Wuchang: Fallen Feathers makes me feel as powerful as its bosses

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers really started to click for me once I learned how to leverage the clash mechanic.

There are a lot of gameplay ideas in Wuchang — we’ll get to ‘em more in a bit — but clashing allowed me to hit through enemy attack animations, deflecting most of the damage. With the blademaster buff activated, I was even able to heal when clashing. Suddenly, I could scrap with a boss for a moment and come out of a combo no worse for wear while my enemy couldn’t say the same. I felt just as powerful as the bosses the game threw my way. I didn’t need to focus on blocking and parrying, but instead on relentless attacking; the game let me engage with it on my own terms, how I wanted to.

This being a Soulslike, however, I still occasionally get my ass kicked until it’s as red as pirate warrior Wuchang’s eyes.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is the latest entry in the overcrowded Soulslike space, with seemingly many games announced nowadays riffing on the formula FromSoftware cracked open more than a decade ago. FromSoft is still the king of the genre, but plenty more devs, like NeoWiz and Round 8 (Lies of P) and Team Ninja (the Nioh games, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty), are putting up a worthy fight of their own. Developer Leenzee throws its hat in the punishing ring with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, its Soulslike with a well-crafted combat system that alone makes that game worth checking out.

You play as Wuchang, an amnesiac pirate with a bad case of a mysterious plague. She awakes in a cave near a temple and ventures off in search of answers, both in terms of her affliction and her past. In true Soulslike fashion, the storytelling in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is opaque, told through NPC dialogue and the environment, with its battle-damaged terrain in parts and villagers hiding behind closed doors. But you’re likely interested in Wuchang for its soulslike gameplay, which it delivers in spades. You’ll explore largely linear interconnected levels dotted with traps, secrets, and, of course, enemies to slice your way through.

I gravitate toward the dual swords, as I prefer speedier, Bloodborne-esque weapon options rather than plodding war clubs or two-handed axes. In addition to your expected light and heavy attacks, they, along with all of Wuchang’s weapons, have weapon skills and discipline attacks. These are often damage-dealing moves, but some weapons start with the ability to block as a weapon skill (mapped to L1/LB). As you unlock more skills and attacks, you’ll be able to swap them out, customizing your arsenal.

In the flow of combat, I get into a groove with the dual sword’s blademaster discipline attack. It applies a buff to my blades, enhancing the speed of my light attacks in addition to its clash-induced healing, turning me into a dancer of destruction on the battlefield. Some of Wuchang’s attack animations are almost rhythmic in nature with the way she slides her feet and lunges forward; she’s a graceful killer.

Of course, my trusty dual swords aren’t the only weapons in Wuchang. Each of the five weapon types include unique mechanics and abilities, ensuring Wuchang harbors a playstyle for every type of Soulslike player. Spears are great for when you want to pokey poke from afar, while a singular sword offers a balanced fighting style. Wuchang’s skill tree can also be reset at no cost to the player, encouraging us to freely experiment with any weapon she acquires.

Skyborn Might is Wuchang’s magic system. Its charges are used both to cast spells — you have your standard fireball projectiles and protection spells, among others — and to use weapon skills and discipline attacks. Each spell, skill, and special attack requires a different amount of charges to activate, and thankfully you won’t have to worry about managing mana potions or anything like that; Skyborn Might charges are acquired after perfectly dodging enemy attacks. As I prefer dodging over blocking anyway, this works out well in my favor. I’d sometimes max out my Skyborn Might charges just from dodging a single enemy combo.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers offers a layered and deep combat system, but that’s not to say every element of the game hits. Its boss balancing is all over the place. Some are too easy (especially an early one with an NPC summon, who annoyingly did most of the work) while others stop me in my tracks like Lady Maria from Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters expansion. For some, all you really need to do is dodge left to avoid attacks, though circling left around a boss isn’t anything new to the Soulslike genre.

I’m finding the madness mechanic a bit hit and miss as well. Wuchang suffers from a mysterious feathering disease that’ll slowly turn her into a monster. It’s a large factor in the game’s story, and its combat as well. As Wuchang cuts down human foes, her madness grows, tracked in the corner of your HUD as well as in Wuchang’s eyes as they gradually turn red. When the madness meter is full, Wuchang’s damage is increased, along with the damage she takes. This can create an extra layer of strategy. Perhaps you want to keep your madness intentionally high so that your attacks pack more punch.

Madness also frustrates — who ever wants to receive more damage? — and limited consumables are needed to reduce it, but only at a specific locale. Dying can also rid you of madness, but on your next corpse run, a demon will spawn, whom you must defeat to get back your dropped exp. How did I find 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 ground when I next went through the area. Thankfully, aside from those death-by-corpse-run-demon cases, you don’t lose all your exp upon dying, making corpse runs less of a necessity and removing some of the annoying stress out of the traditional Soulslike loop.

But those demon-filled corpse runs or forgettable bosses aren’t enough to drag Wuchang: Fallen Feathers down. Between its weapon options, variety of skills, and abundance of spells, it features a layered combat system with engaging playstyles for everyone. Instead of feeling squishy and defenseless, like in some Soulslikes, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers makes me feel as badass as you’d expect a pirate warrior to be.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers will be released July 23, 2025, on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a prerelease download code provided by 505 Games.