WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers Review

A Plague, a Pirate & an Unfinished Song

In Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, Leenzee delivers a Soulslike action-RPG embroidered with Ming‑Dynasty aesthetics, supernatural horror, and pirate swagger. You awaken as Wuchang, a resilient warrior with gaps in memory and a mysterious affliction called the Feathering Disease, feathers growing on your flesh, madness whispering in your mind. Your mission: journey through the fractured land of Shu, wield weapons and spells, master a fluid combat system, and confront the darkness within and without.

This isn’t a stack‑’em‑high, rote genre homage. With a dynamic “Skyborn Might” system that rewards careful dodges and skillful chaining of melee, magic, and weapon techniques, Fallen Feathers delivers moments of elegant brutality reminiscent of Bloodborne, yet with a distinctly Eastern flair.

But it’s not just about fancy combos. Madness is both a gift and curse, ramp it up, and Wuchang becomes both powerful and fragile, teetering on the edge of transformation. Fail to keep it in check, and your Inner Demon manifests in a fight for survival.

Story and exploration go hand in hand. As you rescue remnants of your past, traverse lush temples and war-torn ruins, and aid or ignore key NPCs, you gradually shape not only your ending but the fate of Shu. Choices are meaningful, multiple endings await those who piece together Wuchang’s truth.

The Crumbling Empire of Shu: A Land Steeped in Shadows

Wuchang’s journey unfolds in the richly imagined land of Shu, a once-mighty region now succumbing to ruin and rot. Set during the waning years of the Ming Dynasty, the game blends historical decay with mythological dread. Shu is more than just a backdrop, it is a silent antagonist. Twisting forests, abandoned temples, corrupted palaces, and plague-stricken villages create an unsettling yet captivating canvas.

The setting echoes ancient folklore and local superstitions. Decaying shrines whisper of forgotten gods. Towering cliffs and haunted forests conceal secrets lost to time. It’s a land out of joint, where superstition bleeds into survival. And amid the architecture of Ming-inspired decadence, a surreal menace lingers, visual nods to works like Sekiro and Nioh are present, but Wuchang manages to carve its own spectral identity.

The story itself plays out in layers, slowly revealing Wuchang’s fragmented identity. Formerly a feared pirate warrior, now cursed with the grotesque Feathering Disease, Wuchang must recover the truth about her past while combating the literal and metaphorical rot infecting Shu. Choices matter: siding with corrupted officials, forsaken mystics, or commoners resisting the darkness shapes the world and endings. Think Witcher-style consequences, filtered through an East Asian soulscape.

This is not your standard save-the-world fare. It’s about uncovering who Wuchang really is, both before and after the feathered curse. Her identity, guilt, and legacy are interwoven with Shu’s collapse. It’s deeply personal, yet epic in scale, exploring philosophical and spiritual ideas about fate, corruption, and the cost of survival.

Steel and Feathers: The Combat Symphony

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers plants its flag squarely in the soulslike realm, but it does so with enough distinct flair to feel fresh. Combat is deliberate and weighty, every swing of your weapon feels consequential, and every dodge is a decision. You don’t spam buttons here unless you’re keen on a feathery demise. The pace falls somewhere between Elden Ring and Lies of P, with a bit of Sekiro’s precision when it comes to parrying.

At the core of Wuchang’s offensive toolkit is a wide arsenal of weapons, from sabers and dual blades to polearms and even more esoteric options as you progress. Each weapon class brings its own rhythm, and you’ll unlock Feather Arts, flashy special abilities reminiscent of weapon skills in Dark Souls III or Elden Ring. These can turn the tide in brutal duels, but they’re gated behind stamina management and careful timing.

The Feathering Disease, which haunts both Wuchang and her foes, isn’t just cosmetic. It plays into progression and combat. By collecting a mysterious resource called Red Mercury, you evolve your fighting style and even unlock grotesque powers. It’s a fascinating risk-reward system: lean too hard into your affliction and you may become more of a monster than the beasts you slay. It’s Bloodborne-esque body horror, with a philosophical edge.

Boss fights deserve a standing ovation. These grotesque, folklore-inspired horrors will test your mettle in combat arenas that often feel like doomed theatre stages. Think corrupted emperors with eel-like limbs, or blind priestesses that chant curses mid-fight. Each boss is more than just a health bar, they’re mechanical puzzles asking you to observe, adapt, and endure.

