Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty might be an action game, but after playing through brand new areas for about five hours, I went away realizing that it innovates on the exploration loop in Soulsborne games more than anything else. While the game’s challenging combat is as stellar as you would expect from a Team Ninja game, it is the Morale Rank system that truly feels like it’s shaking things up.
In Wo Long, both the player and enemies have a Morale Rank that indicates their strength. You can raise your Morale Rank simply by defeating enemies, but it goes up faster if the enemy you beat has a higher Morale Rank than yourself. If you get killed your Morale Rank will decrease, and the same can be said for the enemy. Different from a level-based progression system, Wo Long’s Morale Rank indicates not how strong the player is, but how that strength compares to your enemies. It not only increases but can also decrease, which makes becoming stronger a completely different process.
But how is any of this related to exploration? Wo Long offers one other way to increase your Morale Rank: raising flags. At first sight, Battle Flags merely function as your traditional Bonfire-like checkpoint. By resting at a Battle Flag, you regain health, refill your potions, respawn enemies, and so on. You know the drill.
But finding a new Battle Flag rewards you in a way previous Soulsborne checkpoints haven’t: it increases your Fortitude Rank. Getting killed decreases your Morale Rank, but it will never go below your Fortitude Rank. That means that the more checkpoints you discover, the stronger you become.
Wo Long’s stages are also dotted with Marking Flags. Marking Flags don’t function as checkpoints like Battle Flags, but raising your flag here will increase your Fortitude Rank anyway. Marking Flags are often guarded by fierce enemies you have to defeat first. Others are cleverly hidden. Cutting bamboo trees might lead to a secret passage, while a climbable rooftop might have a suspicious hole in it, and the rest is up to your spirit of exploration.
In a traditional Soulsborne title, staying near a safe checkpoint and killing the same enemies over and over was often a valid tactic to become stronger. Enemies that await you at a spot unfavorable to the player are often best ignored – especially for beginners. But Wo Long’s Morale Rank system changes all this. It encourages the player to go out and explore, fight tougher enemies, and put themselves at risk. In return, they are rewarded in a way that playing it safe simply won't do.
During my playtime through multiple stages I found myself naturally exploring the map in its entirety. I was fighting optional enemies that otherwise wouldn’t have been worth the risk. The Morale Rank system feels like a more natural way to gain strength, and gives less skilled players the chance to still have a more varied experience.
Your Morale Rank is reset to zero whenever you start a new stage, so you won’t run out of reasons to increase it, either. Besides Morale Rank, Wo Long also has a more traditional level-based progression, so it’s not like you’ll have to restart your character build from scratch for each stage. You are rewarded with Genuine Qi whenever you defeat an enemy, which can be used to level up at a Battle Flag checkpoint. I encountered a Blacksmith who allowed me to upgrade weapons, too.
Nioh x Ninja Gaiden x Sekiro x Mario Kart!?
Wo Long is often compared to the Nioh series, and rightfully so when you look at its Soulsborne-like challenging combat. However, when it comes to mobility, a more appropriate comparison might be Ninja Gaiden. Team Ninja’s 3D reboot of the classic franchise is generally regarded as one of the best action games ever made, and fans have been awaiting a sequel for a long time. While Wo Long is not that, a double jump and no stamina restraints make it feel somewhat similar in terms of flow. The sense of mobility differentiates it from Nioh, both in its exploration and combat. Stages have been designed with the double jump in mind, as cliffs and rooftops of houses and even giant temples can be climbed. Items can often be found in such places, and figuring out how to get there serves as a fun distraction from getting killed by demons.
