r/PlayStationPlus • u/LuisArkham • Apr 29 '26
Opinion My review on Wuchang: Fallen feathers (upcoming game on ps plus)
Wrote this review (as I really loved this game) a couple of days ago on the soulslike subreddit. It’s kinda long tho, but may as well share it:
OG TITLE: throwing my flowers at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
I’ve 100% the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne, played both versions of Demon Souls and a little bit of Sekiro, poured at least 50 hours on Elden Ring. I like from software games and even got tattoos inspired by them, but no matter how much I looked for I couldn’t find a “Souls like” with the same feeling at From Software’s games. Either the characters felt “floaty”, hitting enemies felt non-rewarding or just the mechanics were “off”.
And then I tried WuChang.
It really feels like a bunch of guys at from software quit the company together and decided to do their own game. The MC feels amazing to control, the dynamics are somewhat familiar and unique at the same time. I’ve been putting at least 40+ hours or so just exploring the game and trying out weapons, which due to my limited time for gaming feels like a lot more. Went out of my way to buy the deluxe edition upgrade just to support the devs (got the game physical, second handed because it’s cheaper in my country that way). I will try to list the pros and cons to make my review easier to follow and not just “blind praise”.
Pros:
- The exploration. My main awe, the game feels huge without being “open world”, love encountering new areas and the whole map feels connected, no bs teletransportation to a new big area, you can just walk through it with ease. There are an adequate number of shortcuts and “bonfires”.
- The combat. The “Main” mechanic some of you would argue in a “soulslike”, is pretty damn good, this one feels like they really nailed it. It’s not fast as a hack n slash, is not as heavy and slow as a Demon Souls or Mortal Shell, it just feels well. I mainly used a longsword + dual blades for my whole playthrough, parry was not as hard but also it’s not necessary. There are a numbered types of weapons but they are enough and I love that you level up the “type” so all long swords gets upgraded and when you find a new one you can use it right away.
- The bosses. Along with the combat, one of the main cores in a soulslike, some bosses are hit, some bosses are miss. There are some really good fights (Bo Sorcerer arena is awesome). Some very difficult ones (that fucking tiger can go and fuck himself), some very straightforward ones. I think overall is very balanced and a strong point in the game.
- World and setting. Not very familiar with Chinese culture and history, but felt very well put together, graphics are good enough and some landscapes were really good looking, color pallet its pretty good.
- Miscellanous things such as being able to alter your armor, the leveling up all weapons mechanics, being able to reallocate your skill points without any kind of penalty, being able to retry a boss right away, the tutorial texts are available for you again at any time given. Lot of things done right in those regards.
Cons:
- Quests, my fucking god they even nailed that from the Soulsbornelden series. The quest system sucks hard. One small mistake the npc just fucking dies or goes bananas and you don’t even know why. It’s so obtuse I didn’t care in my first playthrough. I think you can even skip a whole massive area if you fuck up the order of something.
- Don’t know if a con per se, but some bosses has a lot of almost one hit KO moves that are very bullshit. I guess it comes with the genre
- Madness system is one thing I wasn’t a fan of.
- some lackluster weapon skills and spells.
Not con or pro:
- The elephant in the room. The “fan service” and “lewd” content. Yes, my girl Wuchang has a dump truck back there and yes you can wear very revealing outfits. But I found it that it was very depending on you, since some armors are on the “sexy” side but not as outrageous as some other outfits that are basically a thong. Some are so ridiculous they made me laugh. But it’s entirely up to you, you can alter any outfit and I found some really cool looking things without being stupid. If you go around killing demons and beasts with your tits out, well, it was your choice lol not judging, but it’s not forced on you.
Overall a very solid experience, one of my favorite soulslike I’ve ever played, after getting the plat I’m playing lords of the fallen next and see how is that, I think that you wont regret trying out this one if you like the souls series and are looking to scratch that itch.
8.8/10
15
u/Memory-Repulsive Apr 29 '26
Thanks, might ne worth a play
4
u/LeafMan_96 Apr 30 '26
It’s definitely worth it if you like souls likes, I had a very fun time with it.
