Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - Lu Bu to Do You in Wushu Nioh Two

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - Lu Bu to Do You in Wushu Nioh Two

Hakkesshu: Nov 4, 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4uFoD0WyXw

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is the new game from Team Ninja, the developers of Nioh 1 and 2, their next game following Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin from last year.

It is a third person character action RPG in the vein of Nioh 2. While SoP was a bit of a side project, Wo Long essentially looks like the successor to Nioh 2, and it carries over many of the same ideas and systems from that game, but with a few spins of its own.

What does that mean?

For one, it's a new setting. Much like how Nioh 1/2 was a fantasy-fied retelling of Sengoku era Japan, this goes back even further in time, applying the same process to the perennial Chinese classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Yellow turbans! Lu bu! Guan Yu! Demon tigers!

Wo Long incorporates elements from ancient Chinese mysticism to flesh out the enemies and game thematics. Everything looks to be based around The Four/Five Gods - Zhuque the red phoenix, Baihu the white tiger, Xuanwu the black tortoise, Qinglong the blue dragon, and Huanglong the white dragon - each corresponding to an element that comprises your stats which you can level up.

Is this a soulslike?

Yes and no. Like Nioh, it retains multiple mechanics from Souls games, like resurrecting at "bonfires," respawning enemies and losing your experience if you don't successfully corpse run. However, Nioh itself made many departures from the typical Souls formula, namely with a much greater focus on the technical aspects of combat, a more mission-based campaign structure, and also a Diablo-like loot system.

Wo Long takes these elements and then moves them a step further. You can jump now! The game sort of bridges the gap between Nioh and the older Team Ninja Ninja Gaiden games to create something that feels closer to Sekiro than souls, but with a much greater emphasis on fast and flowing character action combat. Your moveset is defined by the weapon you use, and although we haven't gotten a full look at the skill trees yet, expect them to get very technical.

But Nioh was too technical for me!

You might be in luck! From what we've seen and played, Wo Long is much more movement and reaction-focused, in keeping with the Wushu themes. There is no stance shifting, there's no ki pulsing after every attack, and more importantly - the thing that really separates it from both Souls and Nioh and moves it more towards something like Ninja Gaiden - there's no stamina whatsoever. Like Sekiro, the primary combat mechanic is based on maintaining your own posture meter while whittling down the enemy's posture meter, though initially it doesn't seem quite as black and white as Sekiro's version where there was almost a rhythm game-like nature to it. You are rewarded for being aggressive just as much as you are from successfully parrying. Maybe there'll be builds that don't rely on parrying at all? Who knows!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHvMaUH-3TM

What are the systems like?

We don't know a whole bunch just yet, considering the demo only had one level and not all the mechanics or weapon types were available. We do know about one key system, however - morale. A common criticism of the Nioh games is that each level takes quite a lot out of you, mentally - they're long, they're difficult, there are a FUCKTON of them, and if you do a lot of them in a row, it's easy to burn out.

To address this, and to give players an additional way to make the game more or less challenging on the fly, Wo Long introduces the morale mechanic. Basically, the conceit is that every time you kill an enemy, your morale increases. Your morale level tops out at 20, so the further you get without dying, the more powerful you become. In a sense, you grow more powerful within the level, completely independently of your character level, which is what you use your experience to increase.

If you die, you go back to level 1. However, planting flags (the bonfire equivalent) increases your minimum morale level, which gives you an incentive to explore so you can become stronger. What this means is, if you run into a very difficult enemy early on in a mission, and you find yourself stuck on them, you can come back later once your morale level is higher, and that enemy will then be much weaker. This helps incentivize exploration, finding secrets, and is also just a really drat satisfying mechanic, because you can tangibly feel your power grow over the course of 30 minutes or so. Enemies that gave you a hard time early on now get decimated when you go back to them. They've attempted to distill that feeling of progression mastery that you organically experience over the course of a 50+ hour souls game, but localized within each level of the game.

That doesn't necessarily mean the boss is a pushover, though!

As previously mentioned, Wo Long brings back the colour-coded random loot system from the Niohs as well. I'm not a massive fan of this and would like a somewhat simplified version that made drops more meaningful, but we'll see how it fits into the full game.