At a certain point, an enemy was awaiting me at the top of a hill to roll down a thorned tree log. In typical Soulsborne fashion, I was killed by it before even realizing what had happened. On my next approach, I was a bit more careful and found a way to climb up to a roof next to it, which allowed me to advance from above and have my revenge with a plunging attack. If you approach an enemy slowly, you will often be able to stealth kill it as well. Combined with Wo Long’s verticality, this allows careful players to eliminate weaker enemies without having to fight them, much like in FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
In terms of combat, you can trample enemies by jumping on them, and the double jump can be used to leap over an enemy’s attack. Without any stamina gauge, running around an enemy can be a valid tactic, and running away is easier. The key mechanic of combat however, is Deflect. Deflect is triggered by pressing the dodge button at the right time. It parries an enemy’s attack while lowering the enemy’s spirit. Once the enemy’s Spirit is decreased significantly, it is stunned and open for a powerful Fatal Strike. If this sounds familiar from Sekiro too, that’s because, well, it is! But that’s hardly a bad thing when it’s this well executed.
Literally any attack in this game can be deflected. This reminded me of the Jump Boost in Mario Kart. First, you think it’s just a trick you can do when jumping off ramps, but later you realize that small things like a bump in the road or even the bouncing of those giant music notes in Music Park can trigger a Jump Boost. Ranging from melee weapon attacks to projectiles like arrows and fireballs to even an enemy’s ground pound, as long as the timing is right Wo Long allows you to turn any form of threat into an opportunity.
That timing has been made significantly easier when compared to last year’s demo. While Wo Long still feels like a challenging experience as a whole, some enemies have become a lot more manageable. The tiger enemy is a good example. Its fierce claws previously gave me a hard time, but this time I was able to Deflect its large-motioned attacks with ease and was not killed once. While my own improvement might play a role, there’s no doubt that Team Ninja’s adjustments are having an effect on the game’s approachability. I don’t mean this in a bad way though, as the game generally feels more fair while still keeping that sense of challenge for the most part.
Weapons and Martial Arts
What makes Wo Long unique is how it borrows Sekiro’s parry mechanic and mixes that up with Nioh’s diversity. I’ve been able to try out about half of the 13 melee weapon types Wo Long has to offer. Individual weapons do not just come with different stats, but also have their own Martial Arts (powerful moves that consume the Spirit gauge). This means that even the same weapon type can feel significantly different from weapon to weapon. For example, I first obtained a staff with a Martial Art that has the protagonist jump away after attacking, which is useful if you want to maintain your distance. The next staff I found had two Martial Arts, one that charges at the enemy with a succession of attacks, and one that unleashes a slow but heavy attack. It’s easy to see how different Martial Arts can result in vastly different playstyles for the same weapon type.
In Wo Long, you can equip up to two melee weapons at the same time. The Deflect Counter Attack is a move that Deflects an enemy attack while switching weapons. As the name implies, it allows you to simultaneously Deflect and counter attack. It’s a fun way to switch weapons, but when utilized as a counter there’s a bigger risk of getting hit as the timing takes longer to get used to. At first it felt like something that looked cool but wasn’t really worth the risk, but I’m starting to learn how it can be useful for hit-and-run situations.
During boss battles I noticed myself going back to more agile weapon types like the Sword, Dual Sword or Staff, but experimenting with weapons I found along the way proved to be a lot of fun. The Great Wooden Hammer is a heavy weapon with a long range that is slow in return. Mine came attached with a powerful Martial Art reminiscent of a baseball swing. This Martial Art takes time to charge and is nearly impossible to use when in the midst of battle, but when an enemy is charging at you from afar, you might be able to home run it to hell just when it is about to approach you. The Great Wooden Hammer proved to be useful against multiple enemies. Mowing down a horde of enemies at the same time feels great, but don’t forget to quickly switch to your other weapon when they come too close.
Another weapon I enjoyed playing with was the Bronze Halberd. The Martial Art it came equipped with allowed me to hook a far away enemy with my blade to draw it towards myself and attack from a closer range. I imagine it’s useful against enemies that prefer to keep their distance, but I have yet to use it effectively during battle.
Who’s boss?
For this preview, Zhang Liang, the boss from last year’s demo, awaited me at an entirely different spot. And while it was still the same boss fight at its core, he has been tweaked so that his first phase is a bit more challenging, while the second phase feels more forgiving. In the demo his first phase had little meaning as you could pretty much just keep spamming light attacks, but now Zhang Liang has more unblockable attacks that you’ll have to Deflect. His unblockable attacks in the second phase have become easier to Deflect, and with the much faster healing process (thank goodness!) you can stay more focused on attacking. Overall, it feels like a more balanced and fair boss fight now.
