Wuchang: Fallen Feathers patch 1.5 is here, and while some of the numerous changes address some major player complaints, one big one radically changes the story in ways that many are calling censorship.
Despite generally being critically well-received for its gameplay and mechanics, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has been plagued by performance issues on PC, resulting in a wave of negative reviews around launch.
There was a patch to fix some of the issues just days after release, and yesterday, developer Leenzee pushed another one, called patch 1.5.
However, the patch also introduced a huge change to how some fights play out, both in gameplay and the story, no longer allowing the player to kill certain historical figures from China’s late Ming Dynasty, the period in which the game is set.
What Was Changed, And Why?
After patch 1.5 (via VGC), Ming bosses are no longer able to be killed in the fights against them, and the player can no longer attack Ming soldiers and civilians.
For example, after the fight with Ming general Zhao Yun, instead of an emotional moment as he accepts his inevitable death, he now steps aside and congratulates the player on passing his “trial.”
Similarly, after defeating the Dragon Emperor, the player can now interact with the body for a prompt that says he and his consort are just unconscious and should wake up soon.
The reason for these changes (via PC Gamer) can be traced back to uproar from some Chinese players when the game was launched.
According to hachimi_ddj on the Soulslikes Subreddit, many of the initial negative reviews were from Han Chinese players (the dominant ethnic group in China, who historically formed the Ming Dynasty).
The game is a fictionalized depiction of the war between the Han of the Ming Dynasty and the Manchurians, or Manchus, who are a minority ethnic group in modern-day China. The Manchus ultimately won the war, establishing the Qing Dynasty.
According to the Reddit post, the Qing period is seen as a great humiliation by many Han Chinese to this day, and some players were expecting the game to have them helping the Han push back the Manchus, instead of fighting against the Ming Dynasty.
Since the game features multiple historical Han rulers as bosses, and other Han characters as enemies, while the Manchus and their rulers are largely absent and thus cannot be fought or killed, some Han Chinese players see the game as racist anti-Han, pro-Manchu propaganda.
According to another post on the CharacterRant Subreddit by alanjinqq, the controversy was mostly driven by younger Han Chinese people, part of a broader wave of Han nationalism, who are angry about the influence of the Qing Dynasty and the Manchus on modern Chinese culture and international perceptions of the country.
While Leenzee have not commented publicly on the reasoning behind these major changes to the gameplay and narrative, it seems pretty obvious that it was a response to the backlash from that group in China.
Unsurprisingly, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ audience in the rest of the world didn’t take well to this censorship, given how it fundamentally alters the game’s story and themes, not to mention making certain sections much easier because many enemies are now non-hostile, and it’s now seeing another wave of review bombing.
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