Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

There’s a phrase you'll get used to seeing in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, aside from the obligatory notification of failure whenever the titular hero meets her demise. It occurs after a successive number of reawakenings, displayed below a flashing red seal: ‘Madness Descends’.

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Afflicted with a feathering disease that’s spreading from her left arm, Wuchang knows that the condition slowly drives its victims to insanity. While she never succumbs to the worst fate of transforming into something monstrous, her madness eventually manifests as a hostile figure in a hat who invades the last place you fell. The message is thus a portent of their arrival, although it could equally sum up our state of mind as we try to overcome the game's challenges.

Leenzee unmistakably cuts from the same grubby cloth that FromSoftware uses for its action RPGs, and you'll note some direct nods to Bloodborne. The red currency acquired from defeated enemies is the biggest giveaway, but there are little things too: the voices of residents speaking from behind boarded-up houses; a woman’s beastly transformation as blood spatters on the wall; a forest trap designed to catch you out with a second swing. More often, however, Wuchang escapes such immediate comparisons as the Chengdu-based studio interprets these influences through a local cultural lens. While the 16th century, at the end of the Ming dynasty, is certainly a turbulent time in China, it has a somewhat more zen and inviting atmosphere than Yharnam with its pitchfork mobs, at least on initial appearances. You encounter a handful of friendly, or at least non-hostile, faces at Reverent Temple, while the paths in Worship’s Rise are lined with Buddha statues, temples and pretty bamboo.