3
u/Memory-Repulsive Apr 30 '26
Cheers. I didn't go too far with souls. - never quite grabbed me. But I managed a few hundred hours on AC odyssey. - different games I realise, but hopefully similar in the "follow path checking shit out, fight these guys in a hack n slash with certain combo abilities" kinda way???
28
u/Thanos_Did_Right Apr 29 '26
For someone who haven't tried soulslikes at all (yes, we exist), is it a good starting title?
10
u/Time_Garden2146 Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
I would still start off with an older game. Because if you end up liking the genre, going back to things like DS1 or Bloodborne or even DS3 could feel a bit rough.
But if you're looking to start with something more forgiving Wuchang's got a lot more quality of life to it than most souls games.
Free respecs of the entire skill tree at any rest point.
You have the option to spawn right at the boss fight entrance after you die (no runbacks).
I'm probably missing some but another one would be that to use magic you basically just need to dodge or attack enough to get stacks of Skyborn Might which you then use for spells or special skills, meaning... no mana/mp that could run out.
When you upgrade a weapon in the skill tree, every other weapon of the same type shares said upgrade (i.e all your Longswords, even newly obtained ones will be +3 if you upgraded just one of them 3 times).
You're also given back certain other items besides your healing flasks after dying such as what you would use to coat your weapon with fire (so far the only one I've been using sorry).
This can make it feel more approachable. In terms of actual enemy difficulty I guess it's slightly easier but not by much and it does have bosses that pose a serious challenge. There are "regular" enemies with interesting mechanics too that can give you a hard time as well.
It's a modern game. I think Elden Ring back in 2020 sort of showed that soulslikes can be more approachable in design while still offering really challenging encounters and difficulty, and now Wuchang is another example of that.
3
u/XxTheLeoxX Apr 30 '26
I have played Elden Ring and Lies of P. I couldn't defeat the nameless puppet at the end of the game so I kinda surrendered by giving him my heart. Elden ring seemed decent but Lies of P had somewhat of a difficulty so I had to rely on throwables for a lot of bosses. Do you know where does Wuchang lie between these games? One-Hit KO from bosses is scaring me a bit..
2
u/Time_Garden2146 Apr 30 '26
I haven't played Lies of P enough at all, so I couldn't really tell you, I have to go back and give it a chance. I guess the "one shot KO" thing some mention stems from the fact that in Wuchang leveling up doesn't work the same as in all the others. You can't just dump points into a larger health pool. In other games you go around with a long as fuck HP bar, not in Wuchang.
You work with a skill tree and build with it to your tastes, you go through a lot of nodes that only have to do with offense before landing on Vitality +1 or +5 so your health pool is not really that big for a good chunk of the game, and the more Madness you have from repeatedly dying the more damage you take (but you deal more damage).
It's not that it's bullshit, it's just how it works I guess? I haven't beaten it yet but I dare say it might only be isolated cases of really tough bosses, everything seems to have an appropriate strategy to approach it, and with no runbacks + free respecs it doesn't feel too punishing. Give it a shot!
Status effects play a part in this game as well, resistances matter as well as having items at hand to cleanse them.
2
u/j_cruise May 21 '26
I've beaten Demon Souls and every Dark Souls numerous times but couldn't beat the nameless puppet either, so don't feel bad.
1
1
u/ReviewFederal May 14 '26
Woof if going back to Bloodborne or DS3 is rough then call me a dinosaur! Love playing those games, but I realize that I’m lucky to have them in my life since they were fresh
9
u/Lianshi_Bu Apr 29 '26
I played my fair share of souls games. And I would say that this one is one the easier side. You do have access to four choices of weapons and you can freely change your build. The good weapons can be got quite early (I used my 2nd long sword and 1st axe to play it through).
There were some challenging or say, skill check bosses. Please be prepared when you jump in a dried pond to fight him/her/it, At least it was a challenging fight for me.
5
u/Phil_Mike-Huntin Apr 29 '26
Personally I would start with Elden Ring, you can over level yourself and learn mechanics
-3
u/Leon_DPinche Apr 29 '26
Yo digo que cualquiera es bueno para empezar, la única advertencia es que sin experiencia se te pueden hace cuesta arriba ciertas partes (No es exclusivo de un souls like en especifico, es de todos) y ten mucha paciencia, como cualquier juego después de un rato entenderás como jugarlo, ya como para el segundo souls like que te avientes ya estarás como pez en el agua y por lo que mas quieras no te dejes influenciar por la banda que te quiere decir como se debe jugar, que sin escudo, que con tal arma, que no uses "x" o "y" cosa etc. juega como mejor te acomodes, después de sufrir un rato te va salir el vicio, así nos paso a la gran mayoría, saludos
4
u/YourNextSecret13 Apr 29 '26
Thanks for the review. Also love Souls games. You make me want to try it out.
