Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty — A mini-review | Kaser Focus

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It’s been another relatively quiet week over here at GamesBeat — nothing quite so cataclysmic as E3’s cancellation happened, anyway. So I thought I’d talk to you all about another game that I’ve been playing lately that I couldn’t give a full review. I played a bit of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty when it first came out, but only recently picked it back up (thank you, Game Pass) after forcing myself to put aside Resident Evil 4 Remake. And I’m glad I did, because while it didn’t really rock my socks, it was an enjoyable Soulslike title with some fun mechanics.

There’s a slight dissonance between the way the in-game action looks and the way it’s meant to be played. The characters fight with exaggerated flips and stylish dodges, throwing down lightning bolts and jets of fire as they do. So when I first started, I charged in, slashing at everything and expecting results that I did not achieve, to put it mildly. After getting my business wrecked by the first boss (who, to be fair, comes with a massive difficulty spike), I switched up my approach.

What Wo Long actually expects you to do is whittle down your opponents defenses with swift strikes and precisely timed counters. This took some getting used to, but wasn’t a dealbreaker for me. The most annoying part was the loot system. In short: Too much loot with too many stats to track is a drag. I haven’t finished Wo Long yet, because it takes me the better part of forever to finish Soulslikes. I think it’s enjoyable and fun — though I’ll note that played on console, so didn’t have the graphical issues PC players did.

You won’t hear much from me this coming week, as I’ll be off