Wo Long is the Musoufication of the souls-like genre and as far as I'm concerned the game is all the better for it since it is right up there with Nioh as one of the best non-FromSoft souls-likes I've ever played.
The narrative takes place in a fictionalized dark fantasy version of China in the Later Han Dynasty (around 200AD). We follow the silent Nameless Warrior protagonist (who we the player ourselves create) as they get wrapped up in various political conflicts and wars while searching for an evil Taoist who is influencing events from the shadows with a forbidden medicine called "Elixir" that has the ability to unleash Demonic Qi in anyone who consumes it. The Nameless Warrior goes on a journey that spans nearly 20 years as they try to form strong bonds with legendary Chinese historical war generals across the nation with the hopes of taking down the evil Taoist before their goals can be fulfilled. The game really captures the Three Kingdoms mythology well and feels like a classic over-the-top martial arts fantasy movie in the best way possible. (The campy English dub enhances this feeling even more)
Wo Long is a very aggressive and fast-paced souls-like action game that feels like a more simplified, accessible and streamlined version of Nioh's RPG mechanics mixed with the combat of Sekiro and the fast-paced movement and morale centric gameplay of Dynasty Warriors.
The combat is very parry/deflection heavy much like Sekiro, but Wo Long also manages to incorporate its own unique spin on gameplay mechanics like removing the traditional stamina management bar that dictates how much you can attack before becoming exhausted (Meaning you can spam the basic attack all you want, but you will also get punished for doing this) for what is called the 'Spirit Gauge' which dictates how much you can block or dodge as well as using special Martial Arts abilities and Wizardry magic attacks. The Spirit Gauge has a positive and negative axis and starts out at the middle of it at 0. When you take damage, block, dodge or use special abilities you lose Spirit and the gauge fills up on the negative side, if your gauge maxes out the negative side a single hit from an enemy will stagger you leaving you vulnerable for a few seconds, however landing basic attack strikes or deflecting your enemy's attacks build up your Spirit Gauge on the positive side allowing you to use more special attacks and dodge more without penalty, so the game rewards you for playing aggressively along the lines of something like Bloodborne. All enemies have their own Spirit Gauge as well so when you attack them your Spirit increases while there's decreases and pushes them closer to being staggered so you can land a fatal execution attack for massive damage, but the same works for when an enemy lands strikes on you, you'll lose Spirit and they gain it making you closer to being staggered. So essentially combat becomes a tug-o-war match between you and the opponent to see who can stagger who first as you always keep a watchful eye on both you and your opponent's Spirit Gauge. I think this is a super interesting and creative way to advance the Souls style formula and the gameplay also syncs up perfectly with Wo Long's general theme and style of Chinese martial arts which are based around redirecting your opponent's force.
There's also a Morale Rank system which reminds me of something you'd see in a Dynasty Warriors musou game which plays into the tug-o-war metaphor I used earlier where both you and all enemies have a number that determines their morale, you can raise this by killing more enemies and when you do you basically get a power boost, the same can be said for enemies though where if they kill you their morale increases and yours lowers, the higher morale an enemy has the harder it'll be too take them down. The bonfire checkpoint Battle Flag system plays into this as well because every Battle Flag you raise increases your base morale so when you die it'll only go down to that number instead of losing all of your morale. The Battle Flag system also gives more incentive to explore all the levels as much as possible to find all the flags and raise your morale to max before fighting the boss. However the morale system can be a double-edge sword at times due to the fact if you get your morale too much higher than your enemy it can make the fights far too easy and if your enemy's morale is too much higher they'll have a clear advantage over you, so you really just need to get a sweet spot where you both have even morale to make the game the most enjoyable.
Wo Long also incorporates another cool feature with a multi-directional parrying system where you can tilt the joystick in the proper direction of the enemy's attack alongside pressing the parry button, it's another really unique mechanic that sets itself apart from most other games of this style (Though it is optional and you can just press the basic parry button if you want), the combat is super fun and stylish with all the martial art styled weapon arts and special abilities you can do which are tied to different weapons like the weapon arts from Dark Souls III and I haven't felt such satisfying swordplay in a game since the first time I played Sekiro.
Naturally the Nioh like RPG stat attributes play into the Chinese theme as well being based on the 5 elements of Chinese mythology, wood, fire, earth, metal and water all of these stats directly influence your health, attack and Spirit Gauge by things like using Martial Arts takes less Spirit or successfully deflecting attacks increases Spirit more etc. All equipment also changes your elemental affinity as well.
I also must commend Team Ninja for listening to the feedback about the Diablo styled loot system in Nioh being overbearing and severely toning that down here. This is easily Team Ninja's best and most varied level design as well making exploring every level much more fun and engaging than it ever was in Nioh. Wo Long basically has everything I loved about Nioh and none of the down-sides.
Wo Long was one of those rare games that from the moment I started playing it, I knew I'd love it and after finishing the game in 30 hours and even going out of my way to get the platinum trophy as well, I can confirm that I loved every minute of the game. After all when you combine the satisfying combat of Sekiro with the RPG mechanics of Nioh and the stylish flair of a Dynasty Warriors game and throw in some unique mechanics and systems to give it a sense of its own unique identity, how could that not be a recipe for success?
