Combat in video games has evolved a lot over the years. Gone are the days when players only had one or two offensive options assigned to a few buttons on the controller or keyboard. The success of games like dark souls has seen a greater emphasis on ensuring that combat systems are deep and nuanced enough to truly reward skill and timing. For example, recent footage of upcoming action RPG Wo Long: Fallen DynastyThe gameplay has revealed the familiar fast-paced and frenetic combat that Team Ninja enthusiasts have come to associate with the developer’s catalog of games.
The Nioh series is arguably one of the jewels in Team Ninja’s crown. It was incredibly successful thanks to its reliance on a robust, fluid, and satisfying deep combat system that rivaled anything else on the market. However, with no news of a possible third installment in the series, many fans have been looking forward to the developer’s next releases to see if they could live up to the high standards of Nioh. While Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Team Ninja’s most recent outing probably hasn’t reached the same heights, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will hope to make up for this.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will try to reach new heights
Since one of the producers of the game is Masaaki Yamagiwa, the man behind Bloodbornethe respected combat system, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will inevitably draw comparisons with Bloodborne. However, based on footage gamers have shown so far, it seems much more appropriate to compare it to the Nioh series. Everything from the art design to the enemy design and even the dialogue seems to fit Team Ninja’s titles more than FromSoftware’s.
While much about the game is still unknown, including a release date, certain details have been leaked. Wo Long: Fallen DynastyThe length of the missions will be about 40 hours and the missions will be structured in the same way as those in Nioh, with embedded objectives that offer gamers several paths to completion. The levels will also be much more vertical than fans of this genre are probably used to, so the fact that the protagonist has a jump button will come in very handy for exploring otherwise hard-to-reach areas. In contrast, neither Nioh neither the sequel allows the player to jump.
Officers from China’s infamous Three Kingdoms period are in attendance, including the fearsome Lu Bu, who Dynasty Warriors series will be well informed, among other things. These characters are hugely known by publisher Koei Tecmo thanks to their association with the long-running warriors franchise, so the publisher’s involvement here makes perfect sense. It is not yet known whether they will all be friend, foe or a combination of both. The main character will not be a household name from the Three Kingdoms period, but rather a fully customizable character, similar to nio 2.
Battles in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Will Be King
As the player will fight against various enemies ranging from Niohlike supernatural entities known as fiends, to tough-as-nails military generals, the combat system has to be fast. Team Ninja has confirmed that most battles are based on Chinese martial arts, further increasing the need for speed. Judging by the most recent footage, which showed some in-game combat, it seems to be exactly as fast as it needs to be.
The player is shown fighting human enemies and monsters, apparently dancing and jumping around them with ease. The protagonist is also shown with a single sword, a spear, and two swords, so the game will definitely feature different builds to some degree. Interestingly, no HUD will be shown, although the developer has confirmed that there will be no staminameter, a decision made to speed up the fight and allow players to be more aggressive. This decision could be a wise one, and it reflects a decision made by other Soulslikes released recently, such as Thymesia.
As highly regarded as Nioh and the sequel is, one of the major criticisms they get is their approach to loot and its management. Both games feature a plethora of items, weapons, and armor found in chests and dropped by enemies. The speed at which this loot is collected makes it very difficult to manage efficiently. Players inevitably spend way too much time in Nioh‘s equipment menu screens, discarding much of the loot they collect so they can make room for more, before repeating the process again. Fortunately, Team Ninja has confirmed that Wed long: fallen dynasty won’t be nearly as heavy, though the player will still pick up items. Gamers will be relieved to hear that more of their time will be spent on the battlefield and less on the loot menus.
Fallen Dynasty Could Be Nioh’s Spiritual Successor
At a time when the Soulslike is as popular as ever, thanks in part to the monumental success of Elden Ring – an early contender for Game of the Year – the genre has never been more competitive. Outside of the impeccable catalog of games that spawned the genre, most people agree that the Nioh titles are among the best Soulslikes on the market, in terms of raw combat and variety. Nuances such as the Ki-meter, as well as switching between low, middle and high settings, ensured that the player always had a plethora of options at their fingertips when trying to defeat their enemy.
Whether players will get this choice level properly in fallen dynasty can’t be said for sure yet, but Team Ninja has stated that it really wants players to experience that ‘life and death’ thrill of overcoming a tough opponent, and this is the hallmark of every popular Soulslike game. if fallen dynasty that can do well by creating a balanced combat system mixed with a robust enemy design, the game can come closest to Nioh 3 that gamers will get for a long time to come.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be released in early 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
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