Additional notes, from Chortles:

Enemies have their own Morale Rank, so you get bonus Morale points (sometimes multiple levels' worth) for defeating enemies with higher Morale than you, and killing 'leader' enemies can reduce the Morale of nearby enemies.
As another incentive, landing Fatal/Shadow Strikes (basically Nioh Final Blows/Sekiro Executions) on enemies will reduce their Morale rank by 1, while enemies hitting you with unblockable attacks (Critical Blows) will do the same to you.
Your current mission-level (Morale Rank) is independent of the flags, which instead raise your minimum Morale Rank (this is called the Fortitude Rank)... so you can ignore them and speed run if you don't mind falling all the way back down the ladder upon death! In the demo, besides the Battle Flags which raised Fortitude Rank by 2, except for the one right before the demo boss which did so by 3, there were also Marking Flags which only raise it by 1 and didn't count as bonfires/rest points.

Ok, ok, but is it good?

I certainly think so! I loved the demo (which sadly was time-limited and cannot be downloaded anymore) - in true Team Ninja tradition, they took a massive amount of feedback from it and have already addressed people's individual complaints publically.

https://teamninja-studio.com/wolong/us/demo/feedback.html

It's a method that has yielded great success in the past and will hopefully continue to do so. I don't know if they've said whether or not they will do a second demo, but it wouldn't surprise me since they've done it before.

Is there coop?

Yes! I admittedly have no idea how it works since I didn't touch it in the demo. Maybe a nice reader can fill us in here.

When can I play this?

March 3, 2023.

And unlike Nioh, it is launching on everything (except Switch) simultaneously. No waiting almost a full year for the PC version. It will be on Game Pass for PC on day 1 as well.

There is also a season pass available at launch like Nioh 2, so expect a fuckton of extra content to arrive down the road.

DLC details: "Battle of Zhongyuan" (literally the Central Plain(s)) for June 2023, "Conqueror of Jiangdong" for September 2023, and "Upheaval in Jingxiang" in December.

Thanks again to Chortles!

Hakkesshu fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Dec 16, 2022

# ? Dec 15, 2022 13:34

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 4, 2024 23:26

a.p. dent: Oct 24, 2005

i'm going to play Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

the demo was what got me to play Niohs, in fact. do we know if this game is going to have the world map + levels structure? i assume so, since the new team ninja game is going to be a big world...?

# ? Dec 15, 2022 16:23

Hakkesshu: Nov 4, 2009

It's a safe assumption given that the level in the demo was pretty self-contained in the exact same style as Nioh. The game could surprise us yet, I suppose.

Good call on Rise of the Ronin, though, I forgot they were making that.

# ? Dec 15, 2022 16:42

Mzbundifund: Nov 5, 2011; I'm afraid so.

Wo Long, Gay Bowser

# ? Dec 15, 2022 17:05

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

For what it's worth there was a one-hour stream yesterday where FightinCowboy played through the post-beta build with Team Ninja community manager Master commentating, which showed off a new spear moveset: https://twitch.tv/videos/1678998174?t=503s

Hakkesshu posted:

Wo Long incorporates elements from ancient Chinese mysticism to flesh out the enemies and game thematics. Everything looks to be based around The Four/Five Gods - Zhuque the red phoenix, Baihu the white tiger, Xuanwu the black tortoise, Qinglong the blue dragon, and Huanglong the white dragon - each corresponding to an element that comprises your stats which you can level up.

From what I've seen of leveling, instead of linear leveling/skill points you pick which of the five elements (Virtues) to raise, which not only raises that element's spell damage but both raises the spell resistance of another element and lowers that of a third... this diagram pretty much shows how, with the "generating" being what defense gets raised and the "overcoming" being what defense gets lowered. This also means that elemental spells can counter/negate the corresponding ones, e.g. the three mermaids in the September 2022 demo could negate Fire spells with Water attacks.

Hakkesshu posted:

What are the systems like?

We don't know a whole bunch just yet, considering the demo only had one level and not all the mechanics or weapon types were available. We do know about one key system, however - morale. A common criticism of the Nioh games is that each level takes quite a lot out of you, mentally - they're long, they're difficult, there are a FUCKTON of them, and if you do a lot of them in a row, it's easy to burn out.

