Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Review – Almost Incredible
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the last high -level game, this time, coming from the Chinese developer Leenzee. Unlike some of the most recent versions, Wuchang is more faithful to the formula created by the dark souls of Fromsoftware, but the changes it brings could be the fall of the game.
Wuchang is an ambitious soul, which helps it stand out in what is one of the most recent and popular sub-genres in the world. What prevents him from being great is that all these new systems are a chore to understand and use. I am sure that if the players perfectly grasp a balance between the systems, they could make a character with incredible abilities, but it is difficult to reach this Sweet Spot playing in the game.
Just to dismiss it, the story of Wuchang is like many games like souls. You play as holder Bai Wuchang, a pirate warrior suffering from amnesia who must fight in different areas of old China during the Ming dynasty. People have been victims of “feathers”, the game disease that makes feathers infected with germ and eventually turns into monsters. Wuchang can exploit the power of feathers, which makes her the ideal warrior to discover what is going on.
Is it a confusing and vague scenario? Yes, because it is a soul and it is practically a requirement. The people you meet vaguely speak of other people and subjects who do not make sense before reconstituting them with the descriptions of the articles, clues found in the fields and elements of environmental history. It is hardly a scenario that you could fully understand in an occasional game, so I will depend on the Lore Guys on Youtube to reconstruct the story in the days and weeks that followed the release of the game.
The progression system has too much
What is important for Wuchang – and any soul that aims to stand out in the sub -genre – is the gameplay, and it is certainly unique. It is dynamic but almost a fault, with great complexity that hinders the combat flow.
As Wuchang, you have access to five classes of arms: axes that make big damage but are slow; Long swords that does good damage while allowing parking; Twin swords that allow rapid attacks to the detriment of lower damage; Hand swords that are in the mid -range for damage and speed; Spears which does solid damage while being able to prick at a longer distance.
Throughout the game, you will meet different weapons of each type. There are 25 in total, and they all have a single look, capacities and statistics from each other. You are therefore not as exceeded as, for example, in Elden Ring, where you have more than 300 weapons to choose.
To fully use these weapons, you must however make your way through the skill tree, and this tree represents an obstacle for the game because it complicates things.
The skill tree more reminds me of the grid of the Final Fantasy X sphere. It is divided into six paths, one for each weapon and one for general use with universal upgrades, such as adding your healing bottles, being able to do more damage with certain effects and get more magic points. Throughout each path there are also various statistics improvements such as adding an additional point to strength, endurance, agility, etc.
When you buy enough red mercury, souls or the currency of the game, you can win a level, offering a red petrol that unlocks a place on the grid. You have to take these paths to feed Wuchang as well as weapons, because improved attacks and control of a weapon also require to descend each path. Then, at a certain point to unlock more spots on the grid, the path extends to give you even more statistics, capacities, etc.
If you are confused by reading this, it will be just as confusing when you try it by yourself. It is one thing to level up a character and put points in various statistics, but it is another to go up and realize that you have to go on competence points to unlock a path to obtain healing bottles more healing.
Where the upgrade system bothers you, it is when you do not unlock a certain path you need for a boss. A particular boss gave me a kick, because it is the first boss you need to use the diversion or the bet, to beat (unless you are an ace of souls that can play perfectly). I had borrowed the AX upgrade path and I did not know that I was poorly equipped for the fight. Although there is a tip message that arises by mentioning the deviation, it was the first time that the game even mentioned this capacity. After failing to beat this boss for hours, I decided to take a long look at the grid and I saw that the deviation capacity was a few upgrades in the way of the long sword.
Fortunately, you can respect these points at a sanctuary for free, which I did, and I defeated the boss after a few additional trials. Notice, I could have beat the boss in the other direction – play perfectly – but deviation and parry to expose the weakness of the boss was much easier. And before that, the bosses did not cause me a lot of problems, just requiring a few dead in order to understand their model.
This upgrade grid is super interesting, but there are far too many capacities and advantages that should be unlocked from the start to help reduce frustration during reading.
Madness drives me crazy
Another interesting idea of Wuchang is the system of madness. This is a game on humanity and the minor found in Souls original games, with a little insight from Bloodborne – a kind of passive statistics that changes how the world of the game evolves while playing. When you die or beat some enemies, your madness will increase. As your madness increases, you can become more powerful. In this path, I mentioned about earning more healing bottles, there are unlockable features where, if you have a certain madness, you do more damage or win an additional capacity.
Madness is based on your level, so the higher you are, the more maximum madness increases. If your madness is low, you can even acquire a certain amount of madness to buy an article in a sanctuary.
So what’s going on when your madness is in Max? Well, it’s a bad thing for two reasons. The first is that you will do more damage, but you will also receive more damage. It will be great for the hardcore player like souls with a perfect dodge and a parry timing. I’m sure Speedrunners will use this line. However, when you get your ass kicks with a boss, the last thing you want is that they hit you for more damage.
We can say that the most interesting part of this madness system is that if you die at maximum madness, or nearby, the place where you died that has some of your remains of red mercury will take the form of an evil base that you will have to fight. Will defeat it and you will get an article and delete all your madness.
It is an interesting feature, but it is also pain. To get rid of madness, you can kill certain humanoid enemies, but sometimes to kill these people, you have to kill non -humanoid enemies, which increases madness. Alternatively, you can find and buy items that will reduce madness in a certain temple, but these are not widely available.
Where madness really causes a problem is with the bosses. If you will die several times with a boss and your death point is in the boss arena, the lookalike does not appear, so you are a little stuck with Max Folie unless you decide to be killed elsewhere, remove the double and return to Zero Madness.
Pretty but punishing
Wuchang plays as well as any soul type game regarding action and graphics. The speed of the gameplay is just a step below Sekiro: Shadows die twice, souls with a high intensity of Fromsoftware, but also a step above its other popular title, Bloodborne. It’s fast, but it’s also dynamic.
I say that it is dynamic because of the system of spiritual points, which is the version of Mana’s game. Unlike most games like souls, you don’t have a Mana swimming pool from magic or special attacks. Instead, you have to acquire spiritual points, and the easiest way to do so is to dodge. A perfectly timed dodge reveals a point that will allow you to use a special capacity or a basic spell. On the grid, there are stains to unlock more points as well as more means to obtain the points of the embezzlement, to make a certain combo or to have a certain madness.
This system obliges players to be more active in the fights, so someone cannot make a character of glass cannon magic from the start who fights remotely, even if I am sure that there is a construction where this is possible at the end of the game. You really have to enter it and mix with enemies, which I can appreciate.
Then come the visuals, and Wuchang has superb scenes. The bosses in the game are also unique in their attacks and their visuals, something very popular with players as souls.
The presentation of the game as a whole is tied with one of the AAA titles. The English voice acts is a bit weak, but people speak so little in the game that it does not matter.
I played the game on a standard PS5, and there were cases where the PS5 seemed to have problems with the abandoned executives. This happened after a certain amount of game and not because of too much on the screen.
Wuchang is a great effort from Leenzee. Although the game does not revolutionize the kind of soul type, it does the best thing to offer some ideas as they, or perhaps another developer, can refine. Maybe it will become a pillar for gender in future games. If anything, I believe that a series of Wuchang could be an incredible game if it happens. But at the moment, the formula is simply not there.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is released on July 23 for consoles in the PC, PS5 and Xbox series for $ 50. It will be available on Xbox Game Pass on Day 1.
