Man, I thought I was done with souls clones or soulsborne titles, now it seems China is taking their turn and with so many coming out this year, a lot of Wuxia based to begin with. They are just steam piling up on the fatigue I have with the genre.
So I wondered if Wuchang would change that, hearing about its launch performance issues didn't help. But after some time and updates, it's running decently so far and not too super demanding either. There's a lot to like in this soulslike, that leans heavily into Bloodborne as an inspiration. From the combat design to the RPG elements, exploration, to a mechanical standpoint, it feels like a very intriguing game, for me, I'd say, a lot more than I got from Black Myth Wukong.
- A land ravaged by death and destruction
It's late Ming dynasty era, where a certain plague called The Feathering has spread across the land, driving people to kill each other while going mad as they slowly die or their anatomy changes. That's not all, though, as to some degree, there are demonic monstrosities lurking across the land.
Even people are effected so terribly, their bodies have morphed with those fiends, turning into ungodly creatures. If you're familiar with Chinese lore, and about Ming history, the atmosphere oozes, it's dripping with so much detail, especially around each of the areas you explore. Like the giant temple that is interconnected with a village, forest path, and another temple.
Describing playing this is kind of like being the kid being forced to play with what his parents got for him in Christmas. Object collisions are odd, movement is a tadbit finicky, the camera is jarring, and I have seen the camera shake while moving as well. Nauseating.
These imperfections aren't just flat out annoying. But it was after the rough start, I started to really appreciate some of the things here. Wuchang is the survival horror of soulslike games. You're moving through tight spaces, it's never clear what is ahead, enemies hide in places, they'll easily surround you while you're avoiding falling, and this is a game that finally forces you to use consumables to not only sustain, for every possible worse scenario.
And then there's the gameplay, the important aspect is the Skyborn Magic. These are like power ups for weapon skills and spells, you get from dodging attacks perfectly and clashing with their weapons. Everything from the controller bumper to triggers are attack moves and skill for their particular weapons. You can switch between two of them.
To add to those challenge, as with the amazing level design, the enemy variety offers a lot of tough challenges. If you're not good with dodging attacks, you can always wait up, and practice timing with these village grunts. As the enemies will get a lot tougher.
Stun locking and breaking stance depends on various weapons, some of the enemies are too strong, are also spongy, have rapid attacks, and are often stupid fast, they will spew poison as well. Then there's those range types from unreachable areas, super pesky. The worse part is, if you die, your Madness rate that goes up. If it's really high, your eyes lit up red.
This other mechanic effects everything, your damage increase, but it also makes you weaker to hits, you'll also lose more mercury. If the madness maxes out, soon as you die and try to collect it back, the demon version of you spawns, faster, virile, and more scantily clad looking. The interesting part is, imagine dying surrounded by tougher enemies, you're screwed, right? Not if you utilize it.
A.I. in this game is kind of broken, they get easily stuck, pathfinding a little messy, but there are ways you can crowd control them by having them hit each other. Especially that freaking demon of yours. I even got them to open a path for me after I got lost.
- No end to boss battles
More so, Wuchang has some interesting RPG mechanics that distinguishes largely from the other games. First off, all the red mercury you farm, you buy their essence from the shrines. It converts a currency into a point system, which is a safe way to keep it before using them in the skill trees.
Ok, I know aesthetics can be a tricky thing, but I really love how beautifully the skill trees pave for these unlocks. Sometimes you'll need a specific resource to upgrade a few of them, like my healing flask. Now, if there's one thing that really bugs me, it's bad design in how items are used. Holding the item and spell button shows shortcuts, but since I'm using so many items, why not have a second 4-slot? Elden Ring did that. I accidentally get into a boss battle without prep, I'm in deep doo doo.
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It's important to note about the weapon upgrades, and such, like Benedictions (stones slotted into weapons). Tempers that adds interesting modifiers, and there's the skill branches that unlock various skills, attacks, increases stats and so on. You can reset skill points anytime. Now, this is the important part, further into the skill branch, you'll unlock disciplines, adding more reason to experiment with the various weapons you get mid-game.
Various environment changes shifts the momentum of the game entirely, at first I got curious, exploring the village, forest and temple areas, then the Shu Sanctum had a hidden cave, this is where all the rot festered, I had creatures surprise attacking me. Corruption plague that if in contact, will infect me, they had the consumables to cure them everywhere.
This is taking place in China after all, you'll be playing in various areas like the beach, deserts, snowy mountains, and more. The enemy and boss design reflect on some of these places, including the debuff effects. Now let's get to the other negatives. After patch 1.3, there's the low latency mode, that really helps. But not if the FPS dips, which it will seriously hamper the experience. Enemies have uneven telegraph for their attacks, but doable for the most part. Looking past all that, it's tons of fun.
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Above screenshots and GIFs are from personal recordings only
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