Beautiful world and satisfying combat, but the rough performance makes it tough to fully enjoy right now.

Loved the game all the way until patch 1.5. Game definitely has it flaws but in the end very enjoyable. The story was good, combat was great(ish). Dev single-handedly butchered the whole theme of the story by changing plotlines and catering to the idiotic nationalist, who would never touch the game. Would not recommend until dev fix this or give global players a way to revert this themselves. *cough* localization=1 *cough*

First, improvement and optimization are always welcome. But the sudden change to the plot is such bullsh.

- Turning off the ability to farm some human enemies just contradict the whole design of the game. Now you can really only get Madness with the Incense, which is ???

- And then, why making Yu Xia and the Emperor live? Wouldn't it basically just break the whole plot of the game? Going against the law of nature will turn those reborn into monstrosity abomination? So, if the Emperor could be revive without any consequences, why not Bai Kru? Why not Honglan? Why not Fang Ling? And most importantly, why not Bai Yu - the actual reason why this very game even started? Is the Emperor somewhat more "deserving" than the others? Give me a real reason.

- Why keeping Zhao Yun alive? He's lingering around Shu for more than 1000 years using the Jade Feather Chisel. After defeating him we got the chisel, wouldn't that mean logically speaking, he should be put to rest? Both from story point and gameplay point? Like explain to me how does he stay alive after giving Wuchang the chisel?

- And last but not least, you make everyone sitting through almost 10s of fullscreen of texts saying "the story is all fictional", why even need to make change like this? Are we making game for illiterated individuals or what?

This is the first time in my life playing these offline story driven game having the story heavily altered WITHOUT the DLC.

Patch 1.5 added censorship and changed story bits that don't make any sense to comfort fragile Chinese nationalism.

Edit after patch 1.5.1: the game has been nerfed even more, with many areas that contained multiple mobs now having just one. I don't know who this game is for, but it's clearly not able-bodied people.

I might’ve been able to forgive the developers for releasing it in a bad state since it was their first project and pretty ambitious.

however, they “patched” the game by removing the ability to run the game at native resolution and then claimed that this was a performance patch when in actuality and in practice this was not and all it did was set the default rendering resolution of the game to DLSS quality if you put the slider to 100% it will match the performance of the scaler at 67% effectively forcing dlss quality or fsr quality this is f***ing bulls**t and probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen a developer do to prevent refunds. You gotta be f***ing kidding me I hope learn a valuable lesson behind this.

Overall, an enjoyable game. But, before I get into why I like it, I'll explain what's going on with its review score first.


There are a few reasons. There were apparently some pricing issues in China. Some people felt the game was too punishing. Then it was updated and some people felt it became too forgiving. But I'm going to focus on what I think are the biggest reasons.

Edit: A comment was added that explains things a bit more. I'll add it to the bottom of this review for more visibility.


Many people were hit by performance issues. Honestly, I feel like the minimum and recommended specs are too optimistic. Instead of just trusting them, I'd recommend doing some research to see how your setup will perform.


Yup. This game takes place during the downfall of the Ming dynasty. You fight historical figures, and you can also get attacked by civilians. Turns out some people were offended that you could kill Han Chinese from the Ming dynasty. To handle this, the game was censored in a post-release patch. And, honestly, the censorship just sucks. The censorship changes the story, as characters who died now live on. And it was just so clumsy and awkward. After the censorship, when you defeat a historical character, instead of falling to the ground they just... stop. It looks like a bug, not a feature. It looks like what happens when someone's internet breaks in a multiplayer game. It ruins the moral choices and tragic tone of the game. Before, when civilians attack you by throwing rocks (which barely do damage), you could choose to fight back, or show them mercy by leaving them alone. But now that choice is made for you, since they don't attack you and you can't attack them.

The censorship significantly affected an entire gameplay section. There was a whole part that was originally a 3-way fight between you, soldiers, and monsters. The censorship made those soldiers unkillable, and they no longer attack you, so now it's a 2v1 with you and soldiers fighting monsters, and just makes that whole area so trivial.

