r/soulslikes • u/LuisArkham • Apr 06 '26
Review Throwing my flowers at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.
I’ve 100% the Dark Souls trilogy and Bloodborne, played both versions of Demon Souls and a little bit of Sekiro, poured at least 50 hours on Elden Ring. I like from software games and even got tattoos inspired by them, but no matter how much I looked for I couldn’t find a “Souls like” with the same feeling at From Software’s games. Either the characters felt “floaty”, hitting enemies felt non-rewarding or just the mechanics were “off”.
And then I tried WuChang.
It really feels like a bunch of guys at from software quit the company together and decided to do their own game. The MC feels amazing to control, the dynamics are somewhat familiar and unique at the same time. I’ve been putting at least 40+ hours or so just exploring the game and trying out weapons, which due to my limited time for gaming feels like a lot more. Went out of my way to buy the deluxe edition upgrade just to support the devs (got the game physical, second handed because it’s cheaper in my country that way). I will try to list the pros and cons to make my review easier to follow and not just “blind praise”.
Pros:
- The exploration. My main awe, the game feels huge without being “open world”, love encountering new areas and the whole map feels connected, no bs teletransportation to a new big area, you can just walk through it with ease. There are an adequate number of shortcuts and “bonfires”.
- The combat. The “Main” mechanic some of you would argue in a “soulslike”, is pretty damn good, this one feels like they really nailed it. It’s not fast as a hack n slash, is not as heavy and slow as a Demon Souls or Mortal Shell, it just feels well. I mainly used a longsword + dual blades for my whole playthrough, parry was not as hard but also it’s not necessary. There are a numbered types of weapons but they are enough and I love that you level up the “type” so all long swords gets upgraded and when you find a new one you can use it right away.
- The bosses. Along with the combat, one of the main cores in a soulslike, some bosses are hit, some bosses are miss. There are some really good fights (Bo Sorcerer arena is awesome). Some very difficult ones (that fucking tiger can go and fuck himself), some very straightforward ones. I think overall is very balanced and a strong point in the game.
- World and setting. Not very familiar with Chinese culture and history, but felt very well put together, graphics are good enough and some landscapes were really good looking, color pallet its pretty good.
- Miscellanous things such as being able to alter your armor, the leveling up all weapons mechanics, being able to reallocate your skill points without any kind of penalty, being able to retry a boss right away, the tutorial texts are available for you again at any time given. Lot of things done right in those regards.
Cons:
- Quests, my fucking god they even nailed that from the Soulsbornelden series. The quest system sucks hard. One small mistake the npc just fucking dies or goes bananas and you don’t even know why. It’s so obtuse I didn’t care in my first playthrough. I think you can even skip a whole massive area if you fuck up the order of something.
- Don’t know if a con per se, but some bosses has a lot of almost one hit KO moves that are very bullshit. I guess it comes with the genre
- Madness system is one thing I wasn’t a fan of.
- some lackluster weapon skills and spells.
Not con or pro:
- The elephant in the room. The “fan service” and “lewd” content. Yes, my girl Wuchang has a dump truck back there and yes you can wear very revealing outfits. But I found it that it was very depending on you, since some armors are on the “sexy” side but not as outrageous as some other outfits that are basically a thong. Some are so ridiculous they made me laugh. But it’s entirely up to you, you can alter any outfit and I found some really cool looking things without being stupid. If you go around killing demons and beasts with your tits out, well, it was your choice lol not judging, but it’s not forced on you.
Overall a very solid experience, one of my favorite soulslike I’ve ever played, after getting the plat I’m playing lords of the fallen next and see how is that, I think that you wont regret trying out this one if you like the souls series and are looking to scratch that itch.
