Now is a fantastic moment to be a soulslike fan. We have been feasting well in 2025 thanks to the amazing The First Berserker: Khazan earlier in the year, the great Lies of P: Overture DLC last month, and the multiplayer/co-op-focused Elden Ring: Nightreign. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is just one more course in that menu. The thrilling, quick-paced, and dynamic combat in this Leenzee Games debut game immediately won me over. Along with one of the best skill trees in the genre, it features a complex and connected level design that leads us through both grotesque sights and beautiful vistas in equal measure.
However, its difficulty varies greatly, with some of its later bosses having “oh my god, when is it my turn to attack?!” levels of aggression in addition to genuinely insane dips and spikes that range from a relative walk in the park. Therefore, even though I have some whiplash from thrashing it, I still heartily recommend it to anyone who is craving more.
Wuchang expects you to put together its story and lore on your own, in typical soulslike fashion, but it’s not done quite as tastefully as a FromSoft game or something like Lies of P. I was on board for the interesting start, which depicts our fairly silent hero, the title character, waking up in a cave and learning she has a sickness that gradually transforms those who suffer from it into monstrous creatures and robs them of their memories.
The plot may be more engaging for lore fiends who like to delve into item descriptions.
That was a good beginning, but by the conclusion of the 45-hour campaign, I had lost sight of the several individuals who came, exchanged a few lines of dialogue, and then vanished for ten or so hours before reappearing in a different setting. I couldn’t follow the conversation because people kept bringing up names I had never heard of. Its major revelations mostly fell flat because I played it the same way I play many other games, but lore fiends who like searching through weapon and item descriptions for clues might find more value in the tale than I did.
A Game of Skills
But with so many different offensive and defensive options at my disposal at all times, combat had the depth and flexibility to see me through to the end in style. Wuchang differs from other games that rely on the well-known stamina-fueled light and heavy attacks to move you from checkpoint to checkpoint by emphasizing the integration of weapon-related skills and abilities with Discipline skills that you can acquire from the incredibly large skill tree. For example, you can increase the burn status ailment with the Flamebringer Longsword weapon’s Infernal Firebrand Weapon Skill and gain a defensive counter option by equipping the sword parry Discipline skill while using the weapon. Alternatively, you could combine that weapon with something like Crescent Moon, which gives you the same burn build ability but also lets you enter and exit to completely avoid counterattacks while still enabling you to use its built-in evasion to build Skybound Might. Additionally, you can switch between two weapons in the middle of a battle, including mid-combo, which doubles your options.
You can’t get by in this game with just the bare minimum, especially when it comes to the more difficult battles, so it’s nice that you have these additional alternatives as well. Skyborn Might, the resource that powers your skills and spells, is primarily obtained by flawlessly avoiding enemy attacks at the last second. However, it can also be acquired in specific weapon-specific ways, like using the Axe to land the fourth hit of a light combo string, the Longsword to land the second hit of a light combo string, clashing weapons with the dual blades, or simply keeping the one-handed sword equipped over time.
With each level up, I felt like I typically had to make more intriguing choices than I did in other soulslikes.
Since using a Skyborn Might charge frequently gives you a powerful attack that doesn’t deplete your meter or allows you to blow through an enemy’s strong defense with a poise break-inducing mist and take huge chunks out of their health in seconds, I had a blast finding ways to incorporate both Weapon and Discipline skills into combat to get around limitations like stamina. When it came to defining my build, I felt that I typically had more intriguing choices to make with each level up than I did in most soulslikes.
A significant aspect of that is that Wuchang has a progression system that is similar to the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X and Salt and Sanctuary, rather than merely increasing your preferred stat and making numbers rise each time you have enough money to level. With five paths dedicated to stat and weapon upgrades that improve each of the various armaments, and the final one concentrating more on more universal boons, such as additional healing charges, general buffs for performing specific techniques, etc., it offers six ways to descend and unlock increasingly more potent skills.
