Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review- This Dragon has Sharp Fangs

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the latest game from Team Ninja- the team behind the Nick games and the bizarre Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy from last year. If you're expecting a grand evolution of their fast-paced counter-based formula, you won't find that with Wo Long. Much of the DNA from Team Ninja's previous titles has been integrated into their newest game. However, if you were hooked by Nieb's alternative take on the Dark Souls formula. Wo Long may be just what you're looking for.

Gameplay

The most appropriate place to start with Wo Long is its gameplay as, for most people, that's why they'll play the game. Team Ninja has distinguished itself from FromSoftware's methodic, calculated roll-based combat with quick, aggressive enemies that can't simply be dodged away from. In Wo Long. this dial is turned up to 11. Dodging is useless in 90% of situations in this game- meaning you're forced to play by the parry system Team Ninja has put in place here.

You're able to deflect any attack back onto an enemy to break their 'spirit gauge', which will put them into a staggered state, allowing you to deal a ton of damage with a 'fatal strike. If you can manage to deflect an unblockable attack at the right time. you'll do an incredible amount of spirit damage and leave the enemy open to a flurry of attacks. This system really prioritizes skill-based parrying and deflecting as opposed to any other strategy. While rewarding, it does come with its own set of flaws.

Your gameplay style in Wo Long is very restrictive since, while you do have the ability to use wizardry spells to hurl ice shards or fireballs at your enemies, your objective best bet is to just wait until the enemy initiates a red unblockable attack to deal a heap of damage. This also funnels most players into using fast weapons as opposed to the fun but unviable clubs and hammers. The biggest flaw in this system, however, is the difficulty spike present with most of the boss fights.

While normal enemies provide a fun challenge, the difficulty level was bumped up astronomically with the bosses at the end of each stage. These difficulty spikes act as walls that force you to die, learn, die. learn and die again until you finally triumph against the seemingly unbeatable foes. These spikes are so bad, in fact, that Team Ninja had to lower the health and damage of its first boss due to so many players quitting after seeing that it had a second phase with a full health bar.

Unfortunately, instead of atmospheric sword duels, most bosses boil down to running until they initiate an unblockable attack. While not bad or even too hard by any means, the bosses in Wo Long take what we saw in Nich 2 a little too far. For newer players to the genre. Wo Long can be a little too punishing, especially in the opening hours of the game This being said, the gameplay of Wo Long is still fantastic. Traversing levels is more fun than ever before with the ability to jump over obstacles and up buildings to launch fatal sneak attacks on your foes. This also allows the game to feel more strategic than previous Team Ninja efforts, which is much appreciated.

You are also tasked with finding optional flags throughout each level that bump up your health and damage- meaning it’s encouraged to explore the environment if you're struggling with a particularly tough boss. While the combat and exploration are fluid and fun in Wo Long. the frustrating and repetitive nature of its bosses makes for a disappointing end to most missions.

Story

The weakest element of Wo Long is its story. Most of the background for characters is locked behind walls of text in the menus. If you choose to not read a book’s worth of lore while playing an action-adventure videogame, most of the characters you encounter blend together and become unmemorable. While there are some that stand out such as Lu Bu and Ho Long, the constant barrage of new information and characters can feel overwhelming.

If you are able to follow along with each character and keep up with their lore, however, this story is a huge epic about kingdoms waging war on each other. With a little sprinkle of demonic powers and a mysterious 'elixir', the game does manage to keep your interest- even if minimally- as it drags you from mission to mission. While a little too similar to Team Ninja's previous works for me, I wouldn't be surprised is some people found enjoyment in the Chinese battles and historical characters that appear throughout.

Presentation

Wo Long is a strange game in that it often looks fantastic while also having some glaring technical flaws. With the game playing at a smooth 60fps throughout, slaying demons and monsters felt great- which is a requirement for this type of game. The environments are also varied and interesting to explore. From a burning city to a snowy battlefield, the areas look fantastic and make you excited to see what lies around the next corner for most locations.

Unfortunately, some of the textures in Wo Long do tend to glitch out. Note that this is from my experience on both the Xbox Series X and S consoles- which both managed to run at a smooth 60fps throughout but had some textures not loading and pixelated graphics during some cutscenes. During gameplay. however, this was either not present or not noticeable. Although not the best-looking game. Wo Long still manages to run well and, with a number. of diverse locations to explore, it feels like a step up from Team Ninja's previous works-which tended to rely on brown and grey color schemes a little too much.

Conclusion

Wo Long provides a familiar experience for fans of Team Nina's prior works and will leave most satisfied after conquering the tough-as-nails final boss. With more varied landscapes to explore, better movement, and tense combat, Wo Long could very well be the best that the studio has put out yet. It's just a shame that this formula is feeling a little tired and dated.

On top of that, the heavy difficulty spikes are more frustrating than rewarding and lead to more unfair deaths than in other games in the genre. If nothing else, Wo Long is a fun action RPG that should serve as a fantastic launching point for Team Ninja in creating more ambitious projects. This may be one to miss if you're new to Soulslikes, however- unless you're into some heavy masochism.