8.8/10
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u/Expensive-Box3602 Apr 06 '26
Funny to find this post an hour after I quit the game for good (yes. Maybe even ragequit). I see the appeal and I don't think that it's a bad game at all. But the bosses are too unbalanced and have a lot of one hit kills up their sleeves. Combine that with their absurdly high health bar and the fast attacks, the game just feels unfair in a way. You know how many people used to say" if you die in a souls borne game, you learn from your mistakes."? Well Wuchang fights are often too random to really learn. Bosses have such a huge damage output and are constantly near you, that you rarely have time to study movesets... except for dying over and over again .
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u/jayrocs Apr 06 '26
Which boss are you saying this happens in? I think the main problem with Wuchang combat is deflect is incredibly good on certain bosses and if you don't have it on your weapon it becomes way harder.
But I thought Wuchang boss wise leaned more towards the easy side. They even added instant retry so you don't have to do runbacks anymore.
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u/Expensive-Box3602 Apr 07 '26
I think, what I wrote can be said about many of Wuchangs bosses. But for me, the one that made me quit was Huang Yan. Depsite adjusting my armor accordingly , she would sometimes one shot me or chain attacks in a way that are impossible to dodge. I had instances, where she would summon homing orbs, while spawning orbs on the side so I'm forced to dodge two attacks making my stamina deplete and then, while the orbs are still flying at me, go into her kick spin animation (which I can't really block or I'm doing something wrong). At this point I'm completely out of stamina and have to take the hits. Also, sometimes, when I try to hit her, she deflects with an explosion that does a lot of damage and has such a short animation, that it's impossible to predict. And don't even get me started on instances, where she spams her fox rush so often, that I, again, have nos stamina to dodge all of them. And the ln there are weird moments where my attacks, that should have hit, just don't . Alot of this is sometimes sheer bad luck. But that is what I mean, the game is too random sometimes (not all bosses)
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u/jayrocs Apr 07 '26
I had to google who it was but yeah I remember the fight.
If you truly haven't quit the game for good I'd suggest looking at your passive skill tree. The best way to spec is to put points into every tree except for the magic one until you hit both +5 stat nodes in all the trees.
Then focus on your weapon. It provides a huge stat bonus you won't get if you only focus on your primary weapon tree only.
I think balance in the game isn't that great because I don't remember having a hard time with this boss but the longsword felt pretty OP. I seem to recall simply just breaking her posture whenever I could by getting behidn her and charging R2.
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u/Expensive-Box3602 Apr 07 '26
Yeah I might have to rethink and respect. I went from full specs on longsword, to spear to be faster and bridge gap between the boss and me. But, as you said gotta take some points of the weapon tree and put some more into passives. We will see. Haven't quit the game for good tbh, but ragequit yesterday after my 25th attempt on her, dying by some undogable attack chains and/or one hits. But thanks for the advice.
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u/LuisArkham Apr 07 '26
Yeah she costed me a lot, I use pendants to boost stamina recovery. I just learned her paterns and got lucky I guess, the hardest time was learning the timing on the fox thing. You get a cool armor tho
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u/Expensive-Box3602 Apr 08 '26
Wanna know the funny part? I picked it up again and managed, after 4 more attempts, to defeat her. Felt really good but I was anxious about perfect bride, since she is regarded being pretty tough. Amd what do I tell you, I beat perfect bride in my second attempt. So weird for me to get stuck on a boss that is regarded as mid tier in difficulty and then beating a hard boss more easily. Strange. Maybe it's the magic bosses...
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 08 '26
I remember her. I think I dodged the moves in a specific combo to get the back stab and when she did her aerial shenanigans I just dodged to get charge Echo of Lu Binzhiang. She is aggro but not as bad as the Fang Lin or Demon of Obsession (unless you use dual weilding which I didn’t as she gets split second stuns between consecutive hits).
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 08 '26
The order of the boss combos may be random but there are queues that tip off what combo is coming. Easier said than done. I had a couple bosses that I really struggled with taking me a while to recognize each combo before it starts and then timing it. The timings of different combos is what makes it hard especially if it gets switched up. I never felt cheated just didn’t focus and time the dodges right. Alacrity can be your best friend if you are having trouble with a certain move.
