Wuchang Fallen Feathers evaluation: The summer season’s must-play Soulslike

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers actually began to click on for me as soon as I realized methods to leverage the conflict mechanic.

There are loads of gameplay concepts in Wuchang — we’ll get to ‘em extra in a bit — however clashing allowed me to hit by way of enemy assault animations, deflecting many of the injury. With the blademaster buff activated, I used to be even capable of heal when clashing. All of the sudden, I might scrap with a boss for a second and are available out of a combo no worse for put on whereas my enemy couldn’t say the identical. I felt simply as highly effective because the bosses the sport threw my approach. I didn’t have to deal with blocking and parrying, however as an alternative on relentless attacking; the sport let me have interaction with it alone phrases, how I wished to.

This being a Soulslike, nevertheless, I nonetheless often get my ass kicked till it’s as pink as pirate warrior Wuchang’s eyes.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the newest entry within the overcrowded Soulslike house, with seemingly many video games introduced these days riffing on the method FromSoftware cracked open greater than a decade in the past. FromSoft remains to be the king of the style, however lots extra devs, like NeoWiz and Spherical 8 (Lies of P) and Workforce Ninja (the Nioh video games, Wo Lengthy: Fallen Dynasty), are placing up a worthy battle of their very own. Developer Leenzee throws its hat within the punishing ring with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, its Soulslike with a well-crafted fight system that alone makes that sport value trying out.

You play as Wuchang, an amnesiac pirate with a foul case of a mysterious plague. She awakes in a cave close to a temple and ventures off looking for solutions, each by way of her affliction and her previous. In true Soulslike style, the storytelling in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is opaque, informed by way of NPC dialogue and the atmosphere, with its battle-damaged terrain in components and villagers hiding behind closed doorways. However you’re doubtless desirous about Wuchang for its soulslike gameplay, which it delivers in spades. You’ll discover largely linear interconnected ranges dotted with traps, secrets and techniques, and, after all, enemies to slice your approach by way of.

I gravitate towards the twin swords, as I favor speedier, Bloodborne-esque weapon choices reasonably than plodding battle golf equipment or two-handed axes. Along with your anticipated mild and heavy assaults, they, together with all of Wuchang’s weapons, have weapon expertise and self-discipline assaults. These are sometimes damage-dealing strikes, however some weapons begin with the power to dam as a weapon talent (mapped to L1/LB). As you unlock extra expertise and assaults, you’ll have the ability to swap them out, customizing your arsenal.

Within the movement of fight, I get right into a groove with the twin sword’s blademaster self-discipline assault. It applies a buff to my blades, enhancing the velocity of my mild assaults along with its clash-induced therapeutic, turning me right into a dancer of destruction on the battlefield. A few of Wuchang’s assault animations are nearly rhythmic in nature with the way in which she slides her ft and lunges ahead; she’s a sleek killer.

After all, my trusty twin swords aren’t the one weapons in Wuchang. Every of the 5 weapon varieties embrace distinctive mechanics and skills, making certain Wuchang harbors a playstyle for each kind of Soulslike participant. Spears are nice for once you wish to pokey poke from afar, whereas a singular sword provides a balanced combating fashion. Wuchang’s talent tree will also be reset for free of charge to the participant, encouraging us to freely experiment with any weapon she acquires.

Skyborn Would possibly is Wuchang’s magic system. Its fees are used each to solid spells — you’ve your customary fireball projectiles and safety spells, amongst others — and to make use of weapon expertise and self-discipline assaults. Every spell, talent, and particular assault requires a special quantity of fees to activate, and fortunately you received’t have to fret about managing mana potions or something like that; Skyborn Would possibly fees are acquired after completely dodging enemy assaults. As I favor dodging over blocking anyway, this works out nicely in my favor. I’d generally max out my Skyborn Would possibly fees simply from dodging a single enemy combo.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers provides a layered and deep fight system, however that’s to not say each factor of the sport hits. Its boss balancing is everywhere. Some are too simple (particularly an early one with an NPC summon, who annoyingly did many of the work) whereas others cease me in my tracks like Girl Maria from Bloodborne’s The Previous Hunters growth. For some, all you really want to do is dodge left to keep away from assaults, although circling left round a boss isn’t something new to the Soulslike style.

I’m discovering the insanity mechanic a bit hit or miss as nicely. Wuchang suffers from a mysterious feathering illness that’ll slowly flip her right into a monster. It’s a big issue within the sport’s story, and its fight as nicely. As Wuchang cuts down human foes, her insanity grows, tracked within the nook of your HUD in addition to in Wuchang’s eyes as they steadily flip pink. When the insanity meter is full, Wuchang’s injury is elevated, together with the injury she takes. This could create an additional layer of technique. Maybe you wish to maintain your insanity deliberately excessive in order that your assaults pack extra punch.

Insanity additionally frustrates — who ever needs to obtain extra injury? — and restricted consumables are wanted to scale back it, however solely at a particular locale. Dying also can rid you of insanity, however in your subsequent corpse run, a demon will spawn, whom you have to defeat to get again your dropped exp. How did I discover this out? Dying to an enemy after taking down a boss (rookie, late-night, brain-drained mistake) and freaking out when a demon rose from the bottom once I subsequent went by way of the realm. Fortunately, other than these death-by-corpse-run-demon circumstances, you don’t lose all of your exp upon dying, making corpse runs much less of a necessity and eradicating a number of the annoying stress out of the standard Soulslike loop.

However these demon-filled corpse runs or forgettable bosses aren’t sufficient to tug Wuchang: Fallen Feathers down. Between its weapon choices, number of expertise, and abundance of spells, it contains a layered fight system with partaking playstyles for everybody. As an alternative of feeling squishy and defenseless, like in some Soulslikes, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers makes me really feel as badass as you’d anticipate a pirate warrior to be.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers can be launched July 23, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X. The sport was reviewed on PlayStation 5 utilizing a prerelease obtain code supplied by 505 Video games.