Even after 20 or 30 hours in the 45-hour campaign, I was constantly unlocking new branches with new Discipline talents and a ton of other improvements to pick from because the grid is so enormous. That’s a lot, but fortunately, respecs are free, so you can switch up your entire build without incurring any fees or penalties. You can use them to try out a new weapon or change your strategy when facing a tough boss. It’s a great system that rewards you for having a clear notion of the type of build you want to make while still encouraging experimentation.
Each region you visit has a variety of new twisted creatures with unique attacks and skills, so you’ll need to learn how to modify your build and strategy to deal with them. There are also a rather astounding number of distinct enemy varieties. From the towering fiends that are practically minibosses in their own right to the little hunchbacked guys that are defeated in one or two blows but can ambush you with a devastating grasp, everything in this game has the potential to be dangerous. Because I never knew what to anticipate around the corner, this variation kept the action interesting throughout the entire trip and made me anxious anytime I would go into a new section.
Bumpy Roads
However, I breezed through most of these engagements for the first ten or so hours without having to do a lot of build tinkering. That’s not to say it was easy, but I’ve played a lot of soulslikes in my time, and at first I thought I had figured out Wuchang after I worked out how to dodge an enemy combo’s final blow and charge up a powerful attack to instantly stagger them.
Other than that, everything went smoothly until I met Commander Honglan, who was my employer. She was more like running into a brick wall than a difficulty spike, which suggests at least some inclination or ramp-up. I spent roughly two hours beating her, and although I emerged from the fight largely appreciating its intensity, Honglan is a non-spoiler-free summary of the things I dislike about some of Wuchang’s subsequent boss fights.
Since Honglan suggests at least some degree of incline or ramp up, it wasn’t so much a difficulty spike.
The main problem is the extremely short punishment window for accurately and correctly avoiding the majority of their strikes, which detracts from the thrill of successfully avoiding a massive series of swings. In contrast, in titles such as Sekiro or Khazan, you are causing damage to the boss’s posture bar each time you successfully block an attack. Once you have fully depleted it, you will be able to perform a damaging critical strike. Perfect dodges only grant you Skyborn Might charges, which you still need to find an opening to use; thus, there isn’t any satisfying mid-fight progress here.
Wuchang has a posture meter on foes, but it only goes up when you land strikes and goes down if you don’t. This makes it very hard to reap the reward for subtle aggression when you have so few and short chances to cause damage. While not all boss fights after Honglan are like way, those that are feel so dragged out that it takes away from their enjoyment.
The Dark Descent
The setting in which all of these ups and downs occur is full of hidden treasures to find, interconnected routes that gratifyingly connect whole regions of the map, and challenging optional tasks with fitting rewards. I adored the slow transition into dark fantasy; you start in a gorgeous and vibrant Chinese village that is only beginning to exhibit the faintest symptoms of the horrible sickness that is ravaging its people, and as you go deeper underground and pass through places that have been destroyed by The Feathering, it begins to resemble a horror game.
Additionally, there are some incredibly well-executed scenes that, even in the absence of battle, generate tension and mayhem. As an illustration, consider a phase in which you begin immediately, and the final adversary acquires the instant-killing status affliction Despair simply by observing you. I had to rush past several foes, ascend a ramp while dodging toxic drops from the roof, and dodge difficult monsters that were constantly spawning by another enemy that was out of reach to escape his sight and get through. It’s a fantastic illustration of how well-thought-out level design and powerful enemy design can combine to produce an incredibly thrilling run through a hazardous setting.
Verdict
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a very impressive debut soulslike for developer Leenzee Games, thanks to its fast-paced, dynamic, and adaptable combat and a best-in-class skill tree that permits a great deal of build experimentation and customization. I would have preferred fewer “Surprise! You’re dead!” moments, and some of the later bosses seem to have a frustratingly limited number of opportunities to take advantage of damage opportunities. Although there are some rough spots due to those feather-ruffling concerns, none are severe enough to prevent this avant-garde interpretation of a very popular genre from reaching the heights of some of the greatest.
