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More than just anothersoulslike set in ancient times, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers makes some smart and creative mechanical changes that so far keeps the formula fresh.

By this point, even as someone who covers these games for a living, I’m used to routinely getting my arse kicked by whatever hot, new Soulslike the release calendar spits out next. The question is: will I be enthused to do it all over again whenever that ‘You Died’ screen (or its equivalent) inevitably hits?

Thankfully, every time an enemy shoved my face to the floor in my recent Wuchang: Fallen Feathers preview, the answer was inevitably, yes, mostly due to the generous level of customisation and combat freedom the game provides by way of distinct melee-focused builds. It has a story focus, of course, which when combined with a beautiful world and some fairly flexible weapons, easily makes this one soulslike to watch in 2025.

On the surface, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers doesn’t look to be doing too much new . You play as an amnesiac pirate warrior experiencing an affliction that is slowly transforming her arm into feathers, which causes her harm but allows her to wield a type of rage that sees her inflict more damage on others (as well as herself).

While searching for answers to this quandary, there’s the usual gamut of underlings to sneak behind and defeat, labyrinthine environments to traverse, and bosses. Oh, the bosses, which might be some of the hardest I’ve faced since probably . (No, I didn’t go back to play the DLC).

Wuchang makes the most of its otherwise typical premise, however, by letting the character’s unique ‘feathering’ ailment bleed into actual gameplay. The biggest example is the aforementioned Rage mechanic, whereby the more times you die, the more weakened you are to pretty much any type of attack, while also being able to deal more damage to others.

It’s a different variation on the risk/reward approach Soulslike titles traditionally take that made traversing biomes – here spanning everything from ancient ruins to underground mines – much more of a challenge. The game purposefully makes ridding yourself of this Rage really tricky, and so I was forced to just deal with it for the majority of my demo.

Learning all Wuchang’s specific intricacies was made much easier due to the fact I got to play three-and-half right from the very start. Casting spells, landing light and heavy attacks all feels very responsive and natural, though I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still missing whenever time came to slice up a few fools with my standard sword.

Because while dodging around works well for a while, some enemies hit so hard that a standard block wasn’t enough – especially using the slow-moving Halberd weapon. Dodging is always on hand to remedy this to an extent, yet Wuchang shakes things up by only making parries available to deploy with certain weapons.

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When I eventually did find a weapon capable of parrying, taking down bosses like the giant underground spider and blade-slinging empress felt a bit more of a possibility. But it looks to totally be up to the play, and mostly dependent on their preferred playstyle.

The sheer flexibility of combat builds is what I came away from my Wuchang: Fallen Feathers impressed by most, especially since every weapon comes with two unique manoeuvres such as my starting sword’s Dash Strike or the hammer’s ‘Mighty Blow’, all of which combine with any gained spells (received after defeating bosses), charm abilities, and devastating Obliterate attacks that can be performed when enemies are staggered. There are plenty of ways to get the upper hand.

Interesting combat is one thing, but I was also pleased to see in my demo that Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also has the chops in terms of locations. Set during the late Ming Dynasty, it features the expected settings of ancient temples, multi-tier huts, and luscious forests.

However, following the second boss I defeated, I was thrust into a dark and winding underground area, where shortcuts mean taking a lift up and down various floors after going the long way round via spiralling pathways. It was in this area where I could no longer rely on dodging to get out of scrapes, either, since mistiming the slightest step meant falling to my death instantly. Luckily, I felt that Wuchang was fairly generous with its Shrine placement during the three hours I played, all of which are activated after making an appropriately gruesome-looking blood sacrifice.

Despite how it might look superficially, then, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers manages to introduce enough new elements, such as the Rage mechanic and flexible melee weapon builds, to prevent it from falling into the category of ‘just another soulslike’. Geoff Keighley’s most recent showing proved just how generic these types of titles can be these days, yet so far, from what I’ve seen, there’s every reason to get excited about what Leenzee has been cooking up.

It could turn out to be something special, provided you don’t mind some particularly tough bosses and not always being able to rely on constant parrying to stay alive.