Introduction
Welcome back to another episode of Before You Buy, the show where we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing.
We’re only a little more than halfway through the year, and the floodgate of new Soulslikes has had yet to let up. We got Khazan: The First Berserker, Elden Ring: Nightreign, AI LIMIT, Mandragora, Lies of P DLC, Rise of the Ronin on PC, kind of, Stellar Blade on PC, also kind of, No Rest for the Wicked major updates. It’s been nonstop at these games and now comes Wuchang: Falling Feathers. Yet another Soulslike to add to an already overcrowded market. And I wouldn’t blame anyone for being a little burnt out with the genre.
First Impressions of Wuchang
But even now, with how exhausting these games can be, Wuchang actually deserves some attention ’cause it’s pretty great. As developed by L-E-E-N-Z-E-E, Leenzee, I guess. They’re known for making Wuchang: Falling Feathers. That’s it. That’s the only thing they’re known for. It’s published by 505 Games. It’s a graphically ambitious Soulslike out of China from an unproven developer that could have been a disaster.
But just like Wukong, a game with a name that sounds almost the same, just accidentally bringing Wu-Tang into the equation here with some rap. I’ve made that joke already, don’t worry. We’ve gone there already in another video. But this game’s an actual success. Out of all the similarly sounding games that start with the W, I’d put this one near the top. I mean the Wu-Tang game won’t be out for a while, but at least for right now, I mean depending on what you’re looking for, it may actually be the best. I know bold take cotton, but listen, there’s a certain itch this one scratches perfectly.
Setting and Story: Classic Soulslike Vibes
So in Wuchang you play as the titular Wuchang, set in the ancient kingdom of Shu. The plot is classic Soulslike. It’s conveyed almost entirely by talking to NPCs and through environmental clues. There’s a plague called the Feathering, which is not a cool sounding plague but not something I would want to happen to me. Think the Beast Plague, but instead of werewolves, it’s bird people. Again, not something I would like.
That’s the game in a nutshell. It’s part Bloodborne with the grotesque monster design, part Wukong with its exacting recreations of certain Chinese cultural sites, and part Stellar Blade ’cause Wang herself, eh, let’s say there’s some outfits that certain people will be discussing on the internet and alone with themselves. Off the rails, off the rails, sorry.
Gameplay Basics: Familiar Yet Fresh
It all probably sounds pretty derivative. And in some ways, it is. But nothing isn’t really. I mean this is a classic Soulslike in every sense of the word. Doesn’t stray too far from the formula, at least with the basic gameplay. But the game does manage to do some interesting things with the formula and, ultimately, it’s just a really fun experience that’s maybe a little less intense than some of its contemporaries.
It’s certainly still a challenging game, don’t get me wrong. But it’s definitely on the lower end of the Souls spectrum in terms of difficulty, which is kind of refreshing. Now at this point, I do not think I need to explain how a Soulslike works. For the most part, this one sticks to the formula pretty close. But the parts where it does something different, I will say are what makes it interesting.
Combat System: Skyborn Might and Aggressive Momentum
All the expected elements are here. In terms of controls, it’s one-to-one. But one major difference here is a mechanic central to combat called Skyborn Might. How it works is instead of having a power meter or a mana bar, you get charges when you perform perfect dodges, or perform so many attacks in a combo, or there’s a few other ways that you can get unlocked later, which can be spent to cast magic, to perform discipline skills that you unlock for different weapons or specific weapon abilities.
Because you get charges for dodging, which by the way, extremely generous in terms of invincibility frames. Pretty much the entire dodge is untouchable rather than the first part of it like in most of these types of games. So you’re building up a charge pretty much all the time, meaning you can unleash your special abilities and weapon skills pretty constantly. It’s a really empowering system that lets you go nuts with magic and powers as long as you’re able to keep the momentum up.
So the game essentially encourages aggression above all else, especially when you start unlocking Clash enhancements for some of your tanks, which make it so certain moves all but ignore or absorb most of the damage from enemy hits. Most of the time, it’s dodging. There is a parry system, but it’s tied to certain weapons and it’s entirely optional, which is, I’m also just gonna say, pretty refreshing after the amount of parry-heavy action games we’ve had over the last couple years.
At times, this game really feels like a flashier, more power-based Bloodborne, and that is not a bad thing at all.
