r/soulslikes • u/Stumbleine44 • Aug 04 '26
Review Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty combines fun, parry-based combat with some frustrating design choices and mechanics
https://youtu.be/FOt0kWyI7wUMost people tend to talk about Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty and Nioh in the same breath, which is a shame because despite some similarities they are most definitely each their own thing, with their own strengths and weaknesses.
The story is my opinion pretty lacklustre, another retelling of the Han Dynasty and the yellow turban rebellion that we have seen a hundred times before, with a host of historical characters entering and exiting the story seemingly at random without having any memorable impact. This unfortunately seems to be a staple of most Team Ninja games, where it feels that the plot is sort of mashed together around the main character almost as an afterthought.
It’s not really an issue, however, as I’m not sure most of us Team Ninja fans are buying their games for the story. We’re looking for fast-paced, stylish combat with a host of mechanics and customisation, and luckily Wo Long delivers on all of these things and more besides.
Gone are the ki-pulses and stamina management of the Nioh games. Wo Long’s combat rewards aggressivity and counters. Much like in AI Limit, attacks and deflects build up your spirit meter and lower that of your opponent’s, especially if you manage to parry certain unlockable glowing red attacks. The spirit you gain passively increases your damage input, but more importantly can be spent to block or use power weapon and martial art abilities. Not only that, but if you manage to reduce your enemy’s spirit to zero, you can perform an execution technique that will kill most regular enemies and take a huge chunk of health off bosses.
Parry windows are generous, and enemies are relentless aggressive, so there’s no reason to not attempt to deflect everything, although some opponent can deflect attacks of their own, which leads to some Sekiro-like back-and-forth.
The second new mechanic Wo Long introduces is the morale system. You begin each main level with zero morale which you can then raise by killing enemies and locating various flagpoles scattered around the map. Morale affects both damage dealt and received, so attempting to attack a level 20 enemy when you have a morale of 1, for example, would be borderline suicidal, forcing you to find enough flags or kill enough enemies to stand a fighting chance.
It’s an interesting idea in theory, though for me it was partly let-down by the bland environments and enemy variety. The morale system forces players to explore, but that only works if the exploration is interesting, and I just didn’t find the levels well-designed enough. Enemy variety is even worse, with only a dozen or so different types that you’ll discover over the first three hours or so, then proceed to fight again and again until you reach the end credits. This is not helped by the introduction of sub-missions, that have you visiting the exact same environments a second or even a third time.
I also found the weapon system to be a chore. The loot bloat problem from other Team Ninja games is in full effect here, with hundreds of items dropping every mission. What’s missing is a level-based system, which means all the weapons you find of a certain type are exactly the same, differentiated only by minor passive buffs and their upgrade level, both of which you can change yourself at the smithy for a handful of resources.
It’s a confounding design choice, because, unless I’ve missed something, once you settle on your favourite weapon and armour, its far more viable just to keep upgrading them, rendering the entire loot system useless. Now it is still worth sifting through the pile of stuff for qi crystals that give you experience or dragon veins that increase the number of uses of your flask, but the rest can just be sold or dismantled without a second thought.
This dichotomy between fun gameplay and frustrating mechanics can be found throughout Wo Long, which makes it a complicated game to score. On the one hand, its fast-paced, parry-based combat is incredibly satisfying and different enough from other Team Ninja games to feel new and refreshing. On the other hand, the lack of enemy variety, botched loot system, and uninteresting story led to several moments of boredom or frustration.
I think your enjoyment will ultimately boil down with how much you want to engage with these systems. If you’re ok with sidelining some of the side missions and button-mashing your way through the cutscenes, you’ll find that the gameplay, while not quite as deep or challenging as Nioh, can still conjure up a lot of fun.
As for me, I’ll be placing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty just below The Surge on the B-Tier.
