I sit here to write this as a broken man.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers launches on July 24, 2025, for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, heading straight into Xbox Game Pass on the same date. As someone who dabbles in soulsborne games and soulslike imitators from time to time, Wuchang certainly caught my interest from its early trailers.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers puts players in control of the eponymous corsair Bai Wuchang, who has arrived in the lands of Shu to investigate rumors of mystical powers therein. Except, unfortunately, she has fallen victim to a deadly plague known as the Feathering, and loses her memories to boot.
The game is set during the late Ming dynasty, and follows a divergent historical plot where folklore and supernatural entities are no longer myth.
The Feathering has gripped the land, mutating the populace into bird-like horrors and leading to anarchy and the general breakdown of society. The situation creates a unique blend of stunning dynastic period Chinese architecture and landscaping, juxtaposed against fleshy horrors and a terrified populace, as exploitative bandits and warmongers roam.
Wuchang wears its soulslike inspirations well and truly on its sleeve, but the absolutely stunning, if dark, romanticised Chinese setting gives it a unique and beautiful canvas that we’re not often exposed to in AAA games in the west. For all of Wuchang’s beauty, it hides deadly, and utterly brutal difficulty which can spike to intense heights at unforeseen moments — forcing you to reconsider everything about your playstyle and build.
I haven’t fully finished the game yet, but I’m confident enough to give you a review-in-progress about what you should expect from Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. Steel yourself.
Visuals, art, and performance
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers will get a day one patch to address some of the issues found herein, but for the most part, the game is already extremely polished and performant as of writing.
I had some instances where the game crashed to desktop, also where it struggled streaming the game’s assets after launching from Xbox’s Quick Resume feature, but generally it held a solid 60 FPS in performance mode throughout on Xbox Series X, albeit at the cost of resolution and quality in some areas. This is one game where you’d absolutely want as much FPS as possible, I’d wager, owing to the brutality and precision of its combat mechanics — which we’ll talk about more in the next section.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is an absolute triumph in the art department. Its Chinese setting is not something I was particularly familiar with, but I’ve found exploring its temples, mountain villages, and river valleys to be nothing short of enchanting — but also haunting. It’s not long after arriving in Shu that you realize something is horribly wrong, and all that beauty is absolutely skin deep. Or, well, feather deep, as the case may be.
As noted, the lands of Shu are blighted by a supernatural disease known as the Feathering, mutating the local populace into rabid bird-creatures. The forms the afflicted take vary wildly, from shambling zombie-like husks to gargantuan, beaked behemoths. All of whom want nothing more than to violently murder you.
These creatures inhabit what might be one of the most impressive connected-world maps I’ve ever experienced, drawing clear inspiration from metroidvania titles and the original Dark Souls, albeit dialled up to 11.
The lands of Shu are absolutely massive, with seemingly endless interweaving paths, shortcuts, hidden secrets, and biome diversity. There are no loading screens to boot, making exploring the dilapidated temples and freak-infested wilds all the more immersive. And you’ll absolutely want to explore everything, because you’ll need every advantage you can possibly get your hands on.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also boasts some truly enthralling music and sound treatment, with satisfying combat sound effects flanked by epic and cinematic combat orchestral crescendos.
Leenzee’s direction in the art department cannot be overstated here. Volumetric lighting and mist make its mountain ranges and forests come alive, while the dense and hand-crafted locales really speak to the developer’s passion and skill.
Every nitpick I can throw at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers feels largely incidental. Occasional glitches in unloaded textures and the odd crash did trip up my experience, but they were trampled by the majesty of the overall package.
Speaking of getting trampled … let’s talk combat and gameplay.
Combat and gameplay
I opened this review by saying I was a broken man. That is because Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is one of the most brutally difficult games I’ve ever played.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers uses a soulslike-style format, complete with bonfire checkpoint mechanics, respawning enemies, and “souls” for levelling up. Players of Dark Souls will find the format very familiar, right down to NPC “player” invasions, Estus-style health flasks and their upgrades, and beyond — but that’s where the comfort ends.
