In an area as crowded because the soulslike style, it may be tough to face out, however after two hours with the uber-difficult Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, it appears the parents at Leenzee Video games could also be onto one thing. Going down in a magical reimagining of dynastic China, you play a pirate warrior who has some critical strikes, making use of intricate and lethal spells, an arsenal of weapons with potent movesets, and an improve tree that’s far more concerned than your typical action-adventure recreation. This makes for an journey the place, most of the time, I felt just like the scary badass the remainder of the world needs to be afraid of, somewhat than the opposite method round. After all, the higher restrict on simply how a lot I might make myself really feel like an overpowered Dynasty Warriors character was my very own talent degree and understanding of Wuchang’s extraordinarily complicated programs, which I might solely dive so deep with throughout my restricted demo. However what I’ve seen to date has me fairly optimistic.

The fundamental method Wuchang: Fallen Feathers appears to distinguish itself from its friends is that right here, as a substitute of some primary sword strikes, a handful of meager spells and talents, and a tiny well being bar, you’re given a reasonably intensive toolkit of formidable instruments to play with. Every weapon lets you unleash distinctive flurries of assaults that ship you hovering into the air, darting throughout the map, and performing insane feats of dexterity which might be far past what’s doable in most soulslikes. It bought to the purpose the place I felt like the world boss stomping my enemies flat, somewhat than a scared, cautious adventurer dealing with unbelievable odds.

That feeling of superiority may need one thing to do with how these talents are acquired: by harvesting them from fallen enemies. That’s proper! Each defeated foe is greater than only a handful of improve supplies. You really get to study their strikes and put them to make use of in opposition to future opponents, ultimately turning you right into a lethal reflection of everybody you’ve bested in battle, and in my time with it I already started to really feel like a power-stealing badass briefly order. And this was simply the opening areas of the journey too – I can solely think about how wild issues get in a while whenever you’re squaring off in opposition to extra highly effective opponents and presumably unlocking much more insane talents.

Don’t get me fallacious: there have been nonetheless loads of situations the place my eagerness or lack of knowledge bought me completely smashed to items, however I additionally felt like I had far more choices for chopping the enemy all the way down to measurement. For instance, one transfer I used to be given whereas wielding a large ax let me leap straight into the air to ludicrous anime-level heights, then smash down on my opponent, stomping them flat and leaving a minion-shaped impression within the earth. One other weapon, fast paced twin blades, gave me the power to fireside off a bunch of small, sticky explosives each time I dodged, which then exploded doing a small quantity of injury, however extra importantly, interrupting enemy motion.

These talents and weapon combos, mixed with spells that permit me do issues like fireplace off a lethal disc of fireplace, allowed me to play far more aggressively than I’m accustomed to, and it’s clear there’s only a entire lot extra to study with Wuchang on the whole. I didn’t have practically sufficient time to completely wrap my thoughts across the varied talent bushes, means customization choices that permit me alter how my weapons functioned, and spellcasting system, nevertheless it’s clear this borrows fairly a bit from RPGs and can must be thought by if you wish to max out your ranges of badassery.

That will likely be fairly useful to do too, due to the 2 bosses I took on in Wuchang, one among them was extraordinarily aggressive and equally beefed up with fancy movesets. It took me fairly a couple of tries to study her fast, convoluted assault patterns, and grasp the timing for parrying her assaults, particularly within the second half of the struggle when every swipe of her blade despatched out huge gusts of wind that knocked my on my butt and did far more injury than I believed the wind was able to. Finally, although, I stood triumphant in opposition to her devilish methods. Relatively than a feeble goon hopelessly outmatched by an enemy clearly above my energy degree, Wuchang’s boss fights made me really feel much more like a peer locked in a duel with sturdy weapons and harmful talents to see who was extra worthy of success.

If there’s one half I didn’t get a very sturdy learn on, it’s Wuchang’s story, which facilities on a illness spreading all through the lands that drives folks mad and makes them sprout feathers. I didn’t see sufficient to say whether or not or not that is more likely to go the gap, however I’ll say I’ve misplaced depend of the variety of soulslikes previously few years which have leaned on that extremely drained trope. I get that having a illness that turns folks into monsters affords a reasonably simple purpose to make all the things on the planet wish to kill you, which may be very useful in this type of recreation, however man am I ever uninterested in seeing it. I’d actually wish to see Wuchang break away from among the story cliches in the identical method it appears to be switching issues up on the subject of fight model.

It’s additionally price noting simply how visually spectacular Wuchang is, which is under no circumstances the norm for the style. Even when I used to be dying half a dozen instances to the identical boss or misplaced amongst a sea of disgusting, mutated enemies, I used to be not less than capable of content material myself with how downright attractive all the things appeared, ruined and deeply troubling because the world was. That stated, I did discover considerably lengthy load instances after every humiliating defeat that respawned me again at a checkpoint, and I’ve to marvel how a lot of that cling time is owed to the world and characters trying so dang good. In equity, there’s little or no probability this factor’s been optimized sufficient to be consultant of the ultimate product, however since I used to be enjoying on a PC that appeared pretty highly effective, it’s undoubtedly one thing I’m going to wish to control as I take a look at future builds.

With solely a brief exploration space and two boss fights to take care of, I solely caught a small glimpse at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, however I already really feel fairly good about its probabilities at being extra than simply one other soulslike so as to add to the ridiculously overflowing pile. The movesets are intricate and attention-grabbing, the RPG mechanics appear deep and provide numerous freedom (even when I can’t declare to know a few of them absolutely), and the boss fights gave me a critical run for my cash that’s uncommon today. All that’s already bought me fairly excited to play extra.