Masochism for the hardcore

With the advent of Demon’s Souls and the success of Dark Souls, action games changed significantly and one of the most prominent genres of the last decade started to surface. Souls-like games are characterized by their often brutal challenge, but they’re also known for their mechanics around death, the focus on exploration, the intricate level design, and the precision-based combat. As more games that fall in this genre appear though, a lot of the rules are broken.

The Nioh series from Team Ninja has undeniably some of the best, if not the best, Souls-like games, and not without a good reason, as they managed to keep a lot that is beloved about this genre and add a robust gameplay system to the pot as well. Sekiro from From Software also managed to shake the foundation, as it integrated a lot of these Souls-like elements into a proper action game, with deflection instead of rolling being the main mechanic.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty would probably not exist without the aforementioned games, but it would be foolish to assume that it doesn’t add a unique flair to this beloved genre. It signifies Team Ninja’s foray into a more action-oriented Souls-like game compared to Nioh. It was released a year ago, and it even received several DLC packs over the months that followed. Eventually, a Complete Edition containing all that content was released earlier this month. So, without further ado, let’s delve into Wo Long and what makes this title interesting.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Similarly to Nioh and its sequel which explored two different periods of Japanese history, Wo Long explores the start of the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. It’s a parade of famous Chinese generals and warlords, like Liu Bei and Lu Bu, and of course, characters like Guan Yu, with his peerless beard, have a significant role as well. Cao Cao’s depiction was especially interesting, as he’s presented as a heroic figure, very reminiscent of Nobunaga from Nioh 2, a contrast to the usual depictions of the character.

Like with Nioh, while it follows a lot of the events and the battles of that period, magic and demons are introduced to the setting, creating an even more epic background and higher stakes. The protagonist works their way through various battles and meets all these legendary figures while trying to find out more about a mysterious Taoist and a magical medicine called Elixir, which seems to be at the center of all conflict.

As someone who isn’t overly familiar with this historic period, I enjoyed the story and the cutscenes and found a lot of the details very interesting, but I’d be lying if I said that there aren’t scenes that are very hard to follow. After all, it concerns events over several years and a new character is introduced at almost every mission, creating a sizeable cast. I liked seeing the dramatization of a betrayal or the heroic death of a general, and I’m certain that someone more knowledgeable about this period got more out of the story, but I often had trouble understanding the reasons behind some of the characters’ actions. 

To the game’s credit, it does offer a lot of readable descriptions, about both characters and story events. They certainly manage to alleviate some of the confusion, however, I think I’d still prefer a story that doesn’t feel as fragmented as this. It’s the weakest aspect of Wo Long, and as a fan of environmental storytelling, I’d like to see more of that. You can collect some scrolls in each mission, which offer insight regarding the places you see or the enemies you encounter, but something a bit more unique from a storytelling standpoint would be welcome as well.

Boosting morale…

On another note, the gameplay loop is similar to Nioh too. You experience most of the game through missions, called battlefields, with all of the main battlefields starting with the exploration of a level and ending with a boss fight. The side battlefields are usually much shorter and consist of a duel or the exploration of a previous level but with a twist, like starting from a different part of it or having a different objective. There are also some gauntlets with several rounds of fights as parts of them. You access battlefields through a menu, and there’s even the option to visit a hub area to buy supplies or make equipment.

Other than the classic checkpoints, several marking flags make their appearance in Wo Long and tie to the morale system. Morale is probably the most interesting addition to Nioh’s formula. It ensures that the players are thorough with their exploration, but it’s another layer to the game’s challenge too. When you go fresh to a battlefield, you start with zero morale, and it steadily increases as you fight more and more enemies.

High morale means more attack power and less damage taken, and enemies have a morale rank as well. However, when you die you lose all of the morale you have gathered, and the enemy that killed you gets stronger to boot. Checkpoints and marking flags increase your fortitude, allowing you to start with higher minimum morale after death. Later in the game, adjusting morale during missions is a great way to increase or decrease the difficulty as well. 

Death, in general, has always been a special, and rather frequent, moment in Souls-like, and Wo Long isn’t any different. That said though, I feel the mechanic that ties the game’s “soul” currency, the Genuine Qi, to death is one of the most lenient, as you only lose half of it with death, which of course is recoverable. The changes in morale I mentioned earlier can create some challenging situations, but unless you’re rushing through the game I don’t think they’ll create an issue and death is generally painless. The abundance of checkpoints contributes to that as well.

… and keeping the spirit high

Wo Long is an action RPG, but the focus is on the action part even more so than Nioh. There’s no stamina, but instead, both players and enemies have a spirit meter that they need to manage, which becomes positive with normal attacks and negative with heavy attacks. When you mismanage it or receive too much spirit damage from opponents, your posture breaks. Breaking an opponent’s posture is key in defeating them, as it allows you to execute special finishers on them. Also unique to Wo Long is the lack of mana or a similar resource, instead spells use the spirit meter, so they are weaved pretty naturally to the melee combos, either they’re self-buffs or damaging spells.

Another key mechanic to the combat is deflection, something it shares with Sekiro. Dodge and block exist and are certainly useful, but deflecting is what matters the most. Evasion is usually just used as a way to gain distance from an enemy, but also consumes spirit. A good-timed deflection allows you to keep your spirit and gain more, and it’s also the only way to parry some strong enemy moves, highlighted in red. You can also use it in conjunction with blocking, as long as your spirit allows it. Finding a rhythm in combat and managing your spirit consumption is very important in Wo Long and I feel this is what makes a much more action-oriented game. I thought it’s a very interesting change of pace to see so many actions relying on a single gauge.

