NieRDragOn Dragoon was a project I began almost a year and a half ago The idea was to throw my hat into the saturated ring of video essayists decompress some things practice my writing and move on Dam...

Post-Terra Firma: Book 6: Occupation of Neo-Shanxi eBook : Keeley, Saxon: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀<strong>１１月</strong><br>⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀<strong>１２日</strong><br><br>⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀<strong>紧急_八腕目</strong><br><br>⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀...

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<strong>In Memoriam</strong><br><br>Kenji Eno sadly needs an introduction.<br><br>Eno was from a time when videogame devs were rock n’ roll stars. The trajectory of the medium wasn’t set and anything ...

<strong>This is the one, is it? The Souls-like we’re allowed to like.</strong><br><br>I’ll be honest, I had no intention of ever playing Lies of P but after the hysteria caused by <a rel='nofollow' ta...

<strong>A videogame as black as midnight on a moonless night.</strong><br><br><em>The review kills both the videogame and the critic. To dismantle such a work of art leaves nothing but bricks and mort...

<strong>Mercury’s in retrograde.</strong><br><br>2024 we were graced with Stellar Blade. 2025’s waifu action game of the year that’ll draw endless comparisons to Souls is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.<br><br>Let’s address the giant Miyazaki-an elephant in the room. Sure, we have a stamina meter. Yes, we go corpse running upon death. Okay, we rest at checkpoints that resets enemies. Maybe the world is gripped by a plague of the cursed undying.<br><br>Miyazaki’s mechanics and design philosophies shook up the action/character-action/hack and slash genre <a rel='nofollow' target='_blank' href='https://bckl.gg/kWoA'>sixteen years ago</a>, imitators tried to replicate those mechanics and philosophies spurring the term <em>Souls-likes</em>. But sixteen years have passed. At what point do we stop likening action games to Souls and just accept that those mechanics and philosophies are just now part of the genre until the next big shake up happens - <em>come on Ninja Gaiden 4.</em> I get it, it’s an easy way to define and differentiate certain experiences, especially in a genre as broad as Action games, because you love Dark Souls doesn’t mean you’re going vibe with <a rel='nofollow' target='_blank' href='https://bckl.gg/jQUf'>Bayonetta</a>. <em>Gamers’</em> use of language is limited and is difficult to move the conversation forward when something sticks - <em>sixteen years too difficult.</em> Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has familiar mechanics that are simply staples of the genre in its contemporary form.<br><br>That said, I feel Wuchang: Fallen Feathers wants to have its cake and eat it. It wants to blend the flow and aesthetics of wushu, the spectacle of character-action with the deliberate combat and esoteric storytelling seen in Miyazaki’s work. When Wuchang: Fallen Feathers pulls this off it’s an amazing action game.<br><br>This is a beautiful game perfectly capturing the majesty of nature and architecture expressed in Zhe and Wu School paintings - <em>thanks, Wikipedia.</em> The framing of each new area you reach is breath-taking. Temples peak out amongst mountains that are enveloped in mist. Forests are dense and wild, a long way from civilisation. Palaces are imposing structures that exude splendour. The game then contrasts its beauty with hellish regions wrought by destruction, plague and body-horror. These environments mirror perfectly the escalated threat found there.<br><br>Impressive yet is how these areas loop back on themselves and maintain that level design throughout. The player is forever unlocking doors, operating elevators and kicking down ladders to bring them back to the last shrine they set off from. The stretches between shrines can be arduous, a real test of endurance. After Worship’s Rise the game opens up with three main paths that can be tackled in any order. Braving Avian Dwelling early will set you up for the other two areas, maybe even trivialising them. This is to say there are options if you find yourself struggling.<br><br>Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ combat is complex with four distinct moves, buffs, magic and items.<br><br>Light attacks, heavy attacks, weapon skills and Discipline skills are your main means of offence. Different weapon types feel distinct and there is no wrong answer for the situation. Find a weapon you gel with and get comfortable. Don’t be put off by the long sword, the starting weapon, as you quickly get the other weapon types. Weapon skills are unique to each weapon. Discipline skills can be swapped out. There is a good sense of versatility.<br><br>It’s how combat evolves that is Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ greatest strength. As you progress you gain access to more Skyborn Might, a combat resource that is used to strengthen moves, instantly charge heavy attacks or cast magic. Encounters become about maintaining high Skyborn Might then exploiting openings with a powerful move.