Introduction
I game whenever I get the chance. So it was during my off-time from work when I discovered Wo-Long Fallen Dynasty on my game pass. Just released and available to download day one! With only seeing a glimpse of this game trailer, I was sold. Wo-Long became my next challenge.
Based Losely On Historical Events
Like the Nioh games this one is based on an actual historical time, but glorified by mythical folk-lore and dark fantasy. set in about 184-200 A.D. China, a nameless warrior fights for survival against the demon plaqued lands of the Three Kingdom Era, amongst the fall of the Han dynasty.
Good Place To Start?
The Dark Souls genre games have never been my strong suit. I consider myself somewhat of a good gamer, but after reading the reviews of how easy people where saying this game was, I realized I may not be that good. I personally found this game to be a challenge, atleast in the begin. I've never completed any From Soft games. I found that they could frustrate me emmensly. Id get stuck in a boss fight and that was it! After struggling and dying a thousand deaths, I would decide to, rather reluctantly, quit for fear that my controller may end up going through my T.V. If your like me and wish you could be good enough to complete a Dark Soulsish game, without getting furious and having to quit, this would be a good place for you to start.
Strategy
I suggest you do a little research into the game and how to create your character correctly first. If you don't set your armor and weapons right, distribute your points well, your gonna find the game allot more challenging. You need to use some strategy. For example at one point I had accidently over burdened myself, keeping me from being able to dodge any attacks. I swore the game was cheating, but not till I looked it up, did i realize that the lighter the armor the easier I can move and dodge. This saved me from quitting the game. I hope it helps you.
A Balanced Challenge
As you grind yourself through this diabolical game act by act, level by level, new opportunities will present themselves. Be careful cause your skills will be tested! The ratio of power is not so much swindled towards your direction in any megalomanic way. The challenge stays pretty balanced throughout the whole game. There also is no difficulty setting. So. Good luck.
The Agility Scale
The bosses where some of the most challenging and fascinating fights that I've ever experienced. Like Elden Ring, and other Dark Souls-ish games, your timing is everything. Correctly calculating the dodges comes with an agility scale from C to A. C means your over burdened but still can dodge, barely. B, you can dodge fairly well, a pretty good point for most gamers. A, means you float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! Each one is based on a percentage calculated by the weight of your equipment. The lighter armor doesn't have as much defense but you should be able to dodge almost effortlessly. So the higher the agility, the lesser the defense. You better be able to dodge cause your gonna get wacked pretty good.
The Graphics
Could the graphics have been worse? Yes. Could they have been better? Definitely. The lack of great graphical quality, is probably due to the developers making the game for old gen consoles as well. It was a beautiful experience but could of been, beautifuler?? I set my graphics to performance mode. The frame rate still slacked off at times and the resolution was very spotty. I bought a series X for high performance and quality. Not just high performance and spoty resolution. Oh well, guess that's just how it is for now. So sad.
Check Points, QI, And Upgrading
Your battleflags are your check points.
Resting at these flags restores your health and restocks your healing potions. Once you find and plant your battle flag, you can rest. However resting will respawn your enemies. I spent much of my time, in the beginning, farming the same possessed foul souls and leveling up. If your familiar with other MMOs or RPG type games, then farming is something you know can feel very repetitive and boring. Yet in Wo-Long the enemies where challenging, and satisfying to defeat even after a third, fourth or fifteenth time.This made rekilling more enjoyable for me then usual. You can also buy/sell supplies, travel to new locations, level up, set/learn new wizard spells, etcetera. Some resources, such as, reseting your level parameters or accessing your storage will not be avaliable untol you find the Hidden Village, further into the game. Not to worry though, you can upgrade your equipment once you find the [blacksmith]. She will appear in a few different places throughout the first few levels. Once you find her, she will give you the option to do some upgrading. QI is used to level up. If you die you lose most your QI, but don't worry you get a second chance to kill the bastard that stole it. However if you die a second time, you lose half your QI again. All that the enemy had taken previously, is now gone. Its outta the park and into an acid bath. It's gone baby gone! A very, grip the controller tightly and take a break, moment. I suggest getting a Talsmatic potion. This will keep you from losing any QI when you die. Great, right? Well... you can only carry one at a time and you do not get the option to buy more until you process further into the game and find the Hidden Village.
The 5 Elements
You have 5 elements to level up: wood, fire, earth, metal, water. Each having there own individual uses and boosts. Leveling up an element will give you additional perks as well as new wizard skills to learn. The concept of the elements and wizard spells is a difficult one to fully understand, and I'm still not sure I liked it very much. Honestly I had points I didn't even need to use.
The Story
Finally let's talk about the story. The story is based on the Three Kingdoms are split Chinese from the Honestly I tried to pay attention to the storyline at first, but it seemed to me very boring and useless. The story goes was something about an elixir that you trying to find for some reason or another. Lucky your allowed to skip past the cutscences which I did very often.
Conclusion
For this not being an open-world game, I still managed to rack up quite the glamorous amount of warrior hours playing through this subtranqual video game wasteland. The bosses where an extreme, sometimes frustrating, yet still enjoyable challenge. I'd have to say, the graphics where par for the course though. The check points where helpful after a long fight. I was in complete hysterics over the level cap. Coming in at 150, your given ample amount of time to continue growing your character, even well past the end of the game. The levels continue to challenge you, so you'll have to be smart about how you play this one.
By: Horizontal Frame
From VPGamers Magazine #1
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