Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty NEW GAMEPLAY CHANGES
Nov. 7, 2022Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty NEW GAMEPLAY CHANGES
In this Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty preview: Gameplay and Hands-On Impressions, we will go over what’s new (feature changes,new gear,enemies,new bossfight & more) since the last demo that was made available to the public in September, and why you should be excited for what’s to come next spring.
Just like the previous demo, we started off by choosing male or female, and this time, there were even more styles and appearance to choose from, which was a positive to be sure. Appearance was also catered towards the element you’re using (Fire, Water, Metal, Wood, or Earth), however, just like in the previous demo, many of the options for Character Creation were still greyed out. By the time of release, you will have plenty of options to choose from, giving you the ability to make your character look unique and personalized to your liking, from your appearance to your starting abilities and equipment.
The new demo took place in a stage called Mt. Dong Shan, which is known for its yellow sand. Its building structures were built of wood and there were some structures where you could jump right down on your enemies for a fatal blow, if you planned properly. The new aerial attack animations are very seamless and it added another dimension to stealth attacks, which are quite devastating.
It’s always nice to see when changes are made for the better, and Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja clearly listened to the fan feedback from the previous demo, which should be no surprise since they have a long track record of doing so. First and foremost, when healing, the time to drink your health potion has literally been cut in half, which is arguably the single largest change you’ll notice, especially when you’re in a Boss fight. It took way too long in the public demo which made healing during the frenetic combat of Wo Long nearly impossible, and many many players were begging for this to be sped up, and thankfully now it has been.
TheDivine Beastexecution is now much easier to perform. There is now a bigger timing window of opportunity, which makes it not as stressful to use while in the heat of battle, as timing is everything in this game.
Falling no longer instantly kills you. Now when you fall, you’ll lose about a quarter of your health and you’ll be put back to the place you where right before you fell. We tested out this theory of not being able to die when you fall, and it’s true. At the very worst, you’ll come back with 1 health left, but you literally cannot die from falling any longer.
Koie Tecmo has also adjusted thedeflect (parry)move by giving you a little bit more time to perform it, which is great considering how effective it is in the game and you’ll have to master deflecting sooner than later.
A pro tip I was given by one of the developers was that you can deflect enemies who attack from behind you, so long as you time it correctly. However, you won’t be able to block enemies attacking from the rear, so you’ll want to deflect as often as you possibly can, which also leaves the enemy in a vulnerable state. Learning how and when to use this is one of the keys to Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
As far as gear is concerned, I wanted to see what it was like to start with a basic Wooden Pool Spear and later our hero moved on to a Heavy Calvary Spear. The wooden spear was fine, giving you better range for melee and aMartial Arts skillcalled, “Antelope Horn,” which can deal quite a bit of damage. You basically fly up in the air and then you go lunging back down on your opponent, which was a very solid and powerful move. It had one bonus, which dealt an extra 9% of Martial Arts damage.
However, the Heavy Calvary Spear easily did more damage, it had 2 Special Skills (Antelope Horn plus Goshawk’s Dance) and 3 bonuses attached to it (increased Spirit Gain, Spirit Attack Spirit Damage and Positive Effect Duration), and was clearly a much rarer weapon. These weapon type was not in the previous demo, so it’ll be interesting to see if there are more weapons in the full version of the game.
As for theArmor, like any game, we started off with some pretty basic gear. However, we later snagged some Wuhan Calvary Armor, which was heavy-weighted and was rated 4 stars, which is the highest rating you can get with your gear/equipment. You get 4 Special Effects with the Wuhan armor as opposed to just having a couple of them using more basic armor.
I appreciate the new heavier armor, as your defense clearly increases making it more difficult to be taken down. However, it’s important to mention that when you’re in the High Encumbrance weight category, your Spirit Consumption for Marital Arts is increased by 1.5x, making it take longer to use your Martial Arts skills. This is quite important in Wo Long because your Martial Arts skill(s) are unique moves that can deal a great amount of damage, and the greater yourSpirit Gaugeis while on the positive side of the Spirit bar, the more you’ll be able to maximize your damage potential. It’s also important to know that you’ll take more damage when you fall due to the armor being heavier. These are the pros and cons when you’ll want to consider if heavy armor is for you, but I would definitely advise using heavier armor when fighting tougher enemies.
One of the new enemies I faced off against was the huoshu – a big spiky rat that catches on fire. It likes to roll a lot, so you’ll need to move out of the way or deflect (parry) the attack, making the huoshu vulnerable. I was steam-rolled a few times and lost a decent amount of health every time I was run over.
Another one of the new enemies in the game is a giant boar with nasty red tusks, who goes by the name of Fengxi and was the boss battle at the end of the demo. We made sure to level up and give ourselves more health before we opened up the gate to face him. Our Fortitude rank (morale) was at a 7, so it was more manageable to take down the beast, being that his level was only at a 5. You will always want to pay attention to the morale of your enemy for this very reason, as it can make all the difference in boss encounters. The second time we went into the fight our morale was only at a 2 while Fengxi started at 5. The boss took way more damage to kill, and dished out more damage as well, making the big boar incredibly difficult to defeat.
As for the fight itself, Fengxi loves to charge you and when his spirit is built up, he can even swallow you up, spit you out and then take away a ton of health. However, you can deflect (parry) when he charges you, making him vulnerable to a critical attack and you can even take off his red tusks for a moment, making him more susceptible to damage and when he charges, and he also does less damage and has less moves when this happens. He will grow his tusks back, so it’s definitely not permanent, but it can make periods of the fight easier.
He also had a long spiky tale that he would occasionally whip around, and a leaping lunge attack along with a few other moves that will make you think twice when deciding if you should face him with a lower morale level, what gear weapons and armor you’re using, and if you are content with the current build you have.
One thing is clear,Niohand Ninja Gaiden fans will fall in love with Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty in no time. The game looks great, plays great, and can be quite challenging even for hardcore souls fans, especially if you decide to fight with a lower morale than your enemies. Listening to fan feedback is huge and when the game launches on March 3rd of next year, players who enjoyed the demo but also hoped that some important features were tweaked can now rejoice, and more tweaks and improvements will come as they continue to polish the game before it goes gold. We simply cannot wait to play more!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
