Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty by developer Team Ninja and publisher Koei Tecmo—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by thepublisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes.
WoLong: Fallen Dynasty by Koei Tecmo's Team Ninja is a stellar Soulslike thateasily raises the bar in the genre. Not afraid to tread into new territory,this adventure dives into Chinese history between the years of 184 to 200 AD,with fictional liberties of course, as you travel from battlefield tobattlefield to protect the land from evil.
Itwould be easy to say that Wo Long is a great successor to Nioh / Nioh 2 howeverI don't think that would be a fair statement. While it may be the same teambehind the experience, as well as that of Strangers of Paradise: Final FantasyOrigin, these two couldn't be more different. What makes Wo Long different fromits predecessors isn't just the change in historical locations, but a change inthe entire system. With a new system promoting a constant pushing forward,there’s an accessibility for new and old players alike that makes the wholeexperience more approachable and less aggravating than others out there.
Beforegetting into the actual elements of Wo Long, I think it’s fair to take a quickrecap of what Soulslikes are. The core concept behind a Soulslike is easy,there is challenging gameplay and a penalty system in place if, and generallywhen, you fall in combat. We aren’t talking about game over and restarting fromscratch a la old school NES days. Instead, we are generally talking aboutlosing your leveling up currency that was on hand and that had not been usedyet. Easing this penalty somewhat in Wo Long, the developers have reduced thatloss to half of your current Qi that is on hand, not all of it. Once you makeit back to the location of your death, an enemy that was present, the enemythat took you down or the boss room, you get that portion back as long as youdon’t die again on your way to get it back.
Aspart of this system, mastering the core gameplay is fundamental to success andWo Long nails it. Gone are the stamina bars and in their place is a tug of warsystem that lets you constantly stay in motion. Whether on the offensivehammering blow after blow at your enemy or on the defensive blocking attacks ordodging out of the way, this system can reward or penalize both you and yourenemies alike. Landing successful blows will move your provided combat gauge tothe right highlighted in blue. Blocking blows and performing dodges will movethe combat gauge to the left highlighted in red. If the gauge makes it all theway to the left and you take a hit? You’ll be stunned and often open to somepretty nasty attacks.
Sohere is where things get interesting. I suck at parrying. I’m not just sayingthat, I really suck at parrying so the likes of seeing the credits of Sekiro orThymesia will forever be outside of my reach. I have however gotten REALLY goodat dodging thanks to Bloodborne which was my saving grace in Wo Long. The parryand the dodge button are one in the same, so with the constant flow ofgameplay, well timed dodges can act as a parry to the incoming blows.Performing these in succession will move your combat gauge back to the rightallowing you to perform more moves and abilities while also chipping away at anenemy’s combat gauge for devastating critical hits known here as Fatal Strikes.
Addingto your normal attacks that will move your gauge to the right, you have bothmartial arts and spells that will move the gauge to the left. Martial arts comespecific to the weapon that you are using, not the weapon type. Moves caninclude forward motion spinning attacks, backflips, upward thrusts, or windmillattacks depending which weapon is on hand. Not being able to really “select”these makes changing for a more powerful version an actual decision instead ofa no brainer as while one may have less abilities than the other? It may notsuit your combat style as much.
WhatI really appreciated with the weapons in general however is that, puttingmartial arts aside, the weapon that you get is the weapon that you get. Rankedfrom 1-5 star, the better the grade the more bonuses that are attached. Butcombat rating? That stays the same and each can be upgraded with the samematerials from +1 to +9. It creates less oh well I just picked up a betterversion which is a higher level, maybe I should swap this out… not saying youmay not pick up a 4 star rank at +5 with better abilities at that point intime, but short of those abilities, a 4 star is a 4 star and the base stats arethe same simplifying the math.
Tothe side of your martial arts is the ability to equip up to four spells forcasting. Like martial arts, they'll move your gauge negatively to the left sotiming of when to use these is another key to victory. Within your spells youhave access to a variety of single targets and areas of effect for both you andyour enemies. Lightning strikes, extra armor, higher defense within a circle,life leech, fire swords, etc. each has a time and a place to use it best underthe schools of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.
Wherethese two extra options differ however boils into your morale and yourfortitude. Morale, like any great bard song, can rouse even the lowliest offoes into a devastating frenzy. Falling along similar lines, character andenemy morale will dictate just how effective you are against them, and themagainst you. The higher your morale, the easiest a level and a boss can be. Ifyou die however, your morale will take a hit bringing it back down. Gettingback to the boss will bring it back up a bit, but it will still have taken ahit.
Soit’s a good thing that alongside your morale you have your fortitude which willraise the minimum possible amount of morale that you can have. This can be doneby exploring the level and placing Battle Flags and Making Flags which are WoLong’s equivalent to Bonfires and Shrines. Marking Flags are neat and sometimesmore craftily hidden while the Battle Flags tend to be out in the open andguarded by a few more fearsome foes. Resting at a Battle Flag will also allowyou to level up, buy new items like arrows and crossbow bolts, change yourdivine beast or “travel” to another location.
Beforegetting into the awesomeness of the divine beasts, the ability to travelchanged things completely. Having trouble with a stage or a boss? Head back tothe hub and then come back. You don’t lose your progress on the stage thatyou’re on which is fantastic. Unlike Nioh that would drop you better and bettergear, the blacksmith here is only present in a few stages until the hub isunlocked and after that point? You have to go see her at her forge as she won’tbe traveling in parallel to you anymore meaning that if you’re having a toughtime and both leveling and getting your morale up isn’t helping? Maybe someupgrades to your good old fashioned steel will.
Ifgood old fashioned steel is also not enough, you have access to your DivineBeast. Each comes with an elemental preference which you can use in a pinch inorder to channel their element into your weapons for a limited time. As long asthe element isn’t opposed to that of the enemy that you are attacking, it worksreally well. Aside from that, there’s also the ability to simply summon yourDivine Beast to perform an action on the field that could easily change theflow of battle. In all honesty, while some were pretty neat, I stuck with theDivine Beat Qinglong as their special ability was a healing circle of epicproportions for both you and your teammates.
Thisis perhaps the last feature of Wo Long that I really enjoyed. Throughout mostof the story, you’ll be accompanied by an NPC or two your first time through astage. If you only have one NPC, you can easily summon a second, or anotheractual player which had worked out really well when I had played the originaldemo. Sadly over the course of the review, the only time that I actually wentto summon help, help sadly did not come and I was forced to truly “Git Gud” withperhaps the hardest boss of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Of that, I’ll let you useyour imagination because if we are talking about “The Romance of the ThreeKingdoms”? You guessed it right, and it’s a hell of a fight that had mecheering once I finished it!
Itwas fights like this that brought everything together. How your charactermoves, fights, dodges and parries. How you use your Divine Beasts and theability to travel to and from your hub to upgrade gear. Finally, it’s how yougo about using NPCs to the fullest or, if they’ll come to your call, otherplayers in order to seize victory! And once you've completed the final battle,a new difficulty unlocks. This new challenge not only provides replay value,but increases the enemy's maximum morale rank and makes it easier to obtainrare five star items and equipment. I liked how they were called rare as overthe course of my thirty plus hours I hadn't seen a single piece of five star,only four stars.
Summary
Sooverall, I absolutely loved my time with Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja’s Wo Long:Fallen Dynasty. The change in approach to the Soulslike formula was fantasticand even if I could find myself occasionally getting frustrated, there areplenty of ways around that frustration as well as the enemies that lay betweenyou, and victory!
Score: 9 / 10