Wuchang uses a tree for its upgrade system, with passive stat bonuses in some areas and active abilities in others. You can respec for free at any time, and the game demands you to at times, since some bosses become practically immune to certain playstyles and abilities.
I’m not a huge fan of this approach to its progression system, since it starts to feel like progression is arbitrary when you’re asked to change your build for certain situations, only to then change back to your preferred playstyle afterwards — but it does keep you on your toes, forcing you to never settle into complacency.
Wuchang has access to over 20 weapons across 5 weapon types, each with a unique combat move, on top of moves you can acquire via the skill tree. Some of the builds you can make might revolve around parrying and counterplay, which might be ideal for fighting non-infected human enemies wielding weapons. There’s the slower great axe, which can also deal heavy stagger damage, and rapid dual-swords, which hit so fast that they can block incoming enemy attacks in the flurry.
You may find yourself getting acquainted with a variety of the game’s weapons, since some bosses seem straight up designed to be countered by specific abilities. Figuring out each boss’ weakness becomes a puzzle unto itself, which some may find incredibly rewarding, while others find it frustrating that you can’t “play how you want” throughout the whole game.
Case in point, I just felled a boss that would immediately one-hit you if you engaged in melee, forcing me to figure out a magic-oriented build to take her down.
When you are playing Wuchang: Fallen Feathers how it wants to be played, the skill expression gives the same highs as the hardest challenges in other similar games. You can “over-level” to some degree if you’re willing to grind it out to make it a bit easier, but the map does contain some bottlenecks for accessing specific weapon upgrades that will take you over certain damage thresholds.
It’s this difficulty and thoughtful map design that makes exploring in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers among the most rewarding games of its type. The upgrade materials are intentionally rare, forcing you to challenge yourself off the beaten path to find every smidge of advantage you can. Therein you’ll find optional bosses and difficult mini bosses, entire biomes and dungeons which are fully non-essential, endowed with powerful loot and upgrade items which could help feed your main progression.
Naturally, there are no guides online as of writing, and playing through Wuchang blind has been as rewarding as it has been frustrating at times. The game forces you to think, plan, and analyze each threat standing between you and forward progression, gleaning hints from item descriptions and NPC dialogue as much as you can.
The eerie loneliness of Shu and its blighted, war-torn society is every bit as evocative as those first steps into The Lands Between or Lordran. Horrors beyond all description lurk around every corner, and, so far, the story has unfolded in an understated, nightmarish haze that demands your curiosity.
As devoid as I am of patience for games like this, much like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, I can’t stop pushing forward. I think Wuchang: Fallen Feathers wears its inspiration a little too hard on its sleeve at times, but it does enough of its own thing to set itself apart.
Break me, it may, but so far, the turmoil has been more than worth it.
‘Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ is for people who adore a challenge
I’m about 66% through Wuchang: Fallen Feathers as of writing, and my experience has been underpinned by deep frustration and high elation in equal measure. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is definitely not for the faint of heart, while not quite as tough as Sekiro, it feels like a big step up from Dark Souls or Elden Ring to me, as a soulsborne/soulslike dabbler.
It’s certainly one of the most challenging games I’ve ever played, to the point where I’ve had to take breaks and return the next day to re-challenge some of its pillar bosses after over a dozen wipes.
Disregarding the intended challenge, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is also a simply, truly stunning game, with an absolutely massive map that really impresses its sense of scale. You’ll stand at the top of cliffs and mountains, and then later explore their valleys, creeks, and riverbeds — making me yearn for more games with hand-crafted climbs over the oft-procedurally-generated open-worlds oft-favored by the megapublishers. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a work of art, and developer Leenzee is definitely one to watch.
I’ll try to give a final score to the game as soon as I can, but right now I’m at a definitive 4/5. The game is certainly not for everyone, and its rough edges will likely be smoothed out in the coming weeks. But I can’t get enough of Wuchang’s world, and I think souls fans will find a lot to love about Wuchang and her journey through Shu.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers launches on July 24, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC, also in Xbox Game Pass.
