Wuchang: Fallen Feathers actually began to click on for me as soon as I realized leverage the conflict mechanic.
There are a variety of gameplay concepts in Wuchang — we’ll get to ‘em extra in a bit — however clashing allowed me to hit by means of enemy assault animations, deflecting many of the injury. With the blademaster buff activated, I used to be even in a position to heal when clashing. Immediately, I may scrap with a boss for a second and are available out of a combo no worse for put on whereas my enemy couldn’t say the identical. I felt simply as highly effective because the bosses the sport threw my manner. I didn’t have to concentrate on blocking and parrying, however as a substitute on relentless attacking; the sport let me interact with it by myself phrases, how I needed to.
This being a Soulslike, nonetheless, I nonetheless sometimes get my ass kicked till it’s as purple as pirate warrior Wuchang’s eyes.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the newest entry within the overcrowded Soulslike area, with seemingly many video games introduced these days riffing on the formulation FromSoftware cracked open greater than a decade in the past. FromSoft remains to be the king of the style, however a lot extra devs, like NeoWiz and Spherical 8 (Lies of P) and Group Ninja (the Nioh video games, Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty), are placing up a worthy struggle of their very own. Developer Leenzee throws its hat within the punishing ring with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, its Soulslike with a well-crafted fight system that alone makes that recreation price testing.
You play as Wuchang, an amnesiac pirate with a foul case of a mysterious plague. She awakes in a cave close to a temple and ventures off seeking solutions, each when it comes to her affliction and her previous. In true Soulslike trend, the storytelling in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is opaque, instructed by means of NPC dialogue and the surroundings, with its battle-damaged terrain in elements and villagers hiding behind closed doorways. However you’re possible eager about Wuchang for its soulslike gameplay, which it delivers in spades. You’ll discover largely linear interconnected ranges dotted with traps, secrets and techniques, and, in fact, enemies to slice your manner by means of.
I gravitate towards the twin swords, as I favor speedier, Bloodborne-esque weapon choices quite than plodding struggle golf equipment or two-handed axes. Along with your anticipated mild and heavy assaults, they, together with all of Wuchang’s weapons, have weapon expertise and self-discipline assaults. These are sometimes damage-dealing strikes, however some weapons begin with the flexibility to dam as a weapon ability (mapped to L1/LB). As you unlock extra expertise and assaults, you’ll have the ability to swap them out, customizing your arsenal.
Within the stream of fight, I get right into a groove with the twin sword’s blademaster self-discipline assault. It applies a buff to my blades, enhancing the velocity of my mild assaults along with its clash-induced therapeutic, turning me right into a dancer of destruction on the battlefield. A few of Wuchang’s assault animations are nearly rhythmic in nature with the best way she slides her toes and lunges ahead; she’s a sleek killer.
Picture: Leenzee/505 Video games
In fact, my trusty twin swords aren’t the one weapons in Wuchang. Every of the 5 weapon varieties embody distinctive mechanics and talents, making certain Wuchang harbors a playstyle for each sort of Soulslike participant. Spears are nice for if you need to pokey poke from afar, whereas a singular sword gives a balanced combating fashion. Wuchang’s ability tree can be reset for gratis to the participant, encouraging us to freely experiment with any weapon she acquires.
Skyborn May is Wuchang’s magic system. Its expenses are used each to solid spells — you’ve got your commonplace fireball projectiles and safety spells, amongst others — and to make use of weapon expertise and self-discipline assaults. Every spell, ability, and particular assault requires a special quantity of expenses to activate, and fortunately you gained’t have to fret about managing mana potions or something like that; Skyborn May expenses are acquired after completely dodging enemy assaults. As I favor dodging over blocking anyway, this works out nicely in my favor. I’d typically max out my Skyborn May expenses simply from dodging a single enemy combo.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers gives a layered and deep fight system, however that’s to not say each aspect of the sport hits. Its boss balancing is far and wide. Some are too straightforward (particularly an early one with an NPC summon, who annoyingly did many of the work) whereas others cease me in my tracks like Girl Maria from Bloodborne’s The Previous Hunters growth. For some, all you actually need to do is dodge left to keep away from assaults, although circling left round a boss isn’t something new to the Soulslike style.
Picture: Leenzee/505 Video games
I’m discovering the insanity mechanic a bit hit or miss as nicely. Wuchang suffers from a mysterious feathering illness that’ll slowly flip her right into a monster. It’s a big issue within the recreation’s story, and its fight as nicely. As Wuchang cuts down human foes, her insanity grows, tracked within the nook of your HUD in addition to in Wuchang’s eyes as they regularly flip purple. When the insanity meter is full, Wuchang’s injury is elevated, together with the injury she takes. This could create an additional layer of technique. Maybe you need to hold your insanity deliberately excessive in order that your assaults pack extra punch.
Insanity additionally frustrates — who ever desires to obtain extra injury? — and restricted consumables are wanted to cut back it, however solely at a particular locale. Dying may rid you of insanity, however in your subsequent corpse run, a demon will spawn, whom you will need to defeat to get again your dropped exp. How did I discover this out? Dying to an enemy after taking down a boss (rookie, late-night, brain-drained mistake) and freaking out when a demon rose from the bottom once I subsequent went by means of the world. Fortunately, except for these death-by-corpse-run-demon instances, you don’t lose all of your exp upon dying, making corpse runs much less of a necessity and eradicating a few of the annoying stress out of the normal Soulslike loop.
However these demon-filled corpse runs or forgettable bosses aren’t sufficient to tug Wuchang: Fallen Feathers down. Between its weapon choices, number of expertise, and abundance of spells, it incorporates a layered fight system with partaking playstyles for everybody. As an alternative of feeling squishy and defenseless, like in some Soulslikes, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers makes me really feel as badass as you’d count on a pirate warrior to be.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers will likely be launched July 23, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X. The sport was reviewed on PlayStation 5 utilizing a prerelease obtain code supplied by 505 Video games.
