fallen

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers got its 1.5 Patch this week, bringing multiple quality-of-life improvements to the Soulslike, but also story and boss adjustments which appear to have been made to appease Chinese netizens.

The patch notes list all the details, which include features like faster healing animations and adjustments to invincibility frames when Wuchang stands up. But buried in the margins is the nebulous line: “Added dialogs for some NPCs to complete some plots. We will further optimize the exhaustion animations in the future to improve the plot performance.”

As reported by Kotaku and pointed out by YouTuber Lance McDonald, in practice this means that several key bosses, notably those associated with the Ming dynasty, no longer die after their bloodthirsty battles with Wuchang. Instead, they fall down in exhaustion and remain in the boss arena, occasionally offering up further dialogue if Wuchang speaks with them. In the case of famous general Zhao Yun, who existed during China’s Three Kingdoms period hundreds of years before the Ming dynasty and shows up as a surprise NPC and boss, the fight is reframed as a “trial” by his immortal soul designed to test Wuchang.

With this change comes the additional fact that certain enemies associated with the Ming dynasty, such as peasant loyalists and imperial guards, are no longer hostile. This significantly alters the game’s fourth region, Worship’s Rise in Ruins, which was full of these guys. Suddenly, the vast majority of that level’s foes are friendly, making it a cakewalk in comparison to its original stressful form.

These changes appear to have been made by developers Leenzee Games in response to critical voices from the Chinese internet which have lambasted the game since its release. According to these voices, the game paints the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 AD) in a poor light.

The Ming dynasty was the last to be led by ethnic Han Chinese, and the following Qing dynasty (1644-1912 AD) was ruled by the Manchu people. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers features a distinct lack of Manchu enemies, and instead several of the game’s 24 bosses include prominent real-world persons such as Zhu Youjian, the 17th and final ruler of the Ming who was known as the Chongzhen (meaning “auspicious”) Emperor. In-game, Zhu Youjian shows up as a mutated draconic version of himself obsessed with immortality and maintaining the Ming dynasty at all cost. As of Patch 1.5, Wuchang can no longer permanently kill Zhu Youjian, and he’s reframed as having been corrupted. Upon defeating him, it’s hinted that he goes off into seclusion with his consort instead of dying permanently.

Player response to Patch 1.5 on the English-speaking internet has largely been negative, with commentators on one of Wuchang’s two Subreddits reacting in surprise to still-alive bosses and pointing out the fact that their post-battle “exhausted” states seem unfinished (to be fair, the patch notes do state that these animations will be improved).

Amongst Chinese players, reception to Patch 1.5 has been mixed. Chinese-language Steam threads include discussions that Lenzee caved to an overly vocal minority, and suggestions that the game should give players the choice of battling Ming enemies rather than turning them into friendly NPCs.

Others have stressed that these alterations dilute the plot of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, which is rooted in the Buddhist concept of samsara, or cyclical change – a theme that is demonstrated by both the titular heroine’s motivations and the historical backdrop of the falling Ming dynasty. The second response in this thread puts it succinctly, stressing that the plot is about Wuchang letting go of her obsession with resurrecting her sister – a theme that is rendered moot by Zhu Youjian escaping death simply by virtue of being a Chinese emperor.

Personally, as someone who put 90 hours into Wuchang: Fallen Feathers for guides purposes and is half-Chinese (Taiwanese actually, but I won’t get into that here), I feel that the original outcry was unjustified and came from a select group of players who subscribe to ideas of Han Chinese supremacy. That said, I’m not surprised that Leenzee made these changes. Entities in Mainland China need to be more beholden to social pressure and patriotism to survive, and Leenzee Games invited scrutiny by featuring real-world figures and literally making the game’s Chinese title 明末, which can be translated as “Last days of the Ming”. I suspect they had a particular vision in mind, and they’ve now deemed it necessary to compromise on that vision in order to survive. It’s a shame, since the news of these tweaks has covered up the quality-of-life patch improvements that will make the game more enjoyable.

That said, if anyone wants to watch me stomp the immortal Zhao Yun with an fire axe build in only a little over two minutes, check out my boss guide.

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