To address this, and to give players an additional way to make the game more or less challenging on the fly, Wo Long introduces the morale mechanic. Basically, the conceit is that every time you activate a bonfire, you grow more powerful within the level. You have a mission-specific level that goes from 1-20 depending on the number of flags (bonfires) you plant. This is completely independent of your character level, which is what you use your experience to increase.

What this means is, if you run into a very difficult enemy early on in a mission, and you find yourself stuck on them, you can come back later once your mission-level is higher, and that enemy will then be weaker. This helps incentivize exploration, finding secrets, and is also just a really drat satisfying mechanic, because you can tangibly feel your power grow over the course of 30 minutes or so. Enemies that gave you a hard time early on now get decimated when you go back to them. They've attempted to distill that feeling of progression mastery you organically experience over the course of a 50+ hour souls game, but localized into each level of the game.

Additional notes:

Enemies have their own Morale Rank, so you get bonus Morale points (sometimes multiple levels' worth) for defeating enemies with higher Morale than you, and killing 'leader' enemies can reduce the Morale of nearby enemies.
As another incentive, landing Fatal/Shadow Strikes (basically Nioh Final Blows/Sekiro Executions) on enemies will reduce their Morale rank by 1, while enemies hitting you with unblockable attacks (Critical Blows) will do the same to you.
Your current mission-level (Morale Rank) is independent of the flags, which instead raise your minimum Morale Rank (this is called the Fortitude Rank)... so you can ignore them and speed run if you don't mind falling all the way back down the ladder upon death! In the demo, besides the Battle Flags which raised Fortitude Rank by 2, except for the one right before the demo boss which did so by 3, there were also Marking Flags which only raise it by 1 and didn't count as bonfires/rest points.

Hakkesshu posted:

As previously mentioned, Wo Long brings back the colour-coded random loot system from the Niohs as well. I'm not a massive fan of this and would like a somewhat simplified version that made drops more meaningful, but we'll see how it fits into the full game.

The demo isn't necessarily representative of the loot amount, considering that it had Cao Cao's ("Heaven's Reliance"), Liu Bei's (I believe the "Pair Swords of Aspiration"), and Guan Yu's ("Azure Dragon Crescent Blade") iconic weapons as item drops.

Hakkesshu posted:

Is there coop?

Yes! I admittedly have no idea how it works since I didn't touch it in the demo. Maybe a nice reader can fill us in here.

From what I've seen you have to request/enable co-op from the Reinforcements menu option in the 'bonfires' (Battle Flags). As an alternative to co-op, in the demo players could spend the Tiger Seal item at the Battle Flags to recruit a NPC to fight alongside you, although the only option available was a level 18 Zhao Yun who came with a mostly-Earth stats allocation, a full White Horse Servant armor set, and a then-unavailable-to-players spear.

Hakkesshu posted:

There is also a season pass available at launch like Nioh 2, so expect a fuckton of extra content to arrive down the road.

The Digital Deluxe Edition description on the Steam and Xbox store pages name three of them: "Battle of Zhongyuan" (literally the Central Plain(s)) for June 2023, "Conqueror of Jiangdong" for September 2023, and "Upheaval in Jingxiang" in December.

# ? Dec 15, 2022 17:31

CharlestonJew: Jul 7, 2011; Illegal Hen

locking special moves to weapons is a dumb mechanic and I hope they change that for the final game

# ? Dec 15, 2022 18:17

Hakkesshu: Nov 4, 2009

Chortles posted:

[*]Your current mission-level (Morale Rank) is independent of the flags, which instead raise your minimum Morale Rank (this is called the Fortitude Rank)... so you can ignore them and speed run if you don't mind falling all the way back down the ladder upon death! In the demo, besides the Battle Flags which raised Fortitude Rank by 2, except for the one right before the demo boss which did so by 3, there were also Marking Flags which only raise it by 1 and didn't count as bonfires/rest points.

You are of course correct, i forgot that just killing enemies does raise your morale as well.

# ? Dec 15, 2022 23:18

Dabir: Nov 10, 2012

Sounds interesting. I enjoyed both Nioh games, so I'll have to try and remember this one's coming up.

# ? Dec 17, 2022 21:45

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Hakkesshu posted:

You are of course correct, i forgot that just killing enemies does raise your morale as well.

