Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a Soulslike action RPG set in feudal China, featuring grotesque monsters and fast-paced difficult combat. If that description sounds like a ton of games released in the last few years, like Black Myth: Wukong and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, that's because it's incredibly familiar in both setting and genre. While Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has a few original ideas when it comes to combat, it is ultimately doing what FromSoftware has been doing for years, but nowhere near the same level of quality as games like Elden Ring.

While doing something new or original isn't a requirement for a game to be great, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn't hit high enough to look past it. The narrative takes the same approach as most Soulslikes, offering cryptic cutscenes and bizarre branching quests that require you to regularly check in with NPCs, in a way that takes away any chance of me being invested in the narrative. That approach works well when the world is mysterious and engaging, but the slight fantasy twist of feudal China results in a world that doesn't feel particularly interesting. The locales feel by the books, with a forest, mines, castles, and snow areas, and while there are a few sections that felt more inspired, like a burning forest, it mostly doesn't rise beyond those base inspirations.

The boss fights swing widely in difficulty, largely thanks to the most interesting aspect of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers combat system is only useful in half the fights. That main feature is clashes and counters, which encourage you to play more aggressively but these systems work well against normal-sized human bosses, but the larger, more monstrous bosses feel designed to make those systems obsolete, leaving a boring combat system in its wake.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers price and availability

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. It will also be available as part of Xbox Game Pass at launch.

• Standard Edition ($50): The base version of the game
• Deluxe Edition ($60): The Deluxe Edition comes with four costumes, four weapons, and a skill upgrade item not found in the base version of the game.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers story and world feel like well-worn territory

Unfortunately, if you've played a recent soulslike, there isn't much new here

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers' biggest failure is the world and level design, which feels like it took more than a little inspiration from other Soulslikes. While the entire genre is playing on FromSoftware's formula, level design is something that can't be replicated as easily as it appears. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a winding mess of linear hallways, and while there might be branches or wider areas, you will always end up looping or finding your way back to the main path. This design is obscured thanks to a lack of map or objective markers, but once you recognize the main design ideas, it's present throughout in a way that makes it feel tedious.

It doesn't help that in the rare instance where I was able to skip an entire main area and complete the following area, an NPC met me outside the exit and teleported me back to the main path so I could do the previous area. It was jarring to have this happen in such a directionless experience, and it was extra frustrating that the game recognized what I had done, and instead of just letting me move forward it went out of its way to send me back.

The areas you explore feel bland and uninspired, taking basic Chinese architecture and adding a bit of corruption to these areas. For as hard as some of the cinematography goes in some cutscenes, the backdrops are always pretty, but never go beyond that. None of this would feel as bad as it does if it wasn't for the Soulslike genre being incredibly overcrowded, especially with games taking inspiration from Chinese history, so what could feel like a nice twist on those designs just feels like a rehash of everything the action RPG genre has become in recent years. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn't play these notes better than other games, nor does it have particularly original ideas, leaving me without any awe-inspiring moments of art design.

Clash attacks and counters make combat compelling, when you can make the most of them

The combat design has a few original ideas it doesn't capitalize on

The combat in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers operates in the same territory as the vast majority of action RPGs inspired by FromSoftware, although it does have a few unique ideas that help keep it from being a complete disaster. In particular, the clash system, which allows you to power through an enemy attack and reduces the amount of damage you take significantly, encourages more aggressive play compared to some other games.

That said, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also cuts this idea short by creating far too many instances where it isn't effective. For starters, not every weapon has clash attacks, and some have them far more frequently in their combos. Dual Swords can clash on nearly every swing, but the Longsword only does it on the third attack of the light combo. That means Dual Swords can take full advantage and power through most attacks, while the Longsword requires such perfect timing, you're far more likely to do it on accident than on purpose.

You can also get counters on some weapons, like the Long Sword, which can fully block and push away an enemy's attack with a well-timed use. Most regular enemies in the world go down quickly enough that simple dodging and attacking can deal with them, but the major flaw in the combat comes in boss fights. The speed of every boss in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is overtuned in an effort to inflate difficulties. Most bosses have fairly simple attack patterns, so the added speed changes the difficulty from being about learning the boss to just being able to cleanly avoid attacks enough times in a row to win, which is far less engaging.

Furthermore, the clashes and counters work well against human-sized enemies, letting you swap between offense and defense in an interesting way, providing multiple ways to defeat a boss. Monster bosses, however, are a different story. Most counters are completely ineffective against the larger bosses, and using clash attacks effectively is much more difficult when the boss is constantly moving towards and away from you at lightning speed. The most effective strategy against these enemies was to dismiss clashes and counters entirely, and rely on magic spam or other exploits, which always results in a frustrating experience that doesn't feel good, even when you do win.

The skill tree offers multiple some interesting build ideas, especially since each weapon type has its own section on the tree. You can refund all of your points without much penalty, which allows for experimentation which is always a positive, and the ability to rapidly switch between two weapons in combat means you can specialize on two different weapon types. While it doesn't seem like every type is as viable as others, largely due to the clashes and counters changing so much between weapons, it's nice to have such variety in each weapon type and being able to switch easily is great.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn't rise above its inspirations

In such a crowded genre, not having anything original to add is a misfire

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is ultimately a victim of a crowded genre and stale ideas. Not only does it have to compete with what feels like a new Souls-inspired action RPGs coming out nearly every month, but it also has to try and offer new ideas compared to those games. It fails on the latter, and since it doesn't have particularly tight combat, strong level design, or a compelling narrative to hang its hat on, it's left feeling like just another one of those. I like some of its original ideas when it comes to combat, but those ideas are supported by enemy and boss designs, instead hindered by enemies that don't mess well with the combat. It's totally competent in what it does, but far too many games have done this better and bolder, leaving Wuchang: Fallen Feathers as a totally serviceable, but just fine, action RPG.