Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - Team Ninja's take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms

[charley farley]

Finished the demo on PC and I like it but does it get much more varied the rest of the way? Both in enemy type and level location and design?

 

I’m finding the deflection system incredibly weirdly forgiving (for some reason - I’ve never been able to reliably parry in Dark Souls and found Sekiro very hard for the same reason) and so I’ve only died on the first boss twice. Did both the next two bosses first time without any drama. I say this not to brag, but because the combat already feels jeopardy-free and the rank and file enemies samey.

 

Please tell me it does ramp up because I’ve enjoyed it a lot but was also getting a bit bored by the end of the demo.

[Popo]

Christ, this first boss truly is the Driver Car Park of the Soulslike genre. The parry time is really hard to pin down - I feel like it’s mostly luck whether I’m pressing B at the right time or not. The wind-up animations on the boss are not telegraphed much at all. It’s getting to the point where I feel like I must be doing it wrong. 

[Timmo]

42 minutes ago, charley farley said:

Finished the demo on PC and I like it but does it get much more varied the rest of the way? Both in enemy type and level location and design?

 

I’m finding the deflection system incredibly weirdly forgiving (for some reason - I’ve never been able to reliably parry in Dark Souls and found Sekiro very hard for the same reason) and so I’ve only died on the first boss twice. Did both the next two bosses first time without any drama. I say this not to brag, but because the combat already feels jeopardy-free and the rank and file enemies samey.

 

Please tell me it does ramp up because I’ve enjoyed it a lot but was also getting a bit bored by the end of the demo.

I’ve just reached part 4 (roughly 1/3 to 1/2 through) and the game is ramping up very nicely. Dying plenty after finding the start of the game (first boss aside) pretty easy. 

[pledge]

Summoning in this is sometimes hilarious. I have pretty decent wait times to match someone and then they end up seeming to know less than me on what to do. Then on the flip I had one appear who killed the boss in a single hit before it had even moved.

[MardiganX]

I’ve found the parry requires me to hit the button earlier than I would have done for attacks in Sekiro. The parry animation is longer than in Sekiro, which extends the window you have for it to land, but the animation is also slightly slower meaning you’re better hitting it earlier than initially feels natural.

 

[Popo]

21 hours ago, MardiganX said:

I’ve found the parry requires me to hit the button earlier than I would have done for attacks in Sekiro. The parry animation is longer than in Sekiro, which extends the window you have for it to land, but the animation is also slightly slower meaning you’re better hitting it earlier than initially feels natural.

 

This is helpful. I managed to do the first phase using only one estus, instead of all - a big improvement!

[shirubagan]

OK. I still don’t know how to switch weapons. 

[Ferine]

14 minutes ago, shirubagan said:

OK. I still don’t know how to switch weapons. 

Right trigger plus up or down on the d-pad. You can also switch into an attack whilst parrying by pressing R1+Cricle/RB+B.

[Popo]

11 minutes ago, Ferine said:

Right trigger plus up or down on the d-pad. You can also switch into an attack whilst parrying by pressing R1+Cricle/RB+B.

I’ve been trying to figure this out without a great deal of success - so you parry, then immediately hold RB and press B?

[deerokus]

1 hour ago, MardiganX said:

I’ve found the parry requires me to hit the button earlier than I would have done for attacks in Sekiro. The parry animation is longer than in Sekiro, which extends the window you have for it to land, but the animation is also slightly slower meaning you’re better hitting it earlier than initially feels natural.

 

Yeah I think that's the biggest adjustment, the animation isn't as...precise I guess?

 

You can kind of mash the deflection button a bit, and of course you can do it while guarding so there's far less risk to it.

[Goemon]

14 minutes ago, Popo said:

I’ve been trying to figure this out without a great deal of success - so you parry, then immediately hold RB and press B?

No, you parry by pressing B and RB at the same time. This does the parry as normal and instantly follows up with a weapon switch attack.

 

You can do this with combos too, so you can say do three normal attacks and then press RB and B and do a weapon switching attack as part of the combo. This can be good as it adds an extra hit to your combo and mean you can use spirit/martial arts moves on your secondary weapon if they’re better.

