Team Ninja has been on a roll these past few years. With the release of the first Nioh on PlayStation 4 back in 2017, the creator of the Ninja Gaiden series has fully embraced the From Software-inspired hardcore action role-playing game formula known as Masocore in Japan, leading to the release of excellent games like the second entry in the Nioh series, and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. In two months, Team Ninja will be ready to show their next hardcore action RPG, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, a game to promises to be yet another banger for the Japanese development studio.
Last week, I was given the chance to try Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty for the second time with a more welcoming demo featuring the first two story chapters. Back in September 2022, console players had the chance to try out the game, but getting dropped into an advanced mission with no knowledge of the basic mechanics did the public demo no favor. Still, I felt it was a solid showing, and with plenty of development time left, I thought Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty had a strong chance of becoming even better. And thankfully, I was not disappointed.
The game’s basic mechanics, such as the Spirit gauge and the Morale Rank systems, which influence both offense and defense, work exactly as they did in last year’s demo. However, the devil is in the details, as many are the changes Team Ninja made to their game, ultimately resulting in a much more enjoyable experience. The parry/Deflection timing window, for example, has been increased a lot, making it easier to deflect attacks from enemies on reaction. At times, it feels like it has been increased a little too much, as attacks with long animations and active times can now be easily deflected by mashing.
Being able to mash the Deflection button and achieve success, to be fair, doesn’t happen too often, and the Spirit gauge system makes it very dangerous to attempt to deflect any attack and miss too many times, as a negative Spirit value can lead to a brief stun state if the player is attacked. As such, I don’t think the challenge level will suffer too much from this more generous Deflection window. On the contrary, it makes the entire experience way more enjoyable, as it allows players to be a little more offensive without forcing them to actually predict an enemy attack instead of reacting to it. The end of the first chapter features the same boss seen in the 2022 demo, and fighting him has been way more fun, although the fight remained challenging.
As mentioned above, one of the central Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty mechanics are the Morale Rank mechanics, which dictate how strong the player and the enemy are. While this rank can be increased by defeating enemies, deflecting attacks and so on, the most effective way of keeping the Morale Rank up and preventing it from dropping too much is by activating Battle and Marking Flags which act as checkpoints and save points of sorts. Many of the Marking flags, however, can be missed if the player shoots straight for the mission’s main objective, so the game does offer some tangible bonus for exploration outside of loot, which comes with extra abilities such as increased damage, speed, damage reduction and so on, in the vein of the Nioh series.
Marking Flags, alongside the jumping maneuver, have impacted level design in the best of ways, as even the smaller locations at the start of the game include plenty of optional areas, all featuring something that makes them discovering them worthwhile. Whether it’s a new piece of gear, a Marking Flag, or a powerful enemy with high Morale, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty always rewards players who take the time to check out and explore the lands of the Three Kingdoms era China.
While some small underlying issues remain, such as the potential lack of player expression due to the limited moveset of the game’s weapons compared to the Nioh series, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is undoubtedly set out to be an amazing action role-playing game. With it, Team Ninja set out to create a game that captured the unique flow of Chinese martial arts and an action title where the actual action gameplay always takes center stage, and I am now convinced more than ever that the Japanese studio will manage to accomplish with it set out to do with its next game.
To be fair, this build played on PC highlighted disappointing visuals and performance, as seen in the video below, but I’m hoping both can be fixed ahead of the release.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty launches on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One on March 3rd, 2023 worldwide. The game will be available via Xbox Game Pass on Xbox consoles and PC as well from day one.
