WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers was released on July 24, 2025 simultaneously on PC (Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It was developed by the Chinese studio Leenzee (Chengdu Lingze Technology) on Unreal Engine 5 and published by 505 Games. It is the highest-grossing Chinese paid title of 2025: 131,518 peak players on Steam on release day, a record for a soulslike not made by FromSoftware. In its first month the game earned $26.1 million on Steam, and by March 2026 it passed the mark of 1 million copies.

The story takes place in the land of Shu, the historical province of Sichuan, during the collapse of the Ming dynasty. A mysterious disease called the "Feathering curse" turns people into monsters. The protagonist Wuchang is an experienced pirate warrior who has lost her memory and is herself afflicted by the curse. Making her way through the ruins of Shu, she uncovers the secrets of her past; the player's choices lead to one of several endings. Leenzee's artists drew on real UNESCO sites, Sanxingdui and Jinsha, and the Chinese NPCs speak in the Sichuan dialect.

The gameplay combines fast melee combat with a distinctive skill-stealing mechanic: defeated enemies leave behind abilities that are added to Wuchang's arsenal. In pace, combat is closer to Sekiro than to the methodical Elden Ring: aerial combos, dodges, counterattacks. Progression includes stats, skill trees, and transformations through the Feathering curse, so the protagonist's illness becomes a source of power. The world is linear, with secret routes, and has no open world. There are several endings, and story choices affect the finale.

Localization for Russian buyers: official Russian interface and subtitles; voice-over in EN/ZH/JA. A Russian fan dub by Mechanics VoiceOver is available separately. The game has been included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (Cloud + PC + Console) since release. In May 2026 it was a free monthly game for PlayStation Plus Essential/Extra/Premium (May 5 to June 2, 2026). If you missed it, a Steam key remains a valid option for PC.

Critics rated the game as moderately positive: Metacritic PC is 73. Reviewers praised the beautiful world and dynamic combat, but criticized performance at launch. At launch the Steam rating fell to "Overwhelmingly Negative" because of forced FSR, shader stutter, and video memory overflow on 6-8 GB cards. A series of patches (1.3 to 1.6) fixed the problems: by June 2026 the rating recovered to "Mostly Positive" (72% of ~5,000 reviews) and "Very Positive" over the last 30 days. An RTX 2070 / RX 5700 XT or newer graphics card is recommended.

For those choosing between similar games: WUCHANG differs from Elden Ring with linear levels, fast combat, and the skill-stealing mechanic (Elden Ring has an open world, stat builds, and a co-op mode). Compared with Sekiro, it has the same Asian historical setting, but WUCHANG is gentler on the difficulty curve (it has stat progression) and offers role-playing progression. It differs from Black Myth: Wukong in its soulslike structure and its Ming-China setting instead of the mythology of "Journey to the West".

Leenzee was founded in Chengdu; CEO Jiang Min started development in 2019, when the team was getting by on outsourced work. The project took 4 years. Director Xia Siyuan was dismissed before the 2026 Lunar New Year; the core team broke up after release. In April 2026 Digital Bros (the owner of 505 Games) bought the Wuchang IP for €4 million. It is a rare case: the game earned $30+ million and at the same time effectively destroyed the studio that made it.

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers is a soulslike (a genre of challenging action RPG in the spirit of Dark Souls) from the Chinese studio Leenzee, published by 505 Games. The story is set in China during the decline of the Ming dynasty: the protagonist Wuchang is a pirate with amnesia and the "Feathering curse". Fast melee combat, stealing skills from enemies, multiple endings. Official Russian interface and subtitles; voice-over in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Peak concurrent players: 131 thousand, 1 million copies sold.