Wuchang: Fallen Feathers was supplied by 505 Video games for evaluate. Thanks!
Soulslikes are a troublesome style for me to get into. There’s nothing unsuitable with the style, however I simply do not have the extreme focus and capability for the extreme and exact expertise essential to energy by way of. Most soulslikes are likely to frustrate me, although I get pleasure from them, and it makes it exhausting to play by way of them absolutely with out feeling like I am fortunate. Nonetheless, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers would be the first soulslike I’ve ever performed the place its mechanics really made me really feel like I had an opportunity, and I hardly ever received annoyed. This was a brand new feeling for me, and it makes Wuchang fairly presumably my favourite soulslike recreation I’ve ever performed.
At its core, Wuchang is a real soulslike. You run round a big, semi-linear world with winding pathways, grunt enemies who can kill you if you happen to make a unsuitable transfer, and an assortment of bosses and mini-bosses. The fight is slower-paced, and killing enemies will get you foreign money that can be utilized to stage up and make your self extra highly effective at shrines. It is a exhausting recreation and requires a number of talent and timing to dodge and assault to deal with foes, which feels normal for this style now.
Not like different comparable video games, the distinctive fight mechanics make every struggle really feel extra dynamic, barely faster-paced, and I genuinely felt like my expertise have been rewarded as an alternative of punished for one false transfer. On the floor, it seems to be extra of the identical. You will have fundamental and heavy assaults with every of the 5 weapon varieties, which all have totally different transfer units related to them, however we even have a mess of spells, expertise, and Self-discipline assaults to assist. These may be simply activated with the press of a button and may help flip the tide of battle. Every weapon has its personal distinctive talent to make use of, whilst you can equip and alter out your Self-discipline assault and equip 4 totally different spells to make use of.
To successfully use these, we should depend on Skyborn May, which is what permits us to make use of spells and might improve our expertise and self-discipline assaults. Every weapon sort can accumulate Skyborn May in numerous methods, just like the Longsword getting some on its second or fifth hit within the fundamental assault combo, or it may be collected by dodging proper earlier than getting hit. Upon getting it, then it’ll apply mechanically to the following talent, spell, or Self-discipline assault that’s executed. We will additionally use it for a Swift Draw assault to swap between considered one of our two outfitted weapons.
Coupled with the shortcoming to historically block, until you employ an axe, this ended up making my fights really feel extra participating and quicker. Swinging my longsword might take longer, however staying on my toes to dodge and execute Skyborn May assaults stored me transferring round and considering quicker. This ended up being the largest draw that stored me from feeling annoyed. I felt like I used to be dealing extra injury and being actively rewarded for dodging and touchdown hits. The sensation of dodging on the proper time to get Skyborn May and coming again with a Self-discipline talent or a quickly-charged heavy assault was so satisfying.
I additionally wish to reward developer Leenzee Video games for some quality-of-life modifications that make utilizing gadgets and spells simpler. We will equip 4 totally different spells and gadgets at any given time, and as an alternative of biking by way of one after the other, we will maintain a button to convey up all 4 and choose from them utilizing the shoulder buttons. This did take slightly little bit of getting used to because the shoulder buttons are additionally used for attacking, however as soon as I did, it made casting and utilizing gadgets considerably simpler.
Similar to different soulslikes, we additionally lose the entire foreign money we’ve collected for leveling up and should go get it once more. Often, this works usually, however in Wuchang, we typically should take care of a robust demonic model of ourselves. There’s a insanity meter we now have that goes up and down as we kill enemies. If the bar is full and we die, a demon model of ourselves will present up if we attempt to accumulate our fallen foreign money, and we now have to beat it to reclaim what we misplaced.
I’ve combined emotions about this mechanic. I really like the thought and idea behind it, and I believe it’s cool to should destroy ourselves to reclaim. However oftentimes, our demonic self has weapons I’ve by no means used. This made me a bit unhappy, since I solely wished to reclaim my hard-earned Crimson Mercury. Nonetheless, managing your insanity strategically may be useful. Getting above 90% insanity can improve your injury, whereas making you’re taking extra injury too. With this in thoughts, it may be used as a software to deal extra injury, however you will should be extra cautious.
More often than not, I by no means felt like I had meaningless deaths, however some boss fights felt slightly one-sided. There have been instances right here and there that I felt my loss of life might have been prevented, however I used to be at all times in a position to come again and check out once more with out that frustration.
This then carries over to our development and the way we construct Wuchang out. As an alternative of conventional leveling, we now have an expansive talent tree the place we get 1 level every time we stage as much as unlock new nodes. These can vary from easy stat will increase to new Self-discipline assaults and enhancements. We will even unlock modifications for our Self-discipline assaults to make them stronger. Selecting out the place to construct Wuchang within the talent tree will assist prioritize your playstyle.
However that is not all. On high of the talent tree, we will change out our armor to assist outline our stats, equip three totally different Jade Pendants to reinforce our skills, socket Benedictions to our weapons to reinforce their stats, and customise Temperance to endow the weapon with particular results like inflicting hearth injury. We will even decide and select particular armor that belongs to the identical set to reinforce it with bonus set results.
