Combat in video games has evolved dramatically over the years. Gone are the days when players only had one or two offensive options, mapped to a couple of buttons on the controller or keyboard. The success of games like Dark Souls has seen an increased emphasis placed on ensuring combat systems are deep and nuanced enough to really reward skill and timing. For instance, recent footage of upcoming action RPG Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's gameplay has unveiled the familiar-looking fast and frantic combat that lovers of Team Ninja 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 satisfyingly deep combat system that could rival anything else on the market. With no news of a possible third entry in the series though, many fans have been looking forward to the developer's subsequent releases to see if they could stack up to the high standards set by Nioh. While Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Team Ninja's most recent outing, arguably failed to hit the same heights, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be hoping to make up for this.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Will Attempt to Hit New Heights
Given that one of the game's producers is Masaaki Yamagiwa, the man behind Bloodborne's revered combat system, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will inevitably draw comparisons with Bloodborne. However, based on footage that gamers have been 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, seem more closely aligned with Team Ninja's titles than those of FromSoftware.
While much about the game is still unknown, including a release date, certain details have been leaked. Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty's length will be approximately 40 hours, and missions will be structured similarly to those in Nioh, with contained objectives which offer gamers different paths to completion. The levels will also be much more vertical than fans of this genre will be likely used to, so the fact that the protagonist has a jump button will come in extremely handy in order to explore otherwise hard-to-reach areas. In contrast, neither Nioh nor its sequel allows the player to jump.
Officers from China's infamous Three Kingdoms period are confirmed to be present, including the fearsome Lu Bu, who fans of the Dynasty Warriors series will be well aware of, among others. These characters are extremely well-known to 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 if they will all be friend, foe, or a mixture of the two. The protagonist will not be a well-known name from the Three Kingdoms period, but rather a fully customizable character similarly to Nioh 2.
Combat in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Will Be King
Given that the player will be fighting various enemies ranging from Nioh-esque supernatural entities known as fiends, to hard-hitting military generals, the combat system will need to be fast. Team Ninja has confirmed that most of the fighting is based on Chinese martial arts, which increases the need for speed even further. Judging by the most recent footage though, which showed some in-game combat, it looks to be exactly as fast as it needs to be.
The player is shown battling human enemies and monsters, dancing and jumping around them with apparent ease. The protagonist is also shown utilizing a single sword, a spear, and twin swords, so the game will definitely feature different builds to some extent. Interestingly, no HUD is shown, although the developer has confirmed there will be no stamina meter, a decision that was taken in order to speed up the combat and allow players to be more aggressive. This decision could be a wise one, and it mirrors one made by other Soulslikes that have been released recently, such as Thymesia.
As highly regarded as Nioh and its sequel are, one of the main criticisms they receive is their approach to loot and its management. Both games feature an abundance of items, weapons, and armor, found in chests and dropped by enemies. The rate at which this loot is collected makes it very difficult to manage efficiently. Players inevitably spend far too much time in Nioh's equipment menu screens, discarding much of the loot they collect just so they can make room for more, before repeating the process again. Thankfully, Team Ninja has confirmed that Wo Long:Fallen Dynasty will be nowhere near as loot heavy, although 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 in the loot menus.
Fallen Dynasty Could Be Nioh's Spiritual Successor
In an age where the Soulslike is as popular as its ever been, in part thanks to the monumental success of Elden Ring - an early contender for Game of the Year - the genre has never been more competitive. Outside of FromSoftware's immaculate catalog of games that gave birth to 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 like the Ki meter, as well as shifting between low, middle, and high stances, ensured that there were always a plethora of options at the player's fingertips when trying to overcome their enemy.
Whether players will quite get this level of choice in Fallen Dynasty cannot be said with certainty yet, but Team Ninja has stated it really wants players to experience that 'life and death' thrill of overcoming a tough opponent, and this is the hallmark of any popular Soulslike game. If Fallen Dynasty can get that right by creating a well-balanced combat system blended with robust enemy design, the game could be the closest thing to Nioh 3 that gamers will get for a long time.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will release in early 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
