Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Review

Another Soulslike has entered the mix looking to leave its mark on the genre, this time from Chinese developer Leenzee Games. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a dark fantasy action RPG set during the late Ming Dynasty, where you play as a pirate warrior dealing with a mysterious affliction known as the Feathering, but that’s only the setup. There’s a heavy emphasis on swordplay, exploration, and player builds, all wrapped in a setting influenced by Chinese history and folklore, and while Wuchang: Fallen Feathers checks a lot of familiar boxes for the genre, it also adds a few of its own.

Since it was first revealed, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has been compared to Black Myth: Wukong, and on the surface, that makes sense. The combat, tone, structure, and even visuals all feel like they’re cut from a similar cloth. However, after spending dozens of hours with it, Wuchang turns out to be a very different kind of game. It leans into some surprising ideas, especially when it comes to how players approach progression and risk. Some of those ideas work better than others, and a few take a while to really click, but there’s more going on here than it might seem at first glance.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Story and Setting Are Familiar But Compelling

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Story Is the Ol’ Amnesia Trope

Generally speaking, Soulslikes are not about story in the traditional, front-facing sense. Instead, they typically lean more toward prioritizing atmosphere, worldbuilding, and combat above all else. For the most part, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers does the same, with its story acting more as a setup for the world and Wuchang’s abilities than anything. It’s a highly familiar trope that has been all but worn to the bone at this point, and yet it manages a cadence that should keep those willing to follow it heavily invested until the credits roll.

To put things plainly, Wuchang is a pirate warrior who wakes up with amnesia and some mysterious feathers on her arm. Upon meeting a character named Xuanyangzi, she learns she has somehow contracted a disease known as the “Feathering.” Normally, this disease causes the afflicted to slowly lose their memories, eventually robbing them of their humanity entirely. It begins with feathers sprouting on the afflicted’s limbs, then their joints are dislocated, until they are finally transformed into a monstrous creature.

However, as one would expect in an action RPG narrative, the Feathering doesn’t affect Wuchang in the same way. Whereas most victims would be experiencing “unbearable agony” at this point in her transformation, she is seemingly fine. Throughout the story, many of the game’s NPCs notice the feathers on her arm and regularly comment on how mysterious it is that she is unaffected by the disease in the same way that others who contract it normally are. Nevertheless, at the very least, it gives her unique abilities that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

It’s a highly familiar trope that has been all but worn to the bone at this point, and yet it manages a cadence that should keep those willing to follow it heavily invested until the credits roll.

A familiar trope it may be, but Wuchang: Fallen Feathers finds a way to make its story worth investing in, and it throws regular reminders of that at players over the course of the narrative. The game’s many characters, for one thing, are not only brought to life by some rather convincing voice acting, but they each have unique stories and goals that make every conversation with them worth the minutes. To top it all off, the late Ming Dynasty war-torn Shu fantasy setting gives the game an otherworldly feel that is still grounded enough for its environments, infrastructure, characters, and conflict to be directly influenced by real history and cultural heritage.

What makes Wuchang: Fallen Feathers‘ story even better, though, is how it allows players to shape the ending according to the choices they make. It’s not foreign for a Soulslike to have multiple endings, but execution matters, and Wuchang does it well. Not only does it have more than three distinct endings, but those endings can be influenced by more than just choices players make at the game’s conclusion. Main story choices, side quests, and certain NPC interactions can all alter the game’s outcome as well as the story leading up to it, increasing its replay value in the process and making the narrative a bit more tailored to the player.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Dodge-Centric Combat Is All About Timing

One of the more enduring perspectives on Soulslikes is that they should be challenging enough to justify the label, so when one is released that genre veterans might consider to be “too easy,” it’s generally divisive. Fortunately, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is not an inherently easy game, nor is it as accessible as something like Elden Ring. That said, it can lean on the easier side at times, although I would venture to say that’s really only the case if it’s played a certain way. I say “at times” because Wuchang balances those easier moments with some considerable spikes in difficulty in boss fights and environmental navigation.