---

Alright, with that out of the way, here's what I think about the game itself.


I loved the gameplay mechanics. I don't play many souls-like games, so forgive me if I gush over something that's pretty standard.

First, there's Skyborn Might. Might are points that you can spend to cast spells, use weapon class skills (called Disciplines), or unique skills for each weapon. Gaining Might is so satisfying. The basic way to gain Might is to execute perfect dodges. Basically, you get rewarded for using the I-frames in a dodge. After a few upgrades, you can also gain might from attack combos or parrying. I just loved this risk and reward system, and I got to play this game fast and aggressively, which I like.

Speaking about risk and reward, there's also the Madness system. When your Madness is high, you deal more damage, and also some of your moves get stronger. But you also take more damage at high Madness. If you die while your Madness is too high, then it will spawn the Inner Demon where you last died, which will fight you (or other enemies).

The variety of moves is also great. Like I said, there are Disciplines, and weapon skills. The basic Disciplines are like blocking while using an axe or an evasive kick while using a sword. But you can unlock and equip new ones for weapons in a matching class. And the weapon skills are great. For example, with Skyborn Might, you can make a whip sword extend and hit enemies that are far away. There isn't a lot of weapon variety, but each weapon feels special, thanks to these skills. Some Disciplines and weapon skills can also be mixed into a combo, allowing you to do things like perform the strongest move in a light attack chain in 3 moves instead of 5. There's also a lot of magic with interesting animations and effects. The magic isn't your basic "shoot fire out of your hands" stuff.

And while I'm speaking about variety, I have to mention the armor. Armor sets are divided into head, chest, arm, and leg armor. You can mix and match, but you can also alter any piece of armor to look like any other piece of armor, so stats don't limit your style and vice-versa. Nearly every time you beat a boss, you get the chance to get their armor, too, and steal their look.


I also loved exploration. Each time you enter a new area, it feels like a maze. But once you open up a few shortcuts, every area turns out to be simple and interconnected. There's just something satisfying about fighting through a tough area, then opening up a shortcut that lets you rest at a shrine before going back. And there are a lot of secrets to look for. Funnily enough, some great secrets are found by falling for traps, like grabbing an item on a breakable platform.


Medieval China with a horror twist looks really cool. Sometimes the game looks beautiful, and sometimes really gruesome. I'll often stop just to admire the scenery. A temple under siege at sunset. A field of flowers in the moonlight. An underground torture chamber with monsters hanging from the walls and ceilings. The art direction is just great. What I like is that they always choose the best lighting for the environment, even if it isn't realistic. You can walk out of a bright and sunny forest and into an autumnal scene, and watch the lighting rapidly change from white to a deep orange. The sun and moon don't follow the rules of time, but instead do whatever looks the most pretty, which was a great decision.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3548997012


I played about half the game before version 1.5, and half after, so this is a bit tough to judge. But it seems like the game is the most difficult in the beginning, before you have access to a variety of moves and magic. I died a lot to early-game bosses, but the final few bosses rarely took many tries. Some moves are absolutely broken against certain bosses, and will make them trivial.

---

That's mostly what I have to say. I was tempted to give a negative review to voice my complaints about the censorship, but I wanted to be honest. And, honestly, even with the flaws and disappointment, I still liked this game. At first, it might seem like a generic souls clone, but it gets a lot more interesting after a few hours.

---

Edit:

Originally posted by Sylvia:

The real problem is that the late Ming-early Qing invasion involved huge civilian massacres, which left lasting scars on collective memory. In stories and pop culture set in that time, the heroes are almost always fighting against the invaders, not joining them to slaughter innocents. The game marketed itself to players expecting that perspective, only for them to find out they were actually playing as the invaders. The game producer was fully aware of this, so in the initial version they hid what the game was actually about and some key lines from the Chinese version of the game, only revealing them to players using other languages.

This one hurts to not recommend as the game itself is great. It's the most fun I've had with a souls-like since Bloodborne/Lies of P and I'd argue the level design is the best we've seen since Sekiro. It also ran great on my end too (which I know it hasn't for many so beware of that).