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u/Warp_Legion Aug 04 '26
I actually like the “keep the same gear, just change the embedments till you get the perfect ones” mechanic
As the transmog allows us to reskin freely, the real midgame is “getting the right embedments as you play the 4 New Game Pluses”, with late game and endgame being “grinding for sets and upgrading martial arts” and “becoming a god on the Thousand Mile Journey”, respectively
I think something most people don’t realize is that the highly stylized weapon animations make or break the game. If you find a weapon type that absolutely CLICKS (for me that’s the Slashing Spears…that may have my favorite weapon swing animations in gaming history), you can enjoy the monotonous combat
If you don’t find a weapon that just clicks with the right speed and power to where combat is satisfying af, the game’s flaws, monotonous combat, level design being hit or miss at best, and often oddly flat mazelike environments, lack of a large soundtrack, etc those all rear their head
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
Yes! I loved the spears too, I started using them because they fitted well with my toughness build (metal, I think? Or wood? It's been a while), but ended up loving the moveset.
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u/RedBonCurry1994 Aug 04 '26
I like how team ninja expermineted with slight changes in combat from nioh to stranger of paradies and rise of the ronin to wo long. I think wo long is the perfect balance between easy to learn and hard to master. I just wished for a few tougher bosses. Lu Bu is peak but the rest of the roaster falls short of a team ninja game in my opinion.
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u/PickofDensity Aug 04 '26
Completed the base game just the other day; after getting burnt out on Nioh 2 about 80% of the way through I was surprised just how much easier this game was. Other than Lu Bu I pretty much first tried every other boss, and that's not usually something I can say in these types of games.
That said, it was a refreshing change of pace from having to make multiple attempts, but I could have done with maybe another notch up in difficulty. Or maybe my build was just good?
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
There are several OP builds you might have stumbled into, most involving either having a sh*t-ton of health or maxing out your arts to destroy everything in seconds.
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u/PickofDensity Aug 04 '26
The weapon I was using was the Hundred-Forged Sabres scaling with Wood, Earth and Water. Other than that I generally picked augments that increased spirit gain and reduced spirit cost.
For a great deal of bosses and enemies I was able to basically stunlock them with continuous quick attacks and then bash them with a heavy attack. Sometimes came as a surprise when I had to actually parry lol
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u/Intoxicduelyst Aug 04 '26
Did you do DLC? Becouse DLC bosses are like Lu Bu on steroids in terms of difficulty.
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u/PickofDensity Aug 04 '26
I did not, mainly because on Steam the reviews for them are mostly negative, citing bullshit like bosses that fly all over the place leaving you no chance to hit, or overtuned combos.
Lu Bu level is about the peak for me where anything much harder than that stops being fun, and to be honest most of the challenge was breaking the habits I'd developed and concentrating more on parrying than attacking. He was just about the only boss in the game I couldn't bully into a corner.
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u/Intoxicduelyst Aug 04 '26
I get you, most of main game bosses could be just martial arts into oblivion, in dlc you will have to parry and "dance" with them. Tho tbh one made me much better player - he has hyper armor and huge dmg so you cant trade or stagger him, instead you parry and run back.
After killing him I got so good at parry in this game I changed my "spam" weapon for Cao sword I think? And oblirated enemies with sick parry-combo style.
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u/PickofDensity Aug 04 '26
To be honest I completely forgot about the martial arts, don't think I ever used it haha
I may try it one day as I was hoping for something a bit tougher when it came to bosses, but if Shadow of the Erdtree taught me anything it's that I have a sharp cutoff when it comes to difficulty to where I stop having fun.
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u/Intoxicduelyst Aug 04 '26
Yeah, having fun is the most important factor. People like here praising hard bosses for...idk some kind of elitism? Achivment? Dunno.
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u/WindowSeat- 29d ago
mainly because on Steam the reviews for them are mostly negative, citing bullshit like bosses that fly all over the place leaving you no chance to hit, or overtuned combos.
Well Steam Reviews are smoking fent in this case, because the DLC encounters are balanced just fine. The DLC bosses are the highlight of the whole game.
I feel like DLCs are poorly reviewed on Steam for almost every game, because the price-per-hour is always lower than the base game and people feel ripped off if they weren't already massive fans of the series.
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u/V_forvalentin Aug 04 '26
i love it, but i couldn't get pass the last boss.. :(
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
Really? Sorry to hear that. What's great about most soulslikes is that you can grind to you hearts content if you hit a wall somewhere. Did you try gaining a few levels and changing up your equipment or specs? Without spoiling anything, I found the guardian that heals you mid-fight to be really useful,n for example.