For combat, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers revolves heavily around dodging and rewards precise timing. It is possible to parry and block, but specific weapons and Discipline skills are required for it, and it’s almost better just to focus more on perfecting dodge timing than it is to try and pull off a parry. This is because executing a Perfect Dodge in Wuchang rewards players with Skyborn Might, the core currency of the game’s combat system, and it plays out similarly to how Perfect Dodges in Black Myth: Wukong generate Focus. Rather than requiring mana for spells and abilities in Wuchang, players need Skyborn Might, and Perfect Dodges are the best way to acquire it.

As per usual with Soulslike games, dodging in Wuchang requires stamina, so spamming it is just another way to expedite a painful death. However, it’s sometimes hard not to spam dodge, as most of the game’s enemies are extremely aggressive and tend to cover a lot of ground quickly with their attacks. Once you get that timing down, though, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as building up enough Skyborn Might to unleash some devastating attacks, whether spells or Discipline skills unlocked in Wuchang‘s sizable skill tree.

There are ways to increase not just the maximum stacks of Skyborn Might players can have but also how and how frequently they generate through Wuchang‘s skill tree. The tree has six separate branches that each focus on a particular weapon or playstyle, with Axes, Double Blades, One-Handed Swords, Spears, and Longswords all serving as melee options, and the sixth branch centering around Magic and general upgrades to health recovery and several of the game’s unique systems. And I never felt tied down to one route either, as Wuchang allows players to reset their skill points one-by-one for free, encouraging experimentation.

Wuchang’s Exploration Is Fulfilling in More Ways Than One

Every Soulslike has exploration to some extent, and the more traditional games in the genre are more linear in their design. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers leans more on that traditional side of things, but that doesn’t stop it from having plenty of square footage for players to explore. It’s more like Black Myth: Wukong in its design, with plenty of optional areas for players to explore and an almost identical fast-travel system. However, Wuchang avoids the invisible walls that Black Myth: Wukong openly embraced.

Where Wuchang really shines in its exploration is how fulfilling it can be. Firstly, Wuchang is absolutely beautiful to look at, with an incredible amount of detail poured into its environments and structures. Its many biomes are diverse in their atmosphere, appearance, and ambiance, ensuring the world never feels like it’s growing stale. It perfectly encapsulates what I would imagine an alternate fantasy reality of the Ming Dynasty area would look and feel like, and I found myself regularly drawn back to its world for that very reason.

Even more than that, however, is how rewarding thoroughly exploring the world can be with regard to progression. While defeating enemies grants players red mercury (Wuchang‘s equivalent to souls that are spent on character levels and items), they also occasionally drop red mercury as items that, when used, reward even more. Most soulslikes include items like these, but they are far more abundant in Wuchang, likely due to how sizable the game’s skill tree is. But this made repeated treks through areas just as rewarding as they were the first time, as I could potentially amass enough red mercury for several more character levels.

The Pendulum of Magic and Melee in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

Given the supernatural abilities Wuchang has due to the Feathering, there is obviously a heavy emphasis on the use of magic as a playstyle in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. However, it’s not as clear-cut as it can be in other Soulslikes, with enough nuance that it’s in the player’s best interest not to rely on the same strategy for every fight. For instance, as a magic user in Elden Ring, I could pretty much use Glintstone Pebble and Great Glinstone Shard for the majority of the content and be fine, so long as I had the appropriate stat build and a weapon best suited for it. That is (mostly) not the case in Wuchang.

Vorpal Blade is one of the first spells players can unlock in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, and it is essentially the game’s version of Glintstone Pebble. As such, it can be used to effectively clear out weaker enemies and even some tougher enemies if players maintain their distance or dodge well. This is especially true if players invest in their Magic stat in Wuchang‘s skill tree, but that, as well as boss variety and challenge, is precisely how the game balances the effectiveness of magic with melee — something that not every Soulslike game manages to accomplish.

Firstly, Wuchang largely tucks its Magic stat further back in the skill tree, meaning players need to invest quite a bit of Red Mercury Essences (skill points) before they’re able to sufficiently increase their spell-casting power. Specifically, players can take the One-Handed Sword route on the skill tree to raise their Magic stat, but only slightly unless they’re willing to go all in. It’s possible to increase Magic slightly in other areas of the tree, but not as significantly as taking the One-Handed Sword route, which is clearly designated for Magic-based gameplay.

