Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty review — Flash of the blade

After reviewing Nioh 2 I swore I’d never review another Souls-like again. Yet here we are. While I found a lot to like about that game, a few of its design decisions royally got on my nerves. Most of these decisions, thankfully, are not present in Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, which still has exciting combat, fun weapons, and offers some entertaining spins on Romance of the Three Kingdoms and its (somewhat) historical characters. But it also offers significantly less combat depth than Nioh while falling prey to its clear lack of budget and willingness to force players to fight the same handful of enemies over and over again. To start with, it is with great joy I tell you that the constant stamina management, Ki Pulses, and the loss of most of your persistent healing every time you move to a new area are all gone. Instead there’s a new stamina system inspired by Sekiro as well as the standard genre healing items. Combat is now based around parries and carefully balancing...

* This article was originally published here