Nyheter
Color, character, and combat: one hour hands-on with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers
C
Charlie Wacholz
But Wuchang’s world is another story: more vibrant and populated than the worlds you’d usually expect from Miyazaki & Co. It’s a change that seems relatively surface-level at first blush, but it imbues Fallen Feathers with an immediately different vibe that has a ton of potential.
During my hour-long hands-on demo with Fallen Feathers, I explored a town in distress, overrun by bandits, ogre-like monsters, and evil spirits. I set out from a bright red temple in the middle of town. Almost immediately after walking out the door, I got rocked by a ghostly-looking guard.
Okay, I thought to myself, I’ll go somewhere else to get my sea legs.
Next, I went up a few flights of steps, stopping along the way to talk to the surprising number of NPC characters—all fully voiced—before encountering a boss. Clad in a mask and some traditional-looking garb, he made short work of me with his glowing staff. I managed to squeeze a few dodges in, though, revealing one of my favorite mechanical differences between Wuchang and a more traditional soulslike. Perfectly timed dodges grant a small bonus, slowing time down for the enemy and allowing you to get a few swings in to chip away at their health bar.
This tweak adds satisfaction to a place often ruled by relief, as playing defense in these games can sometimes feel like a waiting game to get in close and wallop the bad guy.
After respawning at the shrine that acts as Wuchang's version of Bonfires or Sites of Grace, I decided it was time to hit the town. This is where Wuchang: Fallen Feathers really started to get going. I found a new path—one that wasn't guarded by that scary ghost guy—and started walking, peeking down corridors and around corners that looked like they might hide something, dodging attacks from poison-spitting enemies that hid in jars and little gremlins that jumped out from behind corners trying to leap on my shoulders. I also took down a few bandits as they tried to pillage the town.
Along the way, I talked to five or six different NPCs hiding in their houses or chained up by their invaders. They dispensed information, made jokes—an especially pleasant surprise—or asked for my help by giving me a side quest. This really excited me. Souls games often feel incredibly lonely to me. That, paired with an often grim and gothic art style, lends a solitary, dour vibe to many games in the genre.
By contrast, Fallen Feathers feels like an exciting adventure through a bright place that's only recently fallen on dark times. This is reinforced by the lighting and colorful environmental design, rendering a beautiful take on historical Chinese architecture and culture.
As I smelled Wuchang’s roses, I ran back into my old nemesis—the shadowy guard. With newfound confidence, I swung at him with my lance. I fell again, this time after pushing his health bar close to the limit—but not quite.
I finally dispatched him on my fourth attempt, this time with a battleaxe. I picked up a new set of armor from my foe and put it on right away. After donning my reward, I started digging around the menu and found another big break from Soulslikes: a skill tree. A lot of the nodes hadn’t been explored, and I was eager to see how my new armor served me, so I only took a quick look. Based on my cursory glance, the skill tree held upgrades for dodge bonuses, stamina recovery, and my health bar, though I also noticed elements that pointed towards more depth. This skill tree was staggeringly large, so there’s much more to explore in the full game.
I was feeling cocky after that fruitful encounter with my first killer, so I decided to take on my second. I bashed my head against the boss at the top of the tower a few times, starting to wrap my mind around his attack patterns and timing. The red flash right before his spear throw suddenly became a green light, and his audio cues stopped sounding like taunts and more like warnings. But I was working with limited time, so I enlisted the help of a friend using a consumable summoning item.
My new ally hacked away at the boss, dealing tons of damage and helping me fill their stagger meter, opening them up to a powerful stab attack that wiped out a massive chunk of their health bar.
I didn’t get to progress much further after this point, but I got a good feel for Fallen Feathers that left me excited to dig around more in its systems and just exist in its world more. I’m extremely curious to see how Lenzee leverages its livelier world to deliver a bigger spin on Dark Souls' brand of action RPG from a narrative and structural perspective.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is expected to be released in 2025. You can wishlist it on Epic Games Store right now.