Wuchang: Düşen Tüyler İncelemesi: Küçük Hataları Olan Keyifli Bir Soulslike

Although the release of the original Dark Souls took place in the distant 2011, its imitators are still being released. For simplicity of designation, such projects are called soulslike. A striking example is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers from the Chinese studio Leenzee. However, with the game everything turned out to be not so clear. Details — in our review.

In the mid-2000s, publishers began to actively attract casual players. Almost all current projects began to be simplified in order to attract a larger audience. Some journalists even claimed that this was a natural course of events, which nothing could prevent.

However, they were wrong. In 2011, Dark Souls was released, in which the difficulty was turned up to the maximum and there was no way to reduce it. However, this worked to the game's advantage — rumors about a truly hardcore project that is not so easy to complete began to spread among fans of old-school action games. This ensured excellent sales for Dark Souls, and the developers at FromSoftware put the production of similar games on stream.

Other studios wanted to join their success. As a result, we saw dozens of imitators who used a similar scheme. Loss of experience after death with the ability to return it, bonfires-checkpoints, really difficult bosses — these elements now appear in almost every similar project. And this approach works great. For example, sales of Black Myth: Wukong are in the tens of millions of copies.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the second big-budget soulslike of 2025. We talked about the first one, called The First Berserker: Khazan, in a separate article.

The action of Wuchang takes place in the Chinese province of Shu during the reign of the Ming Dynasty, that is, around the 16th century. But the developers did not stick to realism, like the authors of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but decided to combine history with the mythology of the Celestial Empire and fantasy elements. For example, in the world of Fallen Feathers, a special disease is widespread, because of which people become covered in feathers, go crazy and turn into monsters. The main character, Wuchang, also managed to get sick, but in a mild form — everything was limited to the fact that she does not remember anything. Despite the horrors of the epidemic, at first the atmosphere in Fallen Feathers is pleasant. It is created largely due to the pictures and scenery. The action takes place among beautiful nature and traditional Chinese buildings, and the characters are not only people, but also intelligent pandas. But over time, the locations become more and more creepy, and the opponents are truly repulsive, almost like in horror films. But the plot is a set of poorly connected cutscenes and lengthy dialogues. Like in Dark Souls, instead of a full-fledged scenario, the bet is on the lore, but it turned out not as interesting as in the projects of Hidetaka Miyazaki.

The differences from FromSoftware games are in the little things. For example, the block is almost useless, because opponents deal damage even when you are in a defensive stance. There are parries, but as a separate skill for dual blades, which still need to be found. And it is not a fact that you will like this weapon. Therefore, most of the time you will have to rely on dodging, which is always available. The combat system is clearly tailored for an aggressive style. In particular, series of light attacks can reflect enemy blows and be supplemented by especially strong lunges. And successful hits can interrupt the enemy's actions.

Death does not take away all the accumulated experience, but only part of it. But even it can be restored if you get to the place of death. Instead of pumping up characteristics, there is a tree of active and passive skills like in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and you need to choose them depending on the weapon you are using. Fortunately, they can be redistributed absolutely free of charge as many times as you like. As a result, you can easily customize your own build that you find most effective for defeating enemies. In addition, it may be necessary to change the strategy, for example, if your heavy axe is too slow to defeat a specific boss. So, before the battle with the Great Scolopendra, it is better to arm yourself with a spear.

There is an option to play as a magician. But then you will have to spend time searching for special amulets and destructive spells. However, even experienced sorcerers will have to learn to dodge enemy attacks. Otherwise, defeating local bosses is simply not possible. learns, because it is dodging that accumulates charges for spells. Combat spells will also help warriors to deal damage at a distance.

Pumping up all the skills at an early stage, as in many games by Hidetaka Miyazaki, will not work, because many of them require additional resources. But no one is stopping you from raising a couple of extra levels before a tough battle. You will not be able to rely on the health bar to the detriment of everything else — in any case, you will evenly increase the parameters of vitality, endurance and attack. Among the available skills, there is an increase in the efficiency and number of local first aid kits, which for some reason are called mana potions here. For special skills of melee weapons and combat magic, the Power of Heaven is used. You will receive it during the battle for ideal dodges.

Wuchang has a good combo system. The list of available techniques directly depends on the pumped skills and installed special attacks. Moreover, the spear can be changed to a sword right during the battle and continue the series of blows. Of course, mastering such subtleties is not necessary, but they will allow the game to open up in a new way.

You need to choose your clothes wisely. First of all, you should find out what kind of damage your weapon does and wear a suit that will increase it. It is also important to take into account the features of the terrain and specific opponents. Some of them can impose a negative effect, which ultimately leads to the death of the heroine. It is advisable to use a dress or armor with increased resistance to this type of curse. The location also has its influence, for example, in snowy expanses you will freeze, so it is better to wear warm clothes. However, you can limit yourself to consumables that restore normal condition.

It is also worth highlighting the Wuchang madness scale. It accumulates when the heroine dies. Once filled, our pirate will begin to inflict more damage, but her defense will weaken. In addition, a demon will periodically appear in locations that must be defeated to return to normal. Or you can make an offering at the local Temple. But this is not necessary, because you can explore locations and fight bosses even when insane. There are even separate builds that are tailored specifically for this state.

