Souls-Like is synonymous with adventure, hours and above all frustration…. And Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is no exception.
There are many who before a game type souls directly they give up playing it. I don’t blame them, on the contrary, I understand them perfectly and sometimes I even envy their ability to say, “no, I don’t want to suffer for free”. I understand that for some players dying hundreds of times in a boss or zone until they have learned it is not motivating or fun. Unfortunately, this is not my case, and every time a souls-type game comes within range, I am the first to raise my hand, unfortunately for my patience and my gray hair. And that’s just what happened with Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty.
Crouching Dragon.
The title is developed by the Japanese study Team Ninjacreators of iconic sagas such as Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden the Niohsome of them characterized by the high difficulty. Team Ninja has conceived Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty as a game like souls Old school with a very successful atmosphere. To start with the historia Wo Long means crouching dragon, a name used to define a great warrior or hero who is unknown. Our protagonist will be just that, a nameless militiaman who fights for his life in a convulsed third century in China.
Historic mark.
We are at the end of four centuries of Han Dynasty where the country has prospered rapidly across the board, but now China is adrift. External and internal wars make the country begin to divide and we are living a Historical period which in China is called The era of the Three Kingdoms. The country is divided and the fall of the Han dynasty is only a matter of time. In this scenario our hero will fight helping everyone he meets, while he tries to survive.
Frustration, yes… and a lot.
Team Ninja did not want to change gear and embarked for the second time, after Niohin a title of the style souls-like. This means that we are going to play with a character in third personwhich will use the magic and the armas to advance through interconnected scenarios. These will require exploration made difficult by very challenging enemies. In addition, we will have final bosses that will test the patience of the most seasoned player of this style of titles. And that means that we are going to die… and a lot. Team Ninja has already set the difficulty bar high with its Nioh saga and here it has not wanted to be less. While is true that Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty It is, perhaps, a point below in terms of difficulty.
Warrior yes or yes.
To begin with, we will create our character with a wide manager of creation which has hundreds of alternatives. Very similar to those we see in other games where we can modify even the smallest detail of our character. However, here we will not choose a class to play. We will not be able to go towards magic, or choose the type of combat. That will be done naturally as we level up. Yes or yes, we will be a warrior and every time we level up we must choose between one of the 5 talent branches. Each one represents an element or virtue that improves a part of our character. We have Virtue of maderaof the aguafrom piedraof the metal and of the fuego. Each one will insidious in a feature of our character, the points of healththe capacity of chargethe ability to generate spirit to cast spells etc. Each branch in turn has spells own and very varied, some to do damage, others to improve the acquisition or loss of spirit, mitigate damage, or even make us invisible.
Equip ourselves for battle.
Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty has a wide variety of weapons body melee, swords, sabers, hammers, maces, horns, scimitars, knives, etc. In addition, it has some weapons to distance which, to be a souls, generate a lot of damage, we have bows and crossbows. Refering to armor We have 4 slots, helmet, breastplate, legs and bracelets. Both weapons and armor will have a star rating, these refer to the bonuses they grant, 1 star for a bonus, 2 stars for 2 bonuses, etc.
Weapons and armor can be improved thanks to the blacksmith that we will find at some points on the route, we can improve them, as well as change the bonuses they have for others that we like more, change both the appearance of weapons and armor for more aesthetic ones, etc. so the ability of personalize in Wo Long it is incredibly wide.
We also have consumables that improve character stats temporarily. Last but perhaps most important are the reinforcement. As we go on our way we will know Warriors who will join our company. If we fight together and establish a bond, you can summon them through seals to help you in the fight.
Advance system.
And Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty We will have to visit different areas where in the end we will have one or more final bosses. In each zone we will have two types of points, similar to the bonfires of Dark Souls waves Gracias from Elden Ring. Here will be areas where we must place a flag. Some will allow you to place control flags and others will be called marking flags.
