Release Date: March 3rd 2023
Developed by: Team Ninja
Published by: Koei Tecmo
Available on: Xbox One, Series S/X, Playstation 4/5, PC
Looking at all the separate elements of this game in isolation, it seems to contain everything required to bake a delicious violent cake for us all to enjoy. Combat that was touted to be on a level with Sekiro. A story that revolved around the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with added Team Ninja flair thrown in, which normally results in jiggle physics. The surrounding aesthetics mixed Fantasy, Folklore with Chinese architecture that resulted in some incredibly charming visuals and locations. They even had Bloodborne’s producer Masaaki Yamagiwa involved, thankfully joining Team Ninja after Sony ungraciously flushed their Japan Studios down the toilet. Which makes it even more of a shame they weren’t able to mix all the ingredients together and create something that could have been considered an all time great.
Let’s start off with the Demo; as this is how a lot of players got their first taste of the game. As of the time of writing the amount of players that have beaten the Boss at the end of the Demo/Opening chapter of the game is just 32.81% which may hint at one of the game’s biggest flaws. The difficulty. It’s erratic. I never struggled against another boss as much as I did with the first. I was trying to think of another recent example where a game’s difficulty was so front loaded. Plenty of games have notorious early bosses, but there are usually methods to circumvent the roadblock, an alternative path or method to improve either your character’s abilities or your skill level as a player. Not an option here, you either beat this boss or Get F . . rustrated. Other games also keep up the challenges throughout the campaign, with fresh opposition raising in later areas. I was taking down endgame bosses in the first attempts; expecting the dreaded second phase to slap down any shreds of confidence that might be developing as a possible World Class Player. There are very few second phases, which makes the first boss possessing two phases that much more puzzling.
*World Class Player status is still pending.
The combat follows the Five Elements that represent the Wuxing. You choose the elements to level up, using Genuine Qi earned from defeating enemies. Increasing your stats differently depending on your investments. Wood boosts defence, while fire will increase your attack power. The higher levels will also unlock wizardry abilities which you can use in combat. Think Pokémon where you change the monster you use depending on the enemy’s elemental type. Except here in Wo Long the elements don’t really matter or make much of a difference in battle. I invested early in a multitude of skills. Some convert the damage you dealt into restored health, boosted defence or infusing your weapon with a certain element. But this made such little difference to combat, I stopped paying attention to wizardry around the halfway mark. Preferring to keep the spirit required for heavy attacks that would hasten up the process to land a critical hit.
Spirit itself is a gauge that builds as you fight, landing successful hits or parrying will boost it and allow you to use abilities. Taking hits or blocking attacks will reduce your spirit until you get staggered making it your stance bar too. Your enemy has an identical gauge and you can easily keep track of how strong they are during your combat. This raises a major issue I have with the game, especially during boss fights. You are often joined in battle by allies, you can spend an in-game currency to gain these AI companions or you may be forced into babysitting them depending on the chapter of the game. These mouth breathers will stand around scratching their hoops until you engage an enemy and then they will run in and allow themselves to be carved to pieces, restoring the bosses stance and spirit, meaning a critical hit is harder to achieve and giving them even more spirit to throw magic or special attacks at you. The computer directed comrades would swiftly be slaughtered and begin begging me for assistance and to be revived, I took great pleasure in watching them bleed out. Thankfully keeping them alive is not a prerequisite for victory or I may have simply fallen off this game entirely.
Early on I found both a spear and a sword which when upgraded would increase their stats based on the same virtue points I had invested in. I upgraded both of these and some early found armour which carried me right up to the credits. You receive a mountain of loot as you progress through the game, so much so organising your inventory is a strenuous chore. I usually recycled them all for an increasingly useless amount of crafting materials. There is enough in the equipment sets to get really involved with several loadouts and builds to give yourself an advantage in certain areas or against certain bosses. I did experiment slightly before the epiphany that it was largely a waste of time and effort. Nice to have that level of customisation for those that enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy it; the looter shooter method of equipment drops and rarity levels added nothing to the overall experience and could have done with a lot of refinement.
While exploring the map you come across several types of enemies and they all have their own most efficient methods of being dispatched. During these portions the game really shows its Hack and Slash roots. They pretend to have stealth as an option but the game treats it as an inside joke with the developers. When you fight your way through to the boss, you will have to change your tactics. Well, you have to parry their red unblockable attacks until you can hit them with a critical. Usually it isn’t even worth your time attacking outside of this pattern, unless you want to build up some spirit. Sadly all the boss fights boil down to this strategy. While you may need a few turns to pin down an attack pattern, each boss buckles at the parry until critical routine. It just lacks the finesse of something like Sekiro where you were required to attack, dodge, parry, block and counter within a battle for some very satisfying moments. If you are looking for the Souls-esque experience, there is no mastery or skill required here and you will not find that sweet adrenaline fix in Wo Long.
The Allies, those previously mentioned nuisances come in the shape of recognisable names and characters from the Three Kingdoms novel this game is based on. Your nameless hero, YOU, if you will. Rides in on everybody’s dire situation and saves the day by slaughtering everything and everybody in sight. So these characters all think you’re the lad and want to be your best friend afterwards. So much so, you can usually summon them to come and fight beside you. Do this often enough and you may even bond with them, filling a friendship meter, when this has been maximised you may even gain duplicates of their equipment. Some of which have a decent array of stats and interesting designs. Still fundamentally useless, much like the allies themselves. I would always prefer to head into battle alone and the boss fights that made a pair of AI compatriots mandatory are simply criminal. You can only start fighting strategically whenever your character isn’t babysitting some heavily armoured peons.
When you start a new area, you are a weakling, the exact same enemies you could destroy with reckless abandon in the previous areas, can now possibly one shot you. Why? Because you don’t have flags. Now, as a proud child of Ulster, I realise how powerless you become when they take down yer fleg. So I can only imagine how powerful you will become if you scour a map, finding multiple flagstones and erecting your pride for all to see. Each new area has a set number of possible erection sites and it’s up to you to hunt them down. They come in two flavours, little marking flags which boost your fortitude and big boy battle flags; which allow you to upgrade and act as respawn points saving you on possibly backtracking. You can also use the Big Boy flags to summon allies, either AI or online. I never got the chance to summon real life friends because I don’t have any and beating the first boss is a requirement to playing online. Which is a serious roadblock for the majority of people that have tried this game.
This has been a very negative review. Something must have clicked for me to have seen the game through to the end. Upon reflection it might have just been a petty refusal to let the game beat me. This game seemed to drag more the further you got into the story, losing more and more charm as it went on. The thought of finishing every sub-mission or hunting down every collectible was not the task for me. Joyless achievement addiction would be the only reason I could expect any player to do so.
Whilst I have enjoyed the source material the story was based on and many other adaptations. Ultimately the story here was one of the weakest parts of the game for me, barely strung the levels together with enough intrigue to keep the player engaged. This is ultimately a prime example of wasted potential and could have been something great if only they focused more on their strong points and cut off the chaff. Sloppy Seconds Sekiro.
“In my opinion” for people that need reminding opinion pieces contain opinions.
-DeadbeatpunK
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