The narrative takes place in a fictionalized dark fantasy version of China in the Later Han Dynasty (around 200AD). We follow the silent Nameless Warrior protagonist (who we the player ourselves create) as they get wrapped up in various political conflicts and wars while searching for an evil Taoist who is influencing events from the shadows with a forbidden medicine called "Elixir" that has the ability to unleash Demonic Qi in anyone who consumes it. The Nameless Warrior goes on a journey that spans nearly 20 years as they try to form strong bonds with legendary Chinese historical war generals across the nation with the hopes of taking down the evil Taoist before their goals can be fulfilled. The game really captures the Three Kingdoms mythology well and feels like a classic over-the-top martial arts fantasy movie in the best way possible. (The campy English dub enhances this feeling even more)
Wo Long is a very aggressive and fast-paced souls-like action game that feels like a more simplified, accessible and streamlined version of Nioh's RPG mechanics mixed with the combat of Sekiro and the fast-paced movement and morale centric gameplay of Dynasty Warriors.
The combat is very parry/deflection heavy much like Sekiro, but Wo Long also manages to incorporate its own unique spin on gameplay mechanics like removing the traditional stamina management bar that dictates how much you can attack before becoming exhausted (Meaning you can spam the basic attack all you want, but you will also get punished for doing this) for what is called the 'Spirit Gauge' which dictates how much you can block or dodge as well as using special Martial Arts abilities and Wizardry magic attacks. The Spirit Gauge has a positive and negative axis and starts out at the middle of it at 0. When you take damage, block, dodge or use special abilities you lose Spirit and the gauge fills up on the negative side, if your gauge maxes out the negative side a single hit from an enemy will stagger you leaving you vulnerable for a few seconds, however landing basic attack strikes or deflecting your enemy's attacks build up your Spirit Gauge on the positive side allowing you to use more special attacks and dodge more without penalty, so the game rewards you for playing aggressively along the lines of something like Bloodborne. All enemies have their own Spirit Gauge as well so when you attack them your Spirit increases while there's decreases and pushes them closer to being staggered so you can land a fatal execution attack for massive damage, but the same works for when an enemy lands strikes on you, you'll lose Spirit and they gain it making you closer to being staggered. So essentially combat becomes a tug-o-war match between you and the opponent to see who can stagger who first as you always keep a watchful eye on both you and your opponent's Spirit Gauge. I think this is a super interesting and creative way to advance the Souls style formula and the gameplay also syncs up perfectly with Wo Long's general theme and style of Chinese martial arts which are based around redirecting your opponent's force.
There's also a Morale Rank system which reminds me of something you'd see in a Dynasty Warriors musou game which plays into the tug-o-war metaphor I used earlier where both you and all enemies have a number that determines their morale, you can raise this by killing more enemies and when you do you basically get a power boost, the same can be said for enemies though where if they kill you their morale increases and yours lowers, the higher morale an enemy has the harder it'll be too take them down. The bonfire checkpoint Battle Flag system plays into this as well because every Battle Flag you raise increases your base morale so when you die it'll only go down to that number instead of losing all of your morale. The Battle Flag system also gives more incentive to explore all the levels as much as possible to find all the flags and raise your morale to max before fighting the boss. However the morale system can be a double-edge sword at times due to the fact if you get your morale too much higher than your enemy it can make the fights far too easy and if your enemy's morale is too much higher they'll have a clear advantage over you, so you really just need to get a sweet spot where you both have even morale to make the game the most enjoyable.
Wo Long also incorporates another cool feature with a multi-directional parrying system where you can tilt the joystick in the proper direction of the enemy's attack alongside pressing the parry button, it's another really unique mechanic that sets itself apart from most other games of this style (Though it is optional and you can just press the basic parry button if you want), the combat is super fun and stylish with all the martial art styled weapon arts and special abilities you can do which are tied to different weapons like the weapon arts from Dark Souls III and I haven't felt such satisfying swordplay in a game since the first time I played Sekiro.
Naturally the Nioh like RPG stat attributes play into the Chinese theme as well being based on the 5 elements of Chinese mythology, wood, fire, earth, metal and water all of these stats directly influence your health, attack and Spirit Gauge by things like using Martial Arts takes less Spirit or successfully deflecting attacks increases Spirit more etc. All equipment also changes your elemental affinity as well.
I also must commend Team Ninja for listening to the feedback about the Diablo styled loot system in Nioh being overbearing and severely toning that down here. This is easily Team Ninja's best and most varied level design as well making exploring every level much more fun and engaging than it ever was in Nioh. Wo Long basically has everything I loved about Nioh and none of the down-sides.
Wo Long was one of those rare games that from the moment I started playing it, I knew I'd love it and after finishing the game in 30 hours and even going out of my way to get the platinum trophy as well, I can confirm that I loved every minute of the game. After all when you combine the satisfying combat of Sekiro with the RPG mechanics of Nioh and the stylish flair of a Dynasty Warriors game and throw in some unique mechanics and systems to give it a sense of its own unique identity, how could that not be a recipe for success?
2 Comments
@Nancyfly with the based taste as always.
Nancyfly
1 year ago