Las control flags They allow us to perform many actions. They work like checkpoint, they are used to level up, request reinforcements, sell, buy, etc. The marking flags They will be more hidden. We will have to discover areas by exploring off the main path. These flags only serve to raise the fortress, but they are extremely important. The reason is that our character has a level of fortalezawhich will start at 0 and will increase based on the flags obtained in the area.
Strength and Morale.
This level of strength is also the one that will determine our minimum level of moral. Morale is something important because our enemy also has it. If we try to kill someone with a lot of morals, we’ll probably end up dead. The moral It goes up depending on how many people we have killed and goes down when we die. But will never come down below our strengthTherefore, having many flags will make our strength high and therefore the minimum morale will also be high even if we die.
quick example, we enter a new zone, as always with strength 0. We take 8 flags, we will forever have strength 8, our morale will always be at least that, 8, even if we die. But if we chain a few death accounts before reaching the final boss we can face him with a morale of 10, 12 or 25, which is the maximum. The more morale, the more damage we deal and the less we take.
frantic combat
Regarding the combat Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty has rhythm frantic y devilish. The combats are hectic and very fast. We will practically be in some phases in a Hack and Slash type game, especially with low-rank enemies. Against bosses things change and it is much more technical and you have to have a lot of coordination. During the meetings we will have a spirit bar that will fill up as we hit. These can be of two types, heavy or light.
When we have accumulated spirit we will be able to carry out Martial Arts, which are specific blows for each weapon, which means that they vary in form and damage depending on what we have equipped. We can also carry out attacks with spells using the spirit. If we manage to continuously damage the enemy or dodge him, we will make his spirit reach zero and we will be able to perform an execution that will take away a lot of life.
In general the combat feels very good, the windows of parry y dodge they are wide enough to be a challenge and to get the point after several tries. They change depending on the rival or how they attack us, but after a while we can get the pattern and have a high success rate. In the bosses it is another separate issue, the dodge and parry windows are reduced and the variety of enemy attacks means that we have to carry out a detailed study of how the boss moves, yes, based on dying many times to get the learning, very much in line with the Souls-Like.
Old and new generations.
Regarding the graphic performance and sound the game complies in both aspects, although it is true that they are far from outstanding areas. It shows that the game is developed for next consoles and old Gen. In Series X It looks very good, with a stable 60 fps, although the resolution varies a lot and this is where you can tell that it is an intergenerational game. There will be areas with a lot of detail and others that are more sparing, but they do not break the experience at all. Perhaps it is the least important thing in this type of game, but Elden Ring, in this aspect, I set the bar very high and the comparisons are hateful. being honestWo Long: Fallen Dinasty luce like a game of Xbox One running at a good framerate.
He level design It is not something that will surprise us either. We are not facing a game of FromSoftware where they are teachers in surprising you with it. The levels are quite easy to understand, without many twists and are also marked with white areas to know where to go. In this aspect, Team Ninja has not excelled and the game is guilty of being too linear. Even so, the need to look for flags to climb the fortress means that we have to roll exploration.
CONCLUSION
Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty is a title that plays perfectly on the fine line between frustration and motivation. It doesn’t make it easy for you but it encourages you all the time to try and move forward. The possibility of character customization, equipment and weapons is incredibly wide. The combinations with the branches of talents They are so big that they make your head explode, but there is always a way to defeat opponents.
It is not a round title, there are few of those, the history It may be perhaps the least worked part. Facing the western market, this may be unattractive. Graphically we are not facing a title that stands out, however, its setting, its combat system and the difficulty it presents are so well achieved that all of that will not matter to us. If you like souls type games, Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty It is for you, even if you start hating it, you will end up loving it.
Wo Long: Fallen Dinasty
69.99€
Pros
- Fun combat system.
- Very extensive customization.
- Agile and dynamic gameplay.
- A challenge.
Cons
- Very high difficulty for some players.
- Graphically it does not stand out.
- Little immersive story.