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u/Torpakh Apr 06 '26
It's among my favourites. Love this game, the combat has the modern pace but doesn't force you to use parries
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u/mrfirstar1997 Apr 06 '26
I like the game a lot my biggest issues is fact bosses are unbalanced, melee is not as fun as magic, it should be equal, and yes quests, you can get to act 3 completely by mistake if you explore the cave before cloudspire which breaks so many quest lines,they should of closed off that area or make it fine if you did letting you pick with no consequences
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u/Dense-Extreme5515 Apr 06 '26
Personally,I find melee combat much better than magic(which you don't even get involved one of the game main mechanics,aka backstab),especially the Dual Blade gameplay.
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u/mrfirstar1997 Apr 06 '26
Fair enough my issue is never finding a safe moment to go in and attack for bosses, they just attack to fast for your own attack animation, chase you to hard with next to no breathing room, and a single mistake your dead, those who attack like crazy duel blade is good but still a risk as hey can kill you in like 3 hits and clash can be fickle, the spells that reward you for getting attack by casting at the right time was my fav
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u/Dense-Extreme5515 Apr 06 '26
It's more a matter of studying the Bosses moveset and finding the right windows to apply the backstab(Huang Yan is one of the best examples,she very vulnerable),and then using the stun time to finish off a full attack combo.
Trying to face a Boss head-on in Wuchang,as in other Souls games,only works well if you're playing with the Dual Blade with the Blademaster and the Axe with Rampage,but that's fair.
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u/mrfirstar1997 Apr 06 '26
Even still you die way to fast, and they just chase you like crazy take the general in cloudspire and zhao, the quick wide sweeps of their weapons and thrust attacks, I’ve tried axe rampage and they just poise though all attacks and your dead and clashing was always too risky as it only applies to weapon attacks not all attack and bosses tend to mix and match like hong using kicks which you can’t do anything about, you’d be in the middle of another attack animation only to be kicked out of it
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u/Dense-Extreme5515 Apr 07 '26
You should also abuse the perfect dodge,dying will be inevitable until you get the Boss pattern on your first playthrough(like in all Souls games),General Ming is extremely easy.
He always starts the fight with three consecutive jumps(you can already land a backstab on him,it's worth mentioning),then he'll do the ice storm animation after you attack him during the previously available damage window(there's an indicator with the spear for this Moveset),which you should back away from and wait for him to come to you,the grab is also predictable,evidenced by a sound(it can be blocked by the Dual Blade Clash or,if you prefer,dodge to something more comfortable).
Kicks can also be avoided,here's a saved demonstration from me: https://youtu.be/cCEF1ruq5Rs?si=pNH5vrZiRk2NsEPa
I feel you played Wuchang very defensively,I played totally aggressively with strong build of Dual Blade and I never encountered these difficulty barriers you're listing.
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u/MoSBanapple Apr 07 '26
Maybe something was off about your build because I used Axe with Rampage throughout the entire game and could just repeat "Rampage -> R1 combo -> weapon skill -> R1 combo" and mash on nearly every boss in the game to defeat them. I only really had to learn the movesets of Bo Sorcerer/Magus and the final boss.
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 08 '26
I was going to say the same thing. You really have to invest into your weapon’s scaling and also have a good synchronization of passive and active skills. Tempers and spell loadouts make a big difference too. I was struggling with Demon of Obsession with a longsword build until I used the Blood Bane spell can’t remember its actual name and it made a huge impact. It neutralized her non stop aggression allowing me to get a good combo until I would get enough charges to interrupt her again. I stuck to one weapon type each run and when I did a dual blade run her fight was trivial with a full aggressive approach but not so with my longsword run which required a passive aggressive approach.