<br><br>Blocking and parrying does exist in the game but they are tied to certain weapon types and Discipline skills. Dodging was king for me, weaving in and out of flurries amassing stacks of Skyborn Might to perform an instant heavy charge attack and stagger the enemy. Embrace your love for Zhang Ziyi and Chinese martial arts movies by side stepping everything the game throws at you. Realise hack and slash games are merely rhythm games elevated by bloodshed.<br><br>Imagine Wuchang: Fallen Feathers without a stamina meter, or at least if only unique weapon skills and Discipline skills used stamina, how much more frenetic moment to moment combat would be. Enemies and bosses wouldn’t even need to be tweaked to accommodate for this subtle change because bosses such as Commander Honglan or Bo Sorcerer demand for the player to get on their level. Instead, the stilted aggression belies the dance-like animations.<br><br>Bosses are presented as imposing forces of nature. Beautifully horrific in their design, bio-punk almost. Learning attack patterns then punishing with an obliterate attack is highly rewarding. But if you’re expecting every boss encounter to be test of your mettle then Wuchang: Fallen Feathers will disappoint. Many bosses were taken down in my first few attempts, if not first - <em>I’m not bragging, just the way it was.</em> Zhang Xianzhong, the first two stage boss I encountered, was a pushover and I was disappointed when I decimated Huang Yan, a fight I was looking forward to after seeing the promotional material.<br><br>The game will then unceremoniously kick your backside and you’ll be stuck banging your head against a brick wall for a few hours, Commander Honglan being a good example of this and a gatekeeper to the rest of the game. This isn’t fashion-souls, having the right armour to negate the correct damage, element or status can swing the battle in your favour. You learn patterns then it’s a matter of flawless execution.<br><br>It can feel rough when bosses dodge cancel out of their recovery animation snatching away an opening you think you’ve discovered. It feels as if they’re operating on different rules to the player. If they can dodge cancel, why can’t I?<br><br>And for the love of god, Bai get back on your feet. Quickly. <em>Oh, never mind. The boss effectively juggled me to death reminiscent of watching Tekken at EVO.</em> Feels bad when you can’t do anything to help yourself.<br><br>There are enough bosses that test the player’s ability and understanding to forgive the extremities of difficulty. Not coming across an insurmountable challenge every time grants a good sense of progression.<br><br>Bai as a protagonist is boring. She has no agency, no character. A Miyazaki-an trope for sure but the game doesn’t attempt to decentralise Bai’s significance in the narrative so the journey we embark on feels like we’re just going through the motions. Going from place to place and defeating bosses because it’s just what the game has in store for us.<br><br>I love playing dress up, there are some great outfits in the game. Stellar Blade levels of costume design, no. Fun nevertheless.<br><br>Do others feel like there’s input lag or sometimes inputs don’t register? I know I had a full stamina meter, I know I had several untouched manna flasks but Bai stood idle. I’ve played Souls games, I know there is a degree of unfairness borne from jank, however this seemed to happen more often than I’d expect. <em>Maybe I pressed the button during recovery animations therefore didn’t register but I really felt it in certain moments. Maybe it’s a skill issue.</em> We have screen tearing and framerate dips - <em>I don’t think I’ve played a PS5 game with screen tearing, you have no idea how excited I was by this. <a rel='nofollow' target='_blank' href='https://bckl.gg/nddx'>Drag-On Dragoon 3</a>, we’re home baby.</em> It’s really not bad and I’m sure these issues will be ironed out in a patch.<br><br>I fear Wuchang: Fallen Feathers might be a victim of its successful marketing. I know, you’ve played Dark Souls. I know, you beat <a rel='nofollow' target='_blank' href='https://bckl.gg/kmM5'>Elden Ring</a>. I too am fatigued by all these Souls-likes - <em>yet watch as the world goes crazy over Duskbloods.</em> I've always consider Hack and Slash/Character-Action to resided in the mid-tier, a niche genre which the general videogame audience never plunges the depths of. If you readjust your expectations slightly, realise that certain mechanics are currently engrained into this genre and take Wuchang: Fallen Feathers on its own grounds then this is a great action title. It’s got interesting systems. It’s got weapon variety. It’s got unique animations and art direction. The story sucks, welcome to hack and slash videogames.<br><br><em>I don’t believe that last sentence, just echoing a sentiment shared amongst some people regarding games like Bayonetta and DMC.</em>

NieRDragOn Dragoon was a project I began almost a year and a half ago The idea was to throw my hat into the saturated ring of video essayists decompress some things practice my writing and move on Dam...

Post-Terra Firma: Book 7: Liberation of Neo-Shanxi eBook : Keeley, Saxon: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

<strong>The worn VHS tape of your childhood favourite Eighties fantasy that none of the kids at school knew what you were talking about.</strong><br><br>An optimistic and romanticised fantasy of the A...