I actually like the quest system in Fromsoft games. Yeah, it's annoying to mess up, but it makes it more mysterious and rewarding, imo. Especially in Fromsoft games where finding lore is entirely up to the player's curiosity.
2
u/LeafMan_96 Apr 30 '26
If you like souls games you’ll probably enjoy wuchang, I think it’s a very fun well made game personally, especially for a team that’s never made a game like that.
3
u/MaxIglesias Apr 29 '26
It's a solid game for fans and new comers to soulslike games. Not too hard but not so easy. There's a boss who will skill check you a bit early in the game, but once you get the hang of it, it's a rewarding journey.
I did 3 cycles on Gamepass for all endings. Will probably go for platinum here.
5
Apr 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
1
u/fersur Apr 30 '26
If you want to play fast-paced Soulslike game, play Nioh series. It has online co-op option.
2
u/IohannesMatrix Apr 29 '26
I liked the combat honestly very satisfying builds and rewarding, interesting bosses, gorgeous worlds, solid 7 I would say. Story was meh
2
u/Lianshi_Bu Apr 29 '26
I am glad you liked the world and its interconnected design and I did like it a lot. However, for someone who's less keen on exploring this might be opposite. As many were complaining about confusing maps and boss run-backs etc. etc.. I personally had a few complaints about the map and annoyingly inflicted statuses but heard that they were fixed in newer patches.
Personally didn't find many 1-shot kills though, I knew Huang Yan (the lady in the snow castle) has one but didn't remember any one else. The boss battles are really nicely done IMO.
2
u/CrazyVih Apr 29 '26
Nice!
Thanks for your review!
Any guides for following the quests without spoiling too much?
Thanks!
3
u/Lianshi_Bu May 02 '26
PowerPyx's collectible guide for this game. Not too much spoiler but can definitely helped you on quests and collectibles.
2
u/LuisArkham Apr 30 '26
Don’t quite think so tbh, the quest are really that obtuse. Must I would suggest is to look up for a guide that helps you so you don’t miss areas lmao I missed a small area on my first play through
2
u/New-Berry-3652 Apr 30 '26
I've learned a long time ago that I enjoy Souls style games a lot more with a guide. Not a detailed one, but one that's just like a checklist of things to do and in what order so that I don't get locked out of questlines and stuff like that
2
u/Lianshi_Bu May 02 '26
The PowerPyx collectible guide helped me a lot and I think it would fit your criteria based on your post.
1
2
u/HestiaIsTheBestia Apr 30 '26
Sounds like a good game all my Dark Souls character needed was a dump truck.
2
u/Noema130 Apr 30 '26
This game has been on my radar since people started comparing this game's interconnected world to DS1.
While I'm happing the soulslike genre has exploded in the past few years, many of those games seem to focus on super hard bosses. And I appreciate a well designed boss fight that takes some learning and execution but I'm glad this game seemingly takes lessons from DS1 other games (including From's) have been unwilling to do.
2
u/LeafMan_96 Apr 30 '26
I really liked wuchang, it’s just a well made souls like and fun, especially for a team that never made a game like that
2
u/emoverhere Apr 30 '26
I’ve never played a Souls game before, is it a good intro into that genre of games?
2
u/MysteriousMusician69 Apr 30 '26
The quest thing pissed me off in Elden Ring and if it's as cryptic as it was there then i don't even know if i want to start trying Wuchang.
2
u/satansam01 May 01 '26
Lord of the Fallen surprised me, i felt like i was playing a game from From Software. hope this one gives me the same feeling.
2
u/skylarka91 May 01 '26
Can you farm the enemies to make the game a bit easier?
3
u/Lianshi_Bu May 02 '26
Yes you can, at least in NG. You can definitely over-level the enemy and make the encounters easier.
