REVIEW: WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers – Soulslike Style Without the Soul

Review by Jon Donnis

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is built to satisfy fans of Soulslike punishment. That much is clear. It looks the part. It sounds familiar in a way that leans more on nostalgia than originality. The world is brutal and broken, and you're dropped into it without much ceremony or comfort. There's a dark, twisted beauty to the land of Shu, but getting through it takes more patience than many will have.

You play as Wuchang, a skilled pirate warrior battling amnesia, monsters, and a mysterious illness called Feathering. The premise is solid. There's plenty of atmosphere and some striking moments of visual world-building. Strange creatures roam the ruins. Factions fight over scraps. And in the shadows, a creeping madness grows. It should feel thrilling. It should make you lean in.

But instead, the game keeps you at a distance.

The core issue is the combat. It wants to be weighty and deliberate, but it mostly feels slow and clunky. Movement is awkward. Attacks lack the snap and rhythm you'd expect from a title in this genre. Even the Skyborn Might system, which promises power and flexibility, rarely feels satisfying. You can customise builds, enchant weapons, and dive into a skill tree that offers new attacks and perks. On paper, that sounds rich. In practice, it's confusing and oddly lifeless. There's depth, but no real sense of discovery.

The Inner Demon system is an interesting idea. In theory, it adds risk and unpredictability. Your own shadow could lash out at you if you're careless. But this never quite gels with the rest of the mechanics. It feels more like a gimmick than a proper feature, and that's a shame.

Boss fights, the lifeblood of any good Soulslike, fall flat here. Designs are derivative. Patterns are repetitive. And too often, they feel like tests of your patience rather than your skill. The enemies you face along the way suffer from the same problem. They fill the world but don't really define it. There's nothing particularly memorable or distinct about them. They just get in your way.

The story, while present, is easy to miss. You're supposed to piece it together as you go, but the fragments feel thin. With no clear narrative pull, it's hard to care what happens next. Wuchang's past should have been a driving force. Instead, it gets lost in the noise.

And then there are the technical problems. Framerate drops are a dealbreaker in a game like this. If you're asking players to be precise, every stutter, every lag, breaks the experience. In 2025, that's hard to excuse, even if future patches might help.

There are good ideas here. You can see the ambition. Some players will appreciate the harsh challenge and the grim setting. If you're a die-hard Soulslike fan, this might still scratch the itch. But it never truly stands out. The gameplay lacks spark. The systems don't connect. And the world, though interesting at a glance, never fully comes to life.

For me, the biggest issue is that I simply didn't want to keep playing. I wasn't curious. I wasn't hooked. I was just going through the motions. That's not the feeling a game like this should leave behind.

I score WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers a disappointing 5 out of 10.