Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a relatively young Soulslike action game, has fallen on hard times as of late. In addition to overwhelmingly negative Steam reviews criticizing the game's shoddy PC performance at launch, the game has since received a huge update, which has significantly altered its story and gameplay in a way I'd argue is for the worse.
For starters, according to the game's patch notes on Steam, this update, titled Patch 1.5, has several gameplay changes. These include adding invincibility frames while recovering from getting knocked down, increasing the animation speed of recovering health (which you can now dodge roll out of instead of being animation-locked), allowing players to perform light follow-up combos, and more.
While these might sound good, the fans in the game's community are fired up with this update because it has censored numerous parts of the game's story and has rendered certain bosses and enemies unkillable.
According to Soulslike enthusiast Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon on X), these story changes include bosses based on historical Chinese figures like Zhao Yun and Liu Wenxiu just becoming exhausted upon defeat instead of dying, and 50% of the enemies encountered in Chapter 4 will no longer act hostile towards the player (via TheGamer).
Additionally, the 'Pray' emote given to the player by a Portuguese Christian NPC has apparently been removed from the game, according to reports on Reddit.
LOL WUCHANG patch notes say they "optimized the exhaustion animation for certain NPCs" and what they mean is they made it so you can no longer kill any historically significant bosses or NPCs, and instead they just get "exhausted" and relax after the fight and talk to you LMAO https://t.co/2RuHaY9lmsAugust 13, 2025
These changes were seemingly made because players in China are condemning the game's depiction of certain famous Chinese historical figures from the Ming Dynasty, as Wuchang: Fallen Feathers takes place in a dark, fantasy version of the era.
This censorship has been met with vastly negative reactions from the Western gaming community, with people commenting on Reddit that it has ruined the game's story by introducing various — if unintentional — plot holes.
For instance, a majority of the bosses you fight have been driven mad and turned into monsters because they were resurrected from the dead through dark rituals conducted by their grieving loved ones.
So, the player has to put them down to put an end to their suffering and to convey the game's message of learning to accept the loss of your loved ones after they're gone, as well as their own mortality.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Has Made Certain Bosses And NPCs Unkillable Following Backlash In China from r/gaming
Censoring the deaths of these bosses by having them get knocked down or running away upon defeat with this update goes against the themes of the story and cheapens the overall experience.
On top of that, having half of the enemies be friendly to you in Chapter 4 and introducing all these quality-of-life improvements just devalues the game's brutal yet satisfying difficulty, which will no doubt anger fans of hardcore Soulslikes who crave the ultimate challenge.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is certainly living up to the 'Fallen' part of its title
I feel so sorry for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and its fans. While I haven't personally played it, I have heard great things about it from my colleague, Jez Corden, and his review-in-progress article on the game.
It's a gorgeous-looking game with beautifully hand-crafted environments, a superb art direction, a grim, immersive story, and an in-depth combat system with lots of weapons to experiment with and master.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers also has a soul-crushing difficulty curve that will break undisciplined players while rewarding immense satisfaction to players who persevere and overcome the game's nightmarish bosses.
With these censorship-laden changes, most of the qualities that Jez and many other critics loved about this game are now sadly wiped from history, potentially never to be experienced again unless they jury-rig it through PC mods.
Personally, I hope this situation doesn't set a dangerous precedent and cause other games based on Chinese history or mythology to get heavily censored as well, like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty or the Dynasty Warriors franchise.
I know I'd be sad if Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty got this kind of treatment, as that game is one of my favorite Soulslikes this generation, alongside amazing Xbox titles like Lies of P and Elden Ring.
Although I don't think players in China would get too upset at those games' depictions of Chinese history, as they're mostly too cartoony and over-the-top to be taken seriously.
Either way, I hope the developers of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers find a way to circumvent these problems and help get it back on its feet, for I believe that no piece of media, regardless of whether it's a game, movie, or a painting, deserves to have its creative vision stifled by censorship.
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