However, the devs have caved to Chinese nationalists and censored the game heavily. No, they didn't censor what you're thinking they did. Instead, they censored the story in a way that affects the gameplay too. The story was a pretty interesting take on the Buddhist concept of reincarnation and samsara through a Chinese lens with some pretty gnarly horror concepts thrown in there too. I really enjoyed it and since it's a souls-like, these story concepts are explored through gameplay and boss fights. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned censorship, the story has been made contradictory and nonsensical. Apparently, Chinese nationalists have a huge issue with the content of the game because the people you are fighting against, the Ming Dynasty, are being killed by you and none of the Manchurians are present in the game at all. Due to this, Leenzee has censored the game's story so you can no longer actually kill anyone in the Ming Dynasty. This includes bosses, soldiers, and sometimes citizens as well. You can't attack the soldiers or citizens and the bosses become "exhasted" after the fight and talk to you now. In a game exploring the horrors of rebirth through reincarnation, not being able to kill these demonized versions of soldiers and bosses is ludicrous and completely goes against the story they were telling. Additionally, it makes many portions of the game a whole lot easier now that you can't fight the soldiers.

It really is a shame because this game was one of the good ones that I had enthusiastically recommended to friends and family. They could have left the censorship out of the non-Chinese versions of the game, but yet again we have a developer that decides to censor everything instead of put in the actual work to keep the non-Chinese version censorship free. You personally may not care about censorship, but censorship does care about you.

A silent censorship patch was added a month after release.
This is unacceptable.
Stop ruining games to bend a knee to politics.

The first two seconds of the game it reads:
"This is a work of fiction.
Any resemblance to actual persons, groups, events, language, or terminology is pure coincidental. The content of this story is not intended to endorse or promote any political ideologies, religious beliefs, or discriminatory behaviors."

After Patch 1.5, the devs decided to change core parts of the game to appeal to a specific audience complaining about historical accuracy. They turned a bunch of enemies into NPCs that can't die and bosses that just sit down and chill after you defeat them. All of this while hiding the real changes from the patch notes.

This is something unheard of in this media. If the developers at Leenzee are scared of sharing their own stories with the world, they should stop creating stories at all. My biggest problem with this is not those specific changes, but the lack of confidence that Leenzee have in their creation.

I really wanted to post a positive review because Wuchang is very good. But the good game is being morphed into an irrecognizable creation shaped by loud voices.

As i am nearing completion for Wuchang Fallen Feathers, I feel I have experienced everything the game has to offer to write a full review of the game. Wuchang honestly took me by surprise in many ways that we will discuss in the pros and cons.

PROS:

Graphics - This game is absolutely gorgeous in every way. The detail in the game is insane. The Chinese architecture really shines here in many moments throughout the game and I caught myself stopping to take a lot of screen shots. Wuchang herself is highly detailed and the enemy bosses will blow you away with some of their abilitiies and how awesome it looks with the particle effects etc. Overall this game looks beautiful and is one of the better looking soulslike games.

Game play - The game play is Wuchang really surprised me. At first, I thought it to be simplistic but immediately I was proven wrong. As i upgraded Wuchang and went through the skill tree, my strategies began to change. Before I knew it, there was dozens of play styles to explore and options to choose from, multiple buffing effects that you can upgrade in different ways, temperance and Benediction stones to customize your play style and "clash" / Swift draw which allows you to further enhance your play. Overall from a game play perspective you WILL be satisfied as a souls player because there is a lot of skill and strategy here to find and build maxing.

Difficulty - This game is extremely difficult. There is literally no moment of rest or reprieve. Even when you feel like you can let your guard down...well...I wont spoil it, but theres a really messed up mechanic in this game that will most likely get 99% of souls players the first time it happens. If you are looking for a challenge, this is it. This is one of the most challenging souls like games I have played and I have played way too many. It will be rage inducing, but rewarding. Challenging, but fun. I loved it personally.