A Second Playthrough Never Dies

While WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers might not include traditional co-op or PvP multiplayer modes like its FromSoftware ancestors, it’s far from a one-and-done journey. The game leans into replayability through branching narrative paths, divergent endings, and the flexible build system driven by Feather Arts and weapon enchantments. You’re encouraged, if not outright dared, to return and see what different choices and alliances unlock.

Each major decision and NPC interaction branches the storyline toward one of multiple endings, and while these aren’t radically divergent in every case, they reward a second or third playthrough with new lore reveals and challenges. Picking different dialogue options or sparing versus killing certain NPCs can fundamentally alter your fate, making each playthrough feel uniquely yours.

One standout feature is the New Game Plus mode, which doesn’t just ramp up difficulty but introduces elite enemy variants and rearranges item placements to keep seasoned players on edge. It’s not quite roguelike, but there’s a calculated unpredictability to your second journey that keeps things compelling, especially with the deeper weapon customization unlocked late in the first run.

There’s also a Neighborhorde-style endgame mode in development, according to recent dev interviews, a kind of endurance gauntlet featuring increasingly brutal waves of mutated enemies. While this wasn’t present in our pre-launch version, its inclusion post-launch could give Wuchang’s feathered fury a longer tail, especially for players hungry for tougher challenges after mastering the main campaign.

Art of Darkness: Graphics and Sound

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers delivers a visual spectacle as grim and ornate as its subject matter. Leenzee’s take on late Ming Dynasty China is bathed in decay, mysticism, and a layer of oppressive gloom that oozes atmosphere. From mist-wrapped bamboo forests to moss-covered palaces rotting from within, each biome tells its own quiet horror story. The lighting work is particularly praiseworthy, often used to contrast moments of serenity against sheer terror, lantern-lit corridors suddenly overtaken by fluttering shadows, or eerie crimson moons suspended above flooded temples.

Character and creature design deserves its own fanfare. Enemies range from plague-ravaged soldiers to monstrous folklore-inspired abominations, and they’re beautifully grotesque in all the right ways. Wuchang herself evolves visually as you level up and unlock new gear, letting players reflect their combat style in their fashion souls aesthetic, because yes, we all care how we look while eviscerating cursed monks with a flaming halberd.

The audio design complements the visuals with restrained precision. Rather than overwhelming the player with bombastic soundscapes, WUCHANG prefers to let silence speak, punctuated by the unnerving groans of distant enemies or the slow creak of a torii gate in the wind. When combat ignites, so does the soundtrack, lush orchestral and traditional Chinese instrument fusions crank the tension and give boss fights a dramatic, sometimes melancholic flair.

Voice acting, though sparse by design, is well-delivered. Wuchang herself walks a fine line between quiet resilience and emotional unraveling, with a grounded performance that reinforces her fragmented memory and growing dread. The supporting cast, particularly the few fully voiced NPCs like the enigmatic merchant or spectral shrine maidens, add flavor to the world without over-explaining its mysteries.

Final Verdict: Feathered Fate Sealed in Steel

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers doesn’t just wear its soulslike inspiration on its sleeve, it engraves it in blood-stained stone, then carves a feather motif on top for good measure. But while it walks familiar ground with deliberate combat, cryptic storytelling, and labyrinthine level design, it does so with enough cultural authenticity and mechanical innovation to stand on its own taloned feet. The late Ming Dynasty setting is not just a backdrop, it’s a breathing, brooding character of its own, and Wuchang’s journey through its cursed remnants feels mythic and personal.

What sets WUCHANG apart is its sense of identity. Rather than mimicking its genre elders, it draws from Chinese folklore, history, and aesthetics in a way that’s cohesive, meaningful, and often hauntingly beautiful. Even the disease that plagues the protagonist, Feathering, acts as a thematic and mechanical metaphor for transformation, decay, and control. Whether it’s unlocking cursed abilities or deciding who to trust, the game continuously forces the player to weigh progress against consequence.

Of course, there are rough feathers. Some boss fights occasionally fall into the trap of spectacle over substance, and quest clarity can sometimes dip into “check the wiki” territory. But these blemishes feel par for the genre and are rarely immersion-breaking. In fact, the longer you spend wandering Shu’s haunted valleys and ruined strongholds, the more its design choices make sense, not as copycat Souls mimicry, but as a folklore-fueled nightmare of its own design.

For fans of methodical combat, lore-rich exploration, and sorrow-tinged hero’s journeys, WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is an unmissable pilgrimage. Just be prepared to die beautifully. And often.

We prepared this review with a closed beta copy of the WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers for the PS5 version provided by 505 Games.