Skill Trees and Weapon Upgrades: Streamlined and Smart
Another significant alteration from the usual Souls formula is that the game has a skill tree. How you level up, essentially the same. You get currency from killing enemies. It can be spent to level up. But the skill tree really simplifies the process. Each branch focuses on a different aspect of gameplay, including weapons.
There’s a pretty decent selection of killing implements here. You got your standard long swords, spears, axes, double blades, one-handed swords that are, interesting, actually closer to magic catalysts than your usual agility-based weapons. And a sword branch is also the magic branch. While unlocking upgrades and skills for weapons, you can also put points towards strength or vitality or whatever and each branch gives you upgrades that enhance each specific weapon type, which makes upgrading your character less of a guessing game. Along as you spread out points down a certain weapon path, you’re probably gonna be okay in Wuchang.
One actual innovation is that the weapon upgrades are done through a skill tree as well. Instead of upgrading certain weapons, like in pretty much all these games, you instead upgrade an entire weapon class so you can freely swap to new weapons that pop up and all upgrades are automatically applied to them, which is a great idea. I would definitely like to see that implemented in other games like this. You’re not stuck using a specific weapon anymore, which is real nice. It’s a simple thing, but I like it. It makes finding new weapons feel rewarding instead of like chore.
There are a lot of other systems to mess around with too, maybe too many to be honest. But it’s not that complicated of a game if you’re familiar with the genre.
Death and Madness: A Twist on the Corpse Run
The death mechanics are slightly different here. They might sound really punishing at first, but, honestly, it’s really not that bad. There’s this whole convoluted mechanic called Madness where if you kill humans or die in battle, your Madness builds up until it maxes out and then Wuchang’s eyes go red and she does more damage, but she also takes more damage while in this state. You can remove the effect by using special rare items or killing bosses. But if you die while at full Madness, then a demon gets left at the spot that you died. If it kills you, you lose all the currency that dropped on the ground.
Madness has other effects too. Like if you’re a UK rock band, it can get you to peak at number 45 on the US 100 billboard charts. But here ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-mad-madness will do different things if it’s high or low. It affects certain skills. How high it is affects how many souls you drop when you die. It’s a whole thing. Sounds scary, but it’s ultimately just your standard corpse run mechanic with an added red invader once in a while.
Visuals and Level Design: Dense, Detailed, and Rewarding
So mechanical stuff outta the way. Let’s talk about what makes this game actually good.
First, environmental design. Very strong. It’s a beautiful game with dense, really detailed areas. The first zone is especially impressive. And what really surprises me is that this game, it looks incredible at times while still having a reasonable file size. It’s less than 50 gigabytes on a full install. Visually, not quite up there with Wukong, but it’s close.
Along with the environmental design, I really appreciate the level design in general. It’s not just visually good, it’s also mechanically good. Each area is sprawling with tons of little side paths and alternate routes to explore. When there’s a village, it’s not just a single corridor. You can go into the houses, climb on the roof, explore the back alleys, go pretty much anywhere you can see.
For me, a big part of the Souls experience is exploration and this game has got excellent level design for that. It starts off pretty linear, but once you’re through the first major area, it suddenly opens up quite a bit. Maybe a little bit too much for some people. It really becomes a sprawl of interconnected areas that could be confusing for some ’cause there’s no map. In this part of the game, it’s easy to wander into areas that are far too difficult for you. But the main path is pretty obvious. It’s just tempting to go off the beaten path because it’s a video game. That’s kind of what everybody does in those.
Bosses and Exploration: Spaced Out and Spectacular
In terms of bosses, they’re varied and they’re often pretty spectacular. In pure volume, there’s not nearly as many as in Wukong. But I also have to say, I prefer this game has more spaced out boss encounters. This may be a key way that this is more like a traditional Souls than Wulong. The bosses stand out more when they’re not absolutely everywhere. And I appreciate that many of these could be taken on whenever you want and don’t often gate progress.
The game has plenty of traditional guy-with-sword style bosses, but the Bloodborne influence brings some really impressive freaks to the fight as well. And while some of these boss fights are not so bad, some are going to stomp you into dust if you go in unprepared. In general, I’d say this game is the inverse of a lot of recent Souls games where I’d say the levels are actually the harder part, not so much the bosses. Certain locations are really grueling tests of endurance where save points are limited, but enemies are many. There’s a lot of mini-boss style special encounters dotted around that could be just as dangerous as certain full boss encounters.