On a closer look at the recent stream, I've now noticed that as of that mid-December 2022 game build:

Blocked normal attacks also raised/lowered Spirit, so mashing Normal Attack (light attack) worked even against a guarding enemy.
Equipment weight not only affected fall damage and movement (including dodging) but also Spirit drain, according to the Team Ninja community manager.
The aforementioned damage from a high-enough fall can be avoided by pressing the Dodge/Parry input right before hitting the ground.
Although the Deflect Counterattack (hybrid attack that acts as both parry and weapon swap) cost Spirit, it appeared to also regain the player said Spirit and then some if the attack connected, even if there wasn't an enemy attack to be parried... so it can be used to transition between combos as shown at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIG0jMI9MvA&t=3041s and at 55:18 of that linked video
The boss' starting Morale rank of 5 was actually lower than the build's maximum Fortitude Rank of 7 (the first Battle Flag at the start of the stream didn't count, while the other two Battle Flags granted +2 each and the three Marking Flags granted +1 each), so the player could start the battle with higher Morale than the boss, and Critical Blows did not reduce the player's Morale below the Fortitude Rank (although removing all progress toward the next rank).
Destroying certain enemy body parts ("by Martial Arts, Wizardry Spells, or successfully deflecting a Critical Blow") will not only "greatly shrink the lower limit of the enemy's Spirit Gauge" but also temporarily prevent Critical Blows using said body part.

As of early November -- dunno if this is still the case -- attacking enemies would give Morale points, allowing one to actually gain a Morale rank during the boss fight... in both November and December builds though, killing the boss also granted Morale!

# ? Dec 19, 2022 06:01

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Correction: in the September 2022 demo raising the three Battle Flags that are unlocked by defeating the corresponding mini bosses (the Yellow Turban officer, the demonic tiger, and the demonic officer who dual-wields glaives) granted +3 Fortitude Rank each, not +2 as with the other three (including the one by the bird -- a suānyǔ (酸與) as described in the Classic of Mountains and Seas).

Chortles fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Jan 3, 2023

# ? Jan 3, 2023 15:06

Hakkesshu: Nov 4, 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspFZLpsADs

Kind of sick of everything being called a soulsborne, but what can you do

# ? Jan 4, 2023 14:01

Jimbot: Jul 22, 2008

Hakkesshu posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspFZLpsADs

Kind of sick of everything being called a soulsborne, but what can you do

I'd call it more like a soulsbourne immersion sim with elements of a metroidvania. Definitely not a Doom-clone, though.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 14:48

Perestroika: Apr 8, 2010

I'm quite looking forwards to this, Nioh 2 was just about the only kinda-sorta-soulslike I ever really clicked with (even if that loving snake boss in the second level did its very best to dissuade me :argh:

). Perhaps also of note is that this game will have a full character creator, so you're not stuck playing Default Guy up there. Nioh 2's chargen was surprisingly detailed and intricate, so I'm hoping this one will be on a similar level.

# ? Jan 4, 2023 14:49

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

I haven't seen any gameplay but I know there's been a demo and poo poo so maybe someone can answer my question.

Do we know if there are Divination Talismans in this game, just like in Nioh?

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:03

Vermain: Sep 5, 2006

Hakkesshu posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspFZLpsADs

Kind of sick of everything being called a soulsborne, but what can you do

i will resolutely stick by "third person action RPG" until soulsborne goes away for good

# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:29

Node: May 20, 2001; KICKED IN THE COOTER; Taco Defender

Soulsbornering

# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:06

Lprsti99: Apr 7, 2011; Everything's coming up explodey!; Pillbug

Soulootersborneshooter

# ? Jan 5, 2023 03:33

Owl Inspector: Sep 14, 2011

They did 2 demos for nioh/2 and SOP right? I really want to play more of this with the changes they made from the first demo.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 03:38

Phantasium: Dec 27, 2012

they did 3 for each, an alpha, a beta, and for the nioh games a last chance trial the weekend before release, and then SOP had something similar but it didn't expire for a few months or something like that and I think progress could be taken into the full game.