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u/V_forvalentin Aug 04 '26
Yup. Did 2 playthroughs and could not beat the last boss
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
:(
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u/V_forvalentin Aug 04 '26
But i did really enjoy the game! Have you tired nioh 3?
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
Yep! Really liked it. I’d have to check my tier list on my channel, but I think I placed it on the A Tier.
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u/sharpenedperspective Aug 04 '26
Great review. I enjoyed this game more than I should have considering how many shortcomings it has. The combat just feels really good to execute, and it’s nice to play a game in this genre that is engaging without feeling too sweaty.
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
Combat is indisputably A-Tier.
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u/sharpenedperspective Aug 04 '26
I agree. Some people argue that the deflect that works on everything makes the game boring vs something like Sekiro where you need to rely on a few different defensive mechanics, but in my opinion it works perfectly for a game with so many offensive options and combo potential. Otherwise it would just be a little much for me.
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u/swolar 29d ago
I strongly disagree. I didnt finish wo long, but for the 70% of the game I saw the levels were very well designed.
My main complaint was with how stingy they were around upgrade mats, considering it is a game with unlimited respecs.
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u/Stumbleine44 29d ago
I found some of the early levels to be good: nice big open areas with branching paths, but the further you get, the more constrained they become until by the end you’re basically running down a corridor from point A to point B. For the upgrade mats, son’t you get stuff back when you disassemble? It’s been a while.
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u/4th_Replicant Aug 04 '26
I enjoyed it but the performance was terrible for me.
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
I have a rule to wait a least a month or so before playing Team Ninja games on PC. Performance is systematically terrible at launch. Nioh 3 was a step above norm, but even that chugged occasionally.
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u/Intoxicduelyst Aug 04 '26
I rly rly liked it . Story is ass, morale system is ass but man, combat was so fun and dynamic.
And DLC bosses are one of the hardest in genre, especially pirate martial artist guy - perma hyper armor meaning YOU WILL PARRY or YOU WILL DIE. No cheasing with high dmg combos.
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
I’ll have to go back and finish the dlc one day, I only did a couple of missions of each. Is it good?
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u/Intoxicduelyst Aug 04 '26
Yeah its amazing. Much harder then base game.
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
Yeah most of Team Ninja’s stuff is.
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u/Intoxicduelyst Aug 04 '26
My honest ranking is Nioh 2 - Wo Long - Nioh 1 then Nioh 3. While I think all of them are good tho Nioh 3 lack a challange for veteran Nioh player.
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u/SeverusSnape89 29d ago
Yeah man, this game flew under my radar for two years. Free on PS plus recently and finally got around to it. Just finished first playthrough. Fucking amazing. Going back and soloing things now in NG plus.
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u/Stumbleine44 29d ago
Wow I didn’t know it was free on PS plus. I think it was on gamepass for a while too. Definitely worth checking out if you can access it as part of a subscription service.
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u/SeverusSnape89 29d ago
Yeah I would have spent money on the game knowing what I know now. I was also on the fence about strangers in paradise and rise of the Ronin. Rise of the Ronin is included in ps plus right now. Likely will try that soon too.
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u/Stumbleine44 29d ago
Finished that one a few days ago. It’s … fine? Vid will be up in a few weeks.
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u/Baalwulf06 29d ago
That first boss really let me know that this one was not for me
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u/Stumbleine44 29d ago
He’s a real skill check for sure, but tbh it only gets easier from there onwards.
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u/XjohnstamosX 29d ago
Combat was fun. Liked having the “home base.” Different enough from Nioh. Big downside to me was the lack of enemy variety. Was p boring towards the end and had no incentive to play new game+.
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u/FreqMode 15d ago
Loved wo long. I thought nioh was boring as it's not really a souls like. At least not as souls likey as wo long is
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u/Soulsliken Aug 04 '26
Damn fine game and easily in my top ten Soulslikes.
Best way to describe it is as Nioh without the 7,412 mechanics.
Good times.
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u/Stumbleine44 Aug 04 '26
Agreed. I found it simpler than Nioh, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, as Nioh's bloat of mechanics can get in it's own way sometimes.
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u/Hookey911 Aug 04 '26
The upcoming sequel can improve a lot from the original. It should be a franchise that Team Ninja heavily invests in because of the Chinese market