Gear Customization - This game features insane amounts of customization that actually matter. Between the weapon times, gear you can find/loot, upgrades in your skill trees and the temperance / benediction stone slots, this game has it all. You will be min maxing all the time and its super fun to figure out best builds for the situation (no piece of gear is best for all situations)

World Design - This game is TOP TIER world design. So many short cuts, so many caves to explore, so many places to see. It is truly insane some of the levels. When you eventually unlock the jungle / forest, you will know exactly what I mean. This is when I realized "holy crap this is insane" moment. They did a really great job putting together the world and making it ALL connect. Exploration in this game is just too dam fun.

Boss Battles / Design - This game features really full and cool looking boss fights. There's no where near as much bosses as say Black Myth Wukong, but every boss feels fun and impactful. There are side bosses / hidden bosses / quest line bosses that you can fight, which give you that feeling of exploration.

NPC Design - The NPC's in this game are pretty interesting. Each with their own story and why they are there. Multiple quest lines (some more important than others) but still impactful. Plenty of items to give them to further quest lines and explore more dialogue. They all look vastly different as well.

Ambient Sound / Music - This game features incredible ambient sound. It is seriously so good. The music is mainly saved for bosses and the music HITS. They did a great job with setting the tone and feeling of whatever you are experiencing in the music you are hearing.

Value - This game offers tremendous value. The replayability, the overall length of the game and all of this for $50 retail? This is another $50 victory in the year of 2025 with many $50 victories over the increasingly demanding $80 industry.

CONS:

Stability issues - This game ran perfect for me since the start, even before the patches. I will say that, however; this game has a ton of issues at launch. Stability and performance issues through the roof, that thankfully the developers quickly addressed, but still is unacceptable to release a game in that state for many people. It's a good thing the developers are trying to fix it quickly, because there's a incredible game here to find, BUT, it is still something to note and mention because it did happen and is not something that should happen.

Repeating Enemy NPC's - The enemy NPC's you will fight, outside of bosses, are very repetitive. There are moments where it does vary pretty nicely in some areas but after a while, youll feel like your fighting the same enemies most of the time.

EVERY LEVEL IS BLIGHT TOWN FROM DARK SOULS - Okay so this is a personal issue for me. I love the world design, love the graphics, super fun to explore and all that...But I couldn't shake the feeling that almost every dam level in this game was modeled after Blight Town in Dark Souls. It is absolutely infuriating sometimes. I understand the desire for difficulty and I am okay with that, but dam does everything really need to be blight town? Eventually you start to escape that feeling towards the end...Only to end up in some other totally messed up situation. Regardless, I couldn't escape that feeling of "the developers saw blight town and wanted to make an entire game of it". You can make a difficult game without making it all feel like one area people notoriously hated in another game lol.

Emotionless Wuchang - Wuchang is not a character you create like in a souls like game. Shes her own characters whos journey you explore. When I tell you Wuchang is lifeless I mean it. This is no eve from stellar blade with her own personality. Wuchang barely does anything other than stare lifeless and look good while doing it. I expected a little more from Wuchang to be honest.

Animation Lock - This game has some of the worst animation lock I've seen. Not only that, when Wuchang is knocked down, unless you get very lucky you are exposed for an extremely long time where you cant do anything and also still take damage. It's insane. Couple this with one of the LONGEST healing times I've ever seen in a souls like game and you will find yourself locked to no end. This becomes less apparent as the game progresses and you unlock more abilities (clash especially helps with this when used properly) but still overall it's insane. They really need to speed up the healing animation at minimum.

The slowest elevators in the world - Ok this is reallllly personal for me, but WTF is up with the elevator times??? These elevators in wuchang is unbelievably slow. Some of them take SO long to arrive that you almost want to skip it entirely and just go around. I understand going for semi realism due to them being wooden elevators, but why the hell are the magical elevators EVEN SLOWER?! Make it make sense.

Overall Wuchang Fallen Feathers is a gaming experience you cannot ignore. If you even REMOTELY enjoy souls like games, this one needs to be in your library NOW. It's that good and that fun / challenging to play.

If you want to see my entire play through of Wuchang Fallen Feathers, you can catch the playlist on my youtube channel Hypnotic Gaming LIVE. Thanks for reading.