Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
Developer: Team Ninja
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
Platforms: Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X (Reviewed)
Release Date: March 3, 2023
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $109.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
When it comes to creating an incredibly difficult action game there are few developers as experienced as Team Ninja. Long before the rise of the various Souls games the developers at Team Ninja were making games that could frustrate players to no end with their challenging difficulty and in recent years the company has put their own spin on the Souls style of games with their Nioh series and now their latest effort is Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. This time around though rather than setting the game in Japan their latest effort takes some tips from fellow Koei Tecmo developer Omega Force by placing the game in historic China during the fall of the Han Dynasty as well as placing far more weight on deflection mechanics. With all these new elements, has Team Ninja’s latest effort in creating a unique take on the genre been worthwhile?
Story
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty begins with players taking their heavily customizable created militia soldier into the middle of a battle where a small village is being sacked by the forces of the Yellow Turban rebellion. The Han Dynasty is in its last days and is beginning to crumble as new forces begin to rise and others make their own moves, but unlike what many are familiar with, this story now has a fantastical element to it. After saving a mysterious boy and being revived from death, the player finds themselves battling against demonic forces that fight alongside the Yellow Turbans as allies only to come face to face with their general, Zhang Liang, who wields demonic powers of his own.
Those familiar with the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history, or even those familiar with the Dynasty Warriors series, will likely be able to guess many of the background story beats as they progress through the game as the battles against the Yellow Turbans continues to play out the same way, only this time with a darker mystical element involved as a dark Taoist is using a mystical Elixir that is capable of unlocking powerful Qi in those who use it at the cost of their humanity. Many forces begin to take advantage of this Elixir while players and many names from Three Kingdoms history such as Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and many more join as allies against those using the Elixir for evil.
While this new mystical element does add some intriguing elements to the storyline, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a bit on the predictable side primarily thanks to how it is structured. While there are some unique and original locations as well as original characters implemented throughout the story, most of the developments occur through a cutscene at the start of a stage and then one at the end, and sometimes not even then all while usually being paired with a historical ally to fight against a boss that is also historically significant. Along these same lines, characters introduced early will vanish for long periods of time or completely, even as summonable allies, with little explanation. Even the characters based around the hub area are incredibly simplistic and offer little extra lore and what notes players do gather are often incredibly short and provide only a small amount of backstory to what happened before players arrived. There are some interesting twists that begin to occur right near the end of the game but these happen far too late to revive this story as being more than a dark fantasy twist on familiar early Three Kingdoms conflicts.
Gameplay
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty takes a familiar playstyle and puts its own unique spin on things in such a manner that players may find it incredibly difficult to adapt initially. Players will still be able to make use of fast-paced combo attacks while wielding a wide variety of weapons and unleashing magical spells but the true difficulty not only comes from hard-hitting enemies but the parrying, or Deflection, mechanic that almost all combat is based around. In fact the game’s very first boss, as exhibited by our countless losses in the video above, serves as a hard skill check barrier to entry to the rest of what Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has to offer by making sure that players learn the concepts of deflecting incoming blows, managing their spirit gauge and morale, and much more before opening up a bit and easing things down. It is a bit strange that the very first boss, a two-stage one at that, ends up being far more difficult than nearly every other boss in the game but it helps set the tone that Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will not go easy on players who are unprepared.
As mentioned, while players can block some incoming attacks the primary defense in the game is deflecting incoming blows. This is done by dodging just as an attack is about to strike and often leaves an enemy open to a counter attack while also draining their spirit gauge. Any enemy with a fully drained spirit gauge can be attacked with a flashy fatal strike for massive damage that will often weaken them as a result. Along these same lines the more players attack an enemy and deflect incoming attacks the higher their own spirit gauge will fill, giving them chances to deal more damage as well as spend some of the gauge to execute martial arts that are tied to the weapons players have equipped and spells. Of course, should the player’s own spirit gauge be drained by using too many spells, martial arts, dodging too much or getting hit too much, they will also be temporarily left open.
It is also worth noting that deflecting attacks plays a pivotal role in managing morale as well. Every stage players begin with zero morale and as they slay enemies throughout a stage it will increase all the way to a maximum of twenty five. The catch here is that any enemy in the game, ranging from a simple zombie to an imposing mid-boss, is capable of performing a critical strike. Critical Strikes see the enemy glow red and unleash an unblockable attack that, should it connect, will deal lots of damage and decrease the player’s morale by one, though deflecting such a blow will often break an enemy’s demonic armor or leave them wide-open for a flourish of attacks.
As players fight through a stage they will encounter banner stands that flags can be placed in with larger banners serving as both checkpoints should players fall in battle but also mini-hubs for leveling, traveling to other battlefields, summoning allies, and even buying items. Smaller marker banners can often be found in hidden locations or areas that are off the beaten path, giving players plenty of reason to explore beyond simply trying to get more loot because every banner placed increases the minimum morale the player will have in that battle. Not only is this important since death will immediately drop a player’s morale to the minimum, but also since morale plays a massive role in how much damage players can take as well as dish out.
