Wo Long: Fallen Destiny

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a historical fantasy action role-playing video game developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo. The game was released on March 3, 2023 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an action role-playing video game. At the beginning of the game, players can create and customize their own player avatar, and choose from one of five "phases". The game offers two options for closed range attacks. To succeed in combat, players are required to deflect attacks using their melee weapons, as this will create opportunities for them to counter an opponent's attacks. Each enemy has a "Morale rank", which indicates how challenging the combat encounter will be. More difficult enemies would drop more valuable loot. As the players perform close-ranged attacks, their spirit gauge will gradually fill. Eventually, players can unleash "spirit attacks", allowing them to use special combat moves or cast elemental spells. Players can also choose from one of five "Divine Beasts" including the Qilin, Baihu, Qinglong, Zhuque and Xuanwu. These beasts can assist players during combat, or provide passive perks to players through "Divine Beast Resonance".

Like Nioh, the game is largely linear. As players progress in the game, they will encounter Battle Flags scattered throughout the world. Players can use them to save their game, or use "Genuine Qi", the game's form of experience, to upgrade their characters and unlock new abilities. Unlike the Nioh series, Wo Long has a jump button, which further facilitates exploration and combat. The game also features a cooperative multiplayer mode, in which players can summon a friend to help out during combat.

My review: Great gameplay, incredibly fun. Excellent tutorialising. Somewhat of a step down from Nioh 2 so far -- less interesting itemisation and fewer build options, no real talent tree (just options for active spells). But I enjoy the parry focused gameplay a lot. Hoping for expansions or a Wo Long 2 that brings back the Nioh 2 build and itemisation complexity.

If Nioh 2 is Diablo 2 + Dark Souls, Wo Long is Diablo 2 + Sekiro, except with less interesting items/sets/builds. So if you really love that kind of Sekiro parry ninja god gamer feel then I think you will like Wo Long. If you were expecting the same insane itemisation/builds as Nioh 2, or if you hate the parry focused Sekiro style gameplay, then this might not be the game for you.

Unfortunately the game has some significant issues with optimisation/performance bugs, with FPS spikes and microstutters during boss battles (and particularly their critical attacks) which removes some of the fariness from the fights. There are also some other minor issues like slightly less QoL than Nioh 2 and annoying minor visual glitches (white flashes here and there). If you're not completely addicted to the game by playing the demo, then wait for a patch!

Unfortunately a lot of the negative reviews on Steam are either exaggerating the issues, are complaining about the Keyboard+Mouse issue specifically, or are literally just misinformation. Let me address some of the negative comments here:

KBM issues:

Obviously they should strive to have the best KBM controls as possible and it's disappointing they didn't... but 90%+ of people should be playing this on controller and won't be affected by this. If you're a KBM player, you definitely have to wait for patches.