Maybe I Was Too Hasty To Hate On Fierce Tiger
So, remember when I said fierce tiger can get fucked? Yeah, about that. Turns out maybe I was a bit too hasty with my hate. I went back into Wuchang: Fallen Feathers after cooling off, respecced my build, leaned into a bit of magic, upgraded the longsword weapon type (the only one I actually use) and, well… I beat him second try.
Honestly, I feel like a petulant child. All that swearing, all that rage, all that ranting about how unfair he was and it turns out I just wasn’t approaching the fight the right way. Once I put some points into magic, suddenly I had more options to punish him when he leapt around like a lunatic. Combine that with a weapon that actually hit hard enough to matter, and the Tiger’s endless combos didn’t feel quite so terrifying. The game hadn’t cheated me, I’d cheated myself by being stubborn.
When I first fought the Fierce Tiger, I went in with the same setup I’d been leaning on for the entire game. Heavy reliance on my melee weapon, ignoring other systems like magic because they just didn’t feel natural to me. I was caught in the trap so many players fall into: I thought the game should bend to my playstyle rather than me bending to the game. It worked for the first few bosses. I powered through them with sheer grit, memorising attack patterns and eking out victories by the skin of my teeth. But with the Tiger, that wall I kept smashing my head against wasn’t going to crack until I adapted.
Respeccing was the turning point. It’s a feature a lot of people overlook in games like this. There’s a strange pride in sticking with your original build, as if changing things up is admitting defeat. I’ve been guilty of that mindset for years. But this time I swallowed my pride and thought, maybe the game is telling me something. Maybe brute force isn’t going to cut it. So I shuffled stats, leaned into magic, and gave myself a wider arsenal.
The difference was night and day. Where before the Tiger would zip around the arena and leave me chasing shadows, now I had ranged options to keep pressure on him. My upgraded weapon actually did meaningful damage instead of chipping away at his health bar. Suddenly, those endless combos weren’t so intimidating, because I had the power to punish him when he overextended. The fight became less about panicking and more about picking the right moments.
And here’s the thing: the fight is still brutal. It’s not like respeccing made it a cakewalk. The Tiger is lightning fast, has attacks that can wipe you out if you’re sloppy and the arena gives you little room for error. But now it felt fair. Before, I saw it as a mess of cheap tricks and impossible tells. Now, I could see the design. The Tiger was forcing me to evolve, to stop hiding behind a narrow approach, and to actually engage with all the systems the game offered. I was Neo.
It made me reflect on how these kinds of games are built. They’re not just about throwing brick-wall bosses at you for the sake of cruelty. They’re about pushing you to experiment, to try new strategies, to realise that the way you’ve been playing might not be enough. In a weird way, Fierce Tiger is the perfect teacher. He looks like an impossible bastard when you first meet him, but once you change your mindset, he becomes beatable. The satisfaction in finally cutting him down wasn’t just about the victory. It was about recognising that my own stubbornness was the real enemy.
That’s what makes Wuchang so clever, I think. It’s not content to let you coast on what worked before. Every new boss is designed to probe your weaknesses. The second boss hammered me on spacing and timing. The third punished sloppy stamina management. The fourth forced me to take phase changes seriously. And then the fifth, the Tiger, finally exposed the fact that I’d been ignoring entire parts of the game. Beating him wasn’t just about learning his moves. It was about admitting I’d been wrong.
Beating him so quickly after hating him so much was a surreal experience. Part of me wanted to laugh at how easy it suddenly felt. Another part of me was embarrassed at how much I’d raged before. But mostly, I felt relief. The game hadn’t betrayed me. It had been trying to teach me something all along. The Tiger wasn’t bullshit after all. He was the wake-up call I desperately needed.
Now that I’ve beaten him, I can say without hesitation that he’s one of the best-designed fights in Wuchang. He’s fast, he’s aggressive, and he forces you to adapt. If you’re stubborn like me and stick to your guns, you’ll probably walk away furious, declaring the fight unfair. But if you take a step back, reassess your build, and embrace the systems you’ve been ignoring, suddenly everything clicks. That’s genius design, even if it doesn’t feel like it in the heat of the moment.
I still stand by what I said in my rage: the Fierce Tiger is a bastard. He will chew you up if you go in unprepared but now I see that’s the point. He’s the line in the sand that separates casual stubbornness from true mastery of the game. If you can beat him, it’s because you finally embraced everything Wuchang gives you. And that’s why he’s such an important boss.
Do I regret my rant? no. Do I admint I was too quick to dismiss him as unfair. Maybe. But at the same time, I think that frustration was part of the journey. Without that moment of giving up, I wouldn’t have come back with fresh eyes and a new strategy. The hate made the redemption sweeter. And isn’t that what these games are about? The lows make the highs worth it.
So yeah, maybe I was too hasty to hate on Fierce Tiger. He still made me quit, he still made me rage, and I still stand by my swearing at the time. But now that I’ve beaten him, I’ll give him his due. Fierce Tiger isn’t broken. He isn’t bullshit. He’s one of the best bosses I’ve fought in years. And if you’re willing to swallow your pride and adapt, you’ll find the same satisfaction I did when he finally went down.
Would I fight him again? Honestly, yeah. Because this time I know better. That’s the mark of a great boss fight. It doesn’t just test you in the moment. It changes the way you play the game forever.
After this fight I went on to a few different bosses the game had to offer – Vermillion Feathers Honglan posed no threat to me because I had learned and adapted to everything the game could throw at me…
Or so I thought… Because fuck Bo Magus.