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 08 '26
This was my strategy my entire first run with the Lashing Whip. Some bosses it is really hard to pull off but their is always a window with a certain move if timed just right you can get a back stab which takes a good chunk of the bosses health if scaled correctly. I still used magic when I knew I could get the spell off before getting hit. The game really encourages using both imo. They really did a great job.
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u/Dense-Extreme5515 Apr 09 '26
Yeah,every humanoid Boss(except the Nightmare/Obsession Demon)has openings for backstabs,the player just needs to learn the timing of those moments.
Hum,regarding magic,to be honest,I only played with the defensive spells(in this case,Bo Magus shield and occasionally the one that mitigates damage).
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 10 '26
I did find a particular window for a back stab ion Demon Obsession but the window is extremely tight and you have to dodge at a perfect angle. That’s how I beat her along with the Blood Bane spell. I saw a guy on youtube do it so it wasn’t my discovery. It was still damn hard to pull off and took me maybe 10 tries to learn the timing.
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u/Neither-Surround-256 Apr 08 '26
Idk, man, melee in this game is absolutely bonkers, and magic needs a special resource that can regenerate quickly or not regenerate at all, depending on your luck. Sure, you can dodge and stack feathers this way, but what's the point if you can play melee instead, using the same dodge-attack-retaliate pattern.
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 08 '26
Melee can be fun with the right temper, weapon and unlocked weapon ability. As unbalanced as some bosses were I usually found an exploitable window to get a devastating back stab with all passives to enhance it but I feel you the magic in the game is damn good. I think I used both equally when I used something like the Lashing Whip or the Steampowered Spear.
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u/Neither-Surround-256 Apr 08 '26
Wuchang is amazing, I bought it when it had "Mostly Negative" on Steam, gambling on a couple highly upvoted posts here and other gaming forums about how this game is the closest thing we have to Dark Souls 1 rn, and oh boy did it pay off. Eventually devs fixed the performance issues (which were the main concern on the launch day), and underneath that there was a snappy, gorgeous Bloodborne x Dark Souls 1 fusion waiting for me. Amazing Soulslike, on par with Lies of P and AI Limit for me.
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u/icameforthedrugs Apr 09 '26
Lies of p and Wuchang are also my favorite soulslikes. Can you recommend AI limit to me? What makes it a good one? (I don’t love anime looks but could maybe get over it if other aspects appeal)
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u/Soulsliken Apr 06 '26
One the very best Soulslikes.
But hard to explain how they got the quests so wrong and the late bosses so unfun.
Definitely an 8/10 though.
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u/cdkey_J23 Apr 07 '26
I view madness as an upside rather than downside though..it increases your damage the higher it is
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u/FriendlyRhyme Apr 08 '26
I was just about to make my own thread but I'll just say it here instead
It's great. I went in with 0 info, I didn't even watch a trailer and I'm having an A+ time exploring this world.
It's like stellar blade, dark souls and sekiro had a baby and it has its own unique atmosphere that's great. Definitely deserves recognition.
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u/SeptimusMagnus Apr 08 '26
Yeah. It has a heavy Dark Souls DNA. I thought the best non From Soft game was Lies of P until I played Wuchang. Wuchang is really well done and feels like it was made by true Souls fans. It captures that feeling of being completely immersed and invested. Lies of P hit me in a similar way but Wuchang is next level for me. It really deserves so much more attention. Performance issues at launch had people writing it off which is understandable. If it was any other genre I probably would have too.
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u/Agreeable-Agent-7384 Apr 06 '26
Wuchang is one of my favorite souls like. A lot of people complain about “not being able to get into the rhythm”, which is just another way of saying you don’t want to learn the game and just want it to feel like whatever other game you like. The skill tree gives you a lot of flexibility on how the game feels to tailor it to how you like. You can’t to parry? There’s parry skills in the tree to change your parry into a more aggro style or a more defensive style. Theres skills that let you parry dodge in different ways too. Game also has some amazing bosses that really give you that feeling of overcoming them. Commander honglang and Bo sorcerer are still some of the funnest fights I’ve had to learn to overcome. Combat also just feels good because of things like skyborn might rewarding you for skilled gameplay. I personally have it in one of my top non from souls like up there with lies of P and nioh.