# ? Jan 5, 2023 03:40

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Jack Trades posted:

I haven't seen any gameplay but I know there's been a demo and poo poo so maybe someone can answer my question.

Do we know if there are Divination Talismans in this game, just like in Nioh?

I haven't seen anything like those yet, however the minimap (Sense Qi) radar in gameplay footage has indicated the direction of the boss with a red marker, the relative position of nearby enemies with orange or red icons (and in certain cases an orange marker), and Battle Flags with a white icon (though not Marking Flags, it seems).

Speaking of gameplay footage... in addition to the IGN First footage that Hakkesshu linked, IGN Japan had a separate playthrough of the same gameplay segment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnZZsxKT9Hg) with its own distinct differences, such as the giant hedgehog-or-porcupine having its position indicated with an orange marker when far away enough that a regular enemy would disappear from the minimap, which is not the case in Hakkeshu's video. Furthermore, a gear-focused IGN article has revealed:

The base game will have thirteen melee weapon types and three ranged weapon types.
The Straight Sabre is seemingly the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none weapon, although it's also supposed to be "the easiest weapon to maneuver."
The Dual Swords are supposed to have a shorter reach than other weapon types, and in return "with the high emphasis on speed it becomes easier to use Deflect"; conversely, "Deflect also becomes more difficult with slower weapons" such as the newly-revealed Poleaxe in return for its potentially huge damage.
It should be possible to clear the game with one weapon if you've gotten its combos and Martial Arts down pat.
You'll be able to spend the in-game money (Copper) and materials (e.g. the videos' Rank 3 Leather or Rank 3 Steel) on weapon and armor upgrades, and "It’s also possible to attach the passive status effects of one weapon to another", so doing that will presumably be part of one's build. No mention of whether or not Martial Arts can be transferred too... however, when you loot certain bosses' weapons their Martial Arts will be similar to or imitate that boss' attacks.
There's over 40 "series of armors", Set Bonuses for equipping multiple parts thereof, and transmog is in.

Chortles fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jan 8, 2023

# ? Jan 8, 2023 05:28

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

Oh, I see, it's just showing enemy positions by default. Good.

Nioh would've been really annoying without it.

# ? Jan 8, 2023 15:04

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Jack Trades posted:

Oh, I see, it's just showing enemy positions by default. Good.

Nioh would've been really annoying without it.

With a very limited range... it's not limited by line of sight (see the IGN Japan playthrough), however there'll need to be new footage of the non-combat systems before I can say what the differences are, e.g. why does that specific enemy get the orange marker (direction) and icon (position once close enough) at the start of one playthrough and not the other, and in the English IGN playthrough why the white monkey enemy atop the Heavy Cavalry Spear chest didn't have the orange marker/icon in the first attempt and did in the second, as well as why the the crocodile mini-boss at the end have the orange marker/icon in the final attempt but not before that. In any case, I was able to identify the red pulsing icon nearby as a locked-behind-a-mini-boss Battle Flag, changing to white upon defeating the mini-boss.

# ? Jan 8, 2023 15:32

Jack Trades: Nov 30, 2010

I'll be satisfied as long as it'll show me the bullshit enemies placed right around the corners and hidden on ceiling like Divination Talismans did.

# ? Jan 8, 2023 15:36

Tortolia: Dec 29, 2005; Hindustan Electronics Employee of the Month, July 2008; Grimey Drawer

The moment I found the first spiders in my ongoing Nioh 2 run I equipped a soul with enemy radar and haven�t removed it since. If there�s some degree of it in Wo Long by default, cool.

# ? Jan 8, 2023 16:29

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Not sure if it has to be unlocked or how much of it is default... that said, see the beginning of the IGN Japan video for 'not in line of sight/around-the-corner' (sort of, anyway...), the second attempt at the white monkey in the IGN US video, and the final/winning attempt at the Earth/Stone demonic crocodile in both videos for major enemies being indicated with the orange marker and eventually icon once in range, even while hidden behind bamboo, atop the open-air roof, and below the surface.

# ? Jan 8, 2023 23:40

Owl Inspector: Sep 14, 2011

There's that drat sonic the hedgehog enemy from dark souls 2 eleum loyce

# ? Jan 8, 2023 23:48

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

New week, new Wo Long footage from IGN English and Japan, this time being an early game boss battle against a creature from the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing), just like the demo's massive bird was, followed by a character reveal; the new weapon is a ji.