Secondly, the boss variety in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn’t make it easy for Magic users to rely on a single strategy throughout the game. Wuchang takes elemental affinities quite seriously, meaning a fire attack that proves effective on one boss may deal negligible damage to another. This part requires thorough experimentation, however, as it’s not always clear what element a boss is weak against. And since bosses move too quickly to pause and reorganize spells in the middle of an encounter, there’s no choice but to slowly whittle away at their health or die and try something new.

This is ultimately how Wuchang ensures players don’t stick to one playstyle, unless they prefer taking the longer route. It is possible to only use spells in the game, but given how aggressive enemies and bosses can be, as well as how ineffective magic can be in certain cases, it’s better to see Wuchang‘s gameplay as a pendulum that swings between melee combat and spell-casting. It’s also clear that this is how Wuchang was designed, as Magic use is even tied to an effective melee weapon, unlike other action RPGs that might tie it to a staff.

For my particular build, I heavily invested in the One-Handed Swords branch, as well as a branch off to the left that had various, more random upgrades for several of the game’s systems. In addition to increasing my Magic stat for more spellpower, this allowed me to increase my Agility stat, which gave me more damage with One-Handed Swords. One of the more interesting aspects of my build, however, is that it utilized one of the game’s most notable twists on the Soulslike formula: Madness.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Brings Unique Twists to Soulslike Gameplay

Madness Is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Bread and Butter

Wuchang has plenty of different systems in play that players can take advantage of, but Madness is by far the most interesting. Killing non-Feathered humanoids or dying increases Wuchang’s Madness, and upon reaching 90% Madness, she deals and takes increased damage. However, defeating most Feathered enemies reduces her Madness, although it’s possible to prevent loss of Madness using a Madness Incense. The catch to increased Madness and therefore increased damage, though, is that the higher Wuchang’s Madness is when she dies, the more red mercury (Wuchang‘s equivalent to Dark Souls‘ souls) she drops upon death.

Rather than losing all of their “souls” as they normally would upon dying in a Soulslike, players instead only lose a portion according to Wuchang’s Madness — up to a certain point, anyway. Should players die with Wuchang’s Madness maxed out, they will drop a large chunk of red mercury and, in order to reclaim it, will need to defeat their Inner Demon, a very difficult copy of Wuchang that is quick, resilient, and able to heal. Should the Inner Demon win the fight, however, players will lose their red mercury permanently. Furthermore, whether they live or die during this encounter, their Madness will be reset.

If players die with maximum Madness during a boss fight, they will not need to face their Inner Demon until after they die again outside the boss arena. They will continue to lose red mercury with each death, however.

This might sound like a fairly straightforward system at first, but Wuchang offers players countless opportunities to milk Madness for all it’s worth. Some boons on the skill tree, for instance, are Madness-based in that they allow players a chance to increase the effectiveness of certain skills when Wuchang reaches a specific Madness threshold (generally 50% and higher). Players can also increase their Madness at the game’s shrines (similar to Dark Souls‘ bonfires) in exchange for things like healing items and my personal favorite, the Plumed Branch, which grants 5 stacks of Skyborn Might and simultaneously increases Madness.

The fact that Madness has the potential to increase damage input and output makes it a compelling enough feature, but with so many different ways to manipulate the system and use it to your advantage, it’s undoubtedly Wuchang‘s bread and butter. I personally enjoyed experimenting with it, with special thanks to the unlimited free resets I had on the skill tree, and I preferred keeping my Madness high throughout the game. It’s a major risk-reward system, but once you learn how to bend it to your will, it becomes one of the game’s most rewarding mechanics.

Benedictions and Temperance Increase Build Diversity

Benedictions and Temperance are two other systems that help distinguish Wuchang within the Soulslike genre, although they both shine more in the late game. Benedictions are essentially gems players can slot into weapons, but what makes Wuchang‘s approach to gems unique is that it features gem sets. If players have three of a specific Benediction type slotted into a weapon, they will receive a set bonus that can result in anything from increased damage output across the board to increased damage for specific attacks, like Stab attacks and heavy attacks. There are quite a few Benedictions to unlock, which means players can benefit from this most after they’ve spent dozens of hours in Wuchang.