The first non-humanoid boss I faced was Zhuyan, a giant ape with heavy attacks that seemed scary at first. If you stay calm, however, you’ll notice that its attacks are easy to Deflect. As you might expect from a Soulsborne game, mid-bosses like Zhuyan will reappear as normal enemies in later stages. Reuniting with Zhuyan only to learn that you can now overpower it with ease gives you confidence as you will learn just how much you’ve improved as a player. Of course, the next moment you’ll get eaten by a giant crocodile and lose all of that confidence again.
I thought that Fengxi, a giant boar-like boss, was going to be a boss fight similar to Sekiro’s Blazing Bull. Sekiro’s Blazing Bull charges at you at full speed, and the player has to run around it to attack from the side or back. In Wo Long however, Fengxi’s charge attacks can be Deflected, so there’s no need to run around it. Deflecting its charge attacks and counter attacking before it is out of range feels great. Fengxi’s charge attacks are also one of the few examples in which I could put the Deflect Counter Attack to good use. That being said, Fengxi didn’t pose a serious enough threat and I was able to slay it on my first try. It probably won’t be among the game’s more memorable bosses.
Aoye, on the other hand, is a boss I won’t soon forget. Its eerie creature design alone is enough to leave a lasting impression. As explained in last week’s IGN First, Aoye is a legendary Chinese creature that looks like a bull but has long hair reminiscent of a straw rain-cape. Team Ninja interpreted this their own way and came up with a horrific hairball monster that looks like horror movie Ring’s black-haired ghost Sadako turned into a giant demon. As with any boss in Wo Long I have encountered so far, the key to defeating Aoye is Deflecting its attacks. However, it appears to have a much wider array of attack patterns than most other bosses, which makes the timing of each individual attack harder to learn. I found its body slam the easiest to Deflect, and it is open to attack after it. Faster attacks such as a succession of stings with its horn are more difficult to read, but feel great to Deflect when you succeed. It’s a fun, varied boss that offers a decent challenge. Its quick unblockable charging attack in particular put me off guard every time.
Another factor that made certain sections of my time with Wo Long feel easier than the demo is the fact that often someone was fighting alongside me. As you progress through the game, you’ll befriend warlords, whom you can summon to assist you on the battlefield. While this is usually optional, there are points in which the story forces you to be assisted. From a story point of view it might make sense, but as someone who always wants to tackle a challenge by himself, I couldn’t help feeling that I didn’t want my fellow warlords to interfere. During my fight with Zhuyan, for example, I was accompanied by warlord Zhang Yun. I felt capable of handling things myself, but Zhang Yun charged at Zhuyan to deal the final blow. The enemy will often attack accompanying warlords instead of the player, which makes it easy to attack from behind, but the victory feels less earned. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great as an option for players who don’t want to play online but find the game too challenging to beat without any help. I just hope that the story won’t force it too often in the main game.
Play it your way
Before rounding off this article, it’s worth mentioning that Team Ninja is putting a great amount of effort into the game’s customization options. The character creator is just as robust as Nioh 2’s, with added parts to match the Chinese historical setting. The flags you raise at checkpoints can also be customized, with a wide array of different colors and Chinese characters to choose from.
The settings menu is full of little things to customize as well. You can display or hide head equipment and unequipped weapons, choose whether to automatically lock on to an enemy when performing a melee attack, and choose whether or not you want the game to automatically skip cutscenes you’ve already seen. This preview was based on the PS5 version, which allows players to switch between a mode that prioritizes FPS or resolution. I won’t go into further detail, but all of this shows how Team Ninja is listening to players.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set to release on March 3 for PS5/PS4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/PC and will be available on Xbox Game Pass day one. With Wo Long as January’s IGN First, expect more exclusives throughout the month. Be sure to check out our gameplay video of the Tianzhushan area and Aoye boss fight video, as well as a detailed article on the game’s weapons and an interview with the developer regarding the game’s bosses.
Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan.
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