 

 

 

[Curtis]

I must've done a shit load of drunken jolly-coop on Friday night, cause i logged in earlier and was sitting on 168 Tiger Seals.  

 

Made plenty of progress on my own campaign today - currently on Part 4 and loving it!  

 

Still not sure which direction to go with my build. At the moment i'm using Dual Blades because i like the moveset and Martial Arts, but they don't scale particularly well with my primary stat, which is Wood.  

 

I may have a tinker with my stat spread next time i play. The fact that you can re-spec for free is an absolute godsend, because it gives you the freedom to experiment with your build way more than you normally would. There are no 'bad choices' when it comes time to level up.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Hit a bit of a brick wall so spent the evening helping others. This is an absolute banger of a game. Proper bo.

[HarryBizzle]

Managed to finish Aoye today. Found him the trickiest of the bosses since the first one but still only took about 10 goes. Think I made the mistake of trying to stick close to him. 

[Kromeo]

8 hours ago, deerokus said:

You can kind of mash the deflection button a bit

 

Ehr, no, you can't? You'll dodge if you do that. It's how I missed quite a few red parries, even.

I'm absolutely loving this, btw. Fired it up to see what the fuzz was about, and I'm now in area 3. Where has the time gone, etc. 

First boss was a bit mental in terms of gatekeeping casuals, even for soulslikes standards, but it was a pretty cool fight nonetheless. I had to google why the other guy kept shouting that I had to use my jade or whatever, but once I figured out what that meant, it all felt very doable.

 

Is there a way to turn companions off? The two NPCs that helped me basically decimated the boss of the second stage (the mage) all by themselves. 

[Bingox]

Willow Branch to dismiss companions.

 

[Kromeo]

On 02/03/2023 at 13:11, BadgerFarmer said:

Yeah, for Gamesradar. I think it's pretty great overall.

 

Excellent review, btw. Was a joy to read.

 

Shame that the game outstays its welcome a bit, like the Niohs before it, though. How long would you say your playthrough took you?

[BadgerFarmer]

4 hours ago, Kromeo said:

 

Excellent review, btw. Was a joy to read.

 

Shame that the game outstays its welcome a bit, like the Niohs before it, though. How long would you say your playthrough took you?

Probably getting on for 40 hours. It's a similar size to the Nioh games.

[carlospie]

Is the second phase of the first boss some sort of joke? Iv tried ten times but life is too short for cheap shit like that. Turned it off to go pluck my pubes out one by one with rusty tweezers as that's seems more fun 

[jonamok]

It's hard but doable. Just stay back, avoid close-up melee. A couple of red attack deflects should give you the chance to do a strong attack (only when his reticule is orange). A few of them will do it. Just gotta learn the timing of the long-arm red attack.

 

Also, keep an eye on your Divine Beast gauge building up on the right. As soon as that diamond flashes full, unleash it (Y + B) for insta-win. If you level up Wood wizardry there's also a low-level spell you can buy and equip that really speeds up the rate that meter fills.

[Popo]

7 minutes ago, jonamok said:

your Divine Beast gauge

The what now?

[Rayn]

I dunno what it is but I seem to struggle to get into the flow of the gameplay. I've tried about 15-20 times to take down the first boss but it seems I've only been able to nail his first phase. The second phase usually leaves me with only one potion and his reach is, to me, so unpredictable that I tend to dodge into his attacks. 

Generally the first phase isn't too hard when I just focus but one minor slip up can end in insta death as some of his attacks leave me stunned long enough for him to get another hit or two in before I'm able to regain control over the character. 

I really hope I'm able to overcome my frustrations as the game seems great,it's just a tad too hard for me atm  

[Hexx]

Multi phase boss fights are a pox.

 

Firsrt isn’t so bad, but I’m now rushing and making silly mistakes is a rush to get back to the bit of the fight I need to prairie 

 

[jonamok]

46 minutes ago, Popo said:

The what now?

 

The diamond that appears on the right of the screen that once full glows bright white and allows you to unleash that glowing creature that instantly ends phase 2 of Boss 1. I think it's called the divine beast, but my terminology maybe wrong. When it's ready to fire, the blindfolded lad will tell you to use your jade necklace or some-such. (Y+B on the Xbox pad).