Otherwise, the game is as similar as possible to any FromSoftware project of recent years. Instead of fires, there are Buddha altars, and the local analogue of souls here is red mercury. Rest not only restores all potions, but also revives ordinary enemies. At the same time, elite opponents and bosses die forever. In some battles, you can call allies who will distract the enemy. Periodically, monsters will surprise you in the spirit of an ambush or a jump from above. And sometimes there is a trap hidden behind valuable loot, for example, a ledge will collapse and you will find yourself on the lower level. There are also optional locations that are easy to miss, like in Bloodborne. Some of them seem suspiciously familiar. When you see poisonous spiders, narrow bridges and enemies who will try to throw you down, the Plague City from Dark Souls will probably pop into your memory.

Heavy charged attacks and hits to the back can knock enemies off balance, after which they will be immobilized for a few seconds, and you can perform a special attack. Something similar was encountered in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Such techniques look impressive, but the damage from them was small. However, they do not consume stamina, so you can continue hitting the enemy after such an attack. In addition, while the enemy does not move, there is time to restore health.

At first, you may get the feeling that Wuchang is too easy. Soulslike fans will not have problems with ordinary opponents, because their actions are easy to read. And with the appearance of a heavy axe, it becomes possible to damage an entire group of monsters and keep them at a distance. However, we recommend reaching the second story boss, Dutang the Man-Eater. To defeat him, you will need to learn the features of his movements, react in time to crushing blows and counterattack competently. Moreover, in the second phase, he will actively use fire magic. This enemy, like Father Gascoigne from Bloodborne, will discard those players who were hoping for an easy walk and are not ready to accept the rules of modern soulslikes.

A separate item on the program is the feeling of blows from opponents. Oddly enough, here a lot depends on the chosen weapon. Blows with a light sword really feel bad, because opponents react weakly to direct hits. At the same time, the weight of a huge axe is immediately noticeable. The swing of this Chinese halberd makesordinary enemies fall to the ground, and elite mobs and bosses will twitch from every touch of her blade.

I would also like to highlight some inertia in strong attacks. For example, if a special move lasts for several seconds, the enemy may have time to prepare his attack. If you try to cancel the combo and dodge, Wuchang will react to your actions as if with a delay at such moments. And during a battle with a boss, this can cost your heroine her life.

Not all bosses can challenge you — sometimes battles with them seem too easy. Something similar is found in other soulslikes, including Elden Ring. However, in Wuchang, the difficulty changes too abruptly. And when it seems that you have already mastered the mechanics and are ready for anything, you are offered to fight with Commander Honglan, who will give odds to many bosses from FromSoftware games. After that, the usual routine with simple mobs will continue.

However, it is precisely those opponents that at first seem absurdly difficult that will bring the most pleasure to those who love soulslike. When, after testing a dozen different tactics and hundreds of unsuccessful attempts, the lifeless enemy finally falls at the feet of our beauty, the player is guaranteed to experience great pleasure.

There is no full-fledged open world like in Elden Ring or the ability to go through locations in a different order, like in Demon's Souls or the first "Dark Souls". At the same time, already in the first hour of the game you can find hidden levels or a very difficult boss, which will be a real challenge.

And the guys who have completed the latest FromSoftware projects can get stuck in places where other players will immediately understand what to do next. For example, after activating the third Buddha altar, you will look around and not understand where to go next. The only thing you can notice is a folding ladder, which usually serves as a shortcut to return back. But specifically here it will lead to a new location, where your main route lies.

There are many branches and nooks on the levels, in which you can naturally get lost. And there is also a possible option in which you systematically clear the location and think that you are moving forward according to the plot, and then open a huge gate and find yourself in the place where you were several hours ago. You will have to go back and look for the turn that you missed.

Death traditionally returns you to the checkpoint, and they are located at a noticeable distance from each other. After accidentally falling into the abyss from a sudden blow of the enemy, sometimes you have to go back for ten minutes of real time and hope that you will not be killed again along the way.

With all the advantages of Wuchang, it is inferior to other FromSoftware projects. For example, the original Elden Ring has more variety, as well as wider opportunities for creating a unique build. And the battles themselves feel better there. No one has yet managed to defeat the studio that came up with soulslike on its field.

The problem is that by 2025, From themselves began to move away from the Dark Souls concept towards cooperative projects with roguelike elements. This is noticeable in Elden Ring Nightreign and will most likely be in the upcoming The Duskblood. Therefore, fans of single-player hardcore games will have to pay attention to Wuchang, The First Berserker: Khazan, Lies of P, Black Myth: Wukong and other projects in a similar genre.

If you go to the game's page on Steam, you will see that Wuchang has a lot of negative reviews. Usually, such statistics are found in failed projects in the spirit of the recent MindsEye. But this is a different case. Users are unhappy with poor optimization, due to which frame rate drops occur even on modern computers. The author of these lines got acquainted with Fallen Feathers on PlayStation 5 and did not see any serious technical problems. Negative reviews are mainly related to them, and not to the quality of the game as a whole. The pricing policy was also criticized — on the day of release, the game received a discount. And those who took it by pre-order paid a little more.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a high-quality soulslike, which I want to praise for the setting, leveling and combat system. But the game is noticeably inferior to the leading representatives of this genre in terms of lore development and diversity. Fans of the genre should not miss it, the rest of us should. It's better to pay attention to other projects that are coming out this summer.

Have you already checked out Wuchang: Fallen Feathers? Share your opinions in the comments!