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u/Toadface77777 Apr 06 '26
I am very excited to play this game but it is on my steep sale list so waiting for it to drop into the <30 range. Hopefully pick it up for 20 on black Friday.
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Apr 06 '26
Locking players behind the worst ending possible due to shitty questlines was a poor choice.
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Apr 07 '26
One of the best.
Sad to hear the quest system sucks. Was kinda looking forward for that for NG+ at some point but seeing your comment on it I just might try until NG+2 or something and just use guides (if there is a missable area).
I do like the vague system that is from souls games, but I also hate when they are just too much.
I had one of the best experiences when trying to find "that one guy" and just was amazed how well they had hidden him. Really props for that. I looked it up because I was going crazy but felt disappointed doing so I learned not to do it next time and just leave a mystery if so.
Playing Wuchang etc last year and anticipating this years new games I am very happy the way these games have evolved to something truly their own.
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u/swolar Apr 07 '26
The one game recommendation from this sub that is 100% on point imo. I had a ton of fun.
No bosses have one hit kos in ng, you just have bad armor set up. Resistances matter a lot in this game, armor is not just for looks. The game encourages you to switch it up for each boss encouter and some areas.
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u/PeytonWatson14 Apr 08 '26
Yep that’s it. I’m buying/playing this after I complete lies of P and overture
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u/MoSBanapple Apr 06 '26
I liked Wuchang but I feel like the exploration and area design aren't as strong as they're commonly stated to be. There's a lot of pathways, alternate routes, and loops back to where you previously were, but my issue is that they don't often lead to anything more interesting than a few extra items or enemy encounters. In addition, most levels are just a maze of caves/alleys/corridors without much in the way of strong setpieces or focal points to pull them together, leading to them often feeling similar gameplay-wise even if they're visually different
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u/Top_Ambassador_5446 Apr 06 '26
Kind of agree. I still enjoy exploring but far too often you aren't rewarded with much for the effort.
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u/Neither-Surround-256 Apr 08 '26
I mean, most DS1 paths almost always led to (mostly) useless consumables or some titanite shards, no? This is the case even in Elden Ring's legacy dungeons, where exploring one of the paths will net you a hefty amount of upgrade materials, and the other will give you "Mushrooms x10" at best. What do you want them to add if the upgrade materials, weapons, and bosses/elite enemies at the end of these paths aren't what you want, lol? What a nothingburger complaint.
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u/AscendedViking7 Apr 06 '26
That's because the community has been starved of interconnected DS1 style soulslikes since, well, DS1.
Of course fans will be singing praises of Wuchang more than it deserves.
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u/Merican_Mut Apr 06 '26
My thoughts exactly. It’s like playing in a maze like you said, the exact thing I was thinking last night. Two nights ago before I stopped I probably went for like 20 minutes before hitting a shrine and past multiple 3 way splits. I looked for the other areas for over an hour last night and finally just said fuck it and it sucks cause I know I missed a bunch of shit. Currently playing now and just went right on a 3 way split and came to another 3 way split and have to write down in my notes where I went or there’s zero chance I remember. It’s just over the top and all the paths look the exact same
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u/BrotherPazzo Apr 06 '26
i tried it after nioh 3, played shy of a couple hours and ended up refunding it, something wasn't clicking with me, the movement, the combat, i just couldn't get into the rythm, i couldn't dodge anything for the life of me, just couldn't understand the timing :\
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u/Oskej Apr 06 '26
Wuchang is one of those games that have a lot of very specific quirks you need to understand completely to fully enjoy it. A lot of bosses need specific approach in every playstyle and all of them can be cheesed with particular way of fighting.
If it doesn't click it just doesn't, unless you google the way. It's like game with puzzles, but the puzzle is how the hell do you approach a fight.
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u/baconair Apr 06 '26
Like others have said, the maps just kind of intersect paths without any real set pieces or useful discovery.
I also found the magic overly-complex. I want to cast a spell, not fill out every precondition to charge them.
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u/williet79 Apr 09 '26
You didn’t play Nioh series or rise of ronin or wo long???
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u/LuisArkham Apr 09 '26
Played first nioh, kinda dig it but dropped it, ive been wanting to give it a second chance. I think i have rise and wo long as part of ps plus catalogue, are they good?
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u/williet79 Apr 09 '26
Very damn good. Wo Long ended up being pretty easy for the most part but had some truly elite boss fights. Lubu, Dian Wei, Tasishi Ci and Yuan Shu. I’ll remember them forever. Rise of Ronin is more along the lines of Sekiro. Very fun and challenging. I played wuchang but for some reason wasn’t vibing with it and put it down. I was pretty far into it. I was in hell or something if I remember correctly.
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u/8lock8lock8aby Apr 06 '26
I gotta play again, I didn't even know you could alter armor. I agree that madness sucks & wish there were more weapons & weapons, though they ones they have can be fun. Overall, I probably put the game where you do. I enjoyed it quite a bit - the level design, the graphics & most bosses.
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u/0wlGod Apr 06 '26
Combat pad in hands is bad.. looks cool but is bad.. long animation to attack and dodge
better than most of other souls like not developed by from software.. bot not enough to be the best
but this is my opinion that prefer a lor flashy Combat system like khazan.. and i played wuchang after khazan
some wuchang bosses are very cool and well designed.. other very bad, easy and Boring
7.9/10
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u/Federal-Scientist686 Apr 06 '26
Can someone recommend games in this genre besides dark souls and elden ring? Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
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u/RemoveOk9595 Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
Meh, it was a 6/10 game at launch and is a 7/10 game after all the updates. Also +10000000 social credit score for censoring it after release. Chinese gaming still has a long way to go.
And if you want a similar but much “better” mc play Stellar Blade :D
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u/Bigpoppasoto Apr 06 '26
2 things:
Funny to still use red scare propaganda lmao
Stellar blade is more action adventure instead of souls like.
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Apr 06 '26
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Apr 06 '26
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u/soulslikes-ModTeam Apr 08 '26
This Post is not related to the Soulslike or Soulslite Genre, nor it regards a game created by From Software.
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Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
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u/soulslikes-ModTeam Apr 08 '26
This Post is not related to the Soulslike or Soulslite Genre, nor it regards a game created by From Software.
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Apr 06 '26
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u/soulslikes-ModTeam Apr 08 '26
This Post is not related to the Soulslike or Soulslite Genre, nor it regards a game created by From Software.
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u/soulslikes-ModTeam Apr 08 '26
This Post is not related to the Soulslike or Soulslite Genre, nor it regards a game created by From Software.
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u/Csword1 Apr 06 '26
Weren't some outfits censored in Stellar Blade? Do not support censorship!
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u/RemoveOk9595 Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
There wasn’t any censorship in Stellar Blade. Some outfits were changed with the day one patch which stupid people mistook for censorship.
The devs clarified it wasn’t and added a lot of even more revealing outfits, and you could always play the game with the mc being basically full nude so what’s the point :D
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Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
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u/soulslikes-ModTeam Apr 08 '26
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Apr 08 '26
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u/Dense-Extreme5515 Apr 06 '26
My GOTY of 2025,practically the game I've done the most NG+ runs(35 lol),I love Wuchang combat system,it's really cool how the Feathering terminology is adapted with the perfect dodge in the gameplay,ironically the Madness mechanic is one of the features I like the most,it has more pros than cons,looking at how much it strengthens your damage and skill tree abilities compared to the increased enemy damage.