For example, battling a group of grunts with only one morale but the enemies all have ten morale will often be a losing fight, especially since most of their blows can kill in a few strikes should players be unprepared. The opposite is just as true though, with players at maximum morale being able to dish out tons of damage to enemies and cut through standard foes mostly with ease. Of course, this plays a massive role in boss battles as well. This means that, should players be having trouble with a boss, such as the troublesome Zhang Liang, simply going to grind morale to the maximum and returning to resume the battle can make all the difference in actually making sure players know what they are doing.
These boss encounters tend to be real special feeling as many of them provide a nice balance of choosing when to attack or play defensive. Many simpler moves from bosses will actually be more dangerous than their critical strikes as these are not only heavily telegraphed but also, if properly deflected, leave the boss wide open for punishment. This can lead to some truly wonderful balancing acts, especially against some of the tougher bosses in the game that we won’t spoil here. It is worth noting that there are a couple bosses that are a bit too easy and will be blown through like nothing, but many of these fights are real standouts.
Managing the aforementioned Morale is a major factor to difficulty but players can also make things a little easier on themselves by summoning help. Nearly every battlefield, outside of duels against signature characters, will allow players to summon up to two allies to fight alongside them through the stage at the cost of a tiger seal. These seals are obtained from defeating invaders, enemies that have slain other players, and even randomly throughout some stages. AI companions can serve as useful allies to draw attention away from the player, allowing them to sneak attack, cast powerful spells, or simply maneuver around a fight a bit easier. It is worth noting that we did not have much chance to try out online help with other players nor did we get invaded by others during this review period, though the game does feature NPC invasions in certain locations as well.
As usual with a game like this, players will gain levels by obtaining “Genuine Qi” from defeating enemies and should the player fall in battle, they will only lose half of their Qi compared to losing everything. This Qi can then be used to level up, at increasing amounts, by applying points into one of five elemental categories that increase things such as spell capabilities, deflection timing window, health, the amount of spirit gauge spent for spells and martial arts, and more. Of course, leveling or even accessing any banner will respawn most enemies in the area as well as refill the player’s Dragon Cure Pot. Leveling is a fairly straightforward element and comes at a reasonable rate though gear progression is another story entirely as Team Ninja has once again made use of some incredibly frustrating design here.
All gear dropped from enemies, be it weapon, armor, or even an accessory will have standard stats attached to it and these generic stats are improved simply by refining the gear to a higher level, but the real RNG comes from the various effects each piece of gear has and just how much is thrown at players. Fighting through a battleground can often reward the player with nearly a hundred pieces of gear that are almost entirely worthless, leaving them to be scrapped for materials players already have plenty of and rarely a useful skill that can be embeded in a different piece of gear, or simply sold for money. This also means that players will need to sift through hundreds of pieecs of gear should they want to see if anything is actually an improvement over whatever they have equipped. With each gear offering different upgrade levels, star ratings, and random buffs this can be a lot and frankly, unless players care a ton about special bonuses, is far too much to worry about compared to simply upgrading the gear player’s are already familiar with. It is nice though that all gear can be given a cosmetic shift to look like any other piece of equipment of the same category, allowing players to dress up as they feel like while still taking advantage of their preferred loudout.
It is a bit unfortunate that for a game that requires some extremely precise timing during combat, especially during boss battles, the game’s performance is quite rough. While most fights against standard enemies and even larger opponents will flow perfectly fine, other times the on-screen battle will freeze for just a moment before jumping ahead, often with the player being hit in the process and there is often no hint as to what triggers these hitches as large-scale attacks can come off perfectly fine only for a small flurry to freeze the screen. It is rather frustrating and has led to an extra death on more than one occasion as well as a complete crash to the dashboard during what ended up being one of the simpler boss fights.
Visuals & Audio
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty looks rather impressive thanks to some great art direction and enemy designs. The character models for everyone’s favorite heroes and villains from The Three Kingdoms remain mostly true to form only upgraded to match the graphical fidelity of the rest of the game. Standard enemy designs begin to get a bit stale halfway through the game but thankfully all boss designs are exceptional looking, especially in motion when performing critical strikes. It is also nice to note that there is a solid amount of level variety to be found in the game and, since banner stands could be anywhere, there is actually reason to explore every location.
Players will find that the game offers both the original Japanese voice track as well as an English voice cast as well. The English voice actors have handled their jobs well enough here though lip-synching is rather poor in many cutscenes. As for background music, the game’s soundtrack features a solid collection of action music reminiscent of what may be heard in other Three Kingdoms styled games though no track really stood out.
Overall
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty can be incredibly difficult to master but once players start to get the hang of the deflection system, it is one that is not only incredibly rewarding but also quite fun to play and see in action when it isn’t hitching up. Fast paced action with plenty of weapon variety and spells at the player’s disposal means that players can tackle almost any obstacle how they want and even make things a little easier on themselves along the way should they choose. The poor loot system and a somewhat lackluster story do hold it back a bit but Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an outstanding game that those looking for a challenge should be eager to try.
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