505 Games included Wccftech in a second PC preview behind closed doors at 2025's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA, where we went hands-on with Blades of Fire from MercurySteam and also a new Soulslike from developer Leenzee, a Chinese development studio whose work I was only familiar with previously with the VR-exclusive A.D. 2047. Their latest title, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, brings the Ming Dynasty into a soulslike with a title that you wouldn't be alone in confusing with other W-named action RPGs of recent years.
The story overview that 505 Games presented for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers focuses on the player character of Wuchang, a skilled female pirate warrior. Truth be told, in the time I spent suffering against a particularly malicious pair of bosses, there wasn't a shred of story exposition save for an NPC or two off the beaten path. That's exactly the way I wanted to experience to go, with the story being told through dilapidated shrines and the pervasiveness of demonic influences slipping through the cracks rather than being given a lore dump and being told explicitly why the whole world is going to hell. While I'm sure there's going to be a solid explanation for the demonic powers affecting the titular Wuchang and whatever the hell 'feathering' is, but I'll gladly wait for the full release to start piecing everything together myself.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers opened with two save files to play with. One was a typical level section, while the second was touted as a more challenging boss fight. Feeling confident of my skills with Lies of P, Stranger of Paradise, and other Masocore/Soulslike RPGs, I skipped to just opt for the second file. This gave me a loadout of a few different weapons and armor sets and a very small slice of exploration leading into the main boss arena while there was a second closed off music hall that led to a miniboss. Both of these were more humanoid, especially the main boss of this hands-on demo, but I would expect more demonic entities to pop up later on in Wuchang's story.
One of the core mechanics that Wuchang: Fallen Feathers focuses on in the combat that wasn't fully explained to me was the Skyborn Might combo system, where resources are built up in regular combat and unleashed for spells and skills unique to each weapon type (there is a system to slot in specific skills into your weapons and not all of them seemed to carry over between types). While the dual gunswords called to me, it was ultimately Wuchang's whip sword with a simple parry ability that would help negate most of the attacks coming my way.
Unfortunately, I was so focused on parrying and dodging attacks that I routinely succumbed to the main boss Honglan's attacks shortly after knocking her health bar down halfway and going into her second phase. Without using more of the Skyborn Might to unleash stronger attacks, the fights were largely battles of attrition where my defensiveness was coupled with a small amount of chipping the enemy health down little by little. I quickly learned the hard way that martial moves, such as kicks and grabs, aren't able to be blocked or parried and instead must be evaded in some way.
I wish I could say that I've seen more of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers in my gameplay session, but I was quickly filtered by Honglan's merciless attacks, and my hubris wouldn't let me give up, and try the more relaxing exploration demo instead. Soon enough, I'll have my revenge and get a firmer grasp of the mechanics to hopefully make quick work of Honglan and the rest of the bosses in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers when it launches later this year.
While no specific date has been given by 505 Games or Leenzee at this time, there's a tentative Summer 2025 release window for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Game Store, and Windows).