That said, Wo Long features its own RPG system, where you increase various attributes, called virtues, each one tied to an element and several stats. Elements have their chart of weaknesses and resistances, each weapon type scales differently to them and there are five: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. For example, if you want to boost HP, you need to boost Wood, while something like Earth affects your weight limit. Several spirit or deflection values depend on them as well. Despite being an action-first game, the RPG elements are certainly varied enough and allow the creation of multiple different builds. On my run, I focused on Earth and then Metal and Water because of a glaive I picked, and I tried to create a character with a focus on defense.

On that note, the game has a lot of weapons to play around with, and the DLC adds even more. Each weapon also comes with a few Martial Arts, which are combat skills you can initiate for even more spirit and raw damage to the enemies at the cost of some spirit. Other than them, another mechanic that helps during fights is Divine Beasts, another system inherited from Nioh, where you can equip one to get some boosts and an ultimate move once the meter is full, producing several positive effects.

Overcoming difficulties with our sworn brothers

It becomes apparent that there’s an abundance of mechanics in the game, and that might make some think that you have to master them all to be able to beat it. In reality, other than maybe a couple of fights, the difficulty of Wo Long is on the low end compared to similar games. A lot of the systems take effect passively, and even if you don’t know what weapon to use or which build to make, or aren’t that good in action games, most of the game is very manageable. Most fights with big demons feel telegraphed, and while I enjoyed duels with human bosses, they’re not particularly hard to surpass as well.

However, this isn’t the case with the DLC, where things ramped up quickly. Some of my favorite and more memorable fights are from the DLC and it certainly required me to be a lot more proactive in the way I play compared to the base game. Ultimately, anyone seeking a challenge is bound to get it.

As a last resort with these games, it allows to recruit both NPCs and other players, so even when something is incredibly difficult, it’s far from impossible if you’re willing to compromise. In regards to the NPCs, the game also implements an Oath system, that rewards you with some armor for playing with them during the battlefield treks. I felt it was worthwhile using them here and there to boost their oath level, and also get some extra bits of dialogues out of them, but of course, all of that is completely optional.

The level design, one of the most important aspects of a Souls-like for me, is also worth mentioning. I was very pleased to see that the levels offer a lot of verticality, thanks to the addition of a jump button, and they also have some very neat ideas implemented on them, which is a massive improvement from Nioh’s corridor-esque areas. Lots of shortcuts are used and many areas have internal loops or connect their many places in very cool ways. A lot of environments appear as well and while some of them can feel a bit bland, I was very pleased with most.

Without spoiling much, there’s both variety and originality to each mission, and some even evolve midway, creating new opportunities for exploration. The enemy variety could be better, as new enemies are only introduced for around the first two-thirds of the game, though again the DLC makes up for it with even more additions to the game’s bestiary. 

Battlefields usually took me around an hour or an hour and a half to complete, and they have several collectibles along the way, including the previously mentioned marking flags, so they’re worth exploring in detail. The quality of the level design in the DLC is of a similar level to the base game, though I was a bit disappointed to see some of the main battlefields there being on the shorter side.

The Crouching Dragon Roars

As for the technical side, the PS5 version I played ran smoothly and offered different modes, with the Performance mode holding a steady 60 frames per second, outside of some rare stutters. Visually, while I believe the game is far from ugly, carried by its vibrant colors in a lot of stages, there seems to barely be an improvement over Nioh 2. On one hand, this is understandable, as the scale of the levels is much bigger. On the other hand, it highlights a lack of ambition.

This is a sentiment I had a lot with the game, despite my enjoyment with it and some very novel ideas. It takes a lot of stuff from Nioh and even evolves from it in some ways, like the level design, but it also feels lesser than it in other ways. It features fewer missions and some of them are significantly shorter, while the worse enemy variety also hurts it, and unfortunately fuels this narrative of an otherwise very fun game.

As for the endgame, and what you do after you beat the main content, there are several difficulties offered in the Complete Edition, that both raise the challenge and change enemy placement on the various battlefields. It rains loot during fights, despite Team Ninja’s promises for less loot before its release, and while this is something you can mostly ignore, the endgame is the point where you have to pay attention to all the attributes and small bonuses the armors give and optimize your build. There are several mechanics concerning that and while late-game optimization isn’t my cup of tea, I know that a lot of people love it, especially those who like PvP and invasions.

Last but not least, I was really glad to see Wo Long offering a really good character-creation system, with many options and a lot of freedom in shaping the characteristics of the skin, hair, face, and body. Moreover, while you have to handle a lot of different armor parts, you can change their appearance to something of your liking, and avoid looking like a mismatched harlequin for the entire game. Some of the DLC armors especially are very nice looking, with the one from the Naraka Bladepoint collaboration being the one of my choice for most of my run.

Conclusion

Fans of Souls-like games, especially Nioh, should play Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Complete Edition. It's a lot of fun with an interesting setting and a good combat rhythm. While the difficulty of the base game could have been done better, the DLC more than makes up for it. Having spent about 40 hours with the base game and then just under 15 hours with the DLC packs, this package offers a lot of value with the DLC being a highlight for its challenge. In addition to the main story content, there is a lot to do beyond that with loads of replay value. Despite some limitations, the DLC was one of the best parts of the experience.  I highly recommend this game to anyone craving a slightly different experience from what we see in the genre when it comes to combat.

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for this review.