Loot and Customization: Costumes Galore
There’s tons to explore too. But exploration is rewarded well in this game. First with new weapons that actually have their own unique properties and special moves. Then there’s also upgrade materials and a whole lot—a whole lot—of costumes. When I first booted up the game and I saw a Shop option, I was a little worried about the game being stingy with the armor, but this is not the case. They absolutely shower you with different costume parts, so I mean it’s almost hard to keep up. That’s how much is going on there.
And in a kind of refreshing change for a game like this, not all the armor sets you’re getting are revealing. There’s a lot of standard enemy armors you get as well and some pretty sick looking boss armors.
Enemy Variety and Environmental Hazards
I mentioned enemy design, but I do have to give it to this game. They came up with some really impressively disgusting and bizarre enemies. There are some things where I just didn’t know what to expect when I walked up to them, and that’s what you want to see in a Souls game. They managed to put that sort of fear of the unknown into you.
And trust me, like I’ve seen—I don’t wanna say it all because I obviously haven’t—but it feels like I’ve seen it all. But here, along with enemies, the level design, it’s not just good ’cause it’s big and fun to explore, it’s all varied. There’s stuff that you just don’t expect. There’s unique enemies and hazards to mix things up. Some places have undead spawned endlessly unless you disable certain monoliths. There’s a giant cave pit full of failed experiments. Rebel camps full of traps and cannons and archers and towers. There’s a dense moonlit forest full of bizarre parasites lying in wait.
It’s not just that there’s different areas—each one feels different and they have an impressive variety of enemies. And that, man, does that help. It’s just a solid game overall that looks and feels great. It’s good to play. It’s pretty damn long with lots of side quests and optional locations to explore. There’s not a lot of full-blown secrets, at least that I’ve seen. And the interconnectivity is not like as impressive as the first Dark Souls or anything. But after so many aggressively linear Soulslikes that have been coming out lately, the kind of nod to the more nonlinear approach of the original is refreshing.
Performance and Stability: Surprisingly Smooth
The game also runs great on my PC at maxed out settings. Almost no glitches, no noticeable bugs to speak of. I did get a little hitching when moving between environments, but otherwise it’s really stable.
Final Thoughts: A Standout in a Crowded Genre
All in all, Wuchang is a solid game, pretty great Soulslike that doesn’t do a lot to upend expectations, but gets by on just being really well made and fun to play. It’s not like it’s just a carbon copy of every other Souls that you’ve played in the past. It brings a couple of minor new things to the table. Certainly appreciated things. But it’s the density and complexity of the stages and the design—that’s what I want in these games.
And I’ll say maybe sometimes the complexity might be a little bit much for some people. But it’s what I’m here for, man. I like the sometimes annoying traps and endlessly branching paths. If you prefer the games to be a little more linear and straightforward, you might get a little frustrated with this one past the first area.
Combat might take a little getting used to as well. You need to unlock those Clash upgrades and the Skyborn Might stuff to get the most out of it. But once it clicks, you’re gonna feel like an unstoppable killing machine in the best way.
For folks burnt out on Soulslikes, I still think this game deserves a look, simply because it’s such a well-made game. Like you get burnt out on these things, not necessarily because they are impossible to make something that’s fun and fresh to play, it’s more because you get used to a certain level of a bare minimum quality that kind of starts to feel like that’s the mediocre one. Even if, in a lot of cases, they’re pretty good. You need some standouts, and this is, in terms of quality, a standout.
Like I said, I don’t know if it’s gonna innovate and take you into a new age. But man, oh man, is it a good game. There’s not a lot of story to bog things down. And in these games, story is often a liability. There’s tons of opportunities to play dress up. There’s amazing vistas to stop and stare at. It’s everything you could want in one of these games while also being a little more forgiving with the difficulty and, again, possible to play around other people.
And although some of you’re gonna play with yourselves, I don’t think that’s explicitly the reason you’re gonna be playing this game. I just realized how I said that. It’s basically everything you could want with one of these games that being just a bit more forgiving with the difficulty.
The general lack of innovation probably holds it back from being one of the best of the best. But a sort of Bloodborne-like with a Wuk-sy setting, it gives it a unique vibe. It’s engrossing, it’s fun, and anybody who likes this genre should check it out as long as you don’t mind getting lost once in a while—’cause you will get lost once in a while.
That’s what I’ve got for you. What do you have for me? That’s all. Leave us a comment. Let us know what you think. And as always, we thank you very much for reading this blog.