All of those techniques come collectively splendidly, and I had a very good quantity of management over how my character can be managed. Whether or not I wished to play as a extra up-close brawler or concentrate on getting Skyborn May and use spells, I felt I might improve it how I wished to. Nonetheless, a number of the phrases and administration could be a bit complicated, and it took me going by way of the assistance part to be taught extra in regards to the intricacies of the weapons I’m choosing up and what Mastery can do. Tutorials pop up whereas enjoying, however I wanted additional time to know precisely what I used to be doing.
I additionally loved the story and world that we explored. Seeing a beautiful rendition of the land of Shu throughout the Ming Dynasty, whereas the land is devastated by a illness that causes folks to go mad, is hauntingly attractive. Every space is full of magnificence, whether or not or not it’s because of the structure of temples, the grassy landscapes, or flesh-filled caves. It was fantastic to navigate the semi-linear ranges. The colours did really feel slightly monotone at instances, they usually did not pop as a lot as I have a tendency to love, however it was nonetheless stunning.
Following alongside as we be taught extra in regards to the illness and what’s taking place to us and the folks round us is satisfying. I used to be intrigued with what was happening and actively went out of my solution to uncover extra in regards to the land and what occurred. Most soulslikes lose me with their difficult and less-direct means of telling tales, however I loved this one loads.
WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers – Steam Deck Efficiency
Whereas Wuchang: Fallen Feather’s minimal system necessities are the identical as Black Fantasy Wukong, I might not think about the sport playable on the Steam Deck. Within the areas I’ve examined, the sport repeatedly drops under 30 FPS and appears very blurry on the bottom potential settings with TSR upscaling, with some crashes right here and there. The one solution to convey it to a “playable” state can be to drive the decision decrease with every thing on the bottom potential settings, which makes it look extraordinarily blurry, or use Proton GE 10-10, however and nonetheless has drops and points right here and there.
The sport additionally has FSR upscaling, and whereas I did hope it could assist with efficiency, it would not a lot. In actual fact, it makes the sport look extra pixelated with out a lot of a efficiency enhance. TSR is the winner of the 2, however it means there aren’t methods to make efficiency higher with out main sacrifices.
Evaluate
TSR Upscaling
FSR Upscaling
I additionally determined to strive the sport with AMD FSR Body Technology and Lossless Scaling Body Technology to see if there are any enhancements. Sadly, it performs considerably worse. Although the framerate in MangoHUD appears prefer it’s hitting highs of as much as 100 FPS, it feels prefer it’s decrease than 30 FPS with main stutters. It additionally has noticeable enter lag, which makes fight tougher than it must be. And in a soulslike like this, the very last thing we’d like is extra of a handicap towards us.
None of those fixes the crashes that may occur and that the sport would not cleanly give up again to Steam. We do should drive give up from the Steam menu, which is not the finish of the world, however nonetheless price mentioning.
There are going to be spots within the recreation which might be playable and might go as much as 40 FPS, however operating round within the majority of the sport will encompass drops and pixelated visuals from upscaling. The one solution to marginally enhance efficiency can be to drive the decision down in Steam’s settings, making it look even worse, or utilizing Proton GE 10-10, however there have been nonetheless many drops. Utilizing body era of any form will solely damage efficiency as nicely, making this even tougher to get pleasure from. That is going to be a recreation finest performed on the Steam Deck by way of streaming through GeForce NOW or Moonlight.
Accessibility
Wuchang does have an assortment of settings to alter in-game. These embody toggles for the tutorial, controller and display screen vibration, subtitles, button hints, a streamer mode, gore, HUD, and inverting digicam. We will additionally change the sound bars, however that is about it.
The sport does help 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. It additionally acknowledges the Steam Deck OLED’s HDR display screen and has settings to toggle it on and off.
Conclusion
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has grow to be my favourite soulslike recreation I’ve ever performed. It is the primary soulslike to not make me really feel cheated once I lose and discover an amazing steadiness between the normal, slower, exact fight, whereas discovering methods to make it really feel quicker and extra dynamic. The mixture of spells, Self-discipline expertise, and managing Skyborn May to reinforce them is a lot enjoyable, and the a number of methods to construct out and outline our playstyle really feel impactful and useful. On high of that, the world is gorgeous with an attention-grabbing story that sucked me in. The terminology and particulars for enhancing ourselves may be complicated, however it by no means detracted from the expertise.
Nonetheless, this isn’t a recreation to play on the Steam Deck but. It is potential this may change, however at this second, it could actually’t stick above 30 FPS on the bottom settings and body era makes it really feel worse and extra stuttery. When you have a greater desktop for Moonlight streaming or GeForce NOW, that will probably be excellent.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is an unimaginable expertise, and one I wholeheartedly suggest.
Our evaluate relies on the PC model of this recreation.
For those who loved this evaluate, remember to take a look at the remainder of the content material on SteamDeckHQ! We now have all kinds of recreation evaluations and information which might be positive to assist your gaming expertise. Whether or not you are in search of information, suggestions and tutorials, recreation settings and evaluations, or simply wish to keep up-to-date on the newest traits, we have your again.
