[Hot Take] Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

Wuchang provides not-so comfort (Souls-like) food

Everybody has something that’s their comfort. Comfort game, comfort animal, comfort streamer, comfort TV show, you name it! Usually when a noun is preceded by the word “comfort” one immediately thinks of snack foods or maybe even a big hefty stew during the Winter. Now, there’s nothing wrong with comfort nouns, everyone has them. The issue comes down to when the comforting object isn’t necessarily yours, though.

What does this mean exactly? Well if one person loves Yakisoba-pan and invites their friend to eat with them but the friend that was invited hates Yakisoba-pan or is just ambivalent to it, the friend is just going to be disappointed.

This is what Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is for me, unfortunately. Fallen Feathers is a third person souls-like with a massive interconnected map, stamina management gameplay and a parry mechanic. To some readers this is an immediate pique of interest and yet to others like myself it’s a feeling of “been there done that”.

It’s not to say that my ambivalence towards Wuchang: Fallen Feathers means that I think the game is bad. The fact of the matter is, it’s very solid and the handful of unique game play mechanics it offers made my time with it bearable despite the looming cloud of familiarity.

The two mechanics that I want to lightly touch on revolve around the star of the show, the combat. Fallen Feathers mechanically rests on the fence between Sekiro and Bloodborne; it’s fast-paced and encourages the player with even quicker reaction times. One way it does this is by having the player master dodging. A last second dodge grants a resource called Skyborn Might which is used to dish out special attacks that are unique depending on the weapon and to cast spells. I really thought this mechanic was a cool way to make fights feel more engaging and less focused on perfect parrying.

The second highlight of the game is the weapon-swapping mechanic. Mid fight you can quickly swap between two weapons; a long sword at the blink of an eye will be an axe the next second, BUT during the switch the weapon you’re swapping to activates its weapon skill. For example a spear has you running at the enemy and poking them until they look like Swiss cheese. Figuring out the weapon combos you like best is a really interesting way to allow players to personalize their play style over time.

All of this is to say, if souls-likes are your comfort food you should check this one out when you get the chance. If you’re a tourist within the jungle but still an appreciator like myself, maybe staying away is the better option.

This Hot Take is based on a Steam code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher.