In 2021, when the domestic action game project WuChang: Fallen Feathers was first exposed, the content shown by the production team was not yet mature, and it was also questioned by many players. After a long period of silence, they have regained their momentum and handed in a satisfactory answer today. After all, no matter how much publicity is made, it is not as good as the experience when the player picks up the handle.
Background
In the story background of the late Ming Dynasty, a disease called Feathering Disease spread in the land of Bashu. The infected will gradually feather, lose their mind and eventually turn into a monster. The heroine Wu Chang was infected with this disease at the beginning of the story, but she was able to use the power of Feathers to enhance her own abilities and assist in combat.
Feathers
Almost every action game has a unique set of core mechanisms to serve its combat experience. Just like Offset system and Witch Time of Bayonetta, the deflections and Spirit system of Wo Long, and the stick charging and switching of Black Myth: Wukong. The core mechanism of WuChang: Fallen Feathers is Feathers, a dynamic resource with stackable layers used to enhance specific abilities.
Feathers are very easy to obtain in combat. Every time a player dodges an enemy attack through a perfect dodge, they can gain a layer of Feathers. Consuming Feathers can strengthen certain types of attacks, such as shortening the charging time of a heavy attack to release it quickly, or performing powerful spells. In addition, the combat skills of weapons will also gain more powerful power and effects with the addition of Feathers.
In addition to the default perfect dodge, the character’s skill tree can further expand the way to obtain Feathers. For example, when a perfect parry is made against an enemy attack, a normal attack hits an enemy for a certain number of times, and even a weapon type such as a one-handed sword, a layer of Feathers can be automatically accumulated every period.
The introduction of Feathers’ mechanism has obviously added a clear sense of purpose to the combat system of WuChang: Fallen Feathers. To put it more simply, Feathers are a kind of temporary resources obtained through risk-reward mechanisms such as precise dodges, specific combos, and parries. These resources can enhance the player’s ability and provide more strategic options and ways to deal with enemies in battle.
Combat
Of course, don’t think that WuChang: Fallen Feathers is a hardcore action game with extremely high operational requirements just because perfect dodges can get Feathers. In fact, the dodge judgment of the game is quite loose, and it is often easy to dodge by intuition when you first see it.
The game also provides two ways to deal with attacks: defense and precise parry. But unlike other action games, WuChang: Fallen Feathers’s blocking can only block enemies attacking with weapons. When facing physical attacks from monsters and unarmed enemies, the defensive effect will be reduced.
The combat part of WuChang: Fallen Feathers is more inclined to ACT design. Although there is also a certain RPG numerical influence, it does not dominate. This can be seen from the length of the enemy’s health bar. Most of the enemies in the game, including elite monsters, will be killed after fighting with the player for a while. As far as the process of the first chapter is concerned, there is almost no boss whose health bar is very healthy after being hit by many skills.
On the one hand, the game’s ACT operation encourages players to learn and deal with the enemy’s moves. But at the same time, it also provides some means of skipping classes and RPG-like processing methods. If the enemy is agile but has low toughness, use the weapon to charge and knock it down. If the enemy is obviously easy to ignite, you can try to accumulate Feathers and release fire attribute spells to defeat it.
There are 7 bosses in the first chapter, including hidden bosses and the final boss. Each battle has a unique design and will not make people feel repetitive.
Some bosses have a fatal area under their feet, and they will constantly release full-screen AOE attacks and monsters to interfere with players, leaving almost no room for melee weapons to play. In this case, it is obviously a more appropriate strategy to accumulate Feathers by accurately dodging various AOE attacks and use fire magic to attack the boss remotely.
Skill Tree
In Soul series, players increase the character’s attribute points every time they level up by collecting Souls. In WuChang: Fallen Feathers, players need to add points to a huge skill tree by collecting Red Mercury.
The design of the skill tree combines the characteristics of traditional ACT and RPG: it not only contains traditional action nodes that unlock new skills and new genres, but also provides attribute nodes that simply strengthen specific attributes. This design makes the characters build theoretically closer to the free development mode of Diablo - not a solidified route, but choosing the required parts from many forks. It is worth mentioning that the game also supports non-consumption reset points at any time, providing players with a high degree of freedom in building switching.
There are currently five weapons in the game: axe, spear, double sword, long sword, one-handed sword. Each weapon has different genre options, and there are options to strengthen weapons in the skill tree.
For example, the special effect provided by the skill tree for the one-handed sword is to gain a layer of Feathers every once automatically in a while. At the same time, this skill tree is also full of attribute bonuses of Feathering and magic. Obviously, this is a weapon tailor-made for the spell school.
And each weapon has a skill node in the skill tree that consumes Feathers to reduce the charging time. If you don’t know how to consume the accumulated Feathers, it’s always right to attack quickly with a charging attack.
Map Design
As a soul-like game, WuChang: Fallen Feathers obviously took a lot of thought to build the map - there is a design that organically connects the map around the shrine (Bonfire) with a shortcut, and there are also some “doors that cannot be opened from this side” and malicious paths. The game currently does not see the option to display the map, which means that players can only explore the unknown area ahead.
The level design incorporates many classic malice in Souls series:
- Fighting the trio on a narrow wooden boardwalk without guardrails will slide into the abyss if you are not careful.
- Ambush in the blind spot, wait for the character to pass by, and then charge and push you down.
- When you walk into the depths to pick up an ordinary consumable, 3 or 5 enemies suddenly appear around you and beat you up together.
The good protagonist has good action performance and dodge ability. The game also provides many additional life recovery props similar to LifeGem in Dark Souls 2. Unlike many Souls games, there is nothing you can do after drinking Estus Flask. Thanks to the protagonist’s strong ability and the action system that is more ACT-oriented in nature, the experience of exploring the map can be regarded as painful and happy.
But as far as the content presented in the first chapter is concerned, it is enough to break the filter given to players by the first trailer in 2021, and let players rekindle their confidence in this game. As long as the subsequent chapters can maintain the same quality, this game will definitely receive large-scale praise from players.
