Immerse yourself in the chaos of the Three Kingdoms and fight for survival in our review of Wo Long: Fallen Princess!

Team Ninja has a long history of creating fun and well-made fighting and action games. One of their more recent series, Nioh, is a great display of Team Ninja’s trademark brilliance while also reflecting some aspects of the Souls games that became so popular at the time. Now they’ve taken that design style and adapted it to Wo Long: Fallenynasty, a spiritual sequel to games like Nioh. So while we’re still digging into Rise of the Ronin, let’s take a look back at our review of Wo Long: Fallen Nursing!

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review – Story and plot

It’s sometime during the year 184 AD, the Han Dynasty has been overthrown by the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the country is in turmoil. The player-created protagonist is a militiaman involved in the defense against the Yellow Turbans. They defend the young man from enemies before he is mowed down. The boy then uses magic to save the protagonist from imminent death, which seems common in this version of the Three Kingdoms, and the protagonist returns the favor by accompanying him. The first chapter begins with the forces joined together, drawing the player into the adventure.

This continues in the first area where the character encounters the first Chang. Those on the front lines of the rebellion harness the power of Zhang Jiao’s Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and can use special abilities to transform into terrifying monsters similar to Resident Evil bosses. The game uses numerous cutscenes to tell the story, and every one of them is fantastic. Not only does each boss fight end with one of these cutscenes, but they often also include scenes where the boss changes phase mid-fight. It’s exciting to play, and much less boring than the stories in the Souls series. Unraveling the conspiracy and defeating the Zhang family is a dark, yet exciting adventure.

Also interesting is that the protagonist of the game takes part in all these scenes wearing clothes given by the player. This makes the protagonist feel like she is part of the story and not pushed aside as events occur. Location . She may not speak, but she certainly speaks a lot and interacts in interesting ways with other characters in the plot.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review – Gameplay

Character creation is the crucial first step in Wo Long. There are so many options, including a variety of options such as character size, face shape, and even microscopic details such as individual eye color for heterochromia iridis. All of this helps players empathize with their beautiful or monstrous character design. It’s fun to have a great creator in any game, and Team Ninja has done just that.

Difficulty is a term that gets thrown around a lot in today’s discussions. Many games have a single “difficulty level” that players must adapt to. Often this is mitigated by accessibility, allowing those who need it to still enjoy the title. Wo Long: Fallen Empire doesn’t really have accessibility options, nor do it have any difficulty settings that players can customize. However, it does strike a very good balance between being frustrating enough to make you want to quit, and engaging enough to make you want to keep going.

The game grows through customization with the rich combinations of weapons and spells available to the player. Each weapon group plays completely differently and offers different ranges and combinations, which affect the spells the player invests in. For example, short-range weapons often combine with long-range spells or spells that neutralize enemies. It’s a lot of fun to create a build and optimize it for the best performance of your player character. Moreover, and this is the key to the game, weapons and spells only indicate your base strength, which is then increased by your morale rank. Morale rank is a number that indicates how far the player has progressed in the game. This number can be increased by killing enemies or by planting flags (the game’s soulfire) and capturing control points. Attacking enemies with a higher morale rank than the player increases it faster, creating a nice dynamic of power shifts. Dying also reduces morale rank.

Most of the title’s initial enemies are just some variant of angry guys, undead, and the occasional dog, which doesn’t necessarily inspire confidence in terms of enemy variety, but as the game gets more challenging, enemies and bosses become more outlandish and spectacular. They’re fun to fight, but a single mistake can mean instant death. Parries and killing blows are a big part of the combat, and it’s here that we see the clearest inspiration from Sekiro. A good parry can turn an enemy into a red target for a quick kill shot or deal massive damage to bosses, so it’s an immediate boon for players who play strategically.

There’s also a huge online element available, allowing for both cooperative play and a Souls-style invasion system for players who want to brawl with other players. This is optional, so players who want to play alone can easily avoid this. The online mode works well, and teaming up with players with completely different strategies definitely increases the fun factor. The online mode also enhances the revenge system, which is more asynchronous as it occurs during solo play as well. The revenge system allows the player to provide health charges to downed players or kill enemies that killed the player, offering greater rewards and allowing for revenge on slain players. It’s fun and thematic, but ultimately completely ignorable.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review – Visuals

Wo Long: Fallen Empire is a very interesting game in terms of graphical fidelity. It looks great at times, with great characters and smooth animations, but there are also moments when the environments look very boring and lacking in detail. However, it runs at a perfect and smooth frame rate, which is perhaps most important considering the gameplay loop.

Locations range from areas ravaged by battle and corruption to gold-roofed palaces that simply look spectacular, providing a great visual theme overall. This theme is also resonated with the characters, who wear all variations of historical armor from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but of course with a touch of fantasy. Their outfits are also made of beautifully flowing materials, aiding their movements and adding grace to their attack animations.

A game with this much customization wouldn’t be complete without distinctive designs for every customizable part of the protagonist. Luckily, there are plenty of interesting armor, weapon, and spell designs here. The interface is also well designed, with all the options clearly laid out in the menus, and some excellent on-screen displays of the player’s health, morale, chances of a fatal blow, and more. Overall, the game is easy to understand at a glance, which can be important when the pace is so fast.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review – Audio

I couldn’t bring myself to hum Oolong’s tune, but the music does add to the Three Kingdoms-style conflict in the title. The soundtrack is fun and intense during combat, but when exploring, it drops and you hear ambient noise. Ambient sounds are somewhat limited, and things like fire and ambient noise don’t quite fill the space as much as they should. However, they’re never intrusive or excessive.

The dubbing is great, with the actors putting in a lot of effort into their performances, giving personality to the main bosses and ally characters, and contrasting with the dark setting. For example, the first character on the soldier side provides a lot of hope and energy input when exploring and fighting bosses. Don’t forget to heal them when they go down!

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review – Conclusion

Wo Long: Fallen Princess is a real adventure. The dark and fantastical conflict between the three kingdoms is exciting and tough as steel at the same time. The balance of difficulty and motivation is perfect to keep players engaged throughout the rather long game duration. Combined with the online mode and great time to experiment with character builds, Wo Long is actually quite long.

So why should you play Wo Long: Fallen Nursing?

• You liked games like Nioh and other action titles from Team Ninja
• The Souls-like charm is appealing
• You love the Three Kingdoms style settings, especially the fantasy style settings
• The character customization is right up your alley

But why shouldn’t you play Wo Long: Fallen Nursing?

• You don’t like challenges that require multiple attempts
• Choosing a difficult action game makes you sad
• Team Ninja’s game design isn’t to your liking.