Review: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

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Man, it’s great to see Team Ninja back again.

The pair of Nioh games is probably enough for them to be tapped into the collective action player’s hivemind, but they’ve followed those up with Stranger of Paradise (which has a great mechanical foundation, amid some insane story choices) and now, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Let’s dig into what makes the latter feel like a spiritual successor to the Nioh series while maintaining its own identity.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (PC, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox One, Xbox Series X)Developer: Team NinjaPublisher: Koei TecmoReleased: March 3, 2023MSRP: $59.99

Wo Long is an Onimusha-like story (subbing out Oda Nobunaga for someone else) set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. There’s demons, there’s historical figures, and there’s chaos. I was immediately sold on the setting because of how unique it is, even with decades of Dynasty Warriors/Musou to indirectly compare it to. The narrative structure, which is engaging but restrained, is woven through a linear mission structure (with side missions). So a lot like Nioh. No it’s not an open world romp, but not every game needs to use the open world formula. We’ll talk about how that pays off soon, but first, the action!

I haven’t spent this much time acclimating to an action game in…I don’t how how long, and it’s pretty exhilarating.

Wo Long has so many systems to learn (parrying, dodging, blocking, magic, abilities, character builds) that it can be overwhelming, and the first boss is probably going to stomp a lot of people. It’s not even as accessible as say, Nioh was. But it’s also extremely rewarding once you pick even one of the above concepts up, and allows for a bit more of an open-ended approach than a lot of similar games.

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