During a hands-on demo during Summer Game Fest Play Days, 505 Games describes Wuchang: Fallen Feathers to me as “Chinese Bloodborne,” a lofty comparison but not completely unwarranted. This Souls-like action game’s focus on aggression and evasion, rather than blocking, is certainly reminiscent of From Software’s 2016 classic. Still, developer Leenzee Games is striving to carve out a unique identity for the title.
The titular Wuchang is a pirate living in China during the waning years of the Ming Dynasty, while the country is ravaged by a supernatural ailment known as the Feathering. She becomes infected, which causes her to sprout feathers on her left arm, hence the game’s name. The Feathering slowly transforms infected into mindless, man-eating beasts, and those bearing the telltale feathers are ostracized or attacked on sight by the frightened populace. But in Wuchang’s case, the Feathering bestows otherworldly abilities she utilizes to battle human and demonic enemies in search of a cure and the truth behind the phenomenon.
The core of Wuchang’s combat will be familiar to Souls fans, with light and heavy attacks mapped to the right shoulder buttons and a stamina meter to monitor. However, evading damage builds up points called Skyborn Might, a limited mana pool spent to activate magic spells, such as firing dagger-like energy blasts or conjuring a fiery spectral hammer. This creates a fun strategy where evasion rewards repeated access to spells, and 505 states skilled players can topple bosses simply by dodging and firing spells from afar without raising their weapon. You don’t have to encourage me to get out of the way of incoming attacks, but this perk makes successful evasions feel even more rewarding.
Not that you shouldn’t swing Wuchang’s absurdly long katana, or other weapons, including short swords, clubs, axes, and polearms. Combat feels fine but is more deliberate than I expected, and my initially small stamina meter meant I couldn’t execute many successive strikes before backing off to recover. Every weapon has a unique style and skills tied to the left shoulder buttons. For example, you can’t block inherently, as that’s an ability only a large hammer provides. Left bumper executes a weapon skill, such as a graceful dance of wide-reaching slashes in the case of Wuchang’s starting katana.
Taking damage and dying builds a status called Madness. The higher your Madness, the more damage you both deal and absorb. If you die when this meter is full, you can’t recover your fallen XP, called Red Mercury; instead, you must face off against Wuchang’s inner demon, a spectral swordswoman who spawns where you last died. This entity attacks you and any surrounding enemies indiscriminately, and defeating it allows you to recover your fallen Red Mercury. However, failing means losing it for good. It’s an interesting risk/reward system that 505 Games teases will gradually build towards Wuchang obtaining and mastering new special powers. I only encountered the inner demon once and defeated it somewhat easily, so it proved to be little more than a minor nuisance.
Wuchang gains new abilities by unlocking skills from a massive tree. 505 compares the size of the skill tree to Path of Exile’s, meaning it has dozens of passive upgrades, special moves, and more to let you build highly specialized builds. Some skills can be earned the old-fashioned way by grinding and spending XP, but others require specific items to unlock, often found in chests or by defeating more formidable adversaries. Needless to say, I barely scratched the surface of these upgrades during my hour-long demo, so I have no idea how many abilities players can expect to sift through.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a very competent, good-looking action game entering an increasingly crowded genre. While it’s got a few neat ideas, it’s tough to tell if it has the long-term depth and originality to stand out. Nothing about the game blew my mind during the hour I spent with it, but it also didn’t offend me; it’s sitting firmly in the “solid good time” camp. With its July 24 release just around the corner, I’m hoping it proves to be more than just “another good one of those” and something that sets its sights much higher.