Oh, and there's some cutscene excerpts in Mandarin, spoilers are inherent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dALdKoGqmBc

Chortles fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jan 13, 2023

# ? Jan 12, 2023 14:11

bloodychill: May 8, 2004; And if the world
should end tonight,
I had a crazy, classic life; Exciting Lemon

In the demo, it felt like you had to counter to the boss in order to beat him in his second form but countering was also pretty easy. Hopefully there�s more variability in the bosses in the final version.

Anyway this is a day one since Nioh 2 was great and this is clearly the next iteration.

# ? Jan 12, 2023 14:37

Azran: Sep 3, 2012; And what should one do to be remembered?

So which weapons have been revealed so far?

# ? Jan 12, 2023 15:34

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

bloodychill posted:

In the demo, it felt like you had to counter to the boss in order to beat him in his second form but countering was also pretty easy. Hopefully there�s more variability in the bosses in the final version.

I don't know about that, I saw someone eventually beat his second form with block-and-punish after too many failed deflect attempts.

Azran posted:

So which weapons have been revealed so far?

Ten out of the thirteen melee weapons revealed: IGN's Esra Krabbe named the Straight Sabre (zhibeidao, single-edged), the Sword (jian, double-edged straight blade), the Dual Swords (specifically shorter jian), the Glaive, the Spear, the Staff, and the Poleaxe. In addition to what I said further up this page for the Straight Sabre, Dual Swords, and Poleaxe, director Masakazu Hirayama is quoted as saying:

Glaive: Heavier and slower than the more agile weapons, "more difficult to master the timing" in return for its reach and wide swings, "making it effective when you�re surrounded by multiple foes."
Spear: The "long-range vertical attacks" make it suited for 1v1 or at least narrow spaces where it's unlikely for enemies to flank you.
Staff: "a fast weapon with few openings for the enemy to attack, but it has some big long-range attacks, too", and "many of them have Martial Arts (powerful moves that differ per individual weapon) that can unbalance the enemy. It is a very technical weapon though, so you will have to learn how to effectively utilize each move."
Sword: "stronger as a vertical weapon" than the Straight Sabre; "With a multitude of straight thrusting attacks as well as from above, it has more vertical reach."

In the demo there was also a curved sabre (e.g. Podao/Pudao and Qiang Scimitar), the first IGN First video briefly showed a spiked mace (hammer?) being worn without being used, and the boss battle I just linked has the aforementioned ji, which combines a dagger-axe with a spear.

# ? Jan 12, 2023 17:21

CharlestonJew: Jul 7, 2011; Illegal Hen

Where�s my fist weapon dammit!

# ? Jan 12, 2023 17:51

hatty: Feb 28, 2011; Pork Pro

Hoping the final weapon is a comically large scythe like Nioh 2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 have

# ? Jan 12, 2023 18:06

Ineffiable: Feb 16, 2008; Some say that his politics are terrifying, and that he once punched a horse to the ground...

If anyone is playing this on Playstation (I don't think this has cross platform play) we have a subchannel in our Playstation goon discord just for this (and Nioh games)

Here's an invite link

https://discord.gg/FsWUv2j

# ? Jan 12, 2023 18:08

Tortolia: Dec 29, 2005; Hindustan Electronics Employee of the Month, July 2008; Grimey Drawer

I can�t really tell from the UI in the gameplay videos, but I assume you�ll be able to equip and swap between two weapon types?

# ? Jan 12, 2023 19:14

Owl Inspector: Sep 14, 2011

Yes, and there�s a version of the deflect you can do that swaps weapons + attacks with the swapped weapon automatically after deflecting, so the game will probably encourage some amount of weapon swapping

# ? Jan 12, 2023 19:19

Phantasium: Dec 27, 2012

honestly I ended up liking the swap deflect more than the regular one

# ? Jan 12, 2023 20:22

Azran: Sep 3, 2012; And what should one do to be remembered?

Chortles posted:

I don't know about that, I saw someone eventually beat his second form with block-and-punish after too many failed deflect attempts.

