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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:
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 |
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# ? May 5, 2024 06:04 |
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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...?
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# ? Dec 15, 2022 16:23 |
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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.
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# ? Dec 15, 2022 16:42 |
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Wo Long, Gay Bowser
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# ? Dec 15, 2022 17:05 |
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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=503sHakkesshu 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. Hakkesshu posted:What are the systems like?
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. Hakkesshu posted:Is there coop? 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.
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# ? Dec 15, 2022 17:31 |
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locking special moves to weapons is a dumb mechanic and I hope they change that for the final game
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# ? Dec 15, 2022 18:17 |
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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.
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# ? Dec 15, 2022 23:18 |
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Sounds interesting. I enjoyed both Nioh games, so I'll have to try and remember this one's coming up.
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# ? Dec 17, 2022 21:45 |
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Hakkesshu posted:You are of course correct, i forgot that just killing enemies does raise your morale as well.
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# ? Dec 19, 2022 06:01 |
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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 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspFZLpsADs Kind of sick of everything being called a soulsborne, but what can you do
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# ? Jan 4, 2023 14:01 |
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Hakkesshu posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspFZLpsADs I'd call it more like a soulsbourne immersion sim with elements of a metroidvania. Definitely not a Doom-clone, though.
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# ? Jan 4, 2023 14:48 |
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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 ). 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.
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# ? Jan 4, 2023 14:49 |
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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?
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# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:03 |
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Hakkesshu posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qspFZLpsADs i will resolutely stick by "third person action RPG" until soulsborne goes away for good
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# ? Jan 4, 2023 16:29 |
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Soulsbornering
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# ? Jan 4, 2023 17:06 |
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Soulootersborneshooter
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# ? Jan 5, 2023 03:33 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 5, 2023 03:38 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 5, 2023 03:40 |
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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. 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:
Chortles fucked around with this message at 15:10 on Jan 8, 2023 |
# ? Jan 8, 2023 05:28 |
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Oh, I see, it's just showing enemy positions by default. Good. Nioh would've been really annoying without it.
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# ? Jan 8, 2023 15:04 |
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Jack Trades posted:Oh, I see, it's just showing enemy positions by default. Good.
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# ? Jan 8, 2023 15:32 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 8, 2023 15:36 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 8, 2023 16:29 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 8, 2023 23:40 |
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There's that drat sonic the hedgehog enemy from dark souls 2 eleum loyce
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# ? Jan 8, 2023 23:48 |
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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 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 14:37 |
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So which weapons have been revealed so far?
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 15:34 |
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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. Azran posted:So which weapons have been revealed so far?
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 17:21 |
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Where’s my fist weapon dammit!
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 17:51 |
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Hoping the final weapon is a comically large scythe like Nioh 2 and Ninja Gaiden 2 have
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 18:06 |
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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
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 18:08 |
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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?
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 19:14 |
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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
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 19:19 |
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honestly I ended up liking the swap deflect more than the regular one
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 20:22 |
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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. Thanks! Hopefully we'll get a good hammer, Nioh 2's was a bit disappointing in that it was basically an axe
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# ? Jan 12, 2023 21:43 |
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CharlestonJew posted:Where’s my fist weapon dammit! Yeah! Fists were the best weapon in Nioh 2!
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# ? Jan 13, 2023 07:02 |
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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. 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.
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# ? Jan 13, 2023 17:41 |
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# ? May 5, 2024 06:04 |
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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.
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# ? Jan 17, 2023 14:40 |