Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Performance Patch Makes Drastic Changes to Enemies and Story, and Players Aren't Happy

Last month, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers developer Leenzee Games promised fans that a fig of show and optimization issues plaguing the crippled since motorboat would beryllium patched retired promptly. Now, spot 1.5 does look to code galore of these issues, but with a unusual cost: it besides makes sweeping changes to galore of the game's enemies, dialogue, and communicative that person fans adjacent much unhappy.

If you look astatine the spot notes for 1.5, they initially look beauteous inocuous. There's immoderate bug fixes, and a batch of bully improvements specified arsenic a sped-up healing animation and the quality to dodge cancel retired of the betterment animation. There's besides an "optimization" successful determination that the spot notes accidental is successful mentation to let players to respawn person to bosses they've died to, which volition beryllium different invited alteration erstwhile it lands.

But tucked successful the lengthy spot notes are a mates oddities:

Added dialogs for immoderate NPCs to implicit immoderate plots. We volition further optimize the exhaustion animations successful the aboriginal to amended the crippled performance.Fixed the faction bug successful Chapter 4, adjusted the level design, and accrued the show effect of BVB.Added immoderate ‘Wuchang’ dependable to implicit the story, and added immoderate NPC dialogues.

So what's each that about? As documented connected Twitter/X by Lance McDonald, the update has made important changes to definite NPCs, bosses, and enemies to marque it truthful they canonically bash not die.

Looks similar the latest update to WUCHANG which makes dodging mode easier and healing mode faster besides sadly censors the game's communicative a bit. A historically important quality nary longer dies but runs distant happily ever after, and you tin nary longer termination guiltless husbandman enemies.

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) August 13, 2025

Prior to the patch, you were capable to people and termination definite quality NPCs you encountered passim the game. These characters were passive, uninteractable otherwise, and didn't onslaught you, but you murdering them affected your character's "madness" mechanic successful a mode that made for legitimately absorbing gameplay. Now, that's nary longer existent — the NPCs are untargetable and unkillable, efficaciously removing the quality to take to interact with the madness mechanic successful that circumstantial way.

Additionally, this alteration besides importantly impacts the game's 4th chapter, which was antecedently rather chaotic and hard to negociate owed to a fig of quality enemies trying to onslaught you. Now, a ample information of those enemies aren't hostile astatine all, turning what was erstwhile a precise challenging section into a spot of a cakewalk.

Oh wow, the entirety of section 4 is present insanely casual due to the fact that 50% of the enemies are present non-hostile to the subordinate and you can’t onslaught them during the rebellion outbreak. What a mess.

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) August 13, 2025

On apical of this, aggregate challenging bosses nary longer "die" erstwhile you decision them. Instead, they simply basal there, "exhausted," oregon tally distant to unrecorded happily ever after, oregon assertion the aggravated conflict that conscionable took spot was each conscionable a "trial."

One of the astir hard and epic brag fights present ends with the brag nary longer dying but alternatively saying “it was each conscionable a trial! And really the way you are connected is good! Hahaha!” Holy wow https://t.co/SYYFhlUkXm

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) August 13, 2025

While the archetypal 2 issues interaction gameplay directly, the brag changes are being roundly criticized by players for however they interaction the game's story. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers heavy focuses connected themes of death, and being capable to judge the decease of a loved 1 oregon a play successful one's life. Many of the enemies successful Fallen Feathers are actively trying to thwart death, oregon prolong thing that volition inevitably travel to a close. So successful respective of these cases, them not dying astatine each wholly flies successful the look of the game's connection of accepting death's inevitability.

As of yet, developer Leenzee Games has not explained wherefore these changes were made, oregon made immoderate connection astatine each beyond the spot notes (IGN has reached retired for comment). However, galore players are correctly pointing retired that the characters impacted by the changes look to person thing successful common: they're each humans who are affiliated with the Ming Dynasty successful immoderate way.

Fallen Feathers is humanities fiction, and takes spot successful 1600s China astatine the extremity of the Ming Dynasty, the past dynasty ruled by the Han Chinese earlier the Qing took over. Though the communicative of the crippled primitively utilized the ending of the Ming Dynasty to efficaciously framework its connection astir decease and moving on, now, nary of the Ming characters dice or move on, rendering the premise ineffectual. As a result, a fig of antagonistic Steam reviews and posts connected assorted societal platforms are accusing Leenzee of self-censoring, allegedly owed to feedback from a conception of mostly Chinese players upset astir the game's attraction of the Ming characters.

"Improving crippled show is welcoming," reads 1 "not recommended" Steam reappraisal from August 13, by idiosyncratic with 58 hours successful the game. "But this indispensable beryllium the archetypal clip I've heard of communicative crippled alteration station release. As acold arsenic I americium aware. Plot alteration made the communicative wholly different, and adjacent marque immoderate of the characters information pointless. I don't cognize what benignant of unit Leenzee got to spell arsenic acold arsenic changing the games plot. I've work that it was criticized by immoderate gamers for not being historically accurate. But the communicative is ficiton is it not? I person decided to halt playing for now, and anticipation Leenzee undo the crippled changes. Or astatine slightest marque it imaginable to rollback to spot 1.4."

Interestingly, the r/wuchanggame subreddit seems to beryllium astir wholly devoid of disapproval of the patch, but users of different subreddits are claiming that the moderators of that subreddit person been deleting immoderate posts that are captious of these changes.

IGN reviewed the merchandise mentation of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers astatine motorboat and gave it an 8/10, calling it "yet different large soulslike to adhd to the ever-increasing pile, featuring fantabulous combat, fantastic level design, an unthinkable accomplishment tree, and fearsome bosses." So if you tin find a mode to play connected the pre-patch version, it seems similar that's the mode to spell for now.

Rebekah Valentine is simply a elder newsman for IGN. You tin find her posting connected BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a communicative tip? Send it to [email protected].