Leaderboard

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty From the makers of Nioh 2, one of my favorite games ever. I was planning to play this anyway but it happened to be on Game Pass so I got it through there. It's a smaller game than Nioh 2 and took me about 20 hours to beat, though that probably isn't typical since I've got over 300 hours in Nioh 2 across various platforms and I beat this game 20 levels under the recommended level for the final boss thanks to not doing all the side missions. That's not to say this game plays just like Nioh 2. If that game was meant to be an answer to Dark Souls, this one is meant to be an answer to Sekiro. Basic combos are much more simplified than in Nioh because the real focus on the game lies in the parry system. Parrying is a bit more forgiving than it is in Sekiro because block and parry are assigned to two different buttons in this one, but you can't just spam it endlessly because every time you miss a parry it builds up negative spirit, and if you go fully negative then you'll be stunned after a single hit. On the other hand, successful parries build up positive spirit, and performing heavy attacks with positive spirit in your bar will lower the enemy's maximum stamina and open them up to absolutely devastating deathblows, which is the best way to kill the bosses. You can focus on blocking and dodging and fighting normally if you really want to, but a deathblow on a boss will take away around 20% of their life, which is just too strong to ignore in my opinion. In addition to parries and deathblows, positive spirit can also be used to cast elemental magic spells. There are five elements on the game and they work on a rock paper scissors system that let you exploit enemy weaknesses, though how effective your spells will be will also depend on which elements you decide to put points into when you level up. The story and level design and enemy variety are not really anything to write home about here. In fact I'd say all of those things are mid and the combat is this game's saving grace. While I didn't mess with it much, there's also a PVP mode so if you ever wanted Sekiro PVP then this is probably the closest you're going to get. Unfortunately, the PC port is rough. Not unplayable since obviously I managed to finish it, but from time to time I had to deal with frame drops, and in a game that is all about timing your parries accurately you can imagine how that screwed me over and caused deaths that were not my fault. I'm hoping they fix it. The Nioh 2 port did get fixed eventually and is now pretty good so I don't think it's too much to expect of them. I liked this game, but I certainly didn't love it the way I love Nioh 2. It's of a much smaller scale than that game and kinda feels like filler made by the B-team while the A-team works on Rise of the Ronin, which looks promising. I don't mean to disparage Wo Long by saying it's a B-team game. I still quite enjoyed the combat. I just think it might not be worth a full 60 dollars. Worth checking out on Game Pass? Absolutely. Worth buying after a price drop? If they fix the port I do intend to buy it later. The DLC will probably add more enemy and weapon types too, so maybe take a wait and see approach if you had an interest. Oh yeah and the English dub is Kung Pow tier so definitely play it in Chinese.