Chinese developer Leenzee and publisher 505 Games’ first souls-like entry, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, released on July 24, 2025, and has already garnered 131,518 concurrent players on Steam, outranking FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed titles Dark Souls and Sekiro.

Despite the staggering debut, the game has been slammed with “Overwhelmingly Negative” reviews on Steam. Out of 27,086 reviews, only 24.7% of them are positive. The reason behind the negative reception is severe optimization issues related to Unreal Engine 5, despite promising gameplay.

However, Wuchang also received backlash from Chinese players, who make up a substantial portion of Steam’s user base, over a pricing issue that charged them comparatively more than other regions. Moreover, some standard edition buyers were handed deluxe editions, and review copies were sent earlier to Chinese streamers, building a perception of unjust treatment.

Aside from performance and pricing issues, some Chinese players have pointed out historical inconsistencies. The game avoids mentioning the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty’s violent rise and instead opts for casting a Ming emperor as the main antagonist, which many Han Chinese players found offensive.

Still, Wuchang ranks as Steam’s 9th most-played and 14th highest-selling game on launch day. The game has modest system requirements, needing only a low-end Nvidia GTX 1060, which is a change of pace in an era of ever-increasing system requirements. While the game is marred by performance issues, Lenzee and 505 Games swiftly took to Steam, promising to fix performance issues, pre-order reward bugs, and the regional pricing discrepancy.

It’s not uncommon for game launches to be plagued with issues these days, as was the case with CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, which managed to mend bonds with the gaming community. Similarly, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers falls in the same boat as the game’s future hinges on the developer’s ability to roll out optimization fixes to salvage its reputation.

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Rahim Amir Noorali – Tech Writer – 91 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2025

I am a UAE-based tech writer who likes to build and benchmark PCs both professionally and as a hobby. I contribute to multiple tech publications, including TechRadar and NotebookCheck, as well as Game Rant, where I focus primarily on news, commerce, and buying guides. When I’m not scouring the internet for the latest in tech stories, you will find me playing a game of Civilization or DotA with friends and frenemies alike while dropping recommendations for Apple TV+’s Foundation to everyone I come across.