Temperance is a temporary buff system in Wuchang that players can activate once they’ve tempered their weapon by slotting Needles into various Acupoints on Wuchang’s arm. These Needles offer a variety of effects, like boosting a weapon’s Fire Attack Power or increasing its Magic Control, and up to five can be slotted at one time. This ultimately leads to highly personalized builds among players, as well as numerous opportunities to cater Wuchang’s strengths to the unique demands of a particular situation. Just like with Benedictions, however, Temperance is most effective in Wuchang‘s late game, after players have acquired a wide variety of Needles. Temperance also requires “Temperance Charges,” and must be manually activated before the system can be taken advantage of.

Armor Is the Heart of Survival and Customization in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ Armor System Is Built for Variety

There have been plenty of Soulslike games where player find one armor set and wear it the majority of the time without issue, but Wuchang aims to keep players on their toes by frequently calling for them to change what they’re wearing. One way it does this is through its boss variety, with every major boss having a different strength and therefore demanding unique damage mitigation and resistance from the armor players are wearing.

For mitigation, there are 8 different damage types for players to be mindful of (Slash, Blunt, Stab, Feathering, Magic, Lightning, Fire, and Tenacity), and for resistance, 7 distinct status effects (Blight, Poise Break, Burn, Frostbite, Corruption, Despair, and Paralysis). For each boss encounter, players are thus encouraged to note the enemy’s damage types and adjust their equipped armor accordingly.

It’s not just the bosses that are a threat to players in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers either, as the environment can sometimes be just as deadly. For example, if a player’s Despair buildup maxes out, they will instantly be killed, so they’ll want to wear armor that slows Despair buildup in order to prevent that. What differentiates Wuchang from other Soulslikes with status effects like this, though, is how quickly these status effects build up when the player’s resistance to them is low.

The first time I noticed just how deadly they are, I was standing near a crystal that caused Despair buildup, and it took only around 3 seconds for it to kill me. From there, I changed my armor to account for the environmental hazards in that area. It wasn’t long after that, however, that I entered an area where poison would drop from the ceiling and cause Blight buildup, upon which I switched to an armor set with plenty of Blight resistance. I thoroughly enjoyed the back-and-forth with Wuchang‘s armor system, as it helped keep the gameplay interesting, both in and out of combat.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Takes ‘Fashion Souls’ Very Seriously

With so much encouragement from the game for players to change their armor, players might wonder whether their version of Wuchang will actually look good while they’re playing, and the answer to that question is an emphatic “yes.” Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has a transmog system that allows players to change the appearance of any gear item to resemble another, so long as they have acquired that gear, effectively capturing the essence of Fashion Souls in the process. But what really takes Wuchang‘s transmog to the next level is the incredible number of armor sets there are in the game, as well as how detailed each of them is.

Players can essentially make Wuchang look as goofy or as awesome as they want, with gear items ranging from a Panda Hood that looks exactly how it sounds to Centipede armor that makes her look like someone not to be trifled with. There are merchants in the game that players can buy this armor from, but there’s an added layer that allows players to take on the looks of Wuchang‘s Soulslike bosses. Upon defeating a boss, players might acquire a unique item that can then be taken to one of these merchants in exchange for access to a brand-new gear set reminiscent of that boss’ design.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Review — Final Thoughts

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a traditional Soulslike at its core, but it finds footing through a combination of well-integrated systems and strong design choices. The story doesn’t break new ground, relying on the amnesiac-hero trope and a mysterious disease as its foundation, but its historical fantasy setting, branching outcomes, and surprisingly effective character interactions make the journey worthwhile. The world itself is large enough to reward exploration without becoming overwhelming, and its visuals, ambient detail, and hidden areas offer a consistent sense of discovery. It never tries to match the scale of a game like Elden Ring, but its tighter structure works better for it.

What ultimately sets Wuchang apart is how it handles progression and customization. The Madness system adds a layer of risk, allowing players to trade safety for higher damage, while the Inner Demon mechanic creates tension without being overly punishing. The skill tree is deep but flexible, letting players reset one point at a time for free, which opens the door for testing different playstyles without starting over. Magic and melee are both viable, though neither is allowed to dominate, thanks to elemental resistances and boss-specific counters. Benedictions and Temperance bring added depth to weapon builds, while the armor system demands regular adjustments based on damage types and status effects. Altogether, these features give Wuchang a sense of depth that’s easy to overlook at first glance, but becomes more impressive the longer you play.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers releases on July 24, 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Game Rant was provided a PC code for the purposes of this review.