wasn't available that morning, before I left home for the next two weeks... From what I was told, it was essentially meant to fix VRR support issues and and improve HDR, so bear all this in mind as you read on. It's indeed not impossible that this update should have an effect on the game's framerate and visuals, but I'd be very surprised if the changes were really major in this respect. Running on Unreal Engine 5, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is surprisingly small as it takes less than 20 GB on the PS5's SSD. Perhaps this explains why some of the textures in the world of Wuchang are so poor by today's standards, but the silver lining is that it's a very quick download. This first flaw is noticeable on a few elements of the scenery (doors, pillars or walls, for example), but still seems to me to be fairly minor in terms of its impact on the overall experience. Three graphics modes are on offer here, each with DSR at play, and it's also reasonable to assume the presence of some image reconstruction tool like TSR. Proof of this is provided by the more visible artifacts that can be spotted on the image, their amount depending on the mode you've chosen. Quality and Performance modes can be played with unlimited frame rates, even on 60 Hertz displays, but beware if you don't have a VRR-compatible screen, as you'll have to endure tearing. On the unpatched version of the game, as VRR was not working when choosing to unlock framerate, image tearing was inevitable, but we've been promised that the Day One update fixes the issue. The Balanced mode, meanwhile, seems to be aimed more at owners of 120 Hertz screens, with the framerate lock allowing the game to be played at 40 fps. Again, on the version I was able to play before leaving, it didn't work yet, but the Day One patch which is now available is supposed to have corrected the problem. It'll be interesting to see whether framerate stability will be maintained in such a configuration, as in the other two modes it's unfortunately far from always being the case. I've also been told that the Balanced mode was trying to maintain the framerate around 40 fps, which seems to concern base consoles above all as it's reasonable to think the Pro should be able to do so rather easily. That said, the info PlayStation shared on the gams page on their store seems pretty surprising to me as it never seemed there was so much headroom between the Pro and base PS5 to push framerate above 70 fps. If you prefer to favorize visual quality, you'll have the choice of opting for a framerate capped at 30 fps (which I found unconvincing, however, particularly when it came to camera movements), or hoping that the variable refresh rate can help limit the feeling of jerkiness by deactivating the fps lock. On Pro, framerate would vary between the low 40s to 60 fps in my testing and as Quality mode ran in a 60 Hertz container, fluidity was not optimal. Again, this was before the Day One patch was applied. The unpatched Pro version didn't have a proper 30 fps lock by the way, as the game would still try to run at 60 fps even when capping fps.
As I just said though, even on PS5 Pro, the result was far from satisfactory in terms of smoothness, and I can't tell you if the patch has been able to improve things significantly, given that, as stated above, Quality mode does not engage 120 Hertz. For VRR to be truly effective in these conditions, the game would have to target 60 fps while activating the 120 Hertz mode. As a result, it still remains to be seen whether the unlocked Balanced mode will be able to take better advantage of the variable refresh rate. With Performance mode, the experience is clearly smoother than with the other two available options, but that doesn't mean it's without noticeable slowdowns. These are generally quite discreet, but certain areas, such as some of the busier passages in the snow-covered mountains, clearly lack fluidity. Nevertheless, this remains the most viable option in my eyes, and unless the Day One update has really brought substantial improvements to the other two modes, this is how I recommend you play Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. A sharpness option (set to 4 out of 10 by default) makes for a better-defined image, and there's no doubt that this helps with visual comfort, even in Quality and Balanced modes, which I highly doubt run at very high resolutions. I invite you to set the sharpness to minimum to see how soft the character and scenery look in the end, ad it can be seen in all graphics modes. I also found the rendering of shadows to be rather altered in Performance mode, but what's most annoying in the end is how difficult it is for the game to reconstruct a reasonably clean image. I suppose that dynamic resolution has to be drastically lowered when the load on the console gets too important, and quite obviously, TSR can't work miracles. Therefore, if you're sensitive to image quality, you'll notice it immediately. When foliage is dense enough, the scenery quickly becomes very cluttered as soon as the character is in motion, but even when remaining static, it's possible to notice an exaggerated visual noise in certain areas (as when observing snow-covered ground exposed to the sun with visible shadows). Reflections also take a big hit in Performance mode. Worse still, simply switching weapons reveals far too many image reconstruction artifacts around Wuchang. This is a real shame, as the game displays some very pretty things on screen, and despite its punishing nature, it's also very satisfying to play. It's not impossible, however, that the end result will be more favorable now that the Day One patch is available. On a less serious note, I do hope that HDR has been improved (and fixed), because in my experience, the less brightly lit areas were far too dark on my LG CX, even when brightness was maxed out in the HDR settings.
Patreon