[jonamok]

Another Wizardry tip, there's a Wood spell you can quickly grind to get that when active gives you back HP when you deal damage to others. The trick is to have it assigned and only use it the moment the boss keels over with the orange reticule showing. Fire it off, immediately twat him with Y (triangle), and you'll refill your health bar as you take a chunk out of his. Saves using your 'estus'.

[carlospie]

Cheers did it second try with your tips!

[matt0]

31 minutes ago, Rayn said:

I dunno what it is but I seem to struggle to get into the flow of the gameplay. I've tried about 15-20 times to take down the first boss but it seems I've only been able to nail his first phase. The second phase usually leaves me with only one potion and his reach is, to me, so unpredictable that I tend to dodge into his attacks. 

Generally the first phase isn't too hard when I just focus but one minor slip up can end in insta death as some of his attacks leave me stunned long enough for him to get another hit or two in before I'm able to regain control over the character. 

I really hope I'm able to overcome my frustrations as the game seems great,it's just a tad too hard for me atm  

 

The first area doesn't give you much opportunity to grind but you might be able to get some better gear and level up a couple of you aspects with half an hour of running about which helped me weather some of the harder hits from his second form. I also didn't look at the Wizardry spells until after the first boss which would have made the whole experience a lot less painful.

 

What really got me through was Timmo's advice in this thread that you can deflect while holding block. It means you automatically block on a lot of your whiffed attempts to deflect and gives you more breathing room. Knowing that, it only took me 2-3 attempts after a solid 2 hours (!) of trying to beat him. Although that 2 hours involved a lot of learning deflect timings and attack signposting which helped too.

 

After that the game is a lot more forgiving. Not easy overall but definitely in comparison to the first boss.

 

Spoilers for the first boss - this is the shaky, incomplete knowledge of his move set that got me through:

 

Spoiler

For the first form you want to be in his face as much as possible, get as many light hits in as you can afford and hit him with a martial art or spirit / heavy attack when your spirit level is high. Try and overpower him. If you're like me and you're not great at parry timing then the longer the first form goes on it's inevitable you'll take too many hits / use too much healing to weather the second form.

 

For the second form you're safe to do a cheeky heal at the start and he always starts with his big Tetsuo arm sweep which you can just walk away from. The sweeps can also be jumped over / away from when he does them again and you can hang back from his regular combos if you want to let them play out instead of blocking / deflecting. It's those unblockable glowing red attacks you really need to deflect and then punish. If you're close I think he can do a 2 hit unblockable melee combo, so be wary of that second hit. At long range he won't commit to unblockable attacks, but you'll get worn down by his regular lunges and ranged rock spike attack. At mid range he does an unblockable lunge move which was what I tried to bait out as much as possible because it was the easiest unblockable to deflect. Towards the end of the fight he sometimes combos this in to an overhead jump attack so watch out for that too.

 

 

 

[carlospie]

Oh fucking monkey. 

[MardiganX]

The biggest and simplest thing you need to focus on with the combat is that attack is rarely the best approach. Buffing your spirit whilst weakening the enemies spirit through parrying is almost always (especially on bosses) the quickest and most effective way to bring them down. Being able to sit behind your guard and learn attacks is the kind of clever and thoughtful mechanic that From developers would laugh at, but its there for a very important reason... the game wants you to get good at defending as that is what gets you the really powerful openings. Sekiro was ruthless in its application of that fundamental shift in action gameplay because it doesn't feel natural or initially much fun to play an action game on the back foot using defensive techniques, but when you do commit to it and appreciate how much better it serves you to play the game in that way it becomes something special.

 

On any boss the approach should be to defend / dodge until you have a decent grapple on the critical attacks and where the parry windows are. Then pick a parry that gives you that huge damage to the boss spirit gauge and do your best to nail it each time. That's the high risk, high reward approach that the game really wants you to hit, but its by no means the way you have to play. 

[carlospie]

Yeh I'm finding holding block and doing parry through the block is the best trick so far. My teammate is absolute garbage 🤣