Ten out of the thirteen melee weapons revealed: IGN's Esra Krabbe named the Straight Sabre (zhibeidao, single-edged), the Sword (jian, double-edged straight blade), the Dual Swords (specifically shorter jian), the Glaive, the Spear, the Staff, and the Poleaxe. In addition to what I said further up this page for the Straight Sabre, Dual Swords, and Poleaxe, director Masakazu Hirayama is quoted as saying:
Glaive: Heavier and slower than the more agile weapons, "more difficult to master the timing" in return for its reach and wide swings, "making it effective when you�re surrounded by multiple foes."

Spear: The "long-range vertical attacks" make it suited for 1v1 or at least narrow spaces where it's unlikely for enemies to flank you.

Staff: "a fast weapon with few openings for the enemy to attack, but it has some big long-range attacks, too", and "many of them have Martial Arts (powerful moves that differ per individual weapon) that can unbalance the enemy. It is a very technical weapon though, so you will have to learn how to effectively utilize each move."

Sword: "stronger as a vertical weapon" than the Straight Sabre; "With a multitude of straight thrusting attacks as well as from above, it has more vertical reach."
In the demo there was also a curved sabre (e.g. Podao/Pudao and Qiang Scimitar), the first IGN First video briefly showed a spiked mace (hammer?) being worn without being used, and the boss battle I just linked has the aforementioned ji, which combines a dagger-axe with a spear.

Thanks! Hopefully we'll get a good hammer, Nioh 2's was a bit disappointing in that it was basically an axe :v:

# ? Jan 12, 2023 21:43

Obligatum VII: May 5, 2014; Haunting you until no 8 arrives.

CharlestonJew posted:

Where�s my fist weapon dammit!

Yeah! Fists were the best weapon in Nioh 2!

# ? Jan 13, 2023 07:02

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

Chortles posted:

In the demo there was also a curved sabre (e.g. Podao/Pudao and Qiang Scimitar), the first IGN First video briefly showed a spiked mace (hammer?) being worn without being used, and the boss battle I just linked has the aforementioned ji, which combines a dagger-axe with a spear.

Courtesy of the Team Ninja subchannel whose Discord server Ineffiable linked above, on the left is "a pic of a medieval weapons exhibit at the Taipei National Palace Museum as research for this game" with an image of the ji, third from the bottom, and on the right are real-world examples for the Sword, Spear, and the dagger-axe if the latter is included:

A new day, a new IGN article from yesterday... while a bunch of it is already-revealed stuff from the demo, there's a mention of 'learning the fight' including not just the attack patterns/Deflect timing but also what elemental damage is in play, e.g. Hirayama stated that while the recently-revealed Aoye has an attack that spreads ice throughout the area, "In line with the five elements of conflict, ice can be counteracted by earth, so you can use Earth Phase Wizardry Spells to eliminate the frozen area." (Based on videos of the demo, I presume that said frozen areas also block Fire Phase Wizardry Spells.) Additionally, there's a whole section for this thread's namesake... wherein Hirayama said that "to some extent it is easier to Deflect his attacks" when he's atop Red Hare, whereas when he's on foot "it becomes more realistic to guard against his attacks", that he "goes back and forth between a mounted state and a state in which he fights you on foot", and that it's possible to jump over his ten-arrow volley to close the distance; Yamigiwa also said that it's a mid-game fight.

The article does mention that Fatal Strikes reduce bosses' Morale rank... in the demo second-phase Zhang Liang was able to regain his Morale Rank after recovering his Spirit gauge (usually immediately after getting up from a Fatal Strike), whereas both the English and Japanese IGN playthroughs of the Aoye fight had it be a lot rarer.

# ? Jan 13, 2023 17:41

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 4, 2024 23:26

Chortles: Dec 29, 2008

New day, new Wo Long post... this time, the February 2nd, 2023 issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine is released this week, and it'll include an article with renders of Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian, and Dong Zhuo, a female Daoist named Hóng Jīng (紅晶), an elderly-seeming "Black-Robed Daoist", and a 'cooperative demon' appearing as a panda cub with inverted colors, as well as screenshots of a Blacksmithing screen and a Wizardry skill tree.

# ? Jan 17, 2023 14:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - Lu Bu to Do You in Wushu Nioh Two

«‹›57 »