There’s little need to discuss what actually constitutes a Soulslike at this point. It has become an entire genre of gaming on its own, reaching heights such as being the basis for a critically-acclaimed Star Wars game. The number and diversity of pretenders to the Dark Souls throne are basically unthinkable, and now there’s a new one to add to the list. However, while it might appeal to those who have been unable to get in on the Souls hype, veterans of the genre might be less enthusiastic about it.
It’s called Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and it comes to us courtesy of Team Ninja. The very same Team Ninja behind the Ninja Gaiden and Nioh games. Using their background in skill-based action games, they have created something that is as flashy and action-packed as the former, with all of the mechanics and even some of the problems of the latter. Do these things result in a game that is worth buying? Let’s find out in this review of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
To begin, Wo Long is a pretty basic Soulslike/third-person action RPG. There’s a detailed character creator, a mystical amulet that allows you to be resurrected from the dead, and combat that requires you to stay on your toes, pay attention to enemy attack patterns, and exploit them in order to be victorious.
While the game mostly excels in terms of its combat, it does have a major shortcoming. Wo Long’s combat consists of melee with thirteen weapon types, an elemental magic system, and, the Achilles heel, the deflection system. It’s not bad by any means, it’s actually quite cool and a great feature to make a game that would be otherwise impossible for casual players quite fun, but it ends up feeling like an easy way out in many fights.
While you’re engaged in fast-paced combat, using standard and “spirit” attacks to confuse enemies and wear down their posture and open them up to big hits, those very same enemies will retaliate with a mix of attacks of their own. There are their standard attacks that can be simply blocked, but then there are powerful red attacks that cannot be blocked. These instead rely on that “deflect” system to counter and follow up with attacks of your own.
While this works, you can also use it on any attack, which trivializes many encounters and makes the block pointless. Again, this is great for newcomers, but veterans will probably scoff at it.
There is plenty of good in Wo Long, like the fantastically imposing enemies, extremely well-animated attack patterns, and its overall setting, but there’s even more that falls short of the game’s initial promise. The story is weak and uninteresting, there are AI companions that don’t provide much outside of being distractions, and the same maddening loot system from Nioh, in which you’ll pick up hundreds of items whose usefulness is described in minor percentages. I ended up mostly ignoring loot, and just kept big numbers so I could throw everything else away.
Oh, and perhaps the worst offense Wo Long commits is dropped inputs. In a Souls game, where every button press is critical to your survival. I had plenty of instances where my character just wouldn’t heal in the middle of a fight, or forgot to deflect even though I pressed the button at the right time, neither of which are things you want to happen to you in a game like this.
The input issue is something that can be fixed eventually, but the other issues are more core to Wo Long’s design. If you can deal with those and you don’t mind a combat system that can be boiled down to mashing a button to do cool stuff and return attacks, then Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a blast. But if you’re an OG Dark Souls fan looking for their next masochistic adventure, Wo Long isn’t it, but it’s still “pretty damn decent!”
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