Waking up in a tomb, with no recollection of who you are, or what you’re doing there, you take on the role of Wuchang, a Chinese pirate warrior who has been afflicted with a strange curse called the feathering. The feathering has you sprouting feathers from your arm, and slowly descending into madness. And the curse appears to be widespread. The enemies you face throughout the world are either afflicted themselves, or fighting against the afflicted. This has you coming toe to toe with an varying assortment of enemies, ranging from normal looking soldiers and townsfolk, to some nightmarish abominations.
Wuchang follows the souls-like ARPG subgenre style, known for its tough, but rewarding combat, and impressive environments. The gameplay style is heavily reliant on evasion and combos. You are rewarded when timing your evasive moves correctly, and the more you level up, the better the moveset you can unlock with your weapon. There are a few different weapon types to choose from, and once you’ve settled on a preferred style, there are many options and routes on the skill tree. Like most souls-likes, your character is levelled up with the in-game currency, in this case known as Red Mercury. This is acquired from defeating enemies and finding it in various forms littered throughout the game.
As mentioned, the games’ environments are impressive – treating the player to a varying colour palette, featuring some stunning vistas and gorgeous views, beautiful foliage and some excellent architecture, in keeping with the architectural styles of the era in which the game is set. On the other side of the coin however, lies some sinister and grotesque areas, too. For every lush forest, there’s a courtyard covered in entrails and piles of gored victims of the monsters that prowl the land. Poisonous caves with promise of treasure has lured its victims, only for them to be turned into skinless ghouls, or strung up high. Enemy camps, where food is in short supply, turned to cannibalism with piles of flesh and pulsating viscera waiting to be added to the pot of already boiling human meat.
The contrast between the beauty of the landscape and the horror of the situation is stark, and adds to the mounting tension as you progress through the game. Streets literally run red with blood, where the townsfolk have been mercilessly slaughtered, eaten or worse. Some of the bosses have a really grotesque body horror element to them, with one in particular looking like they’ve had their bottom jaw messily ripped off. Some of the enemies encountered wouldn’t look out of place in a Hellraiser movie. Doomwillow Beach is an area that is particularly full of visceral and gruesome detail.
There’s an assortment of armour available as you progress, which are based on some of the enemies and bosses you encounter, and make for quite a gruesome get-up. And while not necessarily required, certainly make quite a sartorial statement. But each outfit has its own perks and negatives depending on the type of enemy you are facing, all with different stats, protecting you or leaving you exposed to various ailments and spells. Some of which, if you allow to build up, end in shockingly gruesome fashion. Similarly, you can become inflicted with madness, which has an interesting effect on your stats. The more you die, the more you descend into madness. This actually makes you stronger, at a cost of your defence stats. But not only that, descend too far into madness and you will do battle, quite literally, with your inner demon. Overcoming this demon will see you restore some of your sanity, and also recover any Red Mercury you may have lost when you last died.
What we’ve played of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, so far, has been excellent. It’s been tough but fair, beautiful and grim, and while a lot of these type of games tend to er on the side of gothic horror, and have their fair share of nasties, Wuchang certainly goes all in on the body horror and gore. While the main mechanics of the genre are all present and accounted for, the game does seem like it brings something slightly different to the table, and is very promising thus far.
Wuchang Fallen Feathers releases on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC (including Gamepass) on 24th July 2025. The game is developed by Leenzee and Published by 505 Games.
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