Final month, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers developer Leenzee Video games promised followers that quite a few efficiency and optimization points plaguing the sport since launch can be patched out promptly. Now, patch 1.5 does appear to deal with many of those points, however with a wierd value: it additionally makes sweeping modifications to lots of the sport’s enemies, dialogue, and story which have followers much more sad.
For those who take a look at the patch notes for 1.5, they initially appear fairly inocuous. There’s some bug fixes, and plenty of good enhancements comparable to a sped-up therapeutic animation and the flexibility to dodge cancel out of the restoration animation. There’s additionally an “optimization” in there that the patch notes say is in preparation to enable gamers to respawn nearer to bosses they’ve died to, which might be one other welcome change when it lands.
However tucked within the prolonged patch notes are a pair oddities:
Added dialogs for some NPCs to full some plots. We’ll additional optimize the exhaustion animations sooner or later to enhance the plot efficiency.
Mounted the faction bug in Chapter 4, adjusted the extent design, and elevated the efficiency impact of BVB.
Added some ‘Wuchang’ voice to full the story, and added some NPC dialogues.
So what’s all that about? As documented on Twitter/X by Lance McDonald, the replace has made vital modifications to sure NPCs, bosses, and enemies to make it in order that they canonically don’t die.
Seems like the newest replace to WUCHANG which makes dodging approach simpler and therapeutic approach quicker additionally sadly censors the sport’s story a bit. A traditionally vital character not dies however runs away fortunately ever after, and you’ll be able to not kill harmless farmer enemies.
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) August 13, 2025
Prior to the patch, you had been in a position to goal and kill sure human NPCs you encountered all through the sport. These characters had been passive, uninteractable in any other case, and did not assault you, however you murdering them affected your character’s “insanity” mechanic in a approach that made for legitimately fascinating gameplay. Now, that is not true — the NPCs are untargetable and unkillable, successfully eradicating the flexibility to select to work together with the insanity mechanic in that particular approach.
Moreover, this transformation additionally considerably impacts the sport’s fourth chapter, which was beforehand fairly chaotic and troublesome to handle due to quite a few human enemies attempting to assault you. Now, a big portion of these enemies aren’t hostile in any respect, turning what was as soon as a really difficult chapter right into a little bit of a cakewalk.
Oh wow, the whole thing of chapter 4 is now insanely straightforward as a result of 50% of the enemies are actually non-hostile to the participant and you’ll be able to’t assault them throughout the insurrection outbreak. What a multitude.
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) August 13, 2025
On prime of this, a number of difficult bosses not “die” once you defeat them. As a substitute, they merely stand there, “exhausted,” or run away to reside fortunately ever after, or declare the extreme battle that simply occurred was all only a “trial.”
Some of the troublesome and epic boss fights now ends with the boss not dying however as a substitute saying “it was all only a trial! And truly the trail you might be on is sweet! Hahaha!” Holy wow https://t.co/SYYFhlUkXm
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) August 13, 2025
Whereas the primary two points influence gameplay immediately, the boss modifications are being roundly criticized by gamers for a way they influence the sport’s story. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers closely focuses on themes of loss of life, and having the ability to settle for the loss of life of a liked one or a interval in a single’s life. Lots of the enemies in Fallen Feathers are actively attempting to thwart loss of life, or extend one thing that can inevitably come to a detailed. So in a number of of those circumstances, them not dying in any respect utterly flies within the face of the sport’s message of accepting loss of life’s inevitability.
As of but, developer Leenzee Video games has not defined why these modifications had been made, or made any assertion in any respect past the patch notes (IGN has reached out for remark). Nevertheless, many gamers are accurately mentioning that the characters impacted by the modifications appear to have one thing in widespread: they’re all people who’re affiliated with the Ming Dynasty indirectly.
Fallen Feathers is historic fiction, and takes place in 1600s China on the finish of the Ming Dynasty, the final dynasty dominated by the Han Chinese language earlier than the Qing took over. Although the story of the sport initially used the ending of the Ming Dynasty to successfully body its message about loss of life and transferring on, now, not one of the Ming characters die or transfer on, rendering the premise ineffectual. In consequence, quite a few damaging Steam opinions and posts on numerous social platforms are accusing Leenzee of self-censoring, allegedly due to suggestions from a phase of largely Chinese language gamers upset in regards to the sport’s therapy of the Ming characters.
“Bettering sport efficiency is welcoming,” reads one “not really helpful” Steam evaluate from August 13, by somebody with 58 hours within the sport. “However this have to be the primary time I’ve heard of story plot change publish launch. So far as I’m conscious. Plot change made the story utterly completely different, and even make a few of the characters motivation pointless. I do not know what sort of strain Leenzee obtained to go so far as altering the video games plot. I’ve learn that it was criticized by some avid gamers for not being traditionally correct. However the story is ficiton is it not? I’ve determined to cease enjoying for now, and hope Leenzee undo the plot modifications. Or at the least make it attainable to rollback to patch 1.4.”
Curiously, the r/wuchanggame subreddit appears to be nearly utterly devoid of criticism of the patch, however users of other subreddits are claiming that the moderators of that subreddit have been deleting any posts which can be important of those modifications.
IGN reviewed the discharge model of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers at launch and gave it an 8/10, calling it “yet one more nice soulslike to add to the ever-increasing pile, that includes glorious fight, great stage design, an unimaginable talent tree, and fearsome bosses.” So if you will discover a approach to play on the pre-patch model, it looks as if that is the best way to go for now.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Yow will discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Acquired a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.