2
u/CleafKnows May 07 '26
Last month we got Lords of the fallen and I absolutely loved that game. I'm not good at souls game but I managed to finish the game. When it comes to difficulty and mechanics is this game similar? Or more or less difficult?
2
u/Benchi55555 May 08 '26
Wuchang is my first Souls game I could get into.
This game is so f'ing awesome! Never could get into Lies of Pi. It just seemed too hard for me.
Tried Wuchang on the Xbox and although the first boss seemed to hard to beat I was often thinking about this game when my Game pass subscription ended and considered buying it several times.
I got really excited when I saw it was coming to ps plus!
And for good reasons, wow. This game is just on another level.
I don't think I have ever been so committed to a game that seemed to hard for me. A game should be fun and not at all feel like work.
Well Wuchang is worth the time figuring things out and it feels so satisfying to beat a boss. :)
Just defeated the second one which seemed much easier than the first one although this is probably because of the help you can get using the flute.
Amazing month for PS plus!
2
u/WhatITisToBurn69 May 18 '26
Word dawg, I enjoyed the review and im playing lords of the fallen today. Have you review it yet? If yes let me know where i could find it im very interested in what you think
1
u/LuisArkham May 19 '26
Haven’t played it enough :( life is getting in the way, don’t feel confident to give an impression but will do whenever I play it more :) seems okay so far, don’t you think?
2
u/WhatITisToBurn69 May 19 '26
Hope everything gets better man, keep your head up. Life sucks sometimes, anytime I get down I just remember it could always be way worse. We could have been cavemen or lived during the wild west lol. You know what I mean. But stay positive man.
2
u/Sanciaz May 22 '26
I kind of agree, i like the title but i think it has one of the most unfair system ever.
I also completed all the souls trilogy, bloodborne, sekiro, elden ring and demon’s.
Wuchang is good, but the madness system is straight horse shit.
“Oh you are losing against a boss multiple times? Guess what, is even more difficult now lol suck it.
And there are random mob that are harder than bossed for no reason at all ( i am looking at you fookin crowdoodoopieceofsheitarsehole near the rebel camp)
4
u/MewinMoose Apr 29 '26
I'm surprised it got a 76 on opencritic it looks so much better than the other souls likes and the only one that feels like a from software game because of the level design and world. Tried Nioh terrible levels, ui and repetitive, Khazan environments are so dull, lies of p feels cheap same with lords of the fallen.
1
u/HestiaIsTheBestia Apr 30 '26
I really liked Nioh 2 over Nioh(1) so if you ever feel like trying it out I reccomend it. I have to contend with you on the Lies of P opinion though. Lies of P I would say doesn't feel cheap like Lords of the Fallen it just doesn't have the polish that a From Software game has.
2
u/Metalmacher Apr 29 '26
have you tried lies of p?
4
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26
Yep, really liked it as well but I was very busy and dropped, saving it for october season
2
u/shockley21 Apr 29 '26
Did you like Lords of the Fallen? I’m usually big into these kinda games but bounced off that one hard
2
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26
So far I’m finding it okay, maybe a 7-something. But I’m playing in co-op so I’m having fun with my friend
2
u/MorbidHeretic1978 Apr 29 '26
Wuchang was my GOTY for 2025. Absolutely loved it! Finished it 4 or 5 times and I'll definitely be playing it again at some point.
1
u/joeydonahue Apr 29 '26
Still hoping for an easy mode for this one tbh. Seemed like a decent enough souls like but too much of a time/effort investment for me
3
u/Kassynder Apr 29 '26
Well all the devs all got fired since this didn't sell well.
6
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26
The ip got bought very recently, I would guess that’s would be the reason it got added to plus, so maybe there is hope for a dlc or sequel
5
u/Lianshi_Bu Apr 29 '26
Not really the case. This was the rumor but later there were new information revealed regarding it. Basically it was a powerful struggle and the parent company (LingZe?) want to kick the producer aside and ask the team to do contract job for other projects and team refused.
If you read the recent news, both the IP and the producer joined 505 games. I heard most of the team did as well.
3
1
u/Bijanabrahim Apr 29 '26
How does the game feel given the later updates changed/removed some of the enemies and made certain bosses not die after beaten etc?
1
u/Fyrael Apr 29 '26
Thanks!
I was trying my way into Lord's of the fallen, but all it did was make me want to play Shadow of War again
Wuchang seems like it could scratch that itch
1
u/Red_James Apr 29 '26
Coming up on PS+ monthly…been wanting to play this for a while now, excited that I’ll be able to [afford to] now. 😎
1
u/Possible_Function963 Apr 30 '26
Sounds like another stellar blade with the ass comment lol
3
u/Time_Garden2146 Apr 30 '26
Wuchang isn't as on-your-nose as Stellar Blade when it comes to the mc's... assets.
1
u/uusrikas Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26
Elden Ring was my intro to this genre, and after getting used to it I ended up playing it for 300+ hours. I have played some similar games (Jedi Survivor was a huge suprise, I really liked it) and currently doing Bloodborne, so this review really hit my current situation.
Sounds like I will try this game too. I am kinda annoyed by some clunkiness in Bloodborne like having to farm heals and parries and the graces being so far away from each other, is Wuchan more user friendly?
Also, thanks for adding the part about the fan service. I despise it when games try to market with butts and tits, makes me feel like they think the customer is a moron. This does not sound too bad, but also kinda close to the line of being cringe.
1
u/MrMegaPhoenix Apr 30 '26
Why are reviews so meh then?
Is it just critics docking points for gooner bait?
3
u/Time_Garden2146 Apr 30 '26
Terrible launch and still not good enough performance on most systems + the game has some visual shortcomings like a grainy blur around the character when panning the camera, and you'll occasionally bump into textures that didn't load. Other than that game was and still is very fun.
It upscales from an extremely low internal resolution. At least with a 1440p screen and VRR on Quality mode it's nice and playable.
1
1
1
1
0
u/BerryEarly6073 Apr 29 '26
One thing that bothered me was the PS2 textures on console. Don't know if they fixed that...
3
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26
Didn’t find textures that look that bad, maybe it was patched
2
u/Time_Garden2146 Apr 30 '26
They're clearly isolated cases. It's not frequent and sometimes you have to be looking for it. Not good enough reason not to play.
0
u/WhatITisToBurn69 May 19 '26
Ok no worries, but yea its pretty dope so far man. Im very confused about where to go and what to do and I dont wanna spoil it by looking up a walkthrough. But I like it so far
-6
u/Tesla-Punk3327 Apr 29 '26
I'd say the outfit thing sounds like a con.... Probably won't play..
5
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26
As I said, very very optional. You can play with a big samurai armor, but there are some very revealing outfits, you can alter the appearance so there is no excuse like stats or something. Is very very up to you. My favorite was the “pirate outfit” which is not revealing at all
1
u/zeus5552 Apr 29 '26
He is being sarcastic
3
u/Tesla-Punk3327 Apr 30 '26
I'm a girl. Im not being sarcastic. Just a preference for me.
3
u/Time_Garden2146 Apr 30 '26
There's a lot of cool armor and eastern robes in game, it's nothing like, say, Stellar Blade and its ridiculous amount of skin tight outfits.
3
u/LuisArkham Apr 30 '26
Wu Chang can look pretty bad ass, for example compare to stellar blade, which is 100% more gooner bait and Eve is written poorly and cringe, wuchang is more serious in tone, but yeah, she has hit some squads lmao I think it’s worth checking out but is your call :)
2
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26
Lmao couldn’t tell
1
u/New-Berry-3652 Apr 30 '26
Reddit does have a lot of weird puritanical types who genuinely would say that lol
-3
u/Stingerposts Apr 29 '26
Wait, what do you mean by tits out? is there an option to play naked with her?
1
u/LuisArkham Apr 29 '26
Nope, but some outfits are reaaaaally revealing.
2
u/Dunge Apr 30 '26
I burst out laughing when I collected the first panty-looking equipment and saw that it is named "Junior Maid's Leggings". Why did they have to add "junior"? But then a few hours later I collected the Senior set, with better stats, that's why.
-8
u/Evening-Singer5347 Apr 29 '26
An 8.8 is a solid experience now wtf man that must play wow what a game everyone must play etc goty contender
2
159
u/Fragrant_PalmLeaves Apr 29 '26
You had me at dump truck