It takes a lot for a new souls-like to distinguish itself these days. In the last year alone, we’ve seen Lies of P: Overture, The First Berserker: Khazan, Black Myth: Wukong, Enotria: The Last Song, Another Crab’s Treasure, and two Elden Ring follow-ups–The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC and spin-off game Nightreign–all launch to varying degrees of success. Suffice to say, the once-niche genre is now significantly more mainstream, and the rapidly growing number of souls-likes available to play certainly reflects that. But while this might translate to an exciting amount of options for players, it’s easy to see how this boon actually presents an intense challenge for developers.
Fortunately for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers developer Leenzee, finding and celebrating its own voice was something it was „tuned in to“ since the beginning. In a recent interview with GameSpot, Leenzee co-founder and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers game and art director Xia Siyuan discussed how the studio went about developing a game in a highly saturated genre, and what he thought Wuchang was doing to help push souls-likes forward. The developer also opened up about how the team’s Sichuan roots helped to establish the game’s setting, and how some of its boss designs were inspired by archeological digs and museum trips.
The souls-like genre has become extremely saturated in recent years–was that a concern when developing Wuchang: Fallen Feathers? What about it sets